Honda Odyssey Forum banner

Mod to open power sliding doors while in gear

62K views 101 replies 51 participants last post by  John Clark 
#1 · (Edited)
Here's a mod so that you can open the sliding doors no matter what gear you're in. It has only been tested on my own Ody (2008 EX-L Navi+RES) but according to the schematics should work on any 2008 Ody. I don't know about earlier Ody's but I can tell you what to look for if you've got the wiring diagrams for 2005-7. See ckonarske's mod for 2nd-gen Ody's ('99-04).

Lest anyone think this wildly unsafe, this mod leaves the speed sensor connection alone. So the doors won't open while the car is in motion. I do not understand why Honda felt it necessary to add the Park interlock on top of that - and the Park interlock is what this mod addresses. If you don't trust your children to stay belted in, you can always lock the doors. Rationalizing time over.

I'm going to describe the professional way to do the mod. You can do it differently or use other tools than the ones I mention; however, my description will leave you with a professional result. Reversible too so you can undo it if necessary. Assuming you have all the tools and parts, it should take 20 minutes at the most. Yes, it's pretty simple.

Tools needed:
medium flat-blade screwdriver
small flat-blade screwdriver
large pliers or vice grips
wire lug crimping tool
wire stripper and cutter
torx driver (T30)
flashlight or utility light

Parts needed:
6" of 16 gauge multi-strand wire
shrink wrap or electric tape
1 ring terminal crimp connector
1 female spade crimp connector

Step -1: It is not necessary to disconnect the battery.

Step 0: Make sure your sliding doors work properly. (I've read so many complaints about the sliding doors not working properly that it only makes sense to start with a working car!)

Step 1: Remove the front passenger sill trim.



How: Stick your fingers underneath the outside and pry up. There are hinge-like hooks toward the inside so the piece will swing up and into the car. Remove and set aside. You should now see this:



Step 2: Remove front passenger kick panel trim.



How: Ignore the fuse cover door. Reach behind and pull down and out. It's necessary to pull down to clear a button located at the top of the panel evident in this next picture:



Step 3: Expose the brown connector.

How: There's a big white connector in front that is in the way. Now I admit that if you're lazy and willing to risk it, you can simply reach around, cut the blue wire coming out of the brown connector and ground it (continue with step 10). But if you want to be able to reverse it, keep reading...

Pop the white connector off the stud (raise it up) holding it to the wall. Then disconnect the white connector. When you're done, it will look like this:



Step 4: Separate the brown connector from the small white one next to it.

How: I used a pair of channel-lock pliers but vice grips or any big pliers ought to do it.



One jaw underneath the brown connector and the other atop the white connector. Squeeze and the brown connector will pop free.

Step 5: Open the brown connector.

How: Use a big screwdriver to push in the lock and turn it to lever the two pieces apart.



Once apart, it will look like this:



The posting software won't let me put any more pictures in a single post so I'll finish the explanation in the next message.
 
See less See more
8
#2 · (Edited)
Step 6: Remove the pin lock from the male side of connector.

How: Looking at the wire side of the connector, you'll see this (without the arrows):



The green arrows point to two locks that are part of the brown shell. These can be pried apart with a small flat-blade screwdriver. The red arrow points to a 3rd lock that can be pried with a medium flat-blade screwdriver. In theory, all have to be done at the same time but the tolerances are not very good so you can go back and forth between each of the locks gradually working it out. Here's a picture while I was working on the red-arrow lock with a medium-size flat-blade. You can can see the white lock beginning to emerge.



Step 7: Remove the lock.

How: Keep pulling! Eventually, it will come out. Here's a picture of the lock.



Set the lock aside.

Step 8: Unlock the pin that carries the Park signal. (What? Another lock?!)



How: Insert a small flat-blade screwdriver inside the connector, alongside the pin leading to the blue-with-black-tracer wire. The lock is on the side of the pin away from the outside of the connector; that's the side on which you should stick the screwdriver. One of the spaces in the connector has no wire. There, it's easier to see what the pin-lock looks like and how it works.

Now remove the pin itself. It's still held in by friction, so you'll need to pull/push forcefully. Once it's out, it will look like this:



Step 9: Lengthen the wire.

How: At this point, we want to attach the blue-with-black-tracer wire to ground but it's not long enough so get another piece of wire. 6" is plenty. Strip the wire and crimp a ring terminal on one side and a female spade on the other. I don't know the size because I had some laying around loose. The following pic shows the wire (red) after I had crimped the female spade and inserted the male side. Cover it with shrink wrap or electrical tape.

I didn't have a ring terminal so I did the other end the old fashioned way for now.



Step 10: Attach the wire to ground.



How: There's a convenient ground point nearby with an inconvenient Torx screw. Unscrew it using a Torx T30 driver. I found it to be so tight that I needed extra torque - accomplished thanks to the same pair of pliers used to pop off the relay earlier.



Step 11: Put the lock back, reconnect the connectors, and test the doors.

Step 12: Document your work.

How: Put a little label on your wire that says something like this: "Park indicator to ground to allow sliding doors to function in any gear; To undo, reconnect to pin 2 of brown connector" so a technician will understand what you've done (and you'll remember what you've done if you need to undo it at a later time).

Step 12: Clip the connectors back on to their hangers.

Step 13: Put back the kick panel and sill trim.

Step 14: You're done! But post a followup if it worked or you had a problem. (Don't email me directly - I'm not an electrical engineer and can't answer any difficult questions!)
 
#7 ·
Next step, modify to allow function while in motion? Anyone remember the chase scene in Mr. and Mrs. Smith where the Dodge Caravans hatch and side doors were open as they demolished 3 Beemers with one cool shot dragging a body in from one side and throwing it out the other all at hwy. speeds!

:) :) :)
 
G
#8 ·
chiody said:
Next step, modify to allow function while in motion? Anyone remember the chase scene in Mr. and Mrs. Smith where the Dodge Caravans hatch and side doors were open as they demolished 3 Beemers with one cool shot dragging a body in from one side and throwing it out the other all at hwy. speeds!

:) :) :)
just ground the speed sensor and you'll all set now you just need to install some automatic retracting machine guns :D
 
#10 ·
Aw, you stole my thunder!

I just finished deciphering the wiring diagram and was going to do this sometime this week. I had done this on my 2000 Ody and wanted to do it to my 06 as well.

I had dreams of all the love that I was gonna get for figuring out this mod, but now you have stolen my fame and fortune. Bah!

(Good work anyway!)
 
#14 ·
pribis said:
Um...
Is it really that big a deal to just put the car in park?:rolleyes:
It's not the action of putting it in park that's the problem. It's the timing.

When I drop off my daughter at pre-school, the school staff reach for the door handle before I even come to a halt. Even if they wait for me to come to a complete halt, they have to wait for me to shift into park - but they don't know all that and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to see whether I had shifted into park. Of course, it would be simpler if they'd wait for me to open the door but they have no idea that they have to wait and they don't want to wait for me to open the door. There's a line of cars behind me and it's just not in their nature to wait. :rolleyes:

Similar problem when I'm chauffering other adults around. From the inside, they naturally want to open the door before I have shifted into park. It annoys every person who sits in the back of my car or stands outside it. They ask "Why is that handle there if I'm not supposed to use it?!" or "What the hell is wrong with your car?"

As for me, I just think it's stupid to have to shift back and forth for no good reason. So if there's a way of avoiding it that's simple enough to fix, I'll do it.
 
#20 ·
santoli3 said:
Sounds like a good reason to keep it as Honda designed it. The problem's with the school staff not with the car.
I take it that you have NOT been in a elementary school drop off line.

This is kind of like a to each their own deal. OP wrote EXCELLENT instructions for some thing that some might find useful and others might choose to leave it alone. So, why the why can't you shift in park or the staff is stupid comments?

I drop off my schooler in my Accord/Maxima so its not a problem for me but if I were dropping off my kids in the van, I'd do this mod too because the staff you say has problems are actually a few teachers and mostly parents volunteering to get the kids off to school so that us other parents who are dropping off do not need to park our cars. They'd need several football fields' worth parking lots to accomodate all the cars if every body had to park and drop off their kids.

My kids are dying to get out on my drive way even before I shift into Park and if the car is stopped, there is no reason for that stupid door to NOT open. I have the locks programmed to lock the van at 7-10 mph and I think that's plenty safe.
 
#22 ·
egads said:
Actually, even with this mos, the doors will not open if you are going over 3 MPH.
That makes this mod even more safer. :)
 
#23 ·
egads said:
Actually, even with this mos, the doors will not open if you are going over 3 MPH.
3mph was the limit with the mod for the earlier generation but with the mod for the current generation, the doors won't open at ANY speed (unless you count 0mph as a "speed"). I mentioned this earlier when I said "the doors won't open while the car is in motion". If there's a clearer way to express it, let me know.
 
#26 ·
dvpatel said:
...So, why the why can't you shift in park or the staff is stupid comments?...
Dude! Lighten up!
I didn't call anyone stupid. I expressed an opinion in a respectful manner.
I (as a parent) would have a real concern about the judgment of anyone who would "reach for the door handle before I even come to a halt" as donlibes said he experiences. There is no excuse for recklessness regardless of perceived time pressure.
And please spare me the hyperbole about “football fields' (sic)” of parking lots, I mean; stop, shift to park, off-load, shift to drive, go. Doesn't seem that tough to me.
I really don't care if you choose to do the mod. And I do commend the ingenuity of donlibes.
But there is a safety issue here. If you don't believe a persons foot could come off the brake during a momentary lapse or unexpected distraction (especially with a car full of kids), you are overconfident IMO. And will you reverse this mod before passing the car on to someone else?
These are things to consider. But don’t get yourself ruffled about it.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top