[EinVT]

I'm new to the E community, and have seen plenty of interesting and fun and practical mods on here. Fortunately my used E came with some upgraded wheels, so I feel I need to stick with the practical upgrades for now....

So this is kinda a 2-part deal. My desire is to install a solenoid to release the rear hatch and come up with a spring mechanism to lift the upper gate. To accomplish this my plan is to modify the passenger door switch to unlock with the driver's door (remotely) ...as opposed to when I press the unlock button on the remote the second time. I can't imagine a scenario when I would want only my my driver's door to unlock. Well, not unless I run into thuggery. Fortunately that's not been an issue for me lately....

Has anyone rewired their unlocking so passenger and driver's go together? I think I can find the necessary wires under the dash that control the passenger lock (from the thread on adding a passenger door lock switch). Anyone know what wires in that connector go to the driver's door unlock? I guess that is really the only wire I care about. I'd just like to cut the passenger unlock wire from where it currently goes in the connector and splice it in to where the driver unlock wire goes. Is it as easy as it sounds? The locking connection can stay the same....
Now, once I do this, the 2nd button press only will unlock the hatch. I can install the solenoid and a door popper or spring by the hatch hinge and I should be all set. Being able to lift the gate as I'm approaching my car would definitely be a help sometimes. Also, being able to open the hatch from the inside would be a huge bonus.

Thanks in advance if anyone has this info!

 

[ramblerdan]

EinVT, I don't know of anyone who has done this mod. I'd love to have my passenger door and tailgate unlock on the first click of the remote so will eagerly await your report.

Shen solved the solenoid-activated unlock, but getting a spring/arm to open the hatch far enough for it to go up the rest of the way on its own might not be possible.

 

[EinVT]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I have not looked at how far the hatch must be opened before it starts lifting on its own. I'm not interested in putting in a 2ft linear actuator or anything, but I'm definitely going to experiment with some simple mods.
My plan is to still have the hatch go on the 2nd button press ...but at least get the passenger door on the first press. I'll let you know what I find. I'll poke around with a scope to see if I can find where the driver door unlock wire is. Is there anyone on here (or any good resource?) to get the pinout information for those connectors under the dash? Or, does anyone have plans in the near future to be pulling their driver side door panel ...just knowing the colors of the wires on the unlock solenoid would help narrow it down.

Certainly if I come up with anything I'll let folks know.

 

[rhzjr]

Hey,
I was interested in having a service manual for this very reason. Ebay was not helpful at that time. But found a Honda service manual from HELM Incorporated. Just go to their website and goggle for your year of E.
Cost was $80. Has helped several times already and has paid for itself in a short time.

Just throwing my cents worth in.

 

[ramblerdan]

You'll want to access the wires at the remote receiver, I think.

The Element electrical manual is pricy but invaluable for this sort of work.

 

[EinVT]

Is the electrical manual the same as the service manual? The service manual has been all I've located for sale online.
Nice work, btw, on the relay based beep disable. Didn't seem like a lot of folks jumped on the solution, but it seemed like the only safe way to go.

I have not even climbed under my dash yet, had my 05 for just over a week. Any hints as what to look for to locate the remote Rx unit ...is it up under the driver's side dash? I agree, all I will need should be 2 wires out of there ...3 if you want to do the hatch too. I might even throw in a SPDT switch to go between orig and mod versions.

 

[ramblerdan]

Electrical manual is different from the service manual. Here you go.

As for the remote receiver location, this should help, courtesy of our friends at H and A. It doesn't have pinouts, but it's a start.

 

[Island E]

I have the electrical manual. I may go digging around in there, because I hate the whole double button push thing to get all my doors unlocked.

 

[ramblerdan]

I hate the whole double button push thing to get all my doors unlocked.

Frozen, if you solve that one, you can expect a case of beer!

 

[Island E]

Frozen, if you solve that one, you can expect a case of beer!

In that case, let me unwrap the manual out of its shrink wrap and start looking.

I quit drinking, but I'll take 5,000 posts added to my post count. Because everybody knows that post count = e-coolness :lol:

Seriously, I'm going to take a look now.

 

[Island E]

Hmmm, looking at the print, it seems easy enough. Everything is in the under dash fuse relay box.

The unlock signal to the driver's door is carried on a Yel/Grn wire coming out of M9.

The passenger and hatch unlock signal comes out of yellow wires hooked to M8 and P16.

Disconnect those two yellow wires from where ever they're coming out of and splice them into that yel/grn wire and this should be done.

Actually just putting a jumper between M9 and M8 should do the trick.

I'm going to go out to the car to see how possible/impossible this would be. Will report back with findings.

 

[Island E]

For ease, I may just unhook M8 and splice it into M9. That way the two doors unlock with the single button push, but the hatch still needs two button pushes.

 

[Island E]

Findings so far

#1 Anything that needs to be done to the wiring under the dash should be done at the factory BEFORE the dash and everything else is put in. I forgot how much I hated crawling underneath steering wheels. My back hates me now.

#2 Simply placing a jumper between M8 and M9 allows the car to lock, but not unlock. The relays click, but no actuators move

#3 Clipping the wire from M8 (passenger door lock) and splicing it into M9 (driver side door lock) yields the same result as putting in a jumper. Actually, let me take that back, the doors don't even lock any more with this setup.

#4 This is now bugging me and is going to take more investigating. More to follow.

 

[Island E]

Yep, I did it. It's a small annoyance I decided to fix. From the factory you had to hit the unlock button on the remote twice to get the passenger side door to unlock. No more after this mod. Single click unlocks both front doors, yet the hatch will still require two pushes.

Be forewarned, this is a pain unless you're a contortionist. All the wires you need to get to are BEHIND the under dash fuse box. The plug you'll be dealing with is a green plug "M" with 12 wires in it.

If you're feeling behind the fuse box, along the right side you'll feel a square bump. Plug "M" is directly above that bump. The release is on the top side of the plug. Once you unplug it, there won't be much wiggle room either.

The wires you're going to be "modding" are 8 and 9.

The one coming out of pin M8 is a solid yellow wire and runs to the passenger side lock solenoid.

M9 has a yellow/green wire coming out of it and runs to the driver side solenoid.

Here's the plug. The wires you're going to be dealing with are the 3rd and 4th from the left. M8 is the 3rd wire, M9 is the 4th

Cut the solid yellow wire from M8 (passenger side}

Tap into the yellow/green wire next door (M9). I temporarily did it this way just to test my theory. Simply stripped and twisted the cut wire around the exposed part of M9. This is now more permanent with solder and electrical tape. But you can really see what I was doing like this though.

You can probably make this even easier by using wire taps to tap into the M9 wire without having to strip anything. They can be found at Home Depot for a couple bucks for 5 or 6 of 'em.

Anyway, I'll try to get more pics up tomorrow, including the schematic of how this circuit is wired and what I actually did to make it work. So far I'm happy as a clam.
Leave the cut M8 right where it is. It's not hurting anything.

 

[av911]

Nice write up!!

Is there a way to have the "second remote click" do something else? Like roll the windows down or something.

 

[BigAl205]

Very interesting. I wonder if patching in P16 would cause the hatch to unlock as well

 

[Island E]

Very interesting. I wonder if patching in P16 would cause the hatch to unlock as well

It probably would. They're simple solenoids in very simple circuits. I was just tired of fumbling around under the dash.

 

[Yoda E SC]

Nice write up!!

Is there a way to have the "second remote click" do something else? Like roll the windows down or something.

Very interesting. I wonder if patching in P16 would cause the hatch to unlock as well

if you tapped it on the the same lock wire it would in theory work i would just be a little concerned with how much you are now asking one circuit to provide current wise when it was originally being done by 2 (both rear doors are connected internally) might be fine though. if you did that then you could take one of the outputs and have it run anything that works on momentary pulse like a dei 530t, although you would have to run it thru a relay to convert it from + to - and to isolate it from the fusebox normally resting at -.

 

[ramblerdan]

Cool beans, Frozen E. I will gladly buy you a case of your beverage of choice!

Question: Why cut M8? What if you just tapped M8 and M9 together?

I'd rather have the rear hatch unlock than the passenger door, so will try it with that wire (P16, eh?) instead.

 

[Island E]

Question: Why cut M8? What if you just tapped M8 and M9 together?

You'd blow the 15A power door lock fuse under the hood as soon as you go to unlock. Ask me how I know.