I just finished doing the install this weekend, and thought I would post some notes and observations, in the hopes that it will help others with the project. Apologies if some things seem obvious, but everyone has a different skill and interest level. I did not have time to shoot photos, and they probably would not have added a lot.
Note that Rick’s instructions are very good. He and Danal deserve a huge word of thanks. The engineering and design are brilliant. The kit and documentation are well put together. I did find the small pin-out diagram on Danal’s controller box a bit small. I put the controller onto a copier and blew up the diagram, so that I had a larger diagram to make notes on and work from.
First and foremost, allow lots of time. I am very handy and have had the inside rear of my S85 apart before for my rear camera install for my dual camera dashcam. That said, the whole project took me 6 hours, thought 1 hour was occupied by fixing a goof I made (the law of unintended consequences—see below). Be sure you are in no time crunch. Get skilled help if possible---at least they can keep you company (…but recall the old sign in the local garage with the shop rates: $10/hour…if you watch, $12/hour…if you help, $14/hour).
Before you start, be sure to remove rings, watches, bracelets etc. You are working in tight spaces and don’t want to catch a finger or get hung up somewhere. Also you do have electrical circuits, and don’t want to short something out. Long hair—wear a cap.
You might want to have electrical tape and zip-ties/tie-wraps available. I tried to keep the wiring neat, and often bundled my wires next to an existing cable. This seemed especially important in the liftgate near the latch assembly. I did not want a wire to drop near the latch or cable release. I tried to route the wiring towards the top of the inside of the liftgate towards the left, above the hole for the left hand grab handle, then ran the bundle down through the hole, leaving lots of slack. I did not bring the controller ‘into the field’ until I was ready to connect it up.
I did buy the 6-roll wire pack Rick recommended. Note that this set does not have a purple wire (for Rick’s color code for the license plate light/taillight wire). I just used a thin black wire from the set—easy to tell apart from the 18 ga black wire Rick supplies for the ground.
You will need Torx drivers to remove screws. You don’t need a socket set (in Rick’s original instructions). Of course you need the usual pliers, wire strippers, etc, etc.
Good lighting is important. Consider getting a headlamp in addition to a flashlight. I have a well-lit garage and did the project over an afternoon, but still sometimes had trouble seeing the wire colors in the bundles inside the liftgate to select the right wire to tap.
As noted by another ‘early installer’ above, I also started inside the car to do the disassembly and wiring. I did this so if I ran out of time, I would not have the applique off of the car and various holes/penetrations exposed.
When I pulled down the very large interior panel (with the speaker grilles), I did try the duct tape trick (see Zane’s post and Dropbox link) to suspend it (to avoid fully disconnecting and removing it). The duct tape kept pulling off, and when it did stick, it left adhesive residue. So I got a wire coat hanger, cut it into a couple of lengths, and made a couple of S-hooks. I hooked them to the back side of the trim panel near the speaker grilles, and then hooked them to open holes on the metal lip at the top of the liftgate window. Worked great. I did have a cable to the speaker area, even though I do not have UHF audio. I assume that the wiring harness was/is standardized there. I did not unhook this one (had a heck of a time with the white connector, and just gave up).
I did have the black vinyl sheets over the 2 openings in the liftgate. They pretty much fell away on their own, but I did not specifically remove them to get access. I also did not fully remove the right hand fuzzy trunk/fender liner. I pulled it away from the front to reach the liftgate control module and 12V supply, and from the rear to reach the right hand turn signal wiring. I thought it would make reinstalling the liner much easier (…and it was). I did a similar thing on the left to run the green wire to the left turn signal wiring.
Note that when you are tapping the 12V power, this might be live/hot. Be careful if you are cutting or stripping the 18 ga red wire, and also once you strip the end to attach the crimp connector, to avoid shorting it out to something. When I had the Molex connector pin crimped onto the wire, and before inserting it into the connector, I wrapped the pin with a piece of electrical tape to prevent shorts.
When I ran the 3 wires (power, right and left turn) from the right trunk back up into the headliner, the rubber boot and through the liftgate to the controller area, I chose to not start from the controller end as Rick suggested. I took the box with the spools of wire and started from the trunk. I taped together the bundle (18 ga red, smaller yellow and black, plus a spare small red wire), and pulled them as one up into the headliner, through the boot, etc. I could then adjust the lengths in the trunk to make the connections. I taped off the small red spare wire and left in in the right trunk area near the liftgate module, but did hook the other end of this up to the CH pin on the Molex connector for the controller for futures.
Also, important note. If you plan to install a rear camera for a dash cam (like the Blackvue), pull the coax cable for the camera through the rubber sleeve/boot from C pillar to the liftgate first. Maybe buy and install the camera first, and delay install of the applique (or do it all at one sitting). You will have a very hard time getting the right angled connector through once you add a few more wires to the boot.
When you find the wire bundle with the wire you need to tap, you might find that it is sheathed in black corrugated ‘smurf’ tubing. Don’t struggle to cut the stiff plastic tubing. Just trace it back to a ‘node’ where you might find some black electrical tape to remove. If you cannot easily unwind the black tape, take a utility knife and carefully make a longitudinal cut along the cable bundle through the tape, and maybe get a small needle nose pliers or a surgical clamp/snap to grab the tape and unwind a bit.
Note that the small 3 wire black connector between the controller and applique lighting was not polarized or keyed, so I could in fact insert the connector backwards. The wires are however color-coded and should match up.
So, the goof that cost me an hour…I did buy the crimping tool Rick recommended. I found that I was not getting the best crimps and did not want to have a loose connection, especially the 18 ga red 12V and black ground wires. Thus I chose to solder these connector pins as well. However I was not being careful/paying attention, and some solder flowed down into the hollow end of a couple of the Molex connector pins. I did not recognize this until after I had inserted a couple of the pins into the white Molex connector. If the hollow center of the pins is blocked, you cannot insert the connector into the socket on the controller (the Molex uses a long solid pin which slides into the hollow one). Have you ever tried to pull these pins back out once fully snapped into place in the Molex shell? They have little barbs that dig into the plastic, to prevent the pin from being pushed back out when mating the connector. Needless to say, I struggled for an hour to extract the bad pin, tuning up the white plastic Molex connector, then inspecting and correcting every pin. Really fortunate that Rick/Danal added a couple of extra pins to the kit.
Once I had all of the pins crimped & soldered, I rechecked all wiring. I double checked Rick’s wiring list, the PosiTaps, the wires I used and the pin-out on the controller. I then inserted the pins into the Molex, I brought the controller up, hooked it up, and tested it to be sure all worked OK. I ran through all inputs (turn signals, backup, etc). I then disconnected everything.
Reinstalling the large lower trim inside the liftgate is a bit of a challenge. Note that on the back side of this piece are 2 tabs that slide into holes in the underside of the liftgate, so as you push up to set the trim pull it slightly up towards the window, then slide down to engage the tabs before trying to pop all of the blue trim clips into place. A 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] set of hands here would really have been helpful.
Turning to the exterior and the applique itself, I did what Rick instructed with fishing line to separate the automotive tape at the tapered ends from the black plastic mounting bracket. However there is a lot more tape inboard sandwiched between the alignment pins on the existing applique. In order to separate the applique from the bracket, I used a small plastic disposable putty knife to establish a plane of section. Working carefully, I was eventually able to remove the applique.
I know Rick suggested just loosening the bracket from the liftgate to make the cuts, but I was a bit concerned. I unscrewed the 3 screws holding the bracket to the liftgate. Note that the 2 rear camera screws are only attached to the bracket and not to the liftgate itself. Once I had the 3 screws out, I used the plastic putty knife to free up the automotive tape holding the bracket to the car. Once free, I unscrewed the camera from the bracket, unhooked the camera cable from the bracket, and then was able to take the bracket over to my work area.
I used hands, flat bladed screwdrivers and Goof Off to remove all tape and adhesive on both the front and back sides of the bracket. I made the cuts per Rick’s instructions. Note that this removes a bit of structural strength of the bracket, and you need to be careful to not bend or break it.
I then did the test fit with Rick’s applique to be sure the cuts were all good. I then applied the adhesive promoter to the back side of the bracket (and the matching painted areas on the liftgate), and applied the automotive tape at the marked areas. I then reinstalled the backup camera onto the bracket, peeled off the red protective strips from the back side tape, and reinstalled the bracket, screwing it into place.
I then applied the adhesive promoter to the appropriate areas on the front side of the bracket and the back of the applique, and placed the automotive tape. Note that at the thin bottom edge, you might need to trim the ¼” tape to fit the narrow remaining bottom edge of the bracket or it will hang out below the bottom edge of the applique.
When I went to do the final applique install, I lined up the applique and slid the outer tabs/clips into place, pressing at the tapered ends first, then pressed the middle of the applique into place. Unfortunately, this caused the middle of the applique to bow slightly outwards, and the bottom edge did not sit fully flush. I could not get the applique to sit fully flush at the center or along the bottom edge (once the tape has stuck, it is stuck). I would advise working from the center first, getting this flush and tight, then working outwards both left and right. You might have better luck than I did. Mine still looks OK, just not perfect (…only I would know). I did backfill the gap at the bottom edge with some clear silicone caulk.
Finally, to mount the controller, I cleaned off the back of the controller and the inside left surface of the liftgate to the left of the grab handle opening (I used alcohol). I applied heavy duty Velcro to the back of the box, then affixed it on the left inside the liftgate well left of the opening. I wanted to be sure that the connectors would clear the protruding plastic grab handle insert. I can still reach in and remove the controller, and pull it out to work on it.
Sorry for the long post. I hope my notes help the next enthusiast to do the install a bit easier. Many, many thanks again to Rick and Danal for all of their amazing efforts. Greatly appreciated.
