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EA82 Power Lock / Window Question


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Okay guys, she's a '92 Loyale wagon, and I'm having a heck of a time figuring this out. What I'm trying to do is get either the locks to unlock or the driver's window to go down when you press a button hidden on the outside of the car. This is to keep me from locking myself out of the car and having to bust out the tailgate lock like I did this morning.

 

So, here's what I've figured out. There's four wires on the door lock. Yellow is + all the time, black is - all the time. When the door is locked, one of the two left over (yellow with a white stripe and something else) is +, and the other is -. Unlock the door, and the polarity of the other two switches. Now, since there's no actuator on the driver's door, I'm guessing that I'm going to have a heck of a time forcing that door to unlock. Unless I get an actuator, which is more money than I want to spend.

 

Now, my second option is to roll down the driver's window. It's gotta be the driver's, since it's the only one that isn't overridden by the window lock switch, which sometimes gets used. Now, I've found something a bit weird. At the harness, there's three wires that all seem to be tied into the driver's window. Pink, green, and yellow. If I apply power to the green or yellow, the window motor SOUNDS like it's doing something, but it doesn't. The pink seems to have power all the time, and the green and yellow have power when the window is going up and down, respectively (or it's vice versa).

 

Going into the motor are two heavy-gauge wires, both read dead at rest. When going up, one wire is +, one -. When going down, the polarity is reversed, as expected.

 

Now, my question to you is this. Which one wire can I connect to either 12v+ or ground to make either the doors unlock (probably impossible) or the driver's window roll down?

 

If one wire simply isn't going to cut it, I can use relays as necessary, but I would like your assistance as to how to wire it up so it works correctly.

 

Thank you all in advance!

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Why not use a double-pole push button or a double-pole relay?

 

You need to wire things up so that two extra wires run to the window motor. Under normal conditions, these wires aren't connected to anything else. When the button is pushed (or the relay engaged), one of the wires leading to the window motor is connected to the hot side of the battery and the other to ground.

 

Wire things up so that the motor rolls the window down.

 

If you don't have a double-pole relay and you want use old Subaru ones, just use two of them, one controlling "hot" and the other controlling "ground".

 

If you want to use relays (one doule-pole relay or two single-pole ones), wire one side of the relay coil to battery hot, and the other to that push-button. The other side of the push-button goes to ground. I'd advise you to use a fuse (10 amp is plenty) to protect the wiring from battery "hot" to the relay coil(s) and the side of the relay that, when engaged, feeds the window motor. Fuse the input side of the relay. You can use the same fuse for both functions.

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How about, when you lock the car, do it from outside the car with the key. You will never lock your keys in that way.. get out, close the door.. lock the drivers door with the key.. it locks all the other ones automatically.. seems like quite a bit less work to me

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Gerry - thanks for your help dude! That helps quite a bit! I guess I'll go hunt down a double-pole relay!

 

Caleb - I would do that, except that the locks are old and nasty and don't like to lock. They'll unlock with the key, but locking is a struggle. Plus, I'm not the only one who drives this car, and I can't guarantee that no one else will lock the keys in the car. With the long roadtrips that I do with this thing, I would hate for a friend to lock the keys in the car when we're in L.A. or Las Vegas or Atlanta or something. I just want a relatively fool-proof method to guarantee I can always get into the car.

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Ahh, Jay, that would be too easy! My worry with that is mud and grime and grossness would eventually work their way under the tape, and off goes the key. I want something permanent, completely stealth, reliable, and totally trick :) .

 

I had a hell of a time finding a double-pole relay today, though. Schucks didn't seem to have any idea what I was talking about, which isn't surprising. I guess I could use two single-poles, but that's just more wiring and an even bigger mess of crap to stuff in the thin little doors of this car.

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I'd just go to a junk yard and pull a couple of Subaru relays and a suitable mounting bracket. Look under the instrument cluster (near the steering wheel) of any EA82 model.

 

The problem with Radio Shack is that you'd have to be sure to get one with contacts rated for at least 5 amps. That's not a problem with Subaru relays -- they're good for at least 20 amps. Also, wiring and mounting a Radio Shack relay would be a bit of a problem.

 

Wiring isn't hard -- just use standard tab connectors. The only "extra" wiring you'd see when using two relays as opposed to a single double-pole one is that you need to wire the two relay coils in parallel. Thus, two extra wires, leading from the first relay to the second.

 

I wouldn't bother using factory connectors with the Subaru relays. They don't really add anything, and you'd still have to splice your wiring to the connectors. In fact, I think this would make the job look bad, and you'd have more points of failure.

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