Celica Forums Install Guides and Technical Articles Interior Guides Garage Door Remote - How To Install to Accessory Panel

Garage Door Remote Custom Installed to Accessory Panel

Disclaimer: open your remote at your own risk. Be careful & don't break it. Also not responsible if you end up putting a burn mark on your car. Images via Imagestation.com and a teeny bit of pseudo-hacking.

This is to hardwire your garage remote. Instead of having mine on my sun visor I now press that little button and it opens and closes.

It's not really a hard-wire since it is still running off the original battery, it's just installed nicer. Might be a good idea to change the battery in the remote before you do this, that way it won't have to be changed again anytime soon. I thought about doing this for a while and figured if I ever want to go back, I could just pick up a little blank from the dealer. In fact I might just pick one up this weekend to have it around.

Here's the basic tools involved.

Switch, remote, screwdriver, soldering iron, flux core solder (available at radio shack)Blank plate from car, & about a foot of wire.



OK here's a pic of my remote and the same pic with the cover off. The little button at the bottom is the button the switch on the cover hits.


The button is highlighted.


That is the switch we are going to tie into. Flip the circuit board over and you can see the 2 contacts for that switch.


Next, strip about a half inch from each wire. Use a light gauge wire. I just took a chunk from a cord that was used
to attach a small set of speakers. Be sure it has 2 wires, not like a pair of headphone wire.


Next with the soldering gun, tip each end with solder. Here's how you do that. Heat up your soldering gun and set it on a plate, hold the tip of the wire on the tip of the soldering gun and let it heat up the wire. Then when the wire is hot, touch the solder to the wire, and it should melt over the tip of the wire. Use Flux-core solder which is available at Radio Shack. Here's a pic of the tipped wires. Do the same for the other end. It's hard to tell in the pic. This makes it easier to solder it to the contacts on the remote.


Here you can see the wires attached to the contacts. With the soldering iron still heated up, set the one wire right over the contact and lightly touch it with the soldering iron. It should quickly melt together. Do the same with the other wire.

DO NOT SOLDER THE OTHER END TO THE SWITCH/BUTTON YET. This has to be done after it's in the car.


Now drill a small hole in the case for the wire to exit the remote. I did it on the bottom so it's not as noticeable. If you look at the pic of the remote with the circuit board, I did it on the side where there really is nothing going on.


Here's a pic of the remote back together after I fed the wire out the back. Nice and clean. Don't mind the Velcro, this is my wife's remote, since I didn't want to pull mine out of the car again.


Ok now we have the remote all back together here's a front pic with the wire coming out.


Take the switch apart, unscrewing the plastic nut at the back. Here's a pic of the switch. This one has a red button, the one I used had a black button. I didn't take it apart for the install guide since I had already installed it. When I went to Radio Shack They only had ones with the red button so I just picked one up to make this guide.


And here's a pic of it apart.


Next, take the button blank from the car. Lie down on the floor and reach up under the dash, you should be able to find the right blank and gently pop it out.


Flip it upside down. You will have to remove this center brace piece. If you have some tin snips, cut some little lines in it about 1/8" apart. Then you should be able to pull the little pieces off with a pair of needle nose pliers. A dremel would work wonders here also. If you HAVE a dremel, the take off a bit on the sides also to make room for the plastic nut.



Find the middle and make a mark. I put mine in a vise to hold it. Then, using a small drill bit, say 1/4" drill a small pilot hole. Next, I Then using a 31/64" bit SLOWLY drill it through, as in slower than you think. With the bit being so much bigger than the original, there is a chance it could grab the blank when it comes through and rip it up. As for the drill size, I just took my drill bit collection, and started drilling a hole in the side of the bench, until I found one that the button would slide into.
I didn't take any pics of drilling it out since mine is already installed and I didn't want to take it off. But I'm sure you get the idea.

Next, lie on the floor of the drivers side and look under the car. I used some zip ties and zip tied it to this big bar underneath since it didn't seem to be in the way of anything. At first I thought of mounting it to the actual plastic of the dash, but I could see it under the steering wheel when sitting normally. Once I zip tied it, I stuck a piece of duct tape on it just so it won't wiggle around.
You can see the wire coming out the bottom. I then fed this through the hole in the dash where the button will be. The pic isn't the greatest but I could only reach under blind and take pics until I got one that was half decent and this is that one. (it's half decent )


There are a few things going on in this picture. First, I inserted the switch into the hole and put the nut on. I didn't dremmel the side out for the nut, when I was soldering the remote, I took the solder gun tip and melted the sides since I was right there. Kinda quick and dirty. But no one sees the inside, well except for everyone
on the internet who happens to see this. LOL But it won't be seen once it's in place.

Next I soldered the wires coming out of the hole in the dash onto the switch. Be very careful at this point since the soldering iron will melt anything it touches inside the car. I mean it seems pretty obvious sitting here at the computer, but once you're in your car thinking of a million things, one slip and you have a nice burn on your dash or door so be aware. I may have the nut on backwards, but it fits better this way. Also with the design of the switch you will never push the thing all the way through the hole if the nut comes off so I'm not to worried about it.


Everything should be in place now so feed the wire back through the hole, and then pop the plate back in. Do it slowly and it will sit flush. The first time I did it I just popped it in and it was a bit crooked.


All done, nice and clean. Better than that ugly thing up on my visor.

good install guide

very informative and helpful

Whoops I didnt' clarify. This is to hardwire your garage remote. Instead of having mine on my sunvisor I now press that little button and it opens and closes.

Thanks, that looks pretty straight forward.

Excellent install - I couldn't wait, though and had to do it once I found out what a momentary button was! I have no experience soldering, so mine looked a lot uglier. You can see where I scratched the sides a bit trying to drill the hole. Looking back, I probably would have had more luck with the dremel (which I did use to clean it up). Oh - and for the wire - I took some old cable from some computer connector and stripped off two of the wires from the cable. Worked fine.

Just some advice for those with different remotes - the button on the circuit board of mine actually was soldered in four places. I had to fiddle with trying the new switch - connecting different points and making sure the battery contacts were in place - to see which two closed the ciruit and opened the garage door. I thought I would hear it, but I guess my hearing is worse than I thought. I didn't realize that I had found the right connection until my wife stopped by where I was working and asked if I meant to leave the garage door open.

So if anyone tries with a Sears remote and has trouble, let me know. Maybe I can open mine up to take pictures of the inside.

Anyway - thanks again for the great idea and the install! Here's a pic of my new garage door opener!

wow, that's fucking great hah, people will ask, "what does this button do?" and keep pressing it.

thats great, this should be stickied.

BTW i have my garage opener in my center console compartment, though i find this more incredible.

Hell yeah!!! Thanks man...this should keep me busy next weekend. Great guide

nice guide bro...

Thats fukin sweet dude.. thanx

thats an awesome idea, now i just wish i had a damn garage so i could do this.

i think i might do that

Very nice indeed,

I have a sears mini remote. (4 prongs on the micro switch)
The best way to find out which pins to solder to is by using a multi-meter.

Wow, excellent idea...to bad they don't believe in garages in Germany.

Here my garage button. What do you think?

thats slick! im going to do this tomorrow! After I wash my baby! im going to radio shack to get my things to do this! This is a very clean slick install! very nice! Great work man!

Yeah i just finished mine!! was a pain in the ass trying to put the damn remote somewhere hidden. And also I have to be like really close to my house to open the garage, before i used to be like a lil down the street and I could open it and just pull in my garage. Now I have to actually be in my drive way to open the garage But oh well its a nice clean custom mod!

did mine last weekend it looks sweet!! bought the switch at radio shack

Dont you think that a label underneath saying "rocket launcher" would be adequate?

Absolutely shweeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Gonna do it. Gonna label it -
Do NOT touch! Self Destruct Mechanism.


Let's see how many people press it, anyway!