Installing F2P Garage Door Opener

Have been lurking for a few months and just joined. Have a 02 C2 996 Arctic Silver. I am installing a F2P opener and wonder if anyone can help with which (What color ?) wire runs from the high beams. I have really been impressed with the knowledge displayed on this board.

Try the <a href="https://www.carcrafter.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/22/products_id/35" target="_blank">CarCrafter Site</a>

Sorry for my lack of knowlege, but what is the F2P garage door opener and where did you get it?

The F2P is a device to open your garage door by flashing your high beams twice. Order direct from there site F2P. I am installing, but despite some mechanical aptitude, I am electrically challenged.

Ron, did you ever figure it out? I also tried the install, but no luck. I've ruled out everything else, and am back to the wiring. My install pics are below. Any ideas anyone? First I used a volt meter to figure out which connecter behind the headlamp registered a change when the high beams were flashed: <img src="http://home.attbi.com/~ervtx/Car_Pics/Find_high_beam_connector.JPG" alt=" - " /> Then I traced that connector (bottom row, third from the right, on the passenger side headlamp) to the white wire behind it: <img src="http://home.attbi.com/~ervtx/Car_Pics/Find_high_beam_wire.JPG" alt=" - " /> And connected the F2P to that white wire, and the brown ground wire. I verified that the F2P clamps also register the same voltage change as the connector when the high beams are flashed: <img src="http://home.attbi.com/~ervtx/Car_Pics/Attach_F2P.JPG" alt=" - " /> I've either got the wrong wire or something more complicated is at play...

Will the F2P work with the Bi-Zenons??????

According to the manufacturer, it works with any car that has a flash feature on the high beams. Flash once to activate the transmitter, then again to send the code to the receiver. The transmitter simply responds to the voltage powering the high beams.

I have yet to get as far as you. Business and travel have caused free time to be spent driving instead of installing. Have you tried holding the high beam switch for a few seconds during each flash, I have heard that it takes some practice and getting used to.

As an alternative, I know someone who installed a garage door opener in such a way that one of the blank rear window switches acts as the switch. Since you have the C2, these switches would be available for a clutter free installation!

ervtx, i did exactly what you did except i connected the ground wire to the grounding stud on the chassis instead of the brown wire. i called F2P and they told me by connecting to the brown wire the problem should be solved. i just haven't had time to go back in there to try it. now seeing that you have done exactly what you are supposed to do and it still doesn't work really worries me. please let us know when you have figured out what you did wrong. we are anxioyusly awaiting your results. TIA!

If anybody has figured this out for a bi-xenon equipped Carrera, please let us all know.

Sent an email today (with my pics) to F2P electronics. I'll let you know what I hear back...

ervtx, Still frustrated, hope you get a quick and definitive answer. Thanks for the pictures and follow-up.

ervtx, did you hear back from F2P? if so, what did they advise you to do? please let us know. i may try to tackle it again this weekend if i hear encouraging news from you. thanks!

Got a quick reply email 2 days ago from a customer support rep, saying he was waiting for some "call backs" on the issue, and would get me an answer in the next day or two. Time's up, so I'll send a reminder message tomorrow.

Update: received the following in an email today from F2P... I talked to the folks at G&W Motorwerkes, who are Porsche experts, and asked them the differences between the light assembly in the 996 and the Boxster. I'm not talking about the physical attributes, but the wires and connections as they seem to look the same. The reason that I mention the Boxster is that we have a customer in Florida who has installed these on Boxsters and they work. I'm trying to get a hold of him and get his input. When I talked to G&W, they said there was a change in the 996 assembly but they were not sure what it was. They were going to order a wiring diagram and pursue that, as I try to get a hold of the guy in Florida. Hopefully we can get this resolved shortly.

I can get them a wiring diagram (via email) if they need it. Just need the year and model.

Thanks! Just so they can keep up with my thread, if you could email it to me ([email removed]), I will send it to the F2P guy that's helping me, and from there he can work it out with their G&W contact. TIA!

ervtx Those of us waiting to finish this project appreciate your efforts. Hope to get the information to complete the installation this weekend. Thanks

i'm curious to know if ANY 996 owner has successfully installed this thing. if so, it would be appreciated if this person would surface and enlighten us.

John, I got the unit originally after reading about someone on this board using the F2P, but I can't find the original post. I am with you and would sure appreciate help from a present user.

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I have forwarded Loren's wiring diagram to F2P... I'm as perplexed as you guys. Every other installation description I have seen looks exactly like what I have done. I know there are other options (even more specific to a 996), but now it's a personal battle! I'm not about to give up now, even though that could be a smoother path. Maybe I'm being stubborn. But this started out as a reluctant exercise and turned into a challenge to my manhood. I wasn't unhappy with my old remote (that remote and my V1 have gone with me from a C2, to a 740iL, to a C4). But the C4 is a cab, and my wife just wanted something a little more secure. She's got the built-in buttons in her S430 rearview mirror, so this was all about her comfort. Well not anymore. Now it's about not losing to a %#@& piece of hardware!!

I suspect the issue is having bi-xenon lights vs. non-xenon. The link above that shows a post from another board is for a car with non-xenon lights. With the bi-xenon lights, the low beam and high beam is from the same bulb--there's a "mirror" (not sure of the technical term) that changes position to direct the beam high or low. An additional complication with bi-xenons is when you flash to pass with you headlights off, there's another (non-xenon) bulb that lights up, since the xenon bulbs need time to warm up. I'm guessing it's straight forward with non-xenon lights, but the product may not work with bi-xenons. Hopefully someone can figure this out, since I bought the F2P, have bi-xenons, and have been waiting for someone to figure it out before I do the install.

You may have something there... I don't think the problem is with the bulb per se, but it might have something to do with the different electical input required to flash the bi-xenons. The F2P transmitter taps into the high-beam wire with a clamp. The clamp has a conducting splicer that bridges the signal from the high-beam wire to the transmitter wire. That splicer is partially exposed from the outside of the clamp, and when I attach a voltmeter to that splicer, it registers the same change in voltage (when the high-beams are flashed) as the wiring harness connector that pointed me to the high-beam wire in the first place. Just looking at the wiring diagram sent by Loren, it appears that the high-beam wire on the right side headlamp is white, which is the one I chose using a voltmeter. So I think I have the right wire, AND it's getting a signal surge when I flash the high-beams. But maybe it's not the amount to which the F2P responds because it's looking for a traditional signal to turn on a separate high-beam bulb!?? Thanks for the insight!

Any response from the F2P folks?

Received an acknowledgement today that they received the wiring diagram, and were sending it to G&W. Didn't have time to try anything different over the weekend myself.

Received the following from Chris at F2P today. I will try this over the weekend; if anyone else can confirm this fix, let us know... Russell, I went by G&W, I talked to another Porsche mechanic, and I talked to Dan at CarCrafter. Dan probably had the most light to shed on this problem as he has done the installation on a Boxster and it is very similar to the 996. He said he had the same problem that you have until he checked not only the high beam hot wire, but also the ground wire using an ohm meter. I noticed on the schematic that you sent me that there are two ground wires coming out of the assembly. Dan said the Boxster did too, so he checked the ground wires for a change with the ohm meter when he turned on the high beams, and found the Flash2Pass was ground to the wrong ground wire. When he switched to the other one it worked fine. According to G&W, German cars, particularly Porsche and Volkswagen are powered out of the ground. According to the other Porsche mechanic I talked to, he said that the Flash2Pass would work regardless, as it is non-polarized, and basically "acts" like the light bulb in the headlamp. If the high beam is energized, so is the transmitter. I hope this helps, and takes care of the problem. If not, please let me know. Best regards, Chris

After some experimentation I have gotten this thing to work. I have an 02 C2 996 with Bi-Xenons. I hooked one wire of the F2P to the white power wire and one to the large brown ground and it did not work. I then hooked it to the small brown ground wire and finally It Works. I did all this on the passenger side headlight. Man triumphs over small electronic device.

That's one small step for man.... I tinkered with it a little over the weekend, but the plastic clamps fell apart when I removed them from the previous hookup. Now that you have confirmed the ground-wire role, I'll take another run at it with some new clamps. Thanks, Ron.

hey ron, it's great to hear that you got it working. i will give it another attempt this weekend. have a few questions for you (or anyone else who knows the answers): 1) did you clamp the wires at the headlight connection behind the headlight or at the wiring bundle in trunk? the trunk section seems easier to get to and i'm thinking that it wouldn't make a difference where the wires are clamped as long as they are the correct wires, right? 2) is the wiring setup for the bi-xenons the same as the non-xenon headlights? i have the non-xenons. 3) did you take a picture of the area where the wires are clamped? if so, please share. thanks!! john

John, I clamped the wire in the trunk area as it was much easier to get too than inside the headlight area. I did not take pictures. I used the white power wire and on the passenger side in my vehicle there were two brown ground wires hooked to connections on the side of the trunk. The larger brown wire did not work, but the smaller wire did. I do not know if non-xenons are wired the same or not. If you still have difficulty I will get the digital camera expert (wife) to take pictures this weekend. Good Luck.

Ron, I'm going to install in my '02 Carrera w/ bi-xenons. The area to access the headlight wire bundle on the passenger side of the trunk is pretty small, especially once you replace the side cover--where did you put the transmitter, and how did you attach it so it won't move around?

I wrapped the transmitter in some bubble wrap and placed it up near the corner near the CD changer. There is a little more room in that corner. However, I have found that it works great when the car is sitting in the garage and when you leave and close the door, however I have to be almost on top of the door to get it to open. Any ideas?

Okay guys, I tried it again today but for the life of me could not figure out how to remove the blue wiring harness behind the passenger headlight from the bracket in which it's mounted on. I tried to push it from every direction possible and it would not come out. Finally tried popping it out with a flathead screwdriver (as seen on the Carcrafter site pics) and ended up breaking a piece of plastic on the bracket. It still would not come out. So I tried to clamp the white and brown wires with the wiring harness still sitting on the bracket. As you can imagine there isn't much room to work with in there and I ended up ruining both of those red plastic clamps and even lost one of them when it accidentally fell into the wheel well area. So I finally gave up. I think I could have made this thing work had I been able to remove that stupid wiring harness from the bracket. I see that others have done it. Can somebody please teach me how to remove that darn thing without breaking the bracket completely. If I get an answer quickly, I will try it again tomorrow. Of course I'd have to go to the auto parts/hardware store to get a couple more plastic clamps for the wires. Thanks in advance!

John, I completed the initial install without taking the wiring harness out of the bracket. Take a look at the 2nd picture in the 5th entry in this post, and notice that I split the tubing to give me some room. (I just used a razor blade). Just an inch makes a big difference. Of course, after fiddling with the combinations, the plastic clamps broke on me also!

ervtx, I looked at the photo you posted. The wiring harness you used to clamp the wires doesn't look like the wiring harness I tried to free from the bracket behind the headlight. Did you clamp the wires from behind the passenger headlight or in the front trunk area behind the carpeting? Thanks!

John, Oops, sorry - I forgot you were trying to tap in from the inside of the trunk. The wiring harness in my picture sits directly behind the headlamp.

Actually, I am trying to tap in from behind the headlamp. Once again, can someone teach me the proper technique to removing the wiring harness behind the passenger headlamp from its mounting bracket? Any help would be MUCH appreciated. TIA!

After several failed attempts, I finally got my F2P to work this weekend. Went in from the trunk instead of the headlamp as many have advised. Clamped the white and brown wires and it was done. It was so straightforward that I cannot figure out why it didn't work when I tried to do the same thing three months ago. Anway, all is well now. Many thanks to people on this board!

John, Congratulations. Does it work from any distance when you want to open the door. I still can only get mine to work when I am literally almost touching the door. When I am in the garage it will open and close with no problem. My garage door is metal and I wonder if that has any impact.

Ron, Since it was raining this weekend, I didn't take my car out of the garage. As you stated, it works beautifully with the car parked inside the garage. I'll experiment a little more with different distances after I get home tonight. Will post my findings.

I had a similar distance problem when I got my BMW 740i with the HomeLink garage door opener--I had to get so close to the garage door before it would open (compared to a 50 foot range with the remote), so my solution was to get a 3 foot piece of very heavy wire from Home Depot, strip the insulation off, and attach it to the antenna on the garage door opener (and firmly securing the other end to the angle iron supporting the opener), and it increased the distance so it works just as I pull into the driveway. Not sure how you would do that with the F2P receiver--perhaps you can take it apart and find the antenna.

Ron, I did some distance testing this evening with my newly installed F2P. It works about as well as the old remote, ie. I can stop right before I reach the driveway from the street and the F2P will open the garage door. I'd say the range is about 50ft, give or take. Not sure why you are getting such poor range with yours.

John, I don't know either. Maybe I will take it apart this weekend and make sure I have full contact on the connector. It is pretty difficult to hold the car on the slope of the driveway and get close enough to open the door. Poursha, I had a similar experience with the Homelink, but then I changed the battery in the gate opener and re-programed and it worked just fine. The strength of the original transmitter seems to dictate the programming of the Homelink.