A guide on how to install an Engine Starter Button G7
Starter Button - An Installation Guide
Time required: 30 - 90 minutes (depending on experience)
You will need:
Phillips cross-point screwdriver Socket wrench ~10mm Spanner to disconnect battery Wire stripper (or scissors and a careful hand) Electrical tape/cable ties to tidy it up afterwards 4 pieces of wire, preferably: 1 black for GRD about 40cm long 2 red for 12V POWER/IGNITION about 80cm long 1 blue for STARTER about 80cm long
This guide is based on the Ignited Engine Start Button (I got mine from POTN), but I’m sure it can be applied to other brands. Sorry if the pics are not perfectly clear; the light was bad so I needed the flash. Also, I did this guide retrospectively on request, and didn’t fancy undoing the install.
1. Safety first - disconnect the car battery!
2. Remove gear stick surround/cigarette lighter panel
(Use the Centre Console Removal Guide as it’s more detailed than my guide - though I’ll cover it briefly for completion) Pull up the bottom section of the console around the gear stick, from the back end by the window switches.
Unclip the gear gaiter (take a look how it’s attached if you want - you’ll have to connect it later!).
You’ll be left with this:
3. Disconnect the white power connecter lead to the lighter. Then remove the lighter from the plastic surround by unscrewing the ring from the rear of the surround, shown below (without the surround).
The lighter surround will come off from the rear, and the lighter itself will pull out from the front.
4. Take your Ignited Engine Start Button and remove the green/yellow connector section (by flicking over the plastic lever bit) and unscrew the plastic ring (shown below on the installed module)
Push the button through from the front end of the panel, line up the writing on the front, and screw the ring back on from the other side to secure the button (basically the reverse of the cigarette lighter removal).
5. Attach your wires to the connector as shown in the button’s instructions. Basically its GRD (ground) to the yellow connector (on the side with the plastic lever - see above). The STARTER wire to the green connector (lever side again). The two 12V POWER/IGNITION wires go the yellow and green connectors on the other side (opposite the plastic lever bit) - it doesn’t matter which is which, they do the same thing. I labelled mine with electrical tape to remind me.
6. Now to attach the other ends to the car. Firstly, connect the GRD wire. I wrapped mine around one of the screws holding in my CD head unit, and then screwed it tight to the metal bar that the head unit is mounted onto. To do this you will need to remove the climate control system (see Centre Console guide for more detail)…
6.1. Undo the two screws at the bottom of the climate control unit. It should come loose. If you have the manual air-con you would need to remove the control knobs first and a couple more screws I believe. 6.2. Reach up behind the unit and remove the 2 connectors. 6.3. Pull out climate control unit and place to one side
…Use a socket wrench (10mm I think) to undo the left-hand bolt beneath the stereo head unit. Twist the GRD wire around the bolt and re-tighten against the metal fixing. Replace the climate control unit.
7. Now to get to the only slightly tricky part. Tricky because access is a bit awkward (when you’re as big n clumsy as me). Remove the steering column surround: To do this there are 3 screws to remove, one each side of the steering wheel, and one underneath.
The bottom plastic section should now snap away from the top section with a few careful tugs around the key-lock area.
8. You will now be left with:
Unclip the white connector shown above. This is the ignition wiring connection. Your 3 other wires will need to be attached to this. I used a connector terminal block that I had in my toolbox, but you can splice the wires if you want, just make sure the connections are secure; you don’t want to have your ignition fail on you! First, feed the 3 wires (one STARTER, and two 12V POWER/IGNITION wires) up to the ignition connector. You can remove the kick panel for the fuses near the clutch pedal if that helps.
9. The connector block looks like this:
1 = White 2 = Blue/Red 3 = Grey 4 = Black/White 5 = Black/Red 6 = Black/Orange
The wires attach like this:
2 Blue/Red --- 12V POWER/IGNITION wire 4 Black/White --- STARTER wire 6 Black/Orange --- 12V POWER/IGNITION wire
10. Insert the connector block by cutting these wires (not too close to the white connector, as you have to get the steering column surround back on afterwards), and re-attach them to each side of the connector block.
11. Now add your 3 new Starter Button wires, as defined above, to the engine side of the connector block, NOT the white connector key-lock side. I say to do this because if you want to disable the key-turn starting of your car (so you can only use the button) you can just disconnect wire 4 from the connector block on the white connector key-lock side. Just remember that your local garage may not be expecting the key turn to fail!
Hmm… maybe this diagram is clearer?
12. Reconnect the white connector to the ignition and replace the plastic surrounds in the reverse order. You may want to check it all works before you put everything back - just be careful with live wiring once you reconnect the battery - obviously.
13. All done! I found the button a little bright at night time so ended up sticking some black electrical tape over the front of the plastic light casing inside the button. It still gives out plenty of light, but isn’t glaring for your passengers.
