Adding a Physical Interior Liftgate Power Switch

[Jimrpa]

LOL I bought a roll of brown 26 AWG from Amazon for this purpose. The electronics stores that used to be around here went belly-up decades ago. Since this wire pretty much just carries signal (momentary pulse to ground) you can get away with super small gauge wire. ?‍?

On the cars that had the park assist hardware, that feature was at best scary. At worst… ugh. I think from 2022 Job2 onward the hardware was removed. ??

I’m not sure I would call it “scary”. I just found it cumbersome and time-consuming to activate and use - even with the handy button.

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[HughJazzol]

Mark, it's been a couple of years since I came upon this thread, but I finally got a chance to complete this mod. And it's as awesome as described!

My only contribution to this mod is, I used pick tools to peel back the harness weave wrap. Took about 10 seconds. And I was able to find the "brown" wire like in another 10 seconds. Not sure why this has been difficult for some, but maybe I got lucky.

Also, I would like to add, Mr. Boris, not only do you provide this forum with in-depth guides on how to accomplish a series of mods for our vehicles, but you also have the patience of a saint w/our questions, and most importantly, give us plebes the confidence to tackle many of these projects - and complete them successfully - that we would normally have no business attempting.

So for that, we salute you!

Orr
I just noticed these pictures, and that's a helpful shot of the wire bundle.
Of course, it's hard to see the 500 wires and colors that are in there, but in looking at my picture below, which one did you tap into, the top or orange-ish looking one, or the bottom darker brown one ? Both have a blue line drawn on them.

 

[markboris]

Orr
I just noticed these pictures, and that's a helpful shot of the wire bundle.
Of course, it's hard to see the 500 wires and colors that are in there, but in looking at my picture below, which one did you tap into, the top or orange-ish looking one, or the bottom darker brown one ? Both have a blue line drawn on them.

The brown wire has NO line on it. Do not tap into any other wire than a solid brown wire (it can appear more tan sometimes). The most difficult pare of doing this is finding the solid brown wire. Take your time and pull back on some of the bundle tape to allow the wires to be more flexible.

 

[HuntingPudel]

The brown wire has NO line on it. Do not tap into any other wire than a solid brown wire (it can appear more tan sometimes). The most difficult pare of doing this is finding the solid brown wire. Take your time and pull back on some of the bundle tape to allow the wires to be more flexible.

Yep, I messed up on my 2024 and went by memory... I originally tapped the brown/white wire and nothing worked. When I went back and fixed it, I slapped the shock collar on, turned it up to 6, and hit both buttons. Definitely the solid brown wire, which was right where I could get to it on my 2021 and buried in the harness in my 2024. ??

 

[Ford_orr]

The brown wire has NO line on it. Do not tap into any other wire than a solid brown wire (it can appear more tan sometimes). The most difficult pare of doing this is finding the solid brown wire. Take your time and pull back on some of the bundle tape to allow the wires to be more flexible.

What Mark said and I would add, use a good light source. Like I mentioned, I found it almost immediately. I think it was because of the bright light I had aimed at the harness.

 

[garyd9]

The brown wire has NO line on it. Do not tap into any other wire than a solid brown wire (it can appear more tan sometimes). The most difficult pare of doing this is finding the solid brown wire. Take your time and pull back on some of the bundle tape to allow the wires to be more flexible.

I think there's a bit of confusion. When @HughJazzol mentioned a "blue line", it was a blue line that they had drawn on the picture (not a blue line on the wire itself.)

 

[HughJazzol]

I think there's a bit of confusion. When @HughJazzol mentioned a "blue line", it was a blue line that they had drawn on the picture (not a blue line on the wire itself.)

Indeed Gary
I drew them so as to signify them.
One is tan-ish and MAY have a line; it's hard to tell from the post picture.
The other is darker brown and MAY have a line as well; it's hard to tell from the post picture.

 

[Ford_orr]

Indeed Gary
I drew them so as to signify them.
One is tan-ish and MAY have a line; it's hard to tell from the post picture.
The other is darker brown and MAY have a line as well; it's hard to tell from the post picture.

Yeah, those weren't my blue lines. But using them as a reference, the wire I tapped into (brown) would be the lower "blue line" identified one.

 

[Jimrpa]

Yep, I messed up on my 2024 and went by memory... I originally tapped the brown/white wire and nothing worked. When I went back and fixed it, I slapped the shock collar on, turned it up to 6, and hit both buttons. Definitely the solid brown wire, which was right where I could get to it on my 2021 and buried in the harness in my 2024. ??

Oh no!

 

[garyd9]

Oh no!

There's something wrong with that poor dog's teeth.

 

[HuntingPudel]

There's something wrong with that poor dog's teeth.

LOL one of the things some judges used to compliment me on is full dentition. ??

 

[Jimrpa]

There's something wrong with that poor dog's teeth.

Take it up with Microsoft Copilot (ChatGPT was too busy to bother doing a render) ?

 

[garyd9]

Went to do this mod today on my '23. I'm not finding the brown wire. I'm finding purple, orange, reddish, and all kinds of things that are close to brown, but nothing brown (or at least nothing that's clearly brown enough to satisfy me.) I'm using a fairly bright LED light to illuminate down there, so I don't think it's a lighting issue.

I'm too scared to start tapping all the "might be brown" wires and grounding them to test.

I wonder if it's possible to disconnect that harness from the BCM to make it a bit easier to look through the wires. I'm just not sure how to unplug that harness (and I'm also not sure if I'd need to disconnect the LVB before doing so.)

For those who have done this already: I'm impressed that you managed to find the correct wire.

I might end up just not doing the mod out of fear of breaking something.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Went to do this mod today on my '23. I'm not finding the brown wire. I'm finding purple, orange, reddish, and all kinds of things that are close to brown, but nothing brown (or at least nothing that's clearly brown enough to satisfy me.) I'm using a fairly bright LED light to illuminate down there, so I don't think it's a lighting issue.

I'm too scared to start tapping all the "might be brown" wires and grounding them to test.

I wonder if it's possible to disconnect that harness from the BCM to make it a bit easier to look through the wires. I'm just not sure how to unplug that harness (and I'm also not sure if I'd need to disconnect the LVB before doing so.)

For those who have done this already: I'm impressed that you managed to find the correct wire.

I might end up just not doing the mod out of fear of breaking something.

For my ‘21 the brown wire was just right there in the outer layer. No such luck with my 2024. It was buried 3 layers down. Obviously, Ford’s harness supplier needs to learn how to do cable layering. It took a it of digging for me to find it in my 2024. I effed up and used the wrong wire initially in my 2024. I almost should have gone and run a wire back to the liftgate. Much easier to find that brown wire back there. ??

 

[garyd9]

For my ‘21 the brown wire was just right there in the outer layer. No such luck with my 2024. It was buried 3 layers down. Obviously, Ford’s harness supplier needs to learn how to do cable layering. It took a it of digging for me to find it in my 2024. I effed up and used the wrong wire initially in my 2024. I almost should have gone and run a wire back to the liftgate. Much easier to find that brown wire back there. ??

heh. Yeah, this is really annoying. Moreso because I can't even be sure if one of the wires I've seen isn't actually the brown wire. I think this would be easier if I could figure out how to disconnect the connector. At least then I could check continuity between pin 31 and whatever wire I put the posi-tap on. (Pin31 is the brown wire.)

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