M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
FAQ / REFERENCE => How-To's => Topic started by: Zoso on March 10, 2006, 09:50:07 AM
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Again, apologies for editing this post. With the website down I figured we need a copy of this excellent work for posterity. Please PM me if this is a problem.
This one is a great work around for those of you with worn door lock tumblers.
318i Modification -
Keyless Entry Installation
Many E30s have problems with door locks. Mine were starting to stick. The passenger side door lock didn't respond at all to the key and the driver's side lock was starting to get problematic. On some days, I'd have to turn the key several times to get it to unlock or lock. My trunk lock is the only one that works perfectly.
While researching how to fix door locks, I ended up looking at keyless entry and alarm systems. Personally, I hate using the key to get into the car. My key has no light in it and at nights I really have to feel around the lock to make sure I don't scratch up the car. I asked the E30 forum on Roadfly.org how well the Stellar kits are for the E30 and how difficult the installation is. A member by the name of Chris325/325i says that he installed keyless entry for $30 - which is significantly less than the $100 Stellar keyless entry system. Inquiring further, I learn that installation is very simple and that I can buy the keyless entry system on eBay. From the eBay seller "mypushcart" I ordered the Omega Research Keyless Entry REC-43T. The seller said that the kit will come with instructions on how to install it into an E30. I couldn't wait and I ordered it at the hefty "Buy-It-Now" price of $25.
When I received the system, I was surprised how simple it was. For my application there are only four wires to connect: 12v, Ground, Unlock, and Lock. There are some other features such as trunk open that I am not going to use. Below are the instructions on how to install this unit into an E30. I decided to mount it in the trunk rather than in the driver's side foot well area.
One warning with this modification. Make sure that at least one of your door locks is fully reliable. If the battery ever dies, the keyless entry system will not work and if none of your door locks are reliable, you will be unable to get into your car. For me, my trunk lock is 100% reliable.
Tools/Supplies Needed:Utility Knife
Soldering Iron/Electrical Tape
Wire Taps/Crimp Tool
Double Sided Tape
Click on the thumbnails for larger pictures.
(http://i729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/th_unit.jpg) (http://s729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/?action=view¤t=unit.jpg)
Here is a picture of the unit.
(http://i729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/th_exposed.jpg) (http://s729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/?action=view¤t=exposed.jpg)
Remove the tail light bulb carriers by turning the knobs on the back and carefully pulling them straight out of the tail lights. Pull back the trunk lining near the rear trunk lock to expose the wires. Also remove the plastic trim that covers the battery.
(http://i729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/th_wires.jpg) (http://s729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/?action=view¤t=wires.jpg)
I used a knife and cut away the material that was protecting the bundle of wires. As you can see, I used the knife to strip back insulation to test wires.
(http://i729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/th_soldered.jpg) (http://s729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/?action=view¤t=soldered.jpg)
Unfortunately the wire colors in the wiring diagram given by the vendor did not match any of the wires in my car. This may be because the wiring diagram was meant for the driver's side foot well. I grabbed my trusty multimeter and found out what wire was what. Luckily, you can benefit from my work. Connect the wires as follows:
Trunk Wire / Wire Function / Omega Wire
Brown - Ground - Black
Green & Black - Lock - Green
Green & Purple - Unlock - Blue
I was unable to find a constant 12V wire in this bundle so I ran one over to where the battery and put in an inline fuse. I intend to run this wire over to the power antenna or the truck light wire that is near driver's side trunk hinge. I just need to make sure they are constant 12V.
As you can see, I soldered these connections. I used the knife to strip back more insulation on the wire and then soldered on the keyless entry wire. As an electrical engineer and a car enthusiast, I will not rely on crimp connections.
(http://i729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/th_taped.jpg) (http://s729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/?action=view¤t=taped.jpg)
I bandaged up the wire bundle with electrical tape. Don't be stingy. Replace the trunk liner and tail light carriers into the tail lights. Stretch the receiver's antenna out along the trunk area to give maximum remote range.
(http://i729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/th_home.jpg) (http://s729.photobucket.com/albums/ww299/desktopdave/BMW/Zoso/318i_ke/?action=view¤t=home.jpg)
Double sided tape secures the unit to the trunk wall near the battery. When the plastic trim is replaced, the unit is totally hidden. Beware that if your trunk leaks, this is a bad spot. I may end up moving up upwards behind some trunk lining, but as far as I can tell, my trunk is water tight.
Impressions:
What is not to love about this system. The cost is great and the functionality is great. I would like it if the interior lights went on when I unlocked the door with the remove, but that is a project I will get to in the future. The range is pretty good. Since the antenna is in the trunk the range is dependent on what angle I am approaching the car. Overall, I am very happy with my $30 investment. In the future I will find a way to have the interior lights go on for a few moments when I unlock the car.
One more concern is about double locking your car. I read that if you double lock the doors with the key and then use the keyless entry, you might damage your locks. I haven't confirmed this and haven't tried, so beware.
Difficulty:
1/5
Disclaimer:[FONT="] I am not a professional mechanic. Information this page should be used at your own risk and discretion. Different models and model years may be different than my 1991 318i. Read: If you screw your car up following my instructions, sorry. Isn't it sad that in this sue crazy world you have to put a disclaimer on your web page? [/FONT]
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I installed a keyless entry device in the trunk as described above. It worked great. However, I found that I could no longer deadbolt my trunk using the trunk lock. When I deadbolt my trunk, the trunk lock would keep the "lock" wire (green/black) grounded. The central lock controller would then ignore any input from both the "lock" and "unlock" wire coming from the trunk. That means the keyless remote can no longer lock/unlock the doors/trunk. (It still accept inputs from the lock/unlock wires from the doors. Thus central lock still works if you use the key on the doors.)
My solution is to permanently cut the trunk "lock" wire from the trunk lock. The cut is made between the point where I tapped into it and the point where it connects to the trunk lock. (i.e. after the cut, the trunk "lock" wire is then only connected to the output of my keyless entry device). I did not have to cut the "unlock" wire.
I can now deadbolt my trunk and can use my remote to lock and unlock my doors. If my trunk is not deadbolted, then the remote will lock/unlock my the doors as well as the trunk.
Note: only do this if at least one of your doors can be locked/unlocked with the key, that way you know you can still lock/unlock your car with the key when your remote stops working.
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I just did this and it works great! The eBay seller will e-mail you back and tell you that you will need an additional part (DLP-P3) for an xtra $12. You do not need it unless you are wiring it up in the drivers footwell so if you are following these directions, don't get the DLP-P3.
Cheers,
Barry
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What is this "deadbolt", and "double lock" function I have read about.
Sorry for the n00b question:D
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double lock is when you are locking the door from the driver side you turn the key to lock and pull it out without turning back up again. so the key hole looks like a minus sign, when you lock it normally it looks like an I, same applies to locking from the trunk.
When double lock that means you can't open the car unless you do it from the driver door, and the same applies if you double lock through the trunk
Esy
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I'm a little confused still.....I understand where the plug with 4 wires connects to, but where do I connect the plug with only two wires....same wires for the blue and green?
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Anyone provide me any insight? I want to get this thing installed!
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double lock is when you are locking the door from the driver side you turn the key to lock and pull it out without turning back up again. so the key hole looks like a minus sign, when you lock it normally it looks like an I, same applies to locking from the trunk.
When double lock that means you can't open the car unless you do it from the driver door, and the same applies if you double lock through the trunk
Esy
Oh wow thats cool. I always thought my locks were just messed up and would turn too far sometimes. I had no idea it was actually a designed function, interesting.
Also does anyone have a working link to the zoso page in the first post? The links gone dead and I would like to see what it was all about.
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I'm still trying to figure this out!
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Not sure if this will help, but I uploaded Zoso's instructions to my web server:
http://webgraphx.com/m42club/318i-ke.html
I installed this last year, but I really can't remember what I did with the 2 additional wires. I tried to look at my setup but all my wires are tape wrapped and I really didn't want to cut them all apart.
PS...Just found this thread:
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?p=807004#post807004
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Awesome...that is what I was looking for, now this should be a breeze!
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Ok, maybe not so much....do I connect the power wire to the battery itself? What about the ground wire, just put find a screw to connect it to?
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No, the power wire should go to a fused +12V connection - probably constant +12V, since it would make little sense to wire it so that the car has to be on to use the keyless. :) If the power wire already has a fuse, then yes, you can go straight to the battery should you choose to do so.
Yes, the ground wire can go to a 'screw' but it would be preferable to go to an existing ground connection, or make sure that you scrape any paint under the screw off to ensure a good ground - it should be contacting bare metal.
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I tapped into the antenna power wire in the trunk.
I installed this a few weeks ago, I love it.
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I'll have to take another shot at this tonight....
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Ok, I was going to run the red wire to the antenna power wire (red and next to the white wire, correct?), black wire to a brown ground wire, green wire to the green/black wire, and the blue wire to the green/purple wire.....sound good so far?
So, my next question, other than soldering, what is the best way to connect the wires? I tried using butt connectors, but the wires from the module are just too narrow! They are not the same guage as the car wires.....thoughts?
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Have any of you guys with this installed ever had any reliability issues with the eBay kits? My locks are really sticky, and my drivers door only locks the door, leaving me to unlock the car by the trunk.
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You can either use butt connectors specifically designed to connect wires of different sizes, which are probably not in stock at your local Autozone, or you can get creative a couple of different ways: either use the same size connector you would use for the stock wire and twist the smaller gauge wire together with the larger gauge on one side, or you can use the inline splice connectors, or, last resort, solder.
I would avoid soldering if at all possible. If you aren't pretty experienced at it, you stand a good chance of creating more problems than you are solving if you get a bad solder joint. Plus, solder generally doesn't withstand the environment of a car too well - it can if done properly, but if you end up wicking excess solder up the wire or use the wrong kind of solder or generally screw it up, it will cause you more issues down the road.
I'm partial to the heatshrink butt connectors available from Waytekwire.com - not only can you get stepped connectors that have different gauges on each side, you can get them with heatshrink tubing instead of that crappy plastic/vinyl you'll find at a parts store. They'll last forever.
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I dunno about the eBay kits, I installed an Alpine alarm system instead of just keyless entry. I can roll my windows down and up, autolock and unlock the doors, blah, blah, blah, all with the remote.
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my drivers door only locks the door, leaving me to unlock the car by the trunk.
My drivers door doesn't work at all and the keyless is working perfectly.
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Thanks, I'll try and find some with different sizes....are my wire orientations correct though? I was wondering if the antenna wire was a constant 12v?
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Thanks, I'll try and find some with different sizes....are my wire orientations correct though? I was wondering if the antenna wire was a constant 12v?
Yes.
At least I'm pretty sure you are.
But the red is a constant, yes.
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My buddy hooked it up....soldered everything, used the red antenna power wire, everything works as it should!
I hated having to lock everything from the trunk all the time....now, no more...best $25 ever spent!
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This is interesting. Can you explain why would you want to deadbolt the trunk and clarify how you made the connection to the "lock" wire? Thanks!
I installed a keyless entry device in the trunk as described above. It worked great. However, I found that I could no longer deadbolt my trunk using the trunk lock. When I deadbolt my trunk, the trunk lock would keep the "lock" wire (green/black) grounded. The central lock controller would then ignore any input from both the "lock" and "unlock" wire coming from the trunk. That means the keyless remote can no longer lock/unlock the doors/trunk. (It still accept inputs from the lock/unlock wires from the doors. Thus central lock still works if you use the key on the doors.)
My solution is to permanently cut the trunk "lock" wire from the trunk lock. The cut is made between the point where I tapped into it and the point where it connects to the trunk lock. (i.e. after the cut, the trunk "lock" wire is then only connected to the output of my keyless entry device). I did not have to cut the "unlock" wire.
I can now deadbolt my trunk and can use my remote to lock and unlock my doors. If my trunk is not deadbolted, then the remote will lock/unlock my the doors as well as the trunk.
Note: only do this if at least one of your doors can be locked/unlocked with the key, that way you know you can still lock/unlock your car with the key when your remote stops working.
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Thanks for the tips everyone. I left the trunk deadbolt as-is because I don't think I'd ever deadbolt it anyways.
The install was super easy - 4 wires total. I took longer making the wiring look nice than it took actually installing the unit.
I bought my keyless unit from tintnelectronics on ebay and had a good experience.
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I dunno about the eBay kits, I installed an Alpine alarm system instead of just keyless entry. I can roll my windows down and up, autolock and unlock the doors, blah, blah, blah, all with the remote.
Any more info on this Alpine alarm?
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It's just an alarm with a bunch of extra features added on; I scored it NIB on eBay for next to nothing. 3-button remote lets you control whatever you've wired to it; I think there are four or five available channels. I wired one channel to the auto-up windows and one to the auto-down. If I had a power sunroof, I could control that as well. With relays, anything is possible! :)
Wiring an alarm in is really not significantly more difficult than the keyless entry, and gives you more features. The biggest difference is that you have to hide that brain somewhere up front and there are, of course, more wiring connections to be made.
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I have no experience with any sort of keyless entry, so pardon my question;
Will this work if my original locking system is completely fubar'd? As is, each lock tumbler on the car works fine, but only individually. The central locking on my car is otherwise completely inactive... can't even lock the doors from the trunk lock. Will this kit do me any good?
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Not really - the module just sends lock/unlock signals to the central locking module. Now if the power locks themselves are working (as in the solenoids still function properly and it is the central locking module itself that is broken) you could run the lock/unlock signals to separate relays and then to the doors locks themselves, but it would be a fair amount of wiring.
Have you done any troubleshooting to figure out why the central locking isn't working?
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There is a fab diagnostic for the E30 central locking system that has a step by step matrix of tests, it will help you narrow down whats wrong. http://www.unofficialbmw.com/repair_faqs/central_locking.html
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Is wiring different for an e36
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Living in Canada, my door locks were freezing so I could not get the key all the way in the door lock and could not lock my doors.
I went to Canadian Tire, it’s like a Wal-mart with an extensive parts department, and I got a remote start module for 50 CDN$ on sale - that’s like 40 US$ as of today.
What you’re looking for in these module is a "negative pulse" for the door lock and unlock. I hooked up the wires in the trunk on my 318is with the door lock and unlock wires. 12v and ground were also hooked up.
Any module with negative pulse for the doors will do.
The wires from the module are the Green and Brown ones (unlock and lock – see wiring schematic). 2 reds were tighten together and sent direct to the battery Used a loop to put the reds to the bolt that secures the battery wire. Black wire is the ground.
You don’t need to hook up all the other wires. Only 4 of them. Works Great.
You need to program the remote – Toughest part –As follow:
I needed to read the instruction on how to match the remote with the module. This step is absolutely necessary! You here a clicking sound, like a relay, from the module that mimics the parking lights going on and off. You don’t see the lights since the wires were not connected. I had to put the ignition wire on the 12v, momentarily, to mimic the ignition being on for the programming purpose. The grey wire also had to be grounded, to mimic the hood being opened, and the PAB (program assistant button) switch pressed on the module in order to program the remote – see wiring schematic. Grey wire needs to be grounded in order for the PAB to work.
I installed another ProStart module and my last car and it work np for 5 years. Including the remote start! ProSstart look like quality products.
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Excuse me for this probably stupid question, but do I need to disconnect the battery before doing this? Is there any chance of being electrocuted? Sorry, I don't work with electricity so I'm a little apprehensive anytime I go near exposed wires.
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Nah.
I took mine out of my old 318 and spliced it into my new 325 in maybe 20 minutes.
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This looks really interesting but in this 30$ kit do you get electric motors to be able to lock and unlock or does my car already have them, if yes why can't i unlock the passenger's side door with the driver's side door? Does this kit also come with remote and and alarm??? I think i am missing something here!
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Your car should have a set of electric actuators (sort of like motors) on each lock - on my 318 sedan I have six - one for each door, one for the trunk and one for the fuel filler cap. The kit just wires them so that both the key locks and the remote will unlock the actuators.
Given 20 years of wear & tear those lock & unlock switchs in the doors are problematic. I rarely lock my car because I don't trust the door key switches. One of them was in pieces inside the door, so the wireless kit is definitely a good idea.
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I bought a keyless entry kit off eBay that has the remote in the key like the newer BMW keys. I installed it in the driver's footwell since a) that's what the sintructions said to do and b) that's where the write-up I found on r3v had it. It was simple to hook up to unlock and lock the four doors and the key is pretty cool.
The downside: I can't figure out the wiring to unlock the trunk from the foot well and the key won't work in the trunk lock. (In fact, none of my keys work in the trunk except the LED one. Is that how it's supposed to be?)
Anyone know which wires in the footwell would lock and unlock the trunk?
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which kit did you buy and will it work for a 2 dr 318ic?
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which kit did you buy and will it work for a 2 dr 318ic?
If you're asking me, I got this one: LINK (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-3-Series-E30-84-93-KEYLESS-ENTRY-W-2-KEY-REMOTES-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem51916d117bQQitemZ350332195195QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories)
Not as cheap as the other ones, but I really like it except that the key doesn't work in the trunk.