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Power Window Auto-Up

This is a mod for 2000 and up Toyota Celicas with power windows. In North America, the Driver (left) side only has an auto-down feature but not auto-up. I wouldn't be surprised if the switch mechanism is common to other Toyota vehicles - Camry, Corolla... someone else will have to check that out.

Victor recently posted a great article on his Celica Garage site describing an easy way to get your drivers side power window to "auto-up" as well as auto-down.

I loved the idea, but didn't really want to have an extra switch stuck to the console. Taking a look inside the guts of the switch unit, I noticed that the silicone rubber piece above the circuit board contained extra contact "pucks" for pads that dont exist on the North American version of the switch. hmmmm...

I pondered the problem a few days, then came up with this...

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Starting Out

Remove the switch unit and open it up.
Note the marks I added where the other contact pads would be.




Next, solder two fine wires about 5 cm long to the points shown. Thanks to Victor's article for this part, I wouldn't have figured the circuit out alone.




The Sticky Bit
Now fold the wires back and lay on top of the board. Be careful to route them out of the way of the other contact points.

Once you have the wires routed, secure them in place with a few drops of superglue. Careful here... this part can be messy if a wire moves before the glue sets. The glue I used seems to dissolve the black coating of one of the contacts. Maybe hot-melt glue would be better?




Making a new Pad
Now you need to make a new contact pad using conductive paint.

As you can see, you don't have to be particularly neat, as long as you don't let the two patches touch. Use the paint to draw lines up to the ends of the wires and complete the connection. My excuse for the messy job? trying to do fine work after drinking a couple of cups of coffee... drink a beer instead for steadier hands




And here's the magical conductive paint I was talking about. Rear window defogger repair paint. Pick it up at Canadian Tire - it's a bit pricey but hey, now you've got it in case you ever need to actually repair your rear window defogger. It's also handy for unlocking the L1 bridges on your Athlon CPU




Ready to Rock !
You might think (as I did at first) that you could just slap everything back together and you'd be good to go. After all, Toyota thoughtfully provided extra contact pucks in the switch membrane already...

Not so fast sonny! Pull out the white silicon rubber sheet from the switch shell and you'll notice that a few parts are missing.

Dirty trick #1




Dirty Trick #2
Not only are the plungers missing from the unused contacts, but there aren't even any holes for them!
Well, I wasn't about to let that stop me...




On With the Show
Remove the cover and flip the switch shell over, then you can carefully pry the toggle off.

You can see four holes under where the toggle was, two at the front and two at the back. One of these holes does not go through... but not for long




Making a new Plunger
I found a nail with a large head about the same diameter as the plungers. You'll want to figure out what you can use as a plunger before you drill out the blocked hole because the sizes should match pretty closely. Select a drill size so that your plunger slides freely but does not wobble.




Here's my new plunger trimmed to length.
I ended up using a 3/32" drill and wrapping the nail with tape for a good fit. A 1/8" drill is larger than the stock holes, I think they must be 3 mm.




Dirty Trick #3
Scroll back up a couple of pictures and look closely on the switch shell where the toggle was. The "shoulders" of the mounting block have little tabs that prevent the toggle from rocking back far enough to push the plungers far enough for the smaller (auto) contact puck to touch the board.

Convoluted sentence there... well you'll understand if you play with the assembly a bit. When you push the auto-down switch, you feel a second click and the switch moves a bit farther. This is because the little black pucks embedded in the silicone are farther away from the surface. You have to push farther for these pucks to make contact, meanwhile the main contacts are already touching but since they're all mounted in the silicone, it squishes and with a little more force flexes enough for the second puck to make contact.

Anyways, back to the show...
Nail clippers made short work of those tabs, and now the toggle will rock backwards just a little farther. Unfortunately, because of the way the toggle is shaped, you can't feel a distinct click with the auto-up as you can with the auto-down, but you do have to pull it farther so you can still jog the window up by lifting lightly.




And that's it! slap everything back together the same way it came apart and you're done.


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NOTES: You may also be interested to know that European spec Celicas have auto up and down window switches on the drivers side - the switches look identical to the ones in the above photos. 2002 UK Celica which has the auto power up switch where US-SPEC passenger switches would be - If you combine a LHD mainland Europe switch with a RHD UK switch then you should have auto power up and down on both sides?

HI I have the driver's side toggle not working, Passenger is OK Driver side not clicking like passenger side- just how did you pry that toggle off please? I've got the chassis off ok it just seems the toggle is really fragile Thanks Here's a great vid on how to get the chassis off and disassembled