Keyless Entry, Fitting an after market system Options

[loz]

I have now fitted an after market keyless entry system to my 2003 Spacestar, and my experience may or may not help others;

The Spacestar, post 2002 Model year, only had central locking from the driver's door keylock, previous models having it from both front doors. This can be a hassle, and a keyless system is obviously a great help. The dealer solution is based on charging around £180 for a Cobra system, which is reliable, but I think the fobs are terrible. A Cobra system bought separately is about £70, sometimes less.

You DO NOT need another actuator/ motor to get the Spacestar system to work, ignore the websites that say this is the case. The Spacestar works from a door lock ECU, that requires a switch signal to earth. If it sees this, it locks or unlocks all the doors, simple as that.

All the aftermarket systems seem to use two miniature relays as their basis, one to lock, one to unlock. The system is based on two sets of three wires from these relays, using the common and normally open connections. one goes to earth, and the other goes to the appropriate wire on the back of the ECU connector, and the remaining normally closed wire is cut off. The unit requires a permanent live feed and an earth. There are usually other wires from the unit for indicator lamps, which is optional, and also global closing / boot release, which are not required / possible for the Spacestar.

There are a few kits out there including Cobra, Falcon Phaser and Rightclick. I have tried a Rightclick kit, and I think you get a reasonable unit, but with a slightly cheap fob. Doing this again, I would go for the Falcon kit for a better fob. Instructions for many kits seem minimal, and as I said before, they recommend another motor for driver's only door sytems, and that just isn't needed.

If you want any particular details, please ask via this forum.

[tmd_63]

There are a number of questions that would help being answered.
Where is the door ECU?
How do you get into the door ECU?
What wires are connected to operate the remote door lock?
What are the wires connect to the door ECU (colours would be of help here)?
A small wiring diagram would be helpful too.

[loz]

Firstly, sorry that I haven't checked back here more often;

You need to get the workshop manual from the link at the top of the forum, and find the file "wiring 1999 complete.pdf"

Refer to section 4-104 central locking without keyless entry, part 3, which is on page 171 of 243.

The lock switch wires run through a 32 way connector B41, which is on the right hand driver's side footwell area. Wire 24 ( light green ) is the "lock" wire, and wire 30 ( brown / red ) is the "unlock". You do not have to worry where the Door ECU is, except that it is on Junction block B67-X slightly nearer the brake pedal and higher up.

The common terminals of the miniature relays in the remote door locking kit, get connected to these two wires ( obviously lock to lock, unlock to unlock ), and the normally open terminals go to earth, along with the earthing wire for the kit module. Find a permanent live wire for the module positive to connect to, and fix the module behind the lower trim panel. The other wires are surplus to requirements unless you want to add in the indicators ( for which, a little more time with the wiring diagram should reveal which is which. ) and that is more or less it. Getting at the wires can be a pig, so you might find sticking the bared kit module wires into the female connector half of B41 to be an easier way of doing things.

Good luck