So, I hate key fobs. I use a key. In fact, I even hate transponder keys -- the fat ones with the chips in them (see my "Skinny key" link in my sig). I've got 3 cars, house key, and office key, and I don't want to look like I'm carrying a hardware store in my pocket.
But, I want to be able to unlock and open the passenger door for my wife. And the 4Runner is parked on the pad next to my garage, on the left, so when I want to open it up and put some stuff in the back seat or the passenger seat/footwell, I don't want to walk around the truck to unlock it.
So my solution was to add a keyhole/lock to the passenger door, like my 3rd gen 4Runner had. The problem was, Toyota doesn't make such a thing. In fact, the passenger door electric/manual lock mechanism is different than the driver's side. Luckily, most things on a Toyota are designed on one side, and then just mirror imaged for the other side. This project would have to involve both mechanical and electrical components. So here's what I bought:
Extra driver's door lock cylinder.
Extra driver's door keyhole trim piece (chrome).
Small lever switch (radio shack).
I had the new lock cylinder keyed to match my existing key by a locksmith. Next, I cut off the long rod that extends from the cylinder (the rod normally goes into the lock/unlock mechanism on the driver's side). Removing the passenger side solid trim piece was easy, flip the new lock cylinder over and it fits (with only a tiny bit of dremeling on the plastic handle backing piece) in the passenger handle assembly.
I mounted the lever switch to the plastic handle backing piece (inside the door), and ran some wire around the window tracks and joined it up with the door's wiring harness. I modifed the rear of the new lock cylinder to engage the lever on the switch when turned 30 degrees (in the natural unlock direction).
Now, this thing has to unlock the door and disarm the alarm, so I needed it to mimic an electric unlock/disarm action. The back door (hatch) already does exactly this. So I ran two wires from the new lever switch, out the door to the passenger kick panel (along the same channel as the existing wires from the door), then down along the front and back door sills, then behind the interior trim in the cargo area, up to the blind-spot mirror, under the rear of the headliner, and then thru the existing hatch wiring channel and down to the "rear door ecu". I tapped into the two wires that connect when you unlock the rear (hatch) door (I think they're grey/red and lime/black, iirc) with Posi-Taps (much better than vampire taps), and voila! I had an electric unlock function at the passenger door. The truck thinks I have my key in the hatch lock.
It does not lock with the key, but I didn't need that function. One side effect is that I can lower the hatch window by holding the key in the unlock position at the passenger door, just like you can at the hatch. I don't know if that's useful or not, but it's there.
