DIY: BE Cluster trunk ajar warning light mod

[rkrenicki]

This is probably one of the easiest mods that I have ever done. It took significantly longer to research than to do the mod itself.

You will need the following items:
Wire cutters
Pliers
Red wire splice (Can be found at Radio Shack for $2.49 for 7, you will only need 1)


Remove the trim panel from the passenger side foot well. This trim includes the door sill, and is secured by 5 snaps underneath and two plastic push-pins.

In the corner, you will find 4 connector junctions. The two that we are interested in are the Blue one (i53, 16 pin), and the largest white one (B99, 32 pin).

On the Blue i53 Connector, find the Yellow wire with a blue stripe. It will be on the side coming from the dashboard, but there will be no other wire on the other side of the connector. Cut this wire and free it up from the loom a bit.


On the White B99 connector, find the yellow wire with a blue stripe. Pull as much as you can away from the rest of the loom. You will need to cut away some of the electrical tape that is holding the loom together.


Using the wire tap, connect these two wires together. It takes a little doing to get the wires to reach, but it will make it just fine.


Put everything back together, and you are done! This is a shot of my BFM with the trunk indicator illuminated, but this mod will also work on USDM clusters just fine.

[r3v_v3ng3]

Your a genius!

I wonder if this would work on a 2nd gen? Or it even have a trunk open indicator? On your indicator it only shows the front doors open/close, while the 2nd gen shows which doors are open/close (front and back). At least on my 98 GT and maybe the 97 outback. I know the 95-96 didn't have them for the wagon and the L sedan.

[rkrenicki]

The third gen has rear door indicators, I just did not have them open at the time of the picture.

I am sure that it is possible on the 2nd gen, but I would have to look at some FSMs to find out what and where the wires are. That is assuming that the BG/BK has a light for the rear hatch.. I will check this when I get home and check my BG. Does the BD have a light in the trunk that comes on when it is open? If so, then it already has the switch needed.. if not, a switch may need to be installed.

[r3v_v3ng3]

Yes it does have a light in the trunk. I used it as a trigger for my trunk alarm.

Just double checked the cluster right now and it does have the trunk open/close outline so it is possible to do this. I'll check the FSM also to see how to do this when I have time

[Felipe]

My second gen waggon has trunk light indicator And it lights up when its open. same with each the doors...

[rkrenicki]

I should get some time tomorrow to look around the FSMs for the 2nd gen. I will be unable to test it as I do not have a BD chassis car, but I can provide my findings.

[r3v_v3ng3]

My second gen waggon has trunk light indicator And it lights up when its open. same with each the doors...

Hmmmm....
Maybe it was only offered on the wagon not the sedan

[rkrenicki]

Yes, same as it is on the 3rd gen. The BH uses that light, but the BE does not by default. I do not know about the BT/Baja but I doubt that it would be wired on that.

[Yamazaki]

I can confirm that the Baja does not use it for the tailgate. I don't know about the pass through, but I doubt it.

[rougeben83]

Hmm that's cool, I may have to look into that!

[Wiscon_Mark]

What exactly does this change? Just that the trunk is ajar where it doesn't before?

[r3v_v3ng3]

On the sedan, the indicator doesn't light up when the trunk is open. It was only on the wagon/outback. Doing this will have your sedan trunk/hatch indicator light up when its opened

[rkrenicki]

...It was only on the wagon/outback...

It was only on the Wagon, regardless of being an Outback. My Sedan is an Outback but was not wired for this.

[Wiscon_Mark]

Ok, so the cluster lights are the same for sedan/wagon but there was no indicator wired up, got it.

[ItSuperPanda]

I wonder if this is possible to do on a BD5 Sedan. It would be awesome if it is.

[Grimmrican]

I'm sure u can just need to know what wire is what and if there even is a trunk light indicator to begin with.

[rkrenicki]

It can be done assuming your cluster has a trunk light, but I have not yet looked up the wiring locations for 2nd gen.. it is on my to-do list.

[Muse]

Why did Subaru do stuff like this? wire on a sensor to tell that the trunk is open, but not connect it? I love the products that come from the company, but I am always astounded by things they didn't do...

[rkrenicki]

The light was connected on the Wagon. The sedan and wagon share the same dash harness (the "i" harness), but the rear harness (the "R" harness) is different.

In the wagon, the switch would have been connected to both R3 (which is used for the security system and connects to middle harness B99) and R98 which connects to i53 to the cluster.

In the sedan, the wire is not present on R3, but is still on R98.

[Muse]

So what are you connecting the dash harness wire to?

[rkrenicki]

I jumpered the wire on i53 (back to the cluster) to B99 (which goes to the security system)

Both lines would have connected to the same switch on the wagon.

[Sub-Goon]

Old thread, I know...
I just looked at doing this on my BE. I figured out a cleaner way to do it.
Both plugs the yellow/blue doesnt have a wire coming out on the other side. So next time Im at the wreckers, I will pull a yellow/blue wire with male pin and a yellow/blue wire with female pin and I need 6-8" of wire between them. Splice them together with a bit of solder and shrinktube.
I really hate vampire taps, can you tell?!

Edit:
My first inspection was wrong, only on the blue plug was there only 1 leg. The white plug had an in & out. I used a yellow/blue wire with female pin, inserted in the empty spot on the lower blue plug. Routed it over along the harness and then soldered the splice into the yellow/blue out of the lower white plug.

[rkrenicki]

Old thread, I know...
I just looked at doing this on my BE. I figured out a cleaner way to do it.
Both plugs the yellow/blue doesnt have a wire coming out on the other side. So next time Im at the wreckers, I will pull a yellow/blue wire with male pin and a yellow/blue wire with female pin and I need 6-8" of wire between them. Splice them together with a bit of solder and shrinktube.
I really hate vampire taps, can you tell?!

I do too. I ended up re-doing it on my car at some point, but the basic idea here is still correct

[Huffer]

Or... you buy a wagon.
(Oh no you didn't!!)