Adding power door locks

[PoisonIvy]

Just completed this on my '10 sedan. Exact $30 ebay kit on page 3, post 24. This install is not for the faint of heart. But works fantastic, and is one of my own personal 'must-haves' when it comes to cars. I can handle NO A/C, NO power windows, etc, but having to unlock 4 doors manually is a huge pita.

I should have snapped shots of where I mounted my actuators. All are mounted inside the door, but slightly different then "Rodo" on page 3. I quickly realized when all the door panels were removed, he was just showing approximate placement and how he bent the rod on the one pic that showed the actuator on the outside of the door. Trust me, there is NO room between the panel and the door, they HAVE to be mounted inside, but not obstructing the glass. The first pic he has is of the front door, mine is up a couple inches and is 'flipped' so the motor part is on the left. The second pic is of a rear door. I actually managed to mount my actuator on the right hand side of the rod, so it actually pushes the right way. The only other thing to worry about is working around the door handle rods and not obstructing them . I was surprised, mounting these wasn't nearly as hard as I thought.

Those 'molexes' are probably the most annoying part of the entire install, wow, I invented some new swear words dealing with those. Also, there just wasn't enough wire in the kit in my opinion, so I ended up having to splice in my own in a few spots. Plus, you end up having to cut the harness to run through spots like the molex anyway. I ended up drilling/dremeling out a chunk of the bottom of the molex and running the wires through there.

Took me approximately 6 hours on Friday and 6 hours on Saturday to complete.

Edit - Just thought of a couple other tips to add... To remove the window crank handles, I used a shop rag (vs the designated tool). Worked great, you can google for a better explanation, but basically you just crack open the lever side, between the handle and the trim ring, with a screw driver, then get the edge of the rag in there. You then 'floss' back and forth moving about 270 degrees until the rag catches one of the two ends of the horseshoe shaped retaining clip. It'll pop off most likely so keep an eye out for it on your floor when it comes firing out. The next thing I'm going to tell you about that annoying little retaining clip will seem like the most obvious thing to some, and mind blowing to others. It would have saved me alot of grief when I was 16 years old and saved my door panel from alot of damage. Anyway, the clip goes right back on the handle, and you just pop the handle back on the mechanism when you're installing it. That's it! Back 20 years ago I thought you'd have to install that clip in reverse from how you removed it. I remember alot of frustrating time attempting to squeeze that little piece in there with needle nose pliers on my first car. I read similar misconceptions on the internet when I was researching this install the night before. So I guess I wasn't the only one not enlightened. If I save one person the nightmare of trying to put the handle on the hard way, I'm happy.