Adding an inside Liftgate Power Switch

[yubbie2]

What an amazingly awesome mod. Thought about it and thought about it for weeks and weeks. Ended up taking me less than an hour! Way easier than I thought. Used an old dashcam USB cable I had lying around, stripped the ends, and taped the extra wire and shielding back. Then I threaded it along the center floorboard until I could see it from inside the center console and pulled it up.
Thanks everyone!

 

[mkhuffman]

What an amazingly awesome mod. Thought about it and thought about it for weeks and weeks. Ended up taking me less than an hour! Way easier than I thought. Used an old dashcam USB cable I had lying around, stripped the ends, and taped the extra wire and shielding back. Then I threaded it along the center floorboard until I could see it from inside the center console and pulled it up.
Thanks everyone!

This is definitely one of my most favorite modifications.

 

[AliRafiee]

Hey Mark,

I can’t figure out where this is. Can you post a picture of where this is in the car?

 

[yubbie2]

Hey Mark,

I can’t figure out where this is. Can you post a picture of where this is in the car?

Passenger footwell. Pull back the carpet, pull off the plastic panel. You’ll see it all behind that.

 

[AliRafiee]

the harness won’t have anything in pin 12. How you pin it is up to how creative you want to be. I used a pack of these (pic below). It’s a harness repair kit. I have to do some digging to find the part number.

Do you have a link to buy this?

Can’t find anything on Amazon. Also don’t know the size.

 

[markboris]

Do you have a link to buy this?

Can’t find anything on Amazon. Also don’t know the size.

Ali, I bought mine from Ford part# DU2Z-14474-BA

I may have a few extra and will look tomorrow. If so, I can send it to you if you want.

EDIT: I do have a couple of extras. DM me your info if you want it.

 

[Mike G]

I find it interesting that the Lightning actually has hard-wired buttons for the frunk and tailgate, (next to the light switch knob) but the Mach-E doesn't.

 

[KevinS]

I find it interesting that the Lightning actually has hard-wired buttons for the frunk and tailgate, (next to the light switch knob) but the Mach-E doesn't.

All of the thoughtful extras the Lightning have tell me that they saw that as their premier EV offering and the MME was just a trial balloon.

I can see how they knew it would be an F-150 from the get-go, but the suits had to be convinced that our car could be called a Mustang.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Do you have a link to buy this?

Can’t find anything on Amazon. Also don’t know the size.

I just used a female termination for 3M 0.1” headers. You will either need a compatible crimping tool or be really patient with trying to crimp and set the strain relief with pliers. The strain relief is hard to do correctly with pliers.

 

[4sallypat]

I find it interesting that the Lightning actually has hard-wired buttons for the frunk and tailgate, (next to the light switch knob) but the Mach-E doesn't.

I miss them as well.
My '22 Lightning was well thought out with buttons for everything.

Now my '23 MME I do miss those buttons.

The only mod I did is add a Lightning keyfob for the frunk release which I really missed.

 

[mkhuffman]

Do you have a link to buy this?

Can’t find anything on Amazon. Also don’t know the size.

If you don't want to go the crimping route, I just added some solder to the end of the wire and jammed it into the housing. It came out at some point, so I had to push it back in. But other than that, it has worked great.

 

[KevinS]

Has anyone popped their max defrost button back in? Do you need to remove your "brown wire" from the harness plug that goes in to the backside of the light switch unit when you do that, or can it remain in place if you re-install the hatch switch?

 

[markboris]

Has anyone popped their max defrost button back in? Do you need to remove your "brown wire" from the harness plug that goes in to the backside of the light switch unit when you do that, or can it remain in place if you re-install the hatch switch?

You don't have to remove the brown wire you installed in position 12 of the connector if you put the max defrost button back in, it will not affect anything.

 

[AliRafiee]

I had to take @markboris's idea a step farther. Where you tap into the BCM is the same as the button on the rear hatch, I can't pop it when I'm inside and the door is locked with the vehicle running. This might be a very small minority of people, but it affects me.

I investigated a 2021 escape wiring diagram to find out where it's button connects to and found it's on the Rear Gate Trunk Module (RGTM) pin 19, which is not so conveniently located inside the rear hatch. Anyway, since I was working on my rear camera for my dash cam, I ran a wire the whole way from the back to the headlight switch. It works perfectly just like it came stock!

Car on, door locked - button works
car off, door locked - button disabled after security arms
car off, door unlocked - button works

Thank you. I did what you said. Works great. Took me 2 hours to get the wire through the plastic pipe from the lid to inside of the car.

 

[sparky]

I was at a friends this morning who also has a Mach-E and she said the one thing she misses is a simple power button to open and close the liftgate. She doesn't like having to turn the car to accessory and make three selections on the center screen. She just wants to push a button.

I thought it couldn't be that difficult to wire up a switch to do this and I was right. I took a look at the wiring diagram and found that both momentary switches in the liftgate do nothing more than short an incoming wire from the BCM to ground. The BCM is located at the front passenger footwell at the top. Extremely easy to access just remove the panel that hides it and you can get to the wiring. The wire that is needed to tap into is solid brown and located at the large top plug connection. I tapped into it and ran the wire to the center console where I installed a small momentary switch just below my subwoofer volume control. For the ground I used the black/blue wire going to the parking brake switch in the console. All the black/blue wires throughout the car are grounds. I had this momentary switch laying around but I am going to change it out with one that is much flatter.

I now have a working power button that will open and close the liftgate from inside the car without having your key fob, or phone. The car can be on or off but the doors have to be unlocked and in Park. It works just like the one in my 2014 Escape did. I could have mounted the switch is several easy to see locations but like to conceal my work (like I did the subwoofer volume control) so nothing looks "added on". Just drop your hand down in front of the console and they are both easy to use. Besides if I ever needed to remove it, all I'd have to do is put a little flat plug in the hole and no one would know any different.

It took me about an hour to do the entire thing but now that I did it, when I do hers, probably should only take 30 minutes. I took quick photos of where I tapped into the wiring and it was before I permanently attached and taped up the wires.

Edit: After getting my GT when I did this mod, instead of adding a button on the console like I did on the Premium, I replaced the max defrost button on the headlamp switch with a liftgate button from a bronco found on this post #57

Mark,
I have embarked on doing this mod. However, when I broke down the wiring harness I did not have a full Brown wire. Does your wiring diagram give other options on the wiring color configuration or is there some reference you can provide where I can do some more research?