Rear hatch release

Ok, the hatch release button itself requires that condition? Good to know.

 

Well, realistically, you may be able to get a suitable button for around $15. These will fit if gen 5 still has the same size/shape of button blank as gen 3. And $25 will get you two days of access to TIS including the wiring diagram.

Toyota Service Information and Where To Find It | PriusChat

You'd also need a meter or so of wire and the material to make one splice. As the wire from the button on the hatch has to run somehow to an ECU under the dash, and in gen 3 that's right along the left side of the floor and through a junction connector behind the driver kick panel, if gen 5 is similar, that might be easily within a meter of an unused button blank on your dash.

I like to make my mods reversible, so I'd probably buy both a male and female of the terminal used in that junction connector and build a Y fitting connected to my added button, extract the factory button pin from the junction connector, plug that into my Y, and put the other Y terminal into the junction.

If you're not as committed to reversible mods, you could just splice into the factory wire.

In gen 3, and seems highly likely to be the same for gen 5, the button is a simple momentary-on that grounds a single wire back to the ECU. So your added button would only need to splice into that single wire and be grounded to any nearby point.

So with a button, TIS access, a couple repair terminals, and some wire, you might be around $60 to $70.

Then you need to put a value on your time, including studying the wiring diagram, shopping for parts, and then doing the actual work.

If the buttons linked above that fit gen 3 blanks aren't what fit gen 5 blanks, that's more time to hunt down a source of buttons that fit gen 5. Or maybe you could get the real Toyota button for cheap from a salvage yard. Either way, more time to account for.

So, how expensive the dealer estimate seems may depend some on what value you put on your own time.

As long as you tie into the circuit from the hatch release button to the corresponding ECU input, you shouldn't need any relays; that's just a low-current input signal, and if you use that your button will behave just like the one on the hatch (only working in the unlocked state, etc.). The ECU output already drives a relay to supply actuator current, and if gen 5 is like gen 3, that relay may be inaccessible inside the instrument panel junction block. I can't think of any reason you'd want to be working on that side, rather than simply paralleling the hatch-button input.

 

tbh, i'd have to try it, and i don't have a prius

 

I know I'm asking for trouble here, but I actually kind of want to understand the reasoning.

What would be the purpose of adding this button?


I'm trying to think of this from every angle, and I just can't see any benefit.

It won't replace using the emergency release lever because any button added to the driver's area would rely on electricity. If the battery's dead, the new button won't work anyway unless you give it its own independent power source.

It doesn't save you any effort if you're alone in the car because all the button would do is pop the hatch and crack it open(assuming the weight of the hatch didn't immediately relatch it). You'd still have to get out and walk around to open it up, and you'd put your hand right in the same area as the switch anyway to lift up the hatch. I don't see the benefit.

The same holds true if you're popping the hatch for someone else. They'd still need to manually lift the hatch after it's been popped, and they'd place their hand near the button anyway. I guess it might save them a second or two of feeling around for the button, but that's all I can think of.

The closest thing to a benefit I could see is if you're in the driver's seat, the doors are locked, and you wanted to let someone access the hatch without unlocking the doors. But there might be a problem with this. Depending on how the hatch lock is wired, it's possible that all you could do is add a button that mimics the hatch button being pressed. That's not going to help you in this case. You would have to wire in the driver's button on the downstream from the main body ECU. That might work unless the communication between the ECU and the rear lock assembly is over the canbus network. If it's over canbus(and I don't have access to the wiring diagrams at the moment to know one way or the other), it might be difficult. At the very least, you'd be looking at running a new wire from the dash to the bottom of the hatch opening.


Or am I missing a situation where this new button gives a real benefit? I've got the power hatch option, so I've go no skin in this fight. I'm just curious and puzzled.



BTW Paul, you could've saved me a bunch of time last night if you had just said you wanted to add the feature to your car. You made it sound like you were asking if your car already had the feature.



edit - Maybe Paul wants to remove or disable the button on the hatch so that it can ONLY be opened from inside? I guess that could be considered a benefit to adding one?

 

opening it for someone else, they often have difficulty finding the button

 

That was the motive for my colleague who wanted to do rideshare—not having to wait around for each customer to figure out where the button on the hatch was, and not having to get out to open it.

 

I guess I could kinda understand a rideshare situation where you constantly have new people opening the hatch. But when it's just the same handful of people? Family and a few friends? Can't they just learn where it is?

I'm not saying you guys are wrong. It just seems weird to me as it feels 90% of automakers have them in roughly the same place. Just touch your fingers to one side of the likely flat place, and then slide them along until you feel the change from metal/plastic to rubber. It's just never been a problem for me. But there are all sorts of people in the world, and I may very well be the odd one. (Okay, I know I'm the odd one; but still... lol)

 

I spent like 30 seconds the other day feeling around for the button on somebody else's non-Toyota SUV. I was feeling around under what looked like the hatch garnish, where it would have been on a Prius. There was a separate recess on that hatch where the button was.

The driver eventually came around and showed me,

 

i still have a hard time finding it on my bolt, after almost two years. and they moved the hycam button from the center to the right in the generation change from 2013 to 2024.
people who deliver groceries for curbside pickup can be challenged. i usually get out and open it for them