[mk7]

Would anyone like to share their experiences with installing an aftermarket proximity key/handle?

Well I took the bullet and paid $500 after shipping and tariffs. It's a lot more work than I thought it would be.

 

[mk7]

it showed up a few weeks later. The aliexpress link didn't work anymore, but I found another model.

It came with zero instructions, so I asked and got video1 which has an extra wire going to the drivers side and a doesn't tell me what to do with this black wire.

Mine looks like this.

They sent another video. Mine is still different.

I think jetstreamblue is probably right and the extra wire I'm missing is to control the window when holding the button on the door down.

In case these urls don't stand the test of time, they just show unplugging a cable behind the glovebox and plugging it into the kit and two wires running to each door handle not installed on the car. With the new mirror control module clipping into the top right.

I translated the audio from the videos to:

Video1: The 24-model Senna can still enter comfortably. The co-pilot control box is removed. The first plug of the computer board is connected to the first adapter of the product. The second plug is connected to the second adapter of the product. The second plug is in the same line. Then our product has a professional bracket. The original car has a reserved position. Click it at this position. Then the two white plugs on the product are for the main and co-pilot of the handle. Then this black plug needs to be pulled on the main driver. At this place of the main driver's tripod, you can plug the original car out and connect it to our adapter.

Video2: If you want to use a dedicated computer, there is a dedicated bracket on it. And there is a dedicated reserved position in our glove box. Just install the computer directly. But if I want to use a dedicated adapter cable, all the plugs are plugged in for non-destructive installation. Unplug the original car's plug, plug in our plug, then transfer this plug, and then plug this plug back into the computer. It's that simple. Then just replace the handle with an inductive one. No need to pre-buy a key, no need to activate the computer.

I also translated the photo above with the help of chatgpt.

I haven't torn apart my sienna yet, but I found some helpful videos on how to rip out the glovebox , front door panels, and center console. It's quite the process to install this, maybe I'll give it a shot this weekend.

I'm still not confident on:
How you remove the back of the glovebox.
How you feed the cables into the doors.
How you remove the back internal panels to get to the door handles back there.
What I'm supposed to do with this black wire, maybe there's a ground screw I'll find when I take things apart...

Kicking myself for not spending the extra 5k for the deep sliding seats, automatic rear door, tinted windows, moon roof, foot door unlock, and prox unlock you get in the xle model.

 

[mk7]

Alright I got it installed, it was a huge pain. Spent the last 6 hours on it. Door panels are easy to remove. You don't need to remove the center console just the L piece above the glovebox, you need to remove the two clips on the ceiling of the glovebox first and then it just pulls out. The back of the glovebox is just held on by 3 screws and two bolts and a few pull clips. When putting the new handles on the car there's a small switch that applies tension to the handle you need to hold it halfway down and then slide the handle on, this took forever to learn. Overall doing just the front wasn't a terribly difficult job, the hardest part is getting the cables routed through the rubber between the doors, I managed to use a wire similar to a coat hanger but thinner from home depot and some tape to fish it through. The ground wire I just mounted to a bolt on the right of the glovebox where I saw other wires being grounded.

The good: Everything works and I got it all back together
The bad: The paint does not match, my sienna is ice cap white, this white is more borderline beige and metallic. Maybe it's wind chill pearl. Not sure how I feel about that. Originally I was like it's fine once we change the back door handles it won't be a big deal, but for the life of me I could not figure out how to install the rear door handles. You slide the door half way open, pop two cover plates, pull two bolts, pull on the panel and it comes off, then you pull three bolts securing the handle and you can slide it out of the way. There's a white plastic covering behind it with two bolts, I just pulled the bottom left one and slide it to the side exposing the back of the handle. Now you can do the same trick as the front handles where you squeeze the two white pieces and it unlatches the handle and you can remove it. However this is where you will run into trouble. The 3rd and 4th handles in the kit do not have all the hardware and I could not figure out how to swap over the pieces. I asked the seller how and he just sent back this circled. No idea what he means if anyone figures it out, please let me know. I eventually gave up and put it back together. Two different handles wouldn't be a big deal if the color actually matched, I don't know if its worth the effort of buying a spray can of color match to fix the paint. It'll be a pain to tape the chrome and remove the panels again.

There's another aliexpress listing selling one for much cheaper that might be worth pursuing, the colors seem to be off here too though and it has a slightly different computer, I think it'll work the same though.

 

[mk7]

I figured out the handle. There's a bolt you pry up and then the handle slides. Colors match ok enough when you replace both handles.

 

[mk7]

Thank you for all these instructions

do you know if you can install just the front door handles, or do all 4 need to be installed for this to work? Can’t figure out from the AE item description if the rear handles are functional or just cosmetic so all handles match.

You can install just the front door handles and it works the same. Capacitive touch does not work on the rear.

That said it honestly is not that much more work to do the back and helps a lot with the color match. Even though the handles are beige it doesn't look off matching the other handles.

Btw it took me a while to learn, but the front handles can also lock the door by pressing on the top front of the handle, which is a nice feature.

 

[mk7]

The locking ability is huge. I am going to talk to my local car audio guys and see if they’re up for installing something like this. I’m fairly handy but not sure I want to tackle this alone. I may take the handles in to the body shop to be painted to match the car body- mine is silver. Thanks again for your posts.

Buy them prepainted from the factory. The $500 aliexpress option linked above comes in silver, if you repaint they are bound to fail as it's a high touch area. The job isn't too difficult all you need is a 10mm socket, phillips and flat screwdriver, small wire to pull through firewall and some zip ties. I'm a computer guy and don't normally work on cars and I figured it out.

 

[mk7]

Good point - I found the handles on Taobao in silver and ordered it from there ($125 before shipping, which I have to do separately through a friend in China). Chatting with the Taobao seller now, he sent over this link https://doc.wcbkj.com/index/carType.html?category_id=c57eadf6-9acd-51aa-ac5e-6e406d14982f (click on each of the three bullets to access an installation video under each).

This one in particular was helpful (you may need to wait a bit for it to render): https://doc.wcbkj.com/index/prodetail.html?id=d46c68ee-4304-7eb9-6bad-97f5665fe778

Let me know if any of it looks familiar. I wonder if it's from the same factory.

View attachment 75170

Will see how it goes!

Look very similar. This video definitely has more plugs than what came in the kit I installed. I didn't have an obd extension or plug behind the trip odometer and instead ran a cable across the car. The computer looks different, but will probably work the same. Good pro tip on saving some money by ordering direct from taobao.