I finally have my Tesla Offer Trunk kit installed. Easy or fun are not words I would use to describe the installation. Challenging is one I would use along with a quite stunning array of compound curse words. Unfortunately, I had one of those days where certain aspects of the installation fought me. BIG shout out to
@tlr1000 who got me out of a scary jam. So some highlight and and take aways that may help someone else.
Block out the day and expect the unexpected This won’t be a 2 hour job.
Lay out your tools and parts the night before. This way your not looking for this and that.
Be comfortable with the fact that you will be ripping out trim pieces and it will snap, crackle and pop.
You will be drilling a hole on your $50,000 car. Albeit in a trim piece, but a hole never the less.
Watch the install videos a few times and read the Mark 2.5 Manual.
Don’t be afraid to hit up Raymond of TO on WhatsApp. If he’s awake, he will answer. Great CS there.
So running the strut wires was tricky. The driver side, I was able to manipulate the bumper away from the body to fish through the blue grommet. Other side, not so much. My supplied fish tape from TO (think a long zip tie) was pretty beat up by then and I couldn’t fish it for neither for love or money. I decided to take off the taillights and loosen the bumper, which wasn’t bad but time consuming. I was able to run the strut wire easily through the other blue grommet. Raymond did send me two quick videos on how to remove the larger of the two, blue connectors. It’s a little tricky but will help in fishing if you choose this method. The blue plastic piece just snaps back in. If anyone is familiar with PowerPole connectors, same idea. Bottom line here; don’t cheap out and just run the wire under the weather stripping. Go for the cleaner run.
Plugging into the CANBUS and running said CANBUS wire was fairly straight forward. Watch the video on that.
Connecting power. This one part almost made me physically ill. I went the VCC method. Seemed straight forward. A 10mm nut that holds a large red wire. Slip in the connector and tighten! What could go wrong? Double check that connection! While tightening, the connector kept wanting to slip off. Like 3x. Anyway, I must have done something that Turtle didn’t like while playing with the power. A “short” of some kind. I lost power to both passenger side doors, which I accidentally closed and my screen was lighting up like a Christmas tree with electrical errors. I thought I just bricked my brand new, M3. Turns out, I had to do a hard reset. While I really didn’t want to go through this, I am kinda glad I did because it taught me more about my Tesla. Anyway, if you get into a similar situation (thank you Ray!) :
1. Remove negative terminal (black) from battery in the frunk.
2. Remove back seat, two spring like levers on either side. Surprisingly not that hard. There is a YouTube on it.
3. Locate a grey and black connector under a foam block on passenger side. A lever folds down and then the plug comes right out.
4. Wait 10 minutes.
5. Reverse the order.
I was VERY happy and grateful that it worked and I was back in business.
Running the wires back to the trunk was straight forward. Raymond also offered two better places for the ground wire. He sent me two pics pointing out the places. If anyone wants them, I’ll be happy to post.
If you have 2019 or later, the foot sensor and running the wire was the easiest thing to install. The one thing that did not fight me.
The connections were pretty good but slow as you try to sort them all out. Everything was color coordinated even if there was no labeling on the wires. A minor nitpick with the lack of labeling. If you have Mark 2.5, there is NO cutting, splicing of wires as you see in the Mark 2.0 video. That can be a little confusing. Everything is plug and play.
Oh, if you plan on replacing the dim, OEM lights in the trunk, a GREAT time to do just that. Since the panels are out and you have to connect the lights to a TO wire. Pop in some nice, brighter ones! Good time to do the footwell lights too since the panel that holds the light on the passenger side will be out. Then just pop in the drivers side light. I did.
The trunk opens and closes without issue. Silky smooth on the open and soft close. Works as advertised. Very happy with the kit even if it was very challenging. Hopefully, frunk will be next and less challenging and less string of compound curse words.
Hope someone finds a useful nugget or two in my long post.