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How to add SKS to the hatch and passenger door on a 1 door SKS Gen III Prius

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Accessories and Modifications' started by BrettS, Feb 23, 2011.

  1. BrettS

    BrettS Active Member

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    I am proud to present the complete writeup for adding the SKS sensors and antenna to the passenger door and rear hatch on a Prius that originally came with 1 door SKS. For a bit over $300 and a few hours of your time you can get pretty close to the same functionality as the factory installed 3 door SKS system.

    This took me about 4 hours to do and some of that time was spent taking pictures and figuring out how to install and connect things, so I expect that if you're comfortable taking apart your car and connecting wires that this could probably be done in 3 hours or less... if you're a bit less comfortable with that then it can still be done, but you may be looking at more like 4 or 5 hours. There's nothing really terribly complicated here... just a lot of steps.

    Also, I know there were a few people looking at adding SKS to the rear passenger doors on a car that already had 3 door SKS. I think this will definitely be possible and you should be able to glean most of the info you need from this document. If you want to try that, let me know and I can provide a few other tips.

    Finally, many thanks to a number of people that contributed on this thread.... http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...ding-smartkey-door-handle-rear-pass-side.html, especially pEEf who contributed quite a bit without any gain for himself... he doesn't even have a Gen III Prius, as I understand it.

    If you see any errors in the guide or you attempt this yourself and get stuck, please let me know and I'll try to make things a bit more clear.

    Actually, if you attempt this yourself, let me know how it goes even if it does go well... I'll be happy to know that spending the extra time documenting my install and writing this guide has actually been helpful for someone.

    Brett
     

    Attached Files:

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  2. andino

    andino Senior Member

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    Thanks again brett for taking the time and being the Guinea pig for us!
     
  3. dopey423

    dopey423 New Member

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    thanks again for your hard work, and mods let's sticky this!! =D
     
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  4. andino

    andino Senior Member

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    ^^ Indeed. I think we need to compile a tech/diy section. There have been quite a few good tutorials posted for the gen3
     
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  5. marduk

    marduk New Member

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    This is awesome! Thanks!

    Not that I would or need to, but I suppose I could add SKS to every door + rear hatch..
     
  6. BrettS

    BrettS Active Member

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    Technically it may be possible, but I would hesitate before doing it on a car that was deisgned for 1 door SKS... that would be connecting 5 antennas and 4 touch sensors to a system that was originally designed to handle 1. I'm not sure if you'd have much antenna range and I'd be afraid that the touch sensors may draw too much current and cause a problem.

    However, if you have a car that originally came with three door SKS then adding the two rear doors by piggybacking them off of the two front door connections should certainly be possible and safe.
     
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  7. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    Thanks so much for the write-up.

    Curious to know what the differences are between your 3 door SKS system and a factory installed one.
     
  8. BrettS

    BrettS Active Member

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    If you look at the first page of the document you will no longer be curious:)

    Brett
     
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  9. leeb18c

    leeb18c Active Member

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    From google, here are the door handle part numbers with corresponding colors.

    PLEASE VERIFY WITH DEALER BEFORE ORDERING.

    69210-74030-A0 White
    69210-74030-B0 Silver
    69210-74030-C0 Black
    69210-74030-D0 Red
    69210-74030-E1 Beige
    69210-74030-J1 Blue
    69210-74030-J3 Gray
     
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  10. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    Sorry. I guess I was more interested in the installation part than the Summary :rolleyes:

    Good write-up in the summary also:)
     
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  11. jordanr

    jordanr Member

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    Great info! Thanks for the contribution.


    iPhone ?
     
  12. CivicSky

    CivicSky Member

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    This is an excellent DIY write up ever! Superb!
     
  13. priusito_de_mi_vida

    priusito_de_mi_vida Junior Member

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    Thank you very much!

    I had no time for reading the complete PDF yet, but have a question:

    How many distance the detection radius dropped due to the three antennas?


    -----
    EDIT: Don't answer anybody, i found it in the first page of the tutorial: we loose 1 ft (30 cm) range. Seems not to be a problem.

    I promise not to make any questions anymore before read it to the end.
     
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  14. murasaki

    murasaki New Member

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    You've made my day Brett. I lamented at not having the sks on other doors but did not need all the frills of higher packages. Now I have the best of both worlds
     
  15. snijd

    snijd DIY or die

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    Parts on order! A question regarding antenna hookup: I notice the antenna connections make use of plain unshielded wires. Perhaps that is what Toyota uses, although I haven't looked at another Gen III car, or at our Gen II, which has the 3-door setup. I just wondered if the use of coaxial cable might extend the sks range. I'm thinking of using something like RG-174U for ease of installation. Any thoughts?
     
  16. BrettS

    BrettS Active Member

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    That's an interesting thought, but honestly I don't know how much of a difference it would make. Toyota definitely does use unshielded wire and I suspect that most of the range loss is not due to the wire, but rather the fact that we're connecting three antennas to a system that was designed for one and the fact that doing so results in an impedance change. The original 3 door SKS system has three seperate circuits for the antennas.

    It certainly won't hurt to try and you might gain a bit by using coax, but I question whether it will be significant.

    Good luck either way,
    Brett
     
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  17. dopey423

    dopey423 New Member

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    ordered my parts yesterday from TRDSparks.com

    Tim & Ken @ TRD Sparks were able to give a better price than parts.com @ $331 shipped... so if anyone is looking around at doing this mod, they are an excellent dealership to buy from.
     
  18. dopey423

    dopey423 New Member

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    just got my parts from trd sparks... will be putting everything together this weekend..:rockon:
     
  19. dopey423

    dopey423 New Member

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    thanks to brett for your help this weekend. after about 6 hours of wiring and pulling panels, i got the 3 door sks working. on a side note, the instructions that brett put together are very good and detailed. i am not a novice to pulling panels or wiring, but this was quite a challenge. i only have a couple of things to add to the discussion.

    the range of the doors front doors are definitely decreased. i noticed when coming up to the door quickly and trying to open it, there would be a lag of about 1/2 second. it isnt a big enough lag to make a fuss over, but it is something to point out.

    also, be prepared for a lot of wire tapping. make sure you have taps, wire strippers/crimpers, and if you are handy with a soldering iron have it handy. i have a portable butane powered soldering iron which made it easy to get into some areas vs taps.

    this mod did take me a while, but wiring did take the longest. i am surprised that i even got it done, and the wife loves the new system.

    must have tools: door panel removal tools got mine for $10/set on amazon, lots of wire taps, 3 separate colors for wires, solder/iron if you need it, and regular set of tools

    as for the instructions, i figured out the following:

    1. use either solder or butt connectors on the rear bumper antenna. i thought i could just tap the wires rather than cutting off the existing plug, but in the end it is easier to cut off the connector

    2. getting the wire harness around the window rail is PITA. i ended up unbolting the door handle bracket to put the harness into its "rightful" place, but now that i look back at it, it wasn't worth the extra 1/2 hour-1 hour i spent doing this. i suggest not doing it.

    3. when removing the plug on the side of the door to expose the screw, you can do this easily by looking through the inside of the door, locating the plug from the inside, then inserting a long screwdriver and poking it to pop it out.

    4. tapping the green wire in the headliner is a b****. i ended up using my wire strippers to expose a tiny bit of wire and just solder the wire. it was easier and faster since there isnt much space to work with.

    5. i bought wire loom off of amazon.com to make for a cleaner looking install and no exposed wires

    6. take out the plugs that are mentioned on the passenger side when tapping wires. it will make for an easier install rather than leaving the plugs in

    7. take out the glove box, it is a must

    8. on the drivers side, there is wire that needs to be tapped. there are two gray wires, the one that should be tapped is the middle wire in the bundle, not the one of the end of the connector
     
  20. BrettS

    BrettS Active Member

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    Glad to hear it's working for you. Maybe I need to revise my time estimate a bit. It was hard for me to tell because I did the project over several days and stopped to take pictures and such, but I had thought that it could be done in a bit less time than it took you.

    I saw this once or twice over the past few weeks since I did this mod and I wasn't sure if it was a result of the mod of it it was always that way, but this certainly suggests that it is a result of the decreased range. Maybe I just normally approach my doors a bit slower so I see it less frequently;)

    This is definitely true and a portable soldering iron could have been handy. I did the entire thing with wire taps and frankly I would have been worried about soldering some of the connections in such tight spaces because I'd be afraid of dripping solder or burning something with the iron. But each to their own and whatever works for you is the best option.

    I agree here... there's not much extra wire to tap into and it's much easier to just cut off the connector. No matter what you use here, though, make sure it's weatherproof as these connections wind up under the bumper on the outside of the car.

    Speaking of which, did you pull the whole bumper or just pry back the top like I did?

    It really is and even after doing it twice (once for the mod and once on the drivers side when I was testing) I really don't have any good tips for getting it back there... you've just got to keep working at it and eventually it'll fall into place.

    I didn't really have any trouble removing the plug from the outside, but this seems like a good idea if you do have trouble.

    There is very little space to work with up there. The other option
    is to try to run your wire through the rubber tube into the hatch and tap into the green wire within the hatch, but that still requires lowering the headliner a bit and also removing more trim from the hatch. As much of as pain as it is I think doing the tap in the headliner is the least difficult option.

    Good idea. I may buy some myself and install it next time I feel like disassembling something;)

    I guess I didn't mention it in the document, but I unplugged everything before I did my wire taps as well... that way you can move the wires into a little better position and get some slack as well.

    True... plus, of everything you need to do, removing the glove box is one of the easiest;)

    I never even noticed the second gray wire. When I get a few minutes I'll try to update the doc to make it a bit more clear about exactly which wire needs to be tapped.

    Thanks again for your thoughts... I'm sure they'll help the next ones who dare to take this on;)

    Brett
     
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