Newbie

Long time listener, first time caller. In May 2014 I bought my DCLB Sport and shortly thereafter found this site - tons of good info and I've used it for the following:

MOD 1: Auto dimming mirror (cannot believe Toyota doesn't install by default) from RJP869 , great price and product and installation was a snap due to this site.

MOD 2: G4 Elite Fold a Cover hard folding tonneau cover, very happy with this purchase.

Shortly after I bought my truck, my brother in law bought a matching truck except his is a DCSB (he did MOD 1 first also).

For MOD 3 we wanted locking tailgates. Although this site has lots of good information on this we eventually combined posts related to Pop & Lock 8521, power rear window mod, and miscellaneous lighting mods to come up with an installation that has factory appearance and didn't break into any factory wiring (warranty concerns).

Here is an attempt to give back to this community on what we did to install the

$107 PL8521 Pop & Lock – Power Tailgate Lock for Toyota Tacoma, Fits Models 2005 to 2015 (PL8521)

PL8521.

Before we even ordered the locks we got the additional bracket from TacomaTruckParts.com , well worth the money. We then purchased the PL8521 from Amazon, ours came with the foam block on the bottom but we had to remove that and then attach it to the additional bracket:

We then did a lot of researching and buying of switches but none had a factory look so we ultimately landed on Toyota part number 84835-AE010 that we found referenced in the power rear window mod. The only downfall is that this switch will not fit the factory dash without trimming both the switch and the dash:

Switch prior to trimming:

Switch after trimming:

Dash prior to trimming:

Dash after trimming:

We then fabricated a harness with information from this thread for the plug for the switch: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/benwas-2005-power-sliding-rear-window-quick-install-kit.171805/

We used 2 add a fuses on the harness and tied into the "TAIL" fuse for the switch lighting and the "PWR Outlet" fuse for 12 volts without needing the key in the ignition:

Harness installed:

As far as the lock wire routing we did have an issue I hadn't seen discussed on this site (may have missed it), we had to drill a 1/4" hole in the plastic bulkhead connectors where the factory camera wire passes through:

This allowed us to follow the factory wire bundles all the way up to the drivers seat where we used a small body plug with a 3/16" hole to get the wires into the cab. The hole is undersized so no RTV is needed after the install (tighter than a knat's ass over a wine barrel):

The finished installation looks very clean without any wear and tear every time we lock/unlock the truck.

Thanks for the great site, its been a huge help!

 

Welcome!

 

I didn't know that the power outlet fuse was always hot. Nice to know!

Did you have to remove trim on the left side of the steering wheel to properly wire everything up to your switch? Or did you feed the wires through somehow?

I would like to install a switch in the same location as your lock/unlock switch to power up a pair of flood lights I just purchased on Black Friday. I did find a switch from "aironboard" that won't require modifying.

Info would be appreciated.

 

Did not need to remove trim left of steering wheel, there is plenty of room to wire up with the coin tray removed (we pre-fabricated our wire harness prior to install). We did have to loosen the side panel next to the black foot block on the floor as that is where we ran the lock wires through to get to the fuse panel.