Introduction

Power Door Lock Install on Jeep Wrangler JL Sport is a project I didn’t anticipate doing until I used my jeep for a few weeks without power locks.  It got annoying real quick and I wish Jeep wouldn’t be so cheap and make this a standard option across the trim levels.  One thing I will say about this project is take your time!! These vehicles are filled with plastic pieces that will break if you rush it and just try to pop everything off in a hurry.

Parts Needed

• OEM Door Latch from a JL Wrangler with Power Locks.  You only need the 4 doors as the Swing Gate already has power latch. You can purchase these pretty much from any Mopar parts website. I got the bellow Part numbers from All Mopar Parts:
  • 68250661AC
  • 68282954AA
  • 68282961AA
  • 68282960AA
• Keyless Entry Alarm & Door Lock Relay Module.  The Door Relay Lock Module is needed for the Actuators to function.  As for the Alarm you can pretty much go with any aftermarket alarm that offers keyless entry. I chose the:
  • Avital 3100LX 3-channel Keyless Entry Car Alarm
  • Directed Electronics 451M Door Lock Relay Module
• Door Actuator Wiring Jumper –  Since you will be installing an Actuator with Power Lock abilities you need to use the wiring jumper for Power Locks.  The SPORT wiring jumper only contains 2 wires which just tell the jeep if the door is ajar. The Wiring jumper for a power lock jeep contains 4 wires for the 3 non-driver doors.  The driver door uses a 8-pin wiring jumper.  I will explain what I did with these further down.
  • Wiring Jumper Part Number: 68351170AA
• Electrical Crimp Connectors
• Some Automotive Wire – You can use 18-20gauge wire. I would get 2 different colors so you can have 1 color for the unlock wire and 1 for lock. I ended up having to get 50ft rolls for each color. Then a 25 ft roll for the wire needed to go from Battery to Alarm Module

Tools Needed

• Torx Bits (Sizes T15, T20, T30)
• 10mm Socket
• Needle Nose Pliers
• Wire Stripper – Irwin Self Adjusting Wire Stripper. I can’t recommend this one enough!!
• Wire Cutters
• Auto Trim Removal Tool Kit – This is optional if you want to break some plastic off your new jeep.  I tried one door without them, but it was scary, and I broke a plastic clip in doing so.
• Various Screw Drivers

Step One – Door Trim Panel Removal

• Door Trim Panel Removal PDF Document will explain how to Remove the Door Panel. This is where yo will use the Torx 30 for the bigger bolts and the smaller Torx 15 for the bottom screws: Door Trim Panel Removal

**NOTE**Pay close attention to where the Plastic CLIPS are in the Diagram. This is where you will need to use the DOOR TRIM Removal tool to snap them out.

Step Two – Inner Door Plate Removal

• After you have removed the Door Trim Panel, you can remove the inner Door Plate. For the PDF document on removing the inner door plate Click -> Inner Door Plate Removal
  • You will need a 10mm socket to loosen the bolts that retain the Inner Door Plate & Window.  Once you have lifted the window up, you can hold it up with DUCT TAPE.  I used some of the Door Trim Removal Plastic Tools and wedged them in between the glass and Rubber on the door.
  • *NOTE* For the Front Doors I honestly didn’t need to remove the handle as suggested.  For the Rear Doors you will.

Step Three – Door Latch Removal and Install

• Once you remove the Inner Door Plate you will have access to the Latch.  Be very careful remove the latch from he Plastic Parts it is connected to.  They will break.
• For Detailed PDF on switching out the door latch CLICK HERE -> Front_Door-Latch_Removal

*NOTE* You will see TABS that hold the Latch (#4).  On the other side, you can insert a small screw driver to release the clips.

Step Four – Repeat Steps 1-3 for all other doors

• The Steps are pretty much similar for the other 3 doors.  The only difference is the Rear Doors you will have to remove the Handle.  To remove the handle, you will need to move the rubber door seal and access a small hole there with a Torx T20 Screwdriver.  This is not my youtube video but it gives you an idea of how to do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsVT5zEoCCo
• Once you have completed all the doors, do not replace them yet.  You need to do the wiring.

Step Five – Wiring the Jumpers

I’ll try not to make this so lengthy as its pretty straight forward and I will include the actual JEEP Wiring diagrams at the end of this post so you can use as reference. Basically, the new Wiring Jumpers you will get have 4 wires.  Now surprisingly the colors will be different as they are wiring jumpers for a Wrangler with Power locks from the factory so they are different.  But all you need to know is the ORDER they go in the connector.  So, for example the Jumper you get will look like this:

You only need to concern yourself with the order of the PINS and not the colors as the colors will not really match up to your wires you bought.  The first Green one is PIN 1 and the last Violet/Purple is Pin 4.  So, Pin 1 is UNLOCK and Pin 2 is LOCK and the other 2 need to stay in same order with what your about to do next.

Now basically when you buy the Wiring Jumpers, you’re only using them for parts.  You won’t actually connect them in their complete form to your lock actuators.  For example, the 3 doors that are NOT the driver have different plugs from the factory, so you are going to remove the wires from the jumper you bought and place that connector onto your jeeps.  To do this:

1. Undo all the tape that holds the wires together on the new Wiring Jumper you received.
2. Next you will need to remove the connector from the wiring pins.  To do this, you will need to slowly put a screwdriver where I have the RED ARROW and lift that plastic. It will reveal the Wiring PINS.
3. Using your nail or small screwdriver you will push down on the pins and pull the Black and Violet/Orange out.  Leave the Green ones in there.
4. Cut the wires close to the OPPOSITE SIDE connector.
5. So basically, you should be left with the above Connector with the 2 green wires (about 6″ in length) and 2 empty slots from he wires you remove.
6. Now you can go to your jeeps Latch Wiring harness and plug the new wiring Jumper to your existing harness the same way.  It should be pretty straight forward. Basically, the reason you’re doing it this way is to not have to under the wiring loom front he factory harness.
7. Now you can wire in your new WIRE you bought to the LOCK and UNLOCK wires on the new jumper. Remember Pin 1 is Unlock and Pin 2 is Lock.   So, for example, I used a Green Wire for Unlock and White for Lock.  That way I keep it consistent for all doors and when I plug it into the Alarm Relays its easier to remember.
8. Now just zip tie or use electrical tape to run the wire along the factory wiring harness and through the door wiring loom on the jeep.

Make sure you leave enough slack for all doors to reach under the steering wheel where you will mount the alarm module.

Repeat the Above steeps for all other doors. For the Driver door you don’t need to replace the switch.  you can just remove the extra pins that you will have left over from the other jumpers and add them to the connector.  For some reason the driver side connector doesn’t need to be replaced like the other doors.  So just get 2 extra wiring pins you will have left and they will go on pins 5 & 6

After you’ve done the above steps and left enough wiring slack you can pretty much put the doors back together same way you took them apart. Go slow and take your time. Connecting the rods back to the latch is tricky for the front doors if you opt NOT to remove the handle piece.

Step Six – Wiring the Alarm System/Keyless Entry

This is entirely up to you but I opted to really just use this alarm for the Door Locks.  I probably will wire more of the security features at a later date like Door Trigger alarm, aux swing gate unlocks, etc.  That is why you see that big bundle of wires tied up. So, for now, let’s just focus not he necessities.

Basically, you just need the Red Battery Wire, Black Ground wire and then the small little wiring harness on the bottom that plugs to the 451M Door Lock Relay Module.  So what I did was run a wire directly to the battery for the RED(Batt) Wire.  The Black wire is your typical Ground wire.  As for the wires on the Relay here is what you need to do:

The Purple Wire is a 12v wire.  So you can wire that into where your BATTERY Wire goes.  The Brown and White go to Ground.  And all your left with is Green/Black and Blue/Black.  Those wires you will tie in together with the wires you connected tot he Door actuators.  The Blue/Black is for UNLOCK and Green/Black is LOCK.

Step Seven – Clean up wires

The Rest is pretty self-explanatory.  Just tuck the wires away neatly behind the plastic trim pieces.  The Rear Doors I ran along the bottom plastic trim piece onto floor.  For the Passenger Side I ran the rear door wires to the passenger side wires, then spliced wires from there across the center console hump to the alarm module under the steering wheel.

Conclusion

All in all, this took me about 8-10hrs to complete.  I know its a lot of information to take in, but once you start removing the door panels etc and look at the wiring jumpers you will start to make sense of what I did and wrote.  Also, the other thing that may be annoying is having to have 2 key fobs.  However the one from Avital is pretty tiny compared to the jeep one so I hardly know its there and since the Jeep is Push button to start I never have to really get my keys out. I just reach in my pocket and hit the unlock.

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