Just completed my install - will post a video later -- works great, but right now I'm resting with some Advil and a heating pad for my poor back. lol
Instructions in this thread and the
Power liftgate is this possible? thread are accurate, thanks so much for sharing BigTonyJonese, AMPUP, and RMurphy and others. I basically ordered everything BigTonyJones mentioned above plus the OEM pull-cup and button for the liftgate which works fine in place of the kit's button.
YMMV but my install wasn't difficult but it was WAY MORE time-consuming than has been indicated. Sure, the 2-hour estimate for doing my SECOND install might be possible, but my first-go ran a good 3.5 hours or so -- granted I was going into this with an already sore back from a recent hiking trip and so I moved a lot slower. While I am a DIY'er on a lot of things if you don't do this kind of thing often expect it to take more time. I am a network architect by trade, so a lot of my work-product involves very little manual labor.
The most labor-intensive part for me was removing/reinstalling the trim in the trunk/parcel area on the right. And they aren't kidding: you NEED the green replacement clips!! I don't care if you even work in a SC you WILL break those clips/tabs removing the trim pieces! I probably replaced more than half the clips. The large plastic piece on the lift gate was the hardest to put back on, best to have a second person help hold it in place. The POSI-TAP is awesome, too, thanks for mentioning it.
When wiring the OEM button, be prepared to interrupt the lift gate a few times -- if the red wire comes in contact with the yellow, or if you get the order wrong the gate will have some false starts (so watch your head!). But it was worth it to have the stock look, IMHO. Then again, after all the work if I had it to do over again I _almost_ would have just put a hole in the lift gate cup and used the kit's button and called it a day. Instead I ended up using a carving knife, to form the kit button's plastic insert tab for the wires to connect them into the Tesla OEM lift gate button's receptacle. Took some time, and some expletives, but well worth it in the end. But if you go the other route you're just fine and you probably save yourself 30 minutes of extra fiddling.
Yes it is a little louder opening/closing than stock system, but it's no louder than my wife's CRV lift gate. While does basically drop the lift gate at the very end, it's not that bad and is pretty much necessary with a latch that has to catch (unlike the OEM which I think grabs the liftgate and pulls it to).
All in all, it was worth it to finally get this feature. It's something I had really missed since I got my car.
