Automatically unlock doors when you pull the lever
OK, here is the mod. I would rate this mod as a difficult!! Not because of the wiring, or complexity, but from mounting the switch. You should only attempt this mod if you are creative, and understand design a bit. Also- I am not responsible for you screwing up your car! I have made my best effort to candy coat this process, but it isn't my fault if you can't read directions!! One other thing- the only digital camera I have is my camera phone, so sorry for the pic quality. I think most of them are decent, though.
Materials
SPDT Submini Lever Switch -RadioShack #275-016A
SPDT Panel Mount Paddle Switch -RadioShack #275-648 (not totally necessary)
Some wire (I used 18g extension cord... any decent wire will do)
Male & Female Spade connectors- 4 each
Electrical Tape
Tools
Soldering Iron
Utility Knife
Hobby Knife
#2 Phillips Screwdriver
Flat Blade Screwdriver
for reference- i will put the pic captions ON TOP of the pictures....
Here are the switches
Taking off door panel
Remove this screw
...Then the screw in the lever
...Then the push in thing at the back. Use the flat blade screwdriver to pop the center out first.
...Then the screw under the door handle
...Then the two screws in the holes
...Then pull from the bottom. (Note my cool tattoo and EL door sills... eat your heart out!
)
One thing i didn't take pics of was taking the door lever pull off. There is a metal bar that hooks into it. Inspect it closely, you can figure it out...
On to the hardest part of this mod- the door handle modification
Here is a pic of the un-modded door lever
...Here is what needs to be cut out
Cutting the plastic is not so tough, it is getting the switch to fit in there properly that is tough. not only will you need to cut away those vertical pieces, but in some areas you will need to shave down the surface that the switch sits on. (This is to bring the switch closer to the actually lever.) Also, you will need to make the round screw hole into more of a "D" hole. Hopefully you can see from the pics. And it should be obvious you will need to do this when you are shoving the switch in there. I took a bunch of pics of this process, so I will just put them all in a row.
...we are going for something like this
At this point, I should point out that in the above picture, the switch is FAR from low enough, and the door lever will not fit correctly in the door like this
...so keep cutting
...Note the "D" shaped screw hole here
...You will need to cut a rectangular opening in the front of the door lever to allow the lever switch to stick through.
...Note, this is under the actual lever pull, of course
...this part can be quite tricky too. Pay close attention to how I bent the lever on the switch. it must be bent like this in order to make contact with the pull lever
...Finally, the switch is sitting low enough
...Something to note here that I found out after mod was done. The top corner of the switch sticks over the side plastic molding of the door lever just a bit. You will need to file this corner down for clearance reasons. Also, you will want to cut the terminal closest to this corner as short as possible (but you still have to solder to it).
...Lastly, and potentially the most frustrating part. You have to get the switch lever in far enough to catch the edge of the door lever. Also, if you push the switch too far down, you will have the switch closed and the lever will do nothing. You must play around with this stage to get it perfect. Make sure that once the switch is positioned, that it will stay there on its own. When you let go of the switch- if it moves, then you need to cut away some more plastic. IT CAN"T MOVE OR ELSE IT WILL MOVE WHEN YOU GLUE IT IN PLACE.
A word on glues
I went through 3 lever switches trying to get this to work. Here is why-
...At first, I used cyanoacrylate (CA) (sorry for the bad pic!)
While it holds the switch in place great, it also eats it up too much and causes it not to work. I finally resorted to high temp hot glue, and that worked excellent! DO NOT USE CA OR SUPERGLUE!! (or buy to switches so that when you do, you can pull one out and replace it
)
Selector Switch
This is a feature I added only because I said that I would. Some people only want the driver's door to unlock when the door lever is pulled. Others want all doors to unlock. While I see the convenience of all the doors, I rarely have passengers, and I didn't want to
hear all doors unlock when not necessary. So, I put in a selector switch so I can have either. You may or may not do this. Choice is yours. I will explain both ways later.
First off, I will show where and how I mounted the selector switch.
...I knew that I wouldn't use it often, so I mounted it where no one would see it, and it wouldn't be intrusive. I chose in the door jam in front of the speaker.
...cut hole with hobby knife, or a step bit if you have one.
...To mount the switch here, the switch lever needed to be shortened (besides, it is dumb how long it is anyway...)
...Switch mounted
A word on soldering
Most peps don't know how to solder that good. So I thought I would do a mini how to on soldering. I have been soldering through hole for over 12 years, and surface mount for 2 years. It is really easy with a bit-o-guidance.
First, tin the contact you are soldering too. (Tinning means you put some solder on the contact.)
Then you tin the wire. I use my spool of solder to hold the wire.
Next cut the tip of the wire that you just tinned down to only about 1/8". What I mean- is the tinned part, not the whole wire (duh). (Sorry for the blurry pic.)
Lastly, put the wire on the contact and simply touch the two with your soldering iron. The solder on both (from tinning) will flow together and you will have a nice solder joint. The great thing about this method is that it minimizes the time that the heat is applied to the switch contact. Those with a bit more experience that have melted switches while trying to solder will appreciate this method.
Selector switch, cont...
Ok, now that you know how to solder, solder three wires to the switch. They should be cut long enough to reach the door lever in a NEAT, ROUTED fashion. (See pics)
...Solder on 3 wires
...Tape up connections
...Route wires, and tape down. (I only had electrical tape laying around. I would recommend duct tape for this, as it will stick much longer.)
Lever Switch
Note on this part- in the pic, the rightmost wire is soldered on straight, but the left most is going down. I thought that this would be the best way to keep the wires out of the moving parts, but it actually blocks the door lever from sitting flat in the door panel. I had to change this, but didn't take a pic. You will want to run the leftmost wire towards the right side of the pic, along with the other wire. (Remember the part you had to file? This wire was moved for the same reason, so keep it as low as possible!)
...solder two wires to outer-most terminals on lever switch.
Wiring
I know it looks complicated in the pics, but the wiring is cake...
...First, let's take a look at the schematic
...I used spade connectors on all the wires, so that I can still take the door panel off in the future.
OK- if you want the selector switch functionality, just follow the schematic. If you want only the driver's door to unlock, the get rid of the selector switch, and run the wire from the lever switch to the GREEN wire only. That's it. If you want all doors to unlock every time, then throw away the selector switch, and run the wire from the lever switch to the Green/Red wire only. That's it. Easy, eh?
So-
Driver's side only- wire goes to GREEN wire
All doors- wire goes to GREEN/RED wire
Option- use the switch, follow the schematic
...here is the GREEN wire
...here is the GREEN/RED wire
Solder your connections and tape them up.
A note on splicing wires
...When you splice wires into existing wires, you should strip back some insulation, and spread apart the main wire like this-
...Then, strip the new wire and stick it through the hole-
...Then twist the wire around the main wire and solder (not yet soldered in this pic)-
Chassis Ground
One side of the lever switch is tied to chassis ground. Here is where I used for this project, and a previous one. Note- you will not have the yellow wire, nor the two green ones at the right of the picture. They are for my alarm LED's.
...Here is the ground location
...Cut a piece of wire and put a spade connector on one end. Strip the other and wrap it around the screw.
Door lever mounting tab thing
The white thing that the door lever screws into is going to be a bit big. I tried to get a pick of this, but it is kinda hard to see.
...switch is in the way
..so, cut it down some. Note which way it faces before taking it out. I actually cut the top side by accident, and then had to pull it out again to cut the bottom.
Put it all back together
That is it; everything is done. Now you just need to put it all back together. Plug in the spade connectors, and tape connections. Put on your door panel in reverse order of how you took it off. Put in door lever, and make these connections, be sure to tape. Hook up door lever rod, and screw in place. Test. One thing to note is that even with tape, the lever switch terminals hit the door frame a bit and caused a short. Electrically, and damage-wise, this is not an issue- simply take the handle back out, put in some more tape, and put the screw back in. This time, though- don't try to be the Incredible Hulk when you put the screw in. Just snug it. Enjoy your now feature.
I have attached to videos of it working. Sorry for the weird format, that is all I could get, but it should play fine in Quicktime. Another thing- it looks like I hesitate when I pull the lever. I don't really. It is cause I was looking at the camera phone instead of paying attention to my left hand
I had to use a movie convertor tool that is unregistered. sorry for the text... oh well.
).
im sure this will help many frustrated P5 Owners!
