I am new to F-150 ownership, just picked up a 2017 STX. It has sync 3 radio, center console with rear AC vents, and trailer backup assist.

The previous owner installed an aftermarket Compustar remote start, I'm not sure I want to keep this. For one, I really dislike the size of the remote start, it's as big as the key fob and thus doubles the amount of pocket space taken up. Second, I dislike that it has 5 buttons "f", lock, unlock, trunk, and start, that seems like a lot of buttons that I could easily forget. But my pickup (barely) fits in my garage and snow is rare where I live so I just don't feel a need for remote start, at least certainly not aftermarket. Are these systems difficult to remove? Ideally I would like to DIY it, if I have to pay a pro it might be easier to just throw the fob away and pretend it's not there. Is it difficult to retro fit OEM remote start?

 

If it were me, I'd simply set the remote aside and use truck as you wish. Should you sell one day, it might be a benefit to next owner. Welcome to this Forum, lots of good info available and plenty of other smarter than me guys to help you.

 

My 16 has one that uses compustar and from what i recall it is plug and play, so shouldn't be too bad to remove. If it's all spliced up don't touch it haha.

 

Probably just uses a Y cable behind the OBD plug and a couple of other smaller plugs on it like the Start-X module. Spencer's reply seems the easiest and quickest route though, just leave the remote start remote at home and leave it alone.

 

In my experience, with Compustart remote starts, I had to splice every single wire. Not sure if it’s a plug and play solution on your truck, but if it’s not, you’re better off leaving it alone

 

Welcome.
Just don't use it..
.

 

I took only a quick look under the dash since it was dark out and my flashlight was flaky. I pulled the first thing sticking out of the OBD port, and the amp research running boards immediately retracted. . . Those are another thing I would just rather not have, they look cool but I prefer avoiding electronic gadgets whenever possible. I didn't see a pig tail off of the OBD port for the CompuStar, but I did see a small box up under the plastic. Google said I can just grab the bottom and pull, is this correct that there are not bolts?

I'm hoping they may e only spliced into the steering wheel harness, preferably the one Google said is $20 on eBay, but I doubt I will get that lucky. I will try to get a better look tonight

 

I would never recommend just grabbing a small box under the dash and pulling without knowing exactly what it is and how it's connected electrically. That is a recipe for disaster.

Unless you have a specific reason for wanting to remove the actual module, best bet would be to just throw the remote in your "junk drawer" in the house and forget about it until time to sell the truck. No fuss, no muss, less bulk in the pocket and no chance of blindly ripping something important out from under the dash.

Your entire truck functions as one big "electronic gadget", so kind of a losing battle there.

 

That's fair, granted I think the whole unit might be just plugged into an OBD port. Last night when I looked under the dash it was dark and I didn't see that there was a second plug just a few inches behind the OBD port, it looks like the black box (hopefully remote start module) taps into an extension cable behind the OBD port. If that is all there is to it then I think it might be worth while to remove it, granted I know I will also have to take the trim off the A pillar in order to remove the antenna. At the very least, I want to get a better view of it mainly to make sure they didn't try to butcher the wiring harness.

Regarding removing the lower dash panel, I found I could easily pull off the side near the door, but the side near the console wasn't releasing. I'm not sure if there is a trick to it or if I just need to pull harder, I know just pull harder is often the wrong answer especially when I'm not absolutely sure that there are no hidden fasteners.

 

OP, if you really want it out, i would first pull down the box(dont disconnect anything) and trace all the wires to their endpoints. Once you can confirm that the wires are spliced into trucks wiring harness with no signal-interrupt connections, then its should in theory be simple removal. Just remove all wires and that should be that. However, if there are signal-interrupt type wiring/connections, then that slightly complicates things, as you will have to remove auxiliary wiring from trucks harness and fix the wire that was cut.
I hope some of that makes sense.
Ive done quite a bit of remote starter installs, its pretty straight forward to uninstall, just carefully remove the wires.
Before all this, disconnect battery.