97+ Keyless entry questions

Ok, I picked up a 97+ headliner this weekend to replace the totally separated one in my '92. Got the front dome light and bracket too so I don't have to figure out how to make the smaller '92 front dome work on the much larger hole.

I was going to cut a hole in the headliner so I could remount my truck's IR keyless entry dome, but then got to thinking I should just use the one in the "new" dome, save myself some cutting, and get a nice upgrade in the process. However, some searching earlier this evening turned out to be discouraging - it suggested that without the "central convenience computer" from the kick panel and a scan tool, I can't use this newer receiver board.

I thought I remembered something about being able to use the keyless system out of the Dodge Intrepid, but couldn't turn anything up on it.

Has any new information surfaced on the feasibility of connecting a 97+ keyless entry board into a '92 or similar vehicle? Be advised, I didn't note the year of the truck I pulled this thing from, and there weren't any keyless remotes hanging off the ignition key, so any information on how to ID the particular year from the board itself would also be useful.

I can fall back to cutting a hole for my board and housing, but would have liked to use the newer system if possible.

Thoughts?

The 97+ is RF so it won't work.

In 99, XJ's went over to the "Sentry II" iirc, which has a different keyring remote and won't work with 98's,

so if you want the remote you have from you 92 to work with a 99+ module, it won't ever. you may be able to use the module if it was 97-98.

Guys, I never meant to suggest that I wanted to talk to the newer RKE board with the IR remote from my '92. I know that won't work.

What I was trying to express, though, is that the I wanted to connect this newer board into my truck in place of the old one, get the proper remote keyfob, and program it, giving me a '92 with the full 97+ keyless entry hardware (and meaning that I wouldn't have to cut a hole in my nice new headliner to mount the IR dome).

Here is, in a nutshell, what I want to know:

1. The IR keyless entry system in my '92 consists of two parts: the keyfob and the receiver board on the ceiling of the vehicle. I have a receiver board from a later model. Do I need anything besides a matching keyfob?

2. As I stated previously, I didn't take note of what model year I pulled the headliner from, and I didn't see any keyfobs in the vehicle (the original plan was to just make the cutout for the IR dome). How do I determine from only the receiver circuit board itself what model year (and, therefore, what generation of remote to purchase) it is from?

3. Has anyone successfully transplanted the a 97+ keyless system into an IR-based truck? Assuming that it can be done, I'd need a pinout of the wiring harness connector on the circuit board so I can match my existing harness wires to it. Also, I would need to know how to program remotes.

Hmmmmmm...

Hasn't been done to the best of my knowledge. This interests me however is it involves wires and electronics :compwork:

Any chance you could get me the MOPAR part number off the RKE board? It's probably an 8 digit with 0-2 letters appended, as usual, and my bet is that it will start with 56. Given that I can find out what year(s) the board was intended for.

Rob Mayercik said:

Guys, I never meant to suggest that I wanted to talk to the newer RKE board with the IR remote from my '92. I know that won't work.

Click to expand...

Ah. I follow ya now. Sorry for my confusion.

Honestly, I always suggest an aftermarket unit. I got an RF based one for my 88. I hooked up only the options I wanted. Works great. Fobs are cheap and easily programmed.

You can get IR remotes from http://www.thejeep.com/piland.html.

The IR two button ones that match my 96 are both no longer available from that site.

Ken: I can do that - I brought the dome light assembly in last night so I could look more closely at it. Of course, we still don't know whether the board in the dome is all there is to the system (bar wiring to the relays) or how to program remotes without the rest of an OBD-II vehicle. Still, gotta start somewhere.

Saudade: I have thought about the notion of aftermarket, but kinda like the OEM look. I may try hunting about to see what's out there and cheap.

As to Piland, I know them well - the remote I have is their one-button style, and I've been using it since 98 or 99 (bought the truck in December of 1997, and the circuit board in the OEM remote was already turning into dust at that point). It's a shame that Piland discontinued the 2-button ones, but I did see one eBay vendor selling an OEM 2-button IR remote:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1995...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

There must be others out there too - since it's programmable it must be easier to make than the single-button jobs (Piland once told me that it took him quite a while to figure out how to decode the code numbers into the actual pinouts).

Yeah, the codes are wacky - they have 3 positions, strapped low, strapped high, and open. It's kinda like setting addresses on some I2C bus devices in that respect. I looked into changing it on a spare board I had and then realized I was wasting my time on an old, limited range system.

Where was the board mounted? In a separate plastic piece right between the front sun visors, or in the dome light? I'm nearly certain that at least at the start of 97, the RF receiver was mounted in a plastic dome between the sun visors that looked like a modernized version of the old IR receiver mount, just without the dark plastic window. I've seen these in junkyards but never decided to grab one.

kastein said:

Yeah, the codes are wacky - they have 3 positions, strapped low, strapped high, and open. It's kinda like setting addresses on some I2C bus devices in that respect. I looked into changing it on a spare board I had and then realized I was wasting my time on an old, limited range system.

Click to expand...

Right - I once had a copy of the datasheet for the cypher chip in the IR remote, and remember reading about the tri-state input lines.

kastein said:

Where was the board mounted? In a separate plastic piece right between the front sun visors, or in the dome light? I'm nearly certain that at least at the start of 97, the RF receiver was mounted in a plastic dome between the sun visors that looked like a modernized version of the old IR receiver mount, just without the dark plastic window. I've seen these in junkyards but never decided to grab one.

Click to expand...

The one must be later then - it was part of the front dome light assembly.

Now, for numbers:

Painted on the top of the board (the face the connector for the harness is on) is "3513 5"

Also on that side, but silkscreened on the circuit card itself: "FCC ID: GQ43VT13A CAN:1470 102 208A" and "36-9-042"

One the back, we have: "202844-1 REV B" and "#2".

On the housing itself, we have a few things.

First, there's a sticker with a barcode and the code "5FY16HW8AJ".

There's also a sticker that looks like the old grocery store price stickers which reads "112209" (looks suspiciously like a date)

Printed in black on the white frame that the lights mount on is "32391" and "Mexico". Right next to this, "SAE" and "PA66" are molded into the material.

Finally, we have four more numbers molded into the white plastic frame. my best guess at these is (barcode sticker goes over them):

56005121
56005070
56007041
19388

That's really odd. The three 5600 numbers don't show up at all in the MOPAR parts database, the 5FY16HW8AJ number looks an awful lot like it might be the right one but also doesn't show up. The module part numbers I come up with are:
5003 378AA - 97 keyless entry
5003 378AB - 98 keyless entry
5003 378AC - 99 keyless entry
5003 378AC/AD - 00 keyless entry (seems to be a mid-year switch)
5003 378AD - 01 keyless entry

Hm. I'll have to look at this thing again tomorrow and see if I can find any other markings I can report on.

Haven't been able to find any more markings worthy of report, but also haven't found anything to suggest that a 97+ receiver module is programmable at all without a 97+ computer and DRB scantool.

In the mean time, I did stumble across this link, thought it might have potential:

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f13/ir-rf-keyless-entry-conversion-676076/

This uses the Concorde/Intrepid module, which apparently is entirely self-contained and needs no additional hardware to program remotes.

Well, since my last post I decided to go forward with doing the conversion in that link I posted. Scored the RKE module and remote fob out of a 95 Concorde via eBay (matched set from same vehicle), arrived in the mail last night.

Next step is to dive into my FSM to extract the pinout details on my IR system's harness connector and which wires back by the liftgate are for the rear speakers, and then I can get going on doing the swap.

Thanks for the update Rob. Good Luck!!!