Power Window/Lock Conversion

I am thinking of making the switch from manual to power. I have a 1995.5 Tacoma Xtra Cab. My thought was that I could get the door panels off a 2000-04 and the internals from a 96ish 4runner including the wire harness, but my concern is that my truck may not be wired for it. I only have 2 wires going from the harness to the plug that then goes to the door for the speaker. Does this mean I would have to wire it ALL by hand? Thanks ahead of time.

 

There may be existing connectors under your kick panel. Was power an option on the 95.5?

I suggest not getting wiring from a 4runner because it will be different from a tacoma, unless you plan on getting all your parts from the 4runner. The easiest way to do this swap is to find a donor vehicle that has everything you need. There are slight variations in wiring from different vehicle years. It sounds like you found a donor, but make sure you can get EVERYTHING from it. I suggest contacting Enola Gaia on customtacos forum. He can provide you with wiring diagrams from almost every year and he is very resourceful.

 

Yes, I believe that power windows and locks was an option because they had a SR5 trim. I was going to get a donor 4runner just because they are easier to come by and swap out everything to do the swap. Also, where exactly are these possible connectors?

 

ok I just did this or I am in process of doing it and here is the skinny:

you can ONLY use Tacoma window regulars and door wiring harnesses, 4runners are different and wont work right.

buy oem salvage yard regulators and window motors as well as door lock actuators, its far superior then any aftermarket and they rarely if ever go bad.

its ok to get your power mirrors from aftermarket and they are just as good quality as oem as long as you don't buy china junk.

the switch panels and switches don't come with the door panels and will need to be bought separately.

I got my door panels and switches from car-parts.com

at one vendor I paid $100 each for the door panels plus they threw in both the oem door wiring harnesses and power mirror inside covers for free and gave me free shipping after I asked for it, at another vendor sent me both switch panels and switches for $100 and free shipping

here is what I spent:

2 door panels $100 x 2 = $200

2 door wiring harnesses = free

2 door switch panels with switches = $100

aftermarket power door mirrors = $67 http://www.ebay.com/itm/310697557585?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

2 power window regulators with motors - $75 +15 shipping = $90 I got this from a guy on ebay selling it cheap from his parts truck but you could get these if you cant find a good deal on an oem set then you can get this aftermarket set for $82 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Window-Regu...Left-RH-for-95-04-Tacoma-Pickup-/310807544108

all totaled expect to spend around $700-$1000 to do the conversion depending on the kinds of deals you can find, if you are really lucky you can buy complete power doors from someone with a parts truck for around $500.

that's the good news, now for the bad news:

tacoma has like 12 different wiring harness for every option package so if you don't have it there are no plugs anywhere to add stuff. if you plan to switch out wiring harnesses the entire dash must come apart completely plus it also runs out under the hood on the passenger side and the wiring harness you get must be an exact option match for your truck plus the extra power items so VSC, auto, engine, tranny, 2wd, 4wd, accessories options, anything and everything must be the same or the plugs will not have all the wires need in them. I really have no frickin idea why Toyota just didn't make one wiring harness for everything but they made one for ever single situation so that's what we have to deal with.

this means you will need to get the dash plugs from the kick panels of a truck that has ALL the power options you are adding, if it didn't have power mirrors then you wont have wires to connect it. now once you find someone to sell you the kick panel plug sockets with about 6" or more of wire hanging out, you will have to make a wiring harness to go across from one door to the other and then splice in your trucks speaker wiring and run power to the drivers door to power everything. after looking into things I am going to run my doors off of the power plugs in the dash because they are already wired to only have power when the key is on and I wont have to mess with any of the trucks wiring at all.

good luck with your project and here is one last link, I found this is the cheapest place to get the wires needed to make your own wiring harness to power the doors. just buy one of every color since you have 11 wires in one plug and 6 in the other: http://www.bestboatwire.com/marine-wire/marine-primary-wire/16-awg-primary-wire there is no place I found to get color matching wires so this is the best and lowest price I could find and don't worry about reusing the same colors, it wont matter as long as they are all different colors for each of plugs. and you will need basic electrical and soldering skills to do a good job of it.

 

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I have one more question. Would I be able to use a 2000-2004 door panel on my truck with out any or very little modification?

 

would they physically fit the doors yes, but the door speaker sizes are different, 96-00 have 5" or 6" round door speakers and 01-04 have 5x7 door speakers. how easy or hard that is to change i don't know but you would need the 5x7 to properly seal the door panel to avoid drafts

as for the rest, anything like mirrors, regulators and motors, door lock actuators, are all the same from 96-04 with the exception of the door wiring harness for 01-04 has extra speaker wires for the extra tweeter in the upper door panel

 

I just put 01-04 panels in my 99. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tiffany-the-taco.374490/#post-10346612

They do attach the same way as the older ones, the only concern is your speaker setup. The 01-04 use either a 6x8 or 6x9 speaker (or maybe 5x7 as Keakar suggests). I had to trim to fit my 6.5" speakers (but I had to do that on the 99 panels too).

 

I would be interested to see pictures of the 96-00 doors to see if they have the same speaker hole cutouts as the 01-04 doors or if it changed. what im thinking is it might be easier to just swap speakers out rather then cut your door panels. and "maybe" the round speakers wil fit inside the opening for the 5x7 if its a 5" speaker.

the 5x7 speakers fit on a plastic panel that's bigger then the speaker itself

 

I'm pretty sure a 6" speaker would fit. I have 6.5" speakers spaced out 1" from the mounting panel, which is why I had to trim. If you had stock speakers in there, 6" or smaller they would most likely fit. You can see in my linked post there is a black marker line where I had to trim.

 

well this is the oem 99 speaker http://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-1999-To...020-/231571626652?hash=item35eabe9a9c&vxp=mtr

and this is the 01-04 speaker http://www.ebay.com/itm/2001-2004-T...ets-/221776705283?hash=item33a2ebf703&vxp=mtr

they look pretty darn close to being simple swap outs to me

 

It's hard to tell, but I'm pretty sure the plastic mounting piece is the same. You could just swap the speakers over. Good time to upgrade to some aftermarket ones.

 

So, I think this is the wire connector you are talking about(nzbrock). The one with 2 blue dashes on it, am I right? I only have the two speaker wires going to it, though. Now I don't think I can do this without running all the wire myself.

 

yes, that's the connectors and you only have one of them with the speaker wires in it just like I do. im pretty sure the power mirror wires share the same plug as the speaker wires.

as explained above you need to make a wiring harness to connect the two doors to each other and then connect the drivers side to a power supply. when you make your wiring harness you cut and splice in the wires for the speakers right there at the plugs so those wires don't need to be run across the dashboard. in effect your just making a connection from door to door.

the passenger door just crosses over the dash to connect into the drivers side plug to connect to the drivers door main switches

 

So, I'm going to open this up again. I have come across a 1995 4runner which has both power windows and locks. Could I gut the entirety of the doors including the segment of the wire harness and just connect that to a power supply on my truck? Also, for the locks what else would I need besides what's in the door for them to work? FYI: I do not have the wiring already set up from the factory as stated above.

 

yes but you will need to connect the drivers door to the passenger door so ....

as explained above you need to make a wiring harness to connect the two doors to each other and then connect the drivers side to a power supply. when you make your wiring harness you cut and splice in the wires for the speakers right there at the plugs so those wires don't need to be run across the dashboard. in effect your just making a connection from door to door.

the passenger door just crosses over the dash to connect into the drivers side plug to connect to the drivers door main switches.

then you just get the plugs you need from a truck with power and connect the wires to the same color wires on the other plug and the drivers side will have the main power wires feeding to it.

I suggest you tap in for power at the cigarette lighter type power plugs in the dash since they only have power when the key is on.

 

Thank you. I understand how that works now, but as for the locks how would I go about doing that or is that too much of a hassle?

 

not sure what you mean? for locks you swap those out with the other parts and the wiring harness feeds power to them as well, same for power mirrors if those doors have it, if not the door harness may still have the PM plugs on it.

each door has two plugs and one is for the windows and the other is for the locks, mirrors, and speaker wires.

to change the door lock actuators the window must be removed and the rear window tract removed and the outer door handle rod disconnected (easier if you just remove the outer handle) so the DL actuator can come out. then its just removing the 3 screws you see from outside the door

 

The power door lock actuator get wired with the windows, okay. Would I need any type of receiver off the truck to link a key fob to and have keyless entry?

 

that's a whole other can of worms, if you want oem remote keyless entry stuff I think you need the whole truck wiring harness involved. I don't see that as a realistic goal but you can get cheap aftermarket keyless remote actuators that lock and unlock the doors by pulling on the linkage rods.

I looked at those and decided I didn't want jerry rigged crap in my doors just so I don't need the key, after all you have the key in your hand already to start the truck so why not continue to use it to unlock the door too.