LeoJr is to thank for providing me with the meat of the necessary info to do this mod. It may be common knowledge for y'all but it wasn't for me and I am sure glad to have it done. It only took maybe 10 minutes.

All of these trucks that I've had dealings with would not allow the key fob to control the power locks with the engine running and since day one I've wished it would. I like to be able to lock my truck while it's warming up or when I am loading/launching the boat etc. but the only way I've had to do that was use locks manually and re-enter with the key and that's not very convenient especially when it's rainy or cold.

The first thing you will need to do is locate the keyless entry module. It is behind the lower dash on the right side behind the little cubby under the WIF and fuel filter lights. I had the dash taken apart for something else but here it is. Imagine you are looking straight into that cubby hole.


Next, locate the brown/white wire coming from the front plug in the module. It's just to the right of middle in this pic.


Now that you know where it is unplug that part of the harness. There is a red clip on the inside of the plug that holds the wires in. Pop it right out but be careful because it's plastic and old.


With that out you should be able to pull the brown/white wire out of it's position. Pull it out and heat shrink it or wrap it in tape so it doesn't contact anything. You may or may not mark where it came from but you'll need to remember if you ever needed to program another fob.


Now plug the harness back into the keyless entry module and move the brown/white wire out of the way. Turn the truck on and you should have functioning locks with the use of the fob now. My worn out ignition will let me remove the key with the truck running but if yours hold the key like it should then you'll have to carry them separately or like on my Explorer I have one of these guys with only the ignition key on one end and the rest on the other-


I'm sure someone will have a huge problem with this(like police and insurance) but I don't use it every time I'm away from the truck, just for short periods when I want the truck running but can't be in it.

 

Nice write up! I'll have to try this one myself. When I got my truck I didn't even know it had keyless entry because it didn't come with any fobs. I was liking around and found the box, ordered a couple of fobs, programmed them and I was in business. There have been times I wanted to lock the truck while running but couldn't. I had just kinda accepted it. Now I don't have to.

I'll send reps if I'm able. Nice job!

 

Hmmm. I'll have to look and see if my truck has that box. I've never really looked into, but if one was to want keyless entry, is it just buy the unit, and plug it in right there?

 

let someone else confirm this, but I believe you need an RKE harness as well - that needs to be swapped in for your existing power door/window harness.

...all plug and play, just alot of plugging and ALOT of playing [with wires]

 

CORRECT....My Ext cab has the RKE and since its almost all scrap I wanted to pull the RKE module out and swap it into my crew cab but......No place to plug it in, my reg cab is the same, no plug in.....

Diesel Rod

 

Nice write up! May I threadjack slightly? My Roll-a-long has a Clifford alarm and remote entry, could I assume from the factory it had keyless entry too?

 

Beats me man. Maybe someone else knows. I'd look under there and see if there's a module. This is not a subject I know a lot about.

With that said, I also don't know yet what kind of quirky issues this mod may or may not cause. I'll definitely report back if any arise.

 

Cool mod will be trying it out. What does the brown white wire do anyways?
Thanks for posting.

jrc

 

that brown/white wire may be as simple as a signal from the PCM to tell the RKE box when to disable itself.

why in the world does it disable when moving though? every power-locks car I've ever been in allowed you to lock/unlock the doors with the engine running AND the car moving. what possible purpose could this "safety feature" serve?

 

The power locks aren't disabled. The RKE is. And it's actually disabled when the engine's running, regardless of whether the truck is moving or not.

On my Saturn, the RKE still works with the engine running, but it's disabled when the vehicle is moving. So I can lock it up while running and unlock it with the RKE. It even disables the remote tailgate release when moving (so no in-motion trunk monkey deployment....).

 

right. my mistake. I guess that makes some sense, but I agree with the PO (and everyone else) RKE function with engine running would be nice. I wonder if you can replace that brown/white wire with a signal from the speedo to get the same functionality as your Saturn. obviously not worth the effort/research it would require, but I bet it could be made to work. ...like anything, I suppose.

 

My SD disables the keyless entry when the engine is running also. It disables it anytime the key is in the run position IIRC, even if the engine is not running. I guess I'll have to jump up to the SD forum and see what they do about this. Thanks for reminding me Jacob.

 

Yeah I don't know when it began to change. I feel like 04 or 05 maybe for fords. The SDs we had at work wouldn't do it but the 6.0s would from at least 05+ And my 06 Exploder does it. The 08 - 10 or 11 dodges won't either but the 12 & 13s will.

 

I never knew our trucks could have RKE! I'll have to see if mine has the module, if not do you happen to know if any other vehicles came with the same one? 90s Windstars look the same...

 

From what I read on other threads about this the modules are all the same. guys were pulling modules out of junk cars, plugging them in and buying key FOB's online and programming them somehow.

Diesel Rod