Installing Remote Keyless Entry (Cheap!)

There are quite a few aftermarket remote keyless entry units available. Many are in the hundred dollar range. But good ol’ J. C. Whitney sells some cheap units that work perfectly well. Mine has worked flawlessly for nearly a year, and I have heard of several others whom have had success with these units. This is one of the best bang for the buck convenience upgrades you can make in my opinion. The specific unit I used is the Valiant Model 2RTA, made by I.C. Dynamics. You can find it here Here at J. C. Whitney for $39.95. It comes with two key fobs. There is an even cheaper unit available with only one fob.

Installation is quite simple. You will need several “wire-tap” type side-by-side wire connectors so you can tap into the wires which connect to your trunk lock actuator. There is no wire cutting here - just tapping into wires. Power comes from the trunk lamp power wire. I used some adhesive-backed Velcro to attach the unit to the inside rear wall of the trunk behind the carpet. Here it is installed:

The module is a small plastic box that weighs next to nothing. It comes with a wire harness that unplugs from the module which makes install easy. You can see the red wire-tap connectors which tap into the trunk actuator wires. There are two bundles of wires that run along the back wall of the trunk on the floor. One has about six wires, the other has many more. You want the smaller one. You are after the yellow/black, green/black, and brown wires. The wires are attached as follows (the first wire listed is the entry module wire):

Green to yel/blk
Yellow to grn/blk
Black AND white to brn

In addition you need to connect the red wire to a constant power source. The trunk lamp is a convenient always-on source. Here is another shot of the unit – note the red wire running next to the spare tire.

That is an extension which is long enough to reach the trunk lamp wire on the floor of the trunk below the driver’s side trunk hinge. Here is a shot of the trunk lamp wire and the wire-tap. You are after the red/white wire. So you are connecting red from the module harness to red/white.

You can cut off all the other wires on the module harness. There is also an antenna wire that comes out of the module. It is only about a foot long, and in my experience, the system only works from 10 feet away unless you extend this wire. So I just wire-nutted a two-foot length of wire to it and ran it around the corner and behind the jack.

That’s about all there is to it. About $50 and 30 mins work.

BACK to Home