Can You Use A Remote Starter On A Manual Transmission Car?

Certain combinations work, like chocolate and peanut butter or Black Sabbath and eardrums. Other combinations don't, like orange juice and toothpaste or remote starters and manual transmissions. Well, that last one comes with some caveats that deserve exploration. Manuals are still popular in some places (not enough), and you might like the idea of remote starting your three-pedaled car.

Putting a remote starter in a car with a stick shift seems like a recipe for disaster, and you may even run into techs who refuse to install one. Leaving the shift lever in gear is a simple thing to do by accident. If you, the driver, aren't in the car to depress the clutch, remote starting a car that's in gear will have a few possible results. One, the car stalls, and you'll have to go start it manually anyway. Two, the car manages to get started and rolls away, but you aren't inside to stop it. Three, you get really embarrassed when someone films the incident and uploads it to TikTok. 

Now, remote starting a manual transmission-equipped car is certainly possible. There probably aren't any cars that have ever come from the factory with a clutch pedal and a discrete on-button, though, so you'd have to retrofit a device into your car. With computers, we can make cars do just about anything we want. That doesn't mean the system will automatically depress the clutch for you, though electromagnetic clutches have existed since the 1956 Renault Dauphine featured an optional transmission using a Ferlec electric, self-actuating clutch. Rather, aftermarket remote starters simply need to connect to the appropriate sensors to detect when it's safe to crank the engine over. 

Compustar and Python systems that are designed to work with stick shifts connect to the clutch bypass, allowing cars to start with the driver's foot off the clutch pedal. If the conditions don't meet the right parameters, such as if the car is left in gear, it simply won't engage the starter. 

Setting the manual gearbox remote start is certainly a procedure. If you're gung-ho about having a remotely started car, just accept that there are a few extra steps. In the case of the Compustar remote start, the driver must leave the shifter in neutral, engage the parking brake, pull the key from the ignition, or, if you have a car with a start button, press the key button on the remote, then get out of the car, shut the door, and lock it. After a few seconds, the engine will shut off, and it's in "reservation mode," meaning it's ready when you want to remote start the car.

Not all aftermarket remote start systems are designed with manual transmissions in mind. Open up the owner's guide for Viper's 5305V remote start system, and there's a huge warning on page three that reads, "If your vehicle is equipped with a manual transmission, cease use of this product and immediately return the vehicle to an authorized Directed dealer." Strangely, if you flip the owner's guide to page 40, it details how to use the system with a manual transmission. That section is one of two times the word "death" appears in the guide, though, so maybe heed the warnings.

Fears over remote-starting a manual transmission car aren't entirely unfounded. There was an accident involving a Lamborghini fitted with a remote starter, someone on Reddit recalled. According to the anecdote, a Lamborghini Countach was on the display stand at a car auction, and the owner wanted to show off its remote start feature. He forgot that the car was in gear, so when he turned the engine over, the Lamborghini lurched forward with such force that it caused serious damage. 

There's also a video on YouTube titled "Remote start gone wrong", in which an Acura RSX is supposedly being remote started while the car is in reverse, resulting in the car backing out of a garage, bending the driver's door, and hitting a parked truck. For much of human history, operational safety was less about mitigating human error with security devices and metaphorical fences, and more about not acting like an idiot, so such incidents certainly seem plausible. 

If you're a Lamborghini Countach owner who doesn't care about things like "desecrating holy artifacts," AutoLöc makes a system specifically designed for your Gandini-designed, Pagani-refined V-12-powered rolling sculpture. Terrifyingly, there's no mention of a clutch bypass in the manual. Unless you want your Countach looking like the wrecked Lamborghini from "The Wolf of Wall Street," maybe contact the company and ask some pertinent mechanical questions before installing.