How To Guide: Fitting One Touch Electric Windows On Both Sides

[David]

It has mentioned on the forum a few times, but there's no actual guide on how to do it, so, here goes:

For this guide I'm going to assume that you don't have one touch electric windows on ether side. AFAIK, this'll only work on a MK2 car; I believe that the MK1 is different.

What you need to know first:

You'll need to pull the car apart to complete this mod, so it's not for the faint hearted. At the very least you'll need to remove both front door panels, the glovebox, & the foglight/ electric mirror/ choke switch panel. If you want to have the wires running with the original wires as I have, then you'll need to remove the front seats, centre console & front carpet too.

What you'll need:
- Pre existing front electric windows.
- 2 'Auto' window control boxes & wires found in the GTi, TZD & some XM cars.
- 3 'Auto' window switches.
- Several meters of singles cable.
- Soldering iron, flux, solder etc.
- Crimp terminals (male & female).
- Electrical tape.
- Small duct rod or something equivalent for getting wires through the rubber tubes going to the doors.
- Heat shrink tubing (optional, but makes things tidier and easier).
- 1x extra plastic white 6 pin plug that goes under the 'auto' switch (optional, but it'll make things easier).
- 1x bucket of swear words (optional).

There are 2 plugs behind the door panels which are responsible for the electric windows, one is white, one is brown. They both have 3 wires. The centre wire in both white plugs is +ve. The centre wire in both brown plugs is -ve. The outer wires in the brown plugs connect to the other brown plug in the other door. The outer wires in the white plug connect to the window motor in that door.

What you'll need to do;

Firstly you'll need to remove all the tape holding both harnesses together. Then you'll need to decide which harness you want in which side.

I'll start with the passenger harness. You'll need to remove the 2 wires from the outer ports of the brown plug that goes to the door (unclip them, don't cut them; you'll need them later) and trace them up to the door switch plug, unclip & remove them both and put them to one side. (If you open the plug & give the metal plugs a gentle push with a small screwdriver, they'll pop out easily).

Then you need to remove the neutrals from the 'passenger' (brown) switch plug. On this side they're not needed, so they can be cut as close to the factory joint as you can get, then push them out of the plug. Keep the wires as you'll need them later.

Now you're just left with the live. For the purpose of this mod, it's not needed ether, HOWEVER, if you decide that you want illuminated window switches, then it will be needed for this purpose solely. I removed this wire too and soldered in a thinner wire, but the choice is yours.

Now you should be just left with the 'drivers' (white) plug with four green wires and one brown wire. You'll need to join & solder another wire into each of the green wires so that they reach the plugs at the bottom of the door. The two neutrals you cut earlier are ideal for two of these so that they can go into the two vacant slots that you created earlier. I used a multi meter to work out which wire did what and then put the two for moving the window a bit into these holes. The other two I put to one side of it and put crimp connectors on them (it'd be best to use some of your singles cable for these two).

Once you've done all the soldering you can put heat shrink tubing on all the joints, tape it back into a tidy harness & test it (assuming that the door panels are already off). If you touch any of the green wires at the switch to the brown wire (or any other -ve on the car) then the motor should operate. Test your new wires too. Hopefully everything works so far. NOTE: if you're testing it in the car, make sure that you've unplugged both original harnesses otherwise they could interfere with your tests.

If everything's good so far, it's time to move onto the drivers harness. You'll need to cut & remove one neutral going to the 'passenger' (brown) switch plug (pin 2 or 4). Again, cut it as close to the factory joint as possible.

The centre live wire is again not needed unless you want illuminated window switches. (This side would need two, so if you wanted illuminations then you'd need to add another wire, or put two thinner wires in, but again, the choice is yours).

The other three wires need to stay, but they need rearranging & the two complete wires that you removed from the other side earlier will be needed here too. If you've got an extra white 6 pin plug, then you can start to install this now. If not then you'll need to improvise with the 5 pin brown plug, as it'll fit inside the 'auto' switch, but you'll have one wire outside the plug onto the switch when done.

The two inner & the two outer contacts are for the window movement & the other one is for -ve. (unless you've got a XM switch, in which case you'll need to look at the other white plug to see which way it's wired as it has a +ve contact too).

You'll need to arrange the wires so that all four movement wires go to the plug at the bottom of the door. The two for moving the window a bit into the brown plug's holes, and the other two will need connecting to crimp connectors. It may be beneficial to cut the metal plugs off the bottom of these wires and fit actual crimp connectors as I've found the BX female plugs are smaller that the generic crimp connectors, so they won't plug together.

Now you should be ready to put heat shrink tubing on all the joints, tape it back into a tidy harness & test it. If you haven't removed the door panels yet, you can remove the front speakers from the car, you should then be able to get at the two plugs on both sides to plug your new harnesses in to try them. You'll need to link the two disconnected wires at the bottom to the respective wires on the other harness.

If everything works so far, then it's time to pull the car apart (as above). You'll need to run two more wires between the two doors. You can ether run the wires with the original harness under the carpet (as I did) or you can run them behind the dash. Again the choice is yours. Just remember that they might get in the way if the dash ever has to be removed if they're not routed appropriately.

Once your wires are in then you just need to put male crimp terminals on the ends & reassemble everything. Make sure that you test the passengers switch on the drivers side as you might need to swap some wires over if it doesn't behave as it should. You'll need to cut a bit out of the door inner linings so the control boxes will fit into the recesses. I taped a bag loosely into the recesses so that the control boxes would fit and it'll keep the wind & water out.

The control boxes screw onto the back of the door panel plastic, at the front, near the top. There are 3 holes for this purpose. Make sure that the screws that you use aren't too long otherwise they'll come though the plastic.

I didn't get many pictures, but I'll edit this post when I get some more.

Shortcuts that can be taken:

If you don't feel like pulling the full car apart, then you can get away with not adding the two extra wires between the doors, but you'll lose two of the functions of the passenger auto switch from the driver's side. You can connect a standard switch between two of the green wires (green on the outer most contacts) and brown (-ve) in the middle. It's up to you which functions you want to use in this case.

If you don't have an auto switch for the passenger side, then you can use two 'normal' switches in its place. (This is what I've currently done as I don't have a switch for it yet). Just connect the four green wires to the outer terminals of the switches, link another wire to the brown -ve and connect these to the centre terminals of both switches. As there's normally a blanking plate in one of the switch holes, then the 2nd switch can go in here.

Voila! Now you have one touch electric windows on both sides!