Hi, this is probably my first post here, I think. I’ve had an account for a while, but really never had to come here. That’s probably a good thing, because it means my Highlander has been absolutely rock solid! My initial visit here was to e-research aftermarket tow hitches and trailer light wiring. Thanks to this forum, I have a hitch and wiring harness from e-trailer that was all simple plug and play! To pay it forward, I documented my installation of an aftermarket Bulldog Security KE1702 keyless entry system in my Highlander (2008 base model). Either I suck at the searching, or there wasn’t a write-up for it yet, so here it is now.
Over the couple of years of ownership, we’ve since lost both of our key fobs, and since I’m too cheap to pay the stealership for new remotes AND to program them, I went the aftermarket route. The unit is pretty barebones. It came with two remotes which have designated lock and unlock buttons, built in relays, and starter kill (which I’m not using). Other than the fact that it was only $45 shipped from amazon, my deciding factor for going with the Bulldog was because the remotes have an OEM look to them. Everything else either looked like a Motorola Startac cell phone or a garage door opener.
Installation took me about 2 hours because I had to take off the door panel and trace the wires. With this writeup, it should only take you about an hour since the wires that you’ll need to tap are depicted below.
Tools Needed:
Flat head screw driver
Micro flathead screw driver
Wire cutters
Wire strippers
Electrical tape
Zip ties
Sockets and socket wrench
DISCLAIMER – this post is for informational purposes only. Attempting the procedures depicted below will probably void your warranty, and possibly result in injury or death in the near or long term. Blah blah blah. Just take it to the dealer or a trained and fully insured professional.
First things first with any electrical, disconnect the battery… especially with this job, because the knee/leg airbag will be about 2 inches from your face. Make sure you have any security codes for your radio, if you need one.
Next, remove the driver’s side middle door jam trim piece by getting your fingers under the edges and pulling straight up, starting at one end and working your way down the length of the trim. This frees up the kick panel. (Pardon the filth, it’s winter)
Remove the plastic nut behind the parking brake that holds the top of the kick panel in place (circled in red below). Mine was hand tightened. I didn’t need any tools to undo it.
To remove the kick panel, pull it straight back towards the back of the car. There’s a clamp (visible below) that holds it tight against the weather stripping right in the middle of the curve. You’ll be presented with what looks like a rat’s nest of wiring, but it’s actually pretty sparce. Just a few plugs, really. You’ll also see the handy grounding point, which is what I used for the Bulldog unit. (the black box below the parking brake is the Bulldog unit. I was halfway into my installation when it occurred to me to document everything)
Looking at the kickpanel area, now it’s time to get down to business. To install this specific Bulldog unit, you need a grounding point (identified above) that you will mount the black wire and the fused purple wire to, a +12v constant non-switched line to splice into (identified below), and the lock and unlock ground signals from the door switch. The lock and unlock signals are carried in the black harness that’s circled below. Unplug this black harness and untape it from the rest of the wiring bundle to give yourself some slack to get into the wires. Go ahead and splice the unit’s red wire into the +12v constant now, too.
The way that the Highlander door locks work is referred to as a Type B, where when you push the lock or unlock button, you are completing a circuit on the ground (negative) side of the system. In a Type A, you would be completing a circuit on the hot (positive) side of the system, which we don’t care about here. Those ground signals are in the black harness. To lock the doors, the smaller gauge orange wire below needs to connect to ground, which is what the Bulldog unit will do when you press the lock button on the remote. The small gauge green one next to it is for the unlock. ***UPDATE*** If you want the original function where a single tap unlocks only the driver side door, and a double tap unlocks all doors, then instead of the green wire depicted here, use the purple wire in location 12 in the black connector. In these pix, it's visible on the left most side of the connector. I did end up moving my unlock wire over to it.
Another view
Start stripping and splicing. Bulldog’s instruction manual has graphical splicing instructions that are pretty clear. I stripped back the insulation without cutting the OEM wires and spliced in that way. I used the micro screwdriver to separate the wire stands, so that the splice can go through. The Bulldog’s blue/black wire goes to the green wire in the black wiring harness ***UPDATE: green wire will unlock all doors with a single press of the unlock button on the remote. If you want the original function where a single press unlocks just the drivers side door, and a double tap unlocks all the doors, then use the purple wire in location 12 of the black connector***. The Bulldog’s green/black wire goes to the orange wire in the black wiring harness. If this were a “mission critical” item, I’d also suggest soldering the connection, but since you can always unlock the door with the key, I decided not to. Plus, if a wire ever comes lose, it’s just a ground wire and not a hot wire, so no need to worry about a short circuit too much (though the possibility is still there, since everything is so close together in there). I did use zip ties to keep the connections compressed. Once you are done splicing, plug the black harness back in.
Speaking of short circuits, to help prevent any of those, I gathered the rest of the unused wires in the Bulldog wire harness, tied them with a zip tie, and then wrapped the free ends with electrical tape. This bundle gets stuffed behind the kickpanel with the unit.
Run your yellow antenna wire straight up (or down, or sideways, or slantways), plug the Bulldog harness into the unit, stuff it all behind the kickpanel, and put all the panels back into place in reverse order. Enjoy! ***another UPDATE*** Apparently the included instructions for pairing the second remote are outdated. To pair it, simply hold the working remote's lock button for 10 seconds (you'll hear the doors lock, and then another lock attempt after 10seconds. Then on the second remote, press and hold lock on that one. Almost instantly, you'll here another lock attempt on the already locked doors. Release the lock button. The second remote is now paired.
-De
Pearl
to TN
Linear Mode
