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Alternative GTI brake bypass for remote start

dpofs10

New member
My 2012 GTI requires the brake to be depressed to start up, and I wasn't able to get my remote starter to work with it even after wiring up a relay to the brake light pin in the Brown VESCM connecter (I think because there is another signal line from the brake light switch that is only accessible from the brake master cylinder in the engine bay).

I found an alternative that might be able to help someone else with the same issue.

If you pull the fuse for the brake light switch under the hood, the car will start without the brake depressed, so I just wired up a normally closed relay to the brake light switch fuse and had it set to open when the remote starter is trying to start the car.

Starts up fine now and the brake lights work normally.
 

zrickety

The Fixer
My 2010 doesn't require any brake input...do you have the keyless push button start?
 

jebusfreek666

Ready to race!
Must be push button. Mine is too. Thought about getting remote start for the winters, and this was one hurdle I would need to jump. The other is getting the seat warmers to turn on automatically. I know you can make it remember the setting, but if I still have to push the button to turn them on I may as well just run outside and start the car.
 

seanbeauman

New member
All you have to do is connect the starter output wire from the remote start, directly to the starter trigger wire, on the starter motor itself. I install remote starts for a living and this is the correct solution.
 

dpofs10

New member
It's a regular key model. I think most don't require the brake to be pressed but some iterations do.

All you have to do is connect the starter output wire from the remote start, directly to the starter trigger wire, on the starter motor itself. I install remote starts for a living and this is the correct solution.

The fuse box is slightly easier to get to than the starter, what makes connecting it the starter more correct than this?
 

seanbeauman

New member
It's a regular key model. I think most don't require the brake to be pressed but some iterations do.







The fuse box is slightly easier to get to than the starter, what makes connecting it the starter more correct than this?



Well you wouldn't be messing with any of the factory options or be adding any additional relays. It's a single wire to tag. Depending on the intake in the car the starter wire is very easily accessible right from the top of the engine bay. If it's a stock intake I usually just pop the box out of the way. Glad that way worked out tho. All just preference I guess.
 

dpofs10

New member
Well you wouldn't be messing with any of the factory options or be adding any additional relays. It's a single wire to tag. Depending on the intake in the car the starter wire is very easily accessible right from the top of the engine bay. If it's a stock intake I usually just pop the box out of the way. Glad that way worked out tho. All just preference I guess.

That makes sense, it sounds likes a cleaner install that way. I guess I also wasn't sure if the ECU did anything else when the car was starting vs just passing on the 12V signal to the starter so I thought I'd be safer keeping the ECU in the loop, but hearing that going straight to the starter is the way the pros do it, I'd probably go that way next time.
 
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