Hotwire electric windows

I believe this is illegal in the interests of safety.
EG kids in car when you arent and they play with windows and wind one up trapping head and choking.
Worth looking into before you do it

Bigdog

you will need to do it at the fuse box cut power wire to fuse from ignition, then wire it up to a power supply from the ass. side of the iginition switch

Cheers

Richard

Before you do it, put your fingers on top of the glass, operate the window switch, then ask yourself, "is this really a good idea?"

Graham,
I've done this mod to my Patrol (the windows can only be operated from the driver's door control panel, not the individual windows....not sure why that is, but it's okay by me).
It's funny you mention the safety aspect as a "negative"..... I actually thought the opposite. In the event that a child was locked in the car and could not get out on a hot day, at least they would be able to wind the window down etc.

I did mine cos I was sick of stopping somewhere after a trip with the kids in the back, switching off the motor and then finding that the boys hadn't put their window/s up in the back.....I've even done it myself on occasions. In my case I have a warning buzzer (SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!!! haha) for low oil pressure so if/when I turn the ignition on, the blasted buzzer sounds. Easy for me now to just operate the windows from my driver's position.

I was told when I did mine that it was illegal due to some insurance reason.... WTF!!! To me it's no different to having a manual wind-up mechanism on the windows (can anybody remember those???? haha). Your issue with a child getting trapped in a window cos some other kid hit the up button and head was caught etc, could have happened in the "old days" too with the manual wind-up windows! How far is all this safety BS gunna go before people start to take a long hard look at 'emselves. Crikey, when I was a kid we rode around in the back of the old man's ute.....no restraints, no helmets etc etc.
If you're gunna worry about kids getting their head caught in a window winder accident, what about the equal possibility that they could strangle 'emselves in the seatbelt? The possibilities of a way a child can hurt themselves are limited only by your imagination.

As to the answer to the question, I would imagine that no matter how much jiggery-pokery there is with these new fangled computerised cars, there still has to be a POWER wire (ie: "hot wire") at the switch inside the door panel, which you could cut into and supply remote power from another source.

Roachie

On my Mitsi, a small amount of pressure against the top side of the window is enough for the window to roll down again.
Col

>It's funny you mention the safety aspect as a "negative"

There was a tragic accident here in Vic about two years ago iirc,
child playing in car whilst mum took the weekly shopping in to the house, keys in ignition, child choked to death with neck stuck in electric window. If I still had small children I wouldn't do it. It's only a minor inconvenience to turn the ignition on to operate the windows.

Mike Harding

IMHO the tragedy there is the mothers ignorance, not a hot window winder button. The child could have just as easily released the handbrake or started the car.

BTW Roachie, most vehicle manufacturers have (or soon will be) adopting the Controller Area Network (CAN) wiring system. The hot wire is on the way out I'm afraid.

I suggest it is unlikely either of those events would have led to more than a dented car. The _reality_ is the child died because an electric window was active.

Mike Harding

It's settled then, we agree to disagree.

Of course.

You think it's a safe thing to do when young children are around and I don't.

Mike Harding

Are you serious?

As a father of a whats that button for 5 1/2 year old I'm with Mike on this one.

Cheers Steve.

Reading back on this thread I'm a little confused by your comment.

Let's try again: my contention is that it is not a sensible thing to bypass the wiring in such a way as to make the electrical windows work when the ignition is switched off, if there is any likelyhood of young children being passengers in the vehicle. Do you disagree with that?

Mike Harding

Good God Steve! You OK? :)

I didn't say it (live window button) was safe, I said that the mothers ignorance made it unsafe. I stunned by Mikes last comment.

Would you leave a small child in a car with the keys in the ignition?

The wife is taking vitals as we speak.LOL

Seriously if it could affect a child, It needs to be considered.

Cheers Steve.

Sorry Mike, we were typing at the same time.

My opinion is - Hot window button + small child = unsafe.

Hot window button + small child + unsupervised = extremely unsafe.

My argument is not whether or not the window is hot, it's the lack of supervision and ultimately an ignorant parent.

>Would you leave a small child in a car with the keys in the ignition?

No, I never did with either of my two.

I think you're missing the point; the child died because the windows were active when the vehicle was parked - in this case it was an error by the parent which made then so. If you bypass the the ignition dependency of the windows then they'll be active all the time so, in effect, you're leaving the keys in the ignition all the time in regard to the operational capability of the windows.

Mike Harding

I do take your point about parental responsibility and think it's well made but none of us are perfect: the phone rings, the neighbour calls over the fence, child No. 2 falls and injures themselves etc etc etc - it's always the "unlikely" combination of events which leads to disaster.

Mike Harding

PS. As a 3 year old (or abouts) I managed to lock my mother in our outside toilet - I remember it well :)

Okay, this post has stirred me into action today.

I had modified my windows to be able to be operated regardless of the key in/out...on/off etc.

I've had a niggling doubt about my mod for some time. Not because of kiddies getting their head caught etc (my youngest is 7 and smart enough not to muck about with ANY......ANY of the controls in the Patrol, for fear of death by dad!!!).

However, I've noticed that the very dim light in the driver's window switch is always illuminated since I did the mod, which I wasn't all that keen on.

So.....the fix..... I've just fitted another bloody switch. This one is located on the front of the plastic moulding that holds the 4 window switches + central door lock + the factory window cut-out switch. The toggle switch cuts the power off, but still enables me to throw that new switch, thus providing power to the windows without key considerations.

For those who are concerned about the kiddie situation, you could still do the mod, but instead of fitting a toggle (on/off) switch, you could fit a push-button, momentary contact switch down near the gear lever. To operate the windows would require an adult or larger child, who could press the new button near the gearshift with left hand, whilst operating the window switch with right hand. Bit of fiddling, but would work okay.

As I said before, my system only works on the driver's door buttons anyway, so that may minimise the possibility of a child operating the window anyway.

Parental supervision is still the 1st line of defence.

The child should not be in the car in the first place.

In america, there is a switch on the dash to de-activate the passenger airbag, do you know why? It's the same reason McDonalds put HOT on their coffee cups. People do stupid things and sometimes there are serious consequences.

The child in question pushed a button, if that button didn't produce any results he/she could have gone onto other interesting looking stuff like the ignition switch or the handbrake and please don't tell me about a dented car, there are way too many driveway runovers on the news these days.

Most drivers door master switches have the disable feature for the other windows, it's so easy to use that feature.

Yes, the electric window caused the ultimate damage but the parent was at fault, in my humble opinion.