I ordered the extended remote kit a couple of days ago. $150 from local dealer. Service writer says they have not done any yet in this car
What my plan is to install the module and antenna while leaving the old unit still hooked up. Then they can pull info from the old module and then plug in the new one as I will leave back seat out and rear deck cover removed. Hopefully they will be able to program it and my existing keys and it should be good to go.
Last night I pulled everything out of the back of the car and installed the new extended remote control module. Here is how it went
First feel under the rear seat at the outward edges and you will feel a retain thing in the car floor. Grab the seat firmly and pull up. It will snap out then the same with the other side and tilt the seat cushin upward and pull out. Now you have the out of the way. You can see the two retianers that are recessed into the floor on the leading edge near where the carpet wraps up from the floor. When you reinstall the seat line the slots up and push firmly down and you will hear a snap/pop when they go in.
Now remove the two nuts on left and right side seat back cushins at the bottom. 13mm deepwell socket. Note I have one nut on and one off in picture. Once off pull bottom out and slide seat cushin up. Both sides. When reinstalling the seat cushings make sure to have the seat belts on the outside of the cushin as well as the seat belt clips. It is easy to put the seat cushins back in and forget to reposition the belts leaving them behind the cushin.
You now will notice the the rear deck cover has four plastic retainers that need to be removed. A trim tool works nice to remove them. Pry from under the deck cover otherwise they will/can break if you put the tool just on the head of the retainer. Also notice where the middle seat belt is routed. You have to cut the fabric to allow the belt to come out of the deck cover for complete removal. Having the deck cover removed makes the antenna install much easier. You will understand where to cut it at the bottom where the belt slot is in the cover.
Next you have to remove the child safety latch retains. This requires a 1/2" socket. No metric on this one. These have a 1/2" spacer under them that might come out when you unbolt them and they might stay in the deck led cover. Just make sure you do not lose them. It is critical for them to be installed correctly for safety.
Also when you route the antenna make sure it does not go over where the latch restraint bolts go thorough to avoid pinching the new antenna wire. I have no idea what the torque value is for the latch bolts are. If it is of concern maybe some here has a manaul and can post it. I just tightened them down a reasonable amount.
Now you have to remove the rear pillar covers. You will see on the leading edge each side the cover that says airbag you need to find the little slot and pop that cover off and remove the T20 torx screw and then carefully pull the cover towards the center of the car and you will here pop and that is the blue snpa in retainer letting go. Then slide cover off. You will see the side curtain airbags. I had no concerns with this as you do not touch them at all.
After both pillar covers are removed lift from the center of the deck cover and work it outward and off. Note there is four slide in retainers that when reinstalling the cover that need to go back into place near the glass. If they are not in place the child restrain latch blocks will not reinstall/line up properly. I found this out. When reinstalling this cover slide it in place and then slide it out a little and push down at the back of the cover until they are in the slots on the rear deck itself. THis I found to be the biggest hassle of the whole job.
The module with the yellow sticker on it. This is the one you install, You will plug the new antenna in just not the plug from the old module.. I unsnapped the old unit and left everything plugged in. The dealer tech plugged the new one in during installation/programming.
The routing of the antenna goes behind the module and you wrap it into a figure eight loop and the antenna mounts on the passenger side pillar outside at least this is what I am doing. Find where the antenna is going first then wrap the loop (figure 8 style) and then attach wires to what ever you can to keep them in place then into the new module.
After you are done the antenna will be about where mine is.
I left my antenna taped in place as it is cold here and I am concerned that it will not hold until it is warmer. So I will pull the adhesive strip in the summer or spring and properly have it mounted. I am still little unclear of its exact position as I have yet to see a diagram of the exact placement.
The dealer programmed everything and now it works so it seems very well compared to the way it used to work. The tech also programmed the existing key/fobs as well as the new remote. The cost was $122 for programming. The remote will start the car in the parking lot of Menard's when I went in for the gorilla tape holding the antenna in place. Before if I was further then 30' from the car it would not even unlock. The remote lets you know if the car is running and also has a count down timer to when it will shut off. Fuel level and tire pressure.
I left eveything out of the back of the car so the tech could plug the new unit in when he was ready with the programming. I reinstalled everything this evening. I am certain this saved some coin doing it this way. I still think the programming was costly but it does work well.