John in Norcal

hey ron,
it's great to hear that you got it working. i will give it another attempt this weekend.

have a few questions for you (or anyone else who knows the answers):

1) did you clamp the wires at the headlight connection behind the headlight or at the wiring bundle in trunk? the trunk section seems easier to get to and i'm thinking that it wouldn't make a difference where the wires are clamped as long as they are the correct wires, right?

2) is the wiring setup for the bi-xenons the same as the non-xenon headlights? i have the non-xenons.

3) did you take a picture of the area where the wires are clamped? if so, please share.

thanks!!

john

Ron W

John,
I clamped the wire in the trunk area as it was much easier to get too than inside the headlight
area. I did not take pictures. I used the white power wire and on the passenger side in my vehicle there were two brown ground wires hooked to connections on the side of the trunk. The larger brown wire did not work, but the smaller wire did. I do not know if non-xenons are wired the same or not. If you still have difficulty I will get the digital camera expert (wife) to take pictures this weekend.
Good Luck.

Poursha

Ron,
I'm going to install in my '02 Carrera w/ bi-xenons. The area to access the headlight wire bundle on the passenger side of the trunk is pretty small, especially once you replace the side cover--where did you put the transmitter, and how did you attach it so it won't move around?

Ron W

I wrapped the transmitter in some bubble wrap and placed it up near the corner near the CD changer.
There is a little more room in that corner.
However, I have found that it works great when the car is sitting in the garage and when you leave and close the door, however I have to be almost on top of the door to get it to open. Any ideas?

John in Norcal

Okay guys, I tried it again today but for the life of me could not figure out how to remove the blue wiring harness behind the passenger headlight from the bracket in which it's mounted on. I tried to push it from every direction possible and it would not come out. Finally tried popping it out with a flathead screwdriver (as seen on the Carcrafter site pics) and ended up breaking a piece of plastic on the bracket. It still would not come out.

So I tried to clamp the white and brown wires with the wiring harness still sitting on the bracket. As you can imagine there isn't much room to work with in there and I ended up ruining both of those red plastic clamps and even lost one of them when it accidentally fell into the wheel well area. So I finally gave up.

I think I could have made this thing work had I been able to remove that stupid wiring harness from the bracket. I see that others have done it. Can somebody please teach me how to remove that darn thing without breaking the bracket completely. If I get an answer quickly, I will try it again tomorrow. Of course I'd have to go to the auto parts/hardware store to get a couple more plastic clamps for the wires.

Thanks in advance!

ervtx

John,

I completed the initial install without taking the wiring harness out of the bracket. Take a look at the 2nd picture in the 5th entry in this post, and notice that I split the tubing to give me some room. (I just used a razor blade). Just an inch makes a big difference.

Of course, after fiddling with the combinations, the plastic clamps broke on me also!

John in Norcal

ervtx,
I looked at the photo you posted. The wiring harness you used to clamp the wires doesn't look like the wiring harness I tried to free from the bracket behind the headlight. Did you clamp the wires from behind the passenger headlight or in the front trunk area behind the carpeting?

Thanks!

ervtx

John,

Oops, sorry - I forgot you were trying to tap in from the inside of the trunk. The wiring harness in my picture sits directly behind the headlamp.

John in Norcal

Actually, I am trying to tap in from behind the headlamp.

Once again, can someone teach me the proper technique to removing the wiring harness behind the passenger headlamp from its mounting bracket? Any help would be MUCH appreciated. TIA!

John in Norcal

After several failed attempts, I finally got my F2P to work this weekend. Went in from the trunk instead of the headlamp as many have advised. Clamped the white and brown wires and it was done. It was so straightforward that I cannot figure out why it didn't work when I tried to do the same thing three months ago. Anway, all is well now.

Many thanks to people on this board!

Ron W

John,
Congratulations. Does it work from any distance when you want to open the door. I still can only get mine to work when I am literally almost touching the door. When I am in the garage it will open and close with no problem. My garage door is metal and I wonder if that has any impact.

John in Norcal

Ron,
Since it was raining this weekend, I didn't take my car out of the garage. As you stated, it works beautifully with the car parked inside the garage. I'll experiment a little more with different distances after I get home tonight. Will post my findings.

Poursha

I had a similar distance problem when I got my BMW 740i with the HomeLink garage door opener--I had to get so close to the garage door before it would open (compared to a 50 foot range with the remote), so my solution was to get a 3 foot piece of very heavy wire from Home Depot, strip the insulation off, and attach it to the antenna on the garage door opener (and firmly securing the other end to the angle iron supporting the opener), and it increased the distance so it works just as I pull into the driveway. Not sure how you would do that with the F2P receiver--perhaps you can take it apart and find the antenna.

John in Norcal

Ron,
I did some distance testing this evening with my newly installed F2P. It works about as well as the old remote, ie. I can stop right before I reach the driveway from the street and the F2P will open the garage door. I'd say the range is about 50ft, give or take. Not sure why you are getting such poor range with yours.

Ron W

John,
I don't know either. Maybe I will take it apart this weekend and make sure I have full contact on the connector. It is pretty difficult to hold the car on the slope of the driveway and get close enough to open the door. Poursha, I had a similar experience with the Homelink, but then I changed the battery in the gate opener and re-programed and it worked just fine. The strength of the original transmitter seems to dictate the programming of the Homelink.