[ebohon]

I ordered my car with what I thought was the perfect set-up for me. When I looked at the $2,000 cost for the premium package, I didn't think it was worth it for me since the only item that I really wished I had in that package was the garage door opener. So, I figured I could live with the remote in the ash tray or arm rest. But, it doesn't fit in the ashtray and the arm rest is kind of a pain to open and close while pulling up to my garage, etc. In retrospect, I should have ordered the package since I just discovered that the incremental cost was only $500 since I have the fox red and aluminum trim...but oh well...its done. So... I decided to bypass the switch in the remote and place a momentary switch from radio shack.

This set up basically replaces having to fiddle with a garage door opener remote and puts control in a switch. I decided to place the momentary switch on the left of the light control switch. I should give credit to the person that posted pics on how to remove this switch when installing rear fogs and my son who modded his 360 controller in a similar fashion that gave me the idea. So here it goes followed by pictures:


1. Hacked the garage remote to find the soldering posts to find the closed circuit to trigger the switch...easy to do, but you should have a basic understanding of soldering, electronics, etc.
2. Removed light switch.
3. Drill holes. My car is not leased so I don't have to worry about permanent 'mods'.
4. Hard wired everything and tested.
5. I decided to wrap the remote in cloth to avoid any possible vibrations. I also left about an 8 inch long cable to make life easier to replace the battery in the future. In fact, in the future, I'll test the switch cables for constant 12v and may simply hardwire the remote and not bother with the remote battery.
5. Put pieces back together.

Radio Shack was out of smaller momentary switches and all black switches. So, I settled for what they had in stock. It turned out better than I expected. In the pictures below, the switch seems to stick out much more than IRL. In fact, the red button doesn't stand out considering that I have the Fox Red interior. Overall, it looks factory and its funtional. I hope this helps anyone out there.