I have been wanting to add a power trunk release for a while but I really wasn't happy with the options. There are many ways to do it but I didn't want to cut into the cable or put an exposed actuator on the inside of the trunklid. I wanted more of an oem solution and there are a few oem solutions out there but all have drawbacks. The best one to me is the trunk latch from a Acura CL. The Cl latch has an actuator built in and will bolt up to Accord trunk.
There are a few problems with CL latch. The biggest is that it will not fit with the actuator attached. It does not fit through the hole. You can disassemble it and slide into the hole but it is too narrow and you could never screw it back together. It is about .5" deeper the the cavity on the outside of the car. The other problem is that there is no attachment for the lock rod. On the plus side, it does have the attachment for the pull cable.
Looking at the back of the trunk, the license plate is already spaced out a little bit. With a little more spacing of the plate, I could bump out the trunklid so the actuator will have room to fit. I know most people will probably cringe at this but I decided to cut the rear of the trunklid and make an access cover. No one will ever see this since it is behind the plate. Even Accord owner won't be able to tell the plate is space out more than stock.
So, I cut a 4" hole where I could get to all three of the actuator mounting screws. Then I cut out what was needed for the actuator to come through. Once it was all mounted up, a steel cover plate was hammered out. Once the plate cleared, it was trimmed down and the edges were given a 90 degree bend to flatten them out and strentgh them. After that I punched some holes in the cover for mounting. On the trunklid, I added 6mm threaded inserts for the cover to bolt to. When everything is finished the cover will be sealed with silicone and covered with Dynamat.
Once the cover was bolted on I determine how far the plate needed to be spaced out. I used some nuts are .326" thick for spacers. I could have used thinner spacers but I wanted a little extra clearance. On the top the spacer go betweeen the plate and the mounts. On the bottom, the whole mount needs to be spaced out. Since the mounts clip in, I ground them smooth and punched a hole to bolt them back on with. I drilled out the clip holes on the trunklid and installed 6mm threaded inserts. Now the bottom mounts bolt on with a nut behind to space them out.
I dealt with the lock rod issue by drilling a hole in the actuator arm. The arm is not where the lock rod normally attaches so the rod needs to be shortened. I did this by adding some bends on the rod. The actuator arm is too narrow to make a hole big enough for the rod clip so I made it just big enough for the rod and used zipties to secure it.
The CL latch has four wires red/blue= actuator 12v, orange= alarm trigger, green/black=trunk light, black=ground. The green/black and black wire into the accords green/black and black wires. The orange wire is not used. The red/blue goes to an alarm or switch via a relay. I ran this wire inside the wire loom on the trunk hinge down to a relay. I powered the relay at the power ant and mounted it to the ant. The relay trigger was then wired to the alarm.
The end result is the license plate being space out about a third of an inch.
Before
After
There are a few problems with CL latch. The biggest is that it will not fit with the actuator attached. It does not fit through the hole. You can disassemble it and slide into the hole but it is too narrow and you could never screw it back together. It is about .5" deeper the the cavity on the outside of the car. The other problem is that there is no attachment for the lock rod. On the plus side, it does have the attachment for the pull cable.
Looking at the back of the trunk, the license plate is already spaced out a little bit. With a little more spacing of the plate, I could bump out the trunklid so the actuator will have room to fit. I know most people will probably cringe at this but I decided to cut the rear of the trunklid and make an access cover. No one will ever see this since it is behind the plate. Even Accord owner won't be able to tell the plate is space out more than stock.
So, I cut a 4" hole where I could get to all three of the actuator mounting screws. Then I cut out what was needed for the actuator to come through. Once it was all mounted up, a steel cover plate was hammered out. Once the plate cleared, it was trimmed down and the edges were given a 90 degree bend to flatten them out and strentgh them. After that I punched some holes in the cover for mounting. On the trunklid, I added 6mm threaded inserts for the cover to bolt to. When everything is finished the cover will be sealed with silicone and covered with Dynamat.
Once the cover was bolted on I determine how far the plate needed to be spaced out. I used some nuts are .326" thick for spacers. I could have used thinner spacers but I wanted a little extra clearance. On the top the spacer go betweeen the plate and the mounts. On the bottom, the whole mount needs to be spaced out. Since the mounts clip in, I ground them smooth and punched a hole to bolt them back on with. I drilled out the clip holes on the trunklid and installed 6mm threaded inserts. Now the bottom mounts bolt on with a nut behind to space them out.
I dealt with the lock rod issue by drilling a hole in the actuator arm. The arm is not where the lock rod normally attaches so the rod needs to be shortened. I did this by adding some bends on the rod. The actuator arm is too narrow to make a hole big enough for the rod clip so I made it just big enough for the rod and used zipties to secure it.
The CL latch has four wires red/blue= actuator 12v, orange= alarm trigger, green/black=trunk light, black=ground. The green/black and black wire into the accords green/black and black wires. The orange wire is not used. The red/blue goes to an alarm or switch via a relay. I ran this wire inside the wire loom on the trunk hinge down to a relay. I powered the relay at the power ant and mounted it to the ant. The relay trigger was then wired to the alarm.
The end result is the license plate being space out about a third of an inch.
Before
After
__
Comment