WARNING: Words ahead.
Something that sort of bothers me about this "luxury" vehicle is that all four windows of the car don't have an auto-down/up feature; just the front windows. I've gotten used to having all-auto in my other vehicle that is by no means "luxury" so when I get in the wagon, I feel like a poor whenever I need to roll down the rear windows and must physically hold the switch down.
Every time I needed to roll down the rear windows like a common beggar, I'd look at the switches and be convinced there was a way to make the rear two function in auto. I'm rolling on a hunch that I could buy another driver-side window control panel and retrofit the front window switch modules into the rear positions. I mean, Honda is pretty slick about designing modularity into their parts bin so it shouldn't be a too difficult.
This is my story...
First things first, I needed to get a donor switch panel so off to the internets to find it. Checking with Acura fiche, we need the "SWITCH ASSY., POWER WINDOW MASTER", Part Number 35750-TL2-A12 and it's an affordable $230. Yeah, that's not going to work. The next stop was eBay and I found a few higher level assemblies of the master switch assy and the plastic trim panel from various 2nd gen TSX; any of them should work. None of them were reasonably priced. So I started thinking a little outside the box and pulled up some pictures of other Acura and Honda vehicles figuring that Honda-modularity might come into play again.
Sure enough, it looks like the master switch assy from a 2009-2013 Acura TL has the same general switch arrangement as the TSX, but the plastic trim panel is slightly different. Peeking at the Acura fiche, it carries a 35750-TK4-A01 part number so it's not 100% certain to be the same, but we'll try anyway. Hitting theBay again and was able to find a few parts for sale at more reasonable prices. Ended up buying one for about $30.
When it arrived, I did a side-to-side and aside from the plastic trim panels, the switch assemblies themselves appear identical when pulled out. I verified that the TL master switch assy fit in the TSX trim panel and vice-versa. Also plugged in the TL switch panel to the TSX and all of the switches functioned as they should: door locks, window lockout, front windows up/down/auto, rear windows up/down, all LEDs worked as they should.
![Click the image to open in full size.]()
![Click the image to open in full size.]()
So far so good! I'm excited. I'm not going to need to open the rear windows like an unwashed peasant for much longer- just need to crack the case open and swap out the switch modules!
So I got to cracking with my trusty mini-screwdriver and...
WTF is this shit?
![Click the image to open in full size.]()
Printed circuit boards? Nemesis! I can't do anything with this. I was expecting a plug-in switch module that I could just plug in. This is, like, not meant to be changed. Fun note: the little white plastic bits in the upper portion of the picture will fall out and scatter everywhere when you open the case. I didn't know that before hand. It increased the adventure significantly.
But I got to investigating the board traces and you can see the markings on the front window have two channels and have two contacts per channel. How that works is the rocker switch switch has two sets of contacts in parallel (so four copper points touching the board at a time) with two contacts always touching the "COM" pad in the middle of the trace. When the window is up and you rock the switch to the down position, you first hit a detent and the window starts to move down. At that ponit, the "COM" pad is being connected to the "MD" pad (see how it's longer- makes sense that it would activate first). Keep rocking the switch further and you click past the detent and then the second set of contacts bridge the pads between "COM" and "AD". The same thing goes for putting the window up: at detent, make contact between "COM" and "MU"; past detent make contact between "COM" and "AU".
![Click the image to open in full size.]()
![Click the image to open in full size.]()
So, applying intuition, that means to me that "COM" is common (ground), "AU/MU" is auto/manual up, and "AD/MD" is auto/manual down. Simple enough. Now, the interesting thing is that the rear windows have the same copper pad traces printed on them. So I posit that perhaps the function is already there and all we need to do is enable the pre/post detent capability on the rear switches. So, back to the plastic panel and pry out a front and rear switch. Looking at the back side of the plastic rocker, it's obvious that the front switches have a different molding than the rears- one that allows a detent stop before further motion. Next step: swap the front switch cover to the rear and see if it enables the auto down...
Nope. Shit.
But it's all there. Why not work? WHY?
So I poked around a little bit using a copper probe to bridge all the various pads and while I can make the front windows do what I want, it appears as if the rear windows are just meant to be manual only. I just can't get them to go auto-up/down which is very frustrating.
So, in summary, I wasn't able to unlock the all-auto feature of the windows. I don't know if it's possible but it's certainly smarter than I am. That and I don't really mess around with printed circuit boards; that stuff is just black magic. I wonder if it's a matter of not having the capacitors inline for the rear switches. But again, that's outside of my comfort zone so I call it impossible.
Sorry, this story doesn't have a happy ending but I did learn that the TL master switch assy will work for the TSX and presumably vice-versa so that opens up the future replacement options a little bit if necessary.
TL;DR:
Make Rear Windows Auto Up/Down? NO, failboat.
2009-2013 TL Power Window Master Switch Assy fits 2009-2014 TSX? YES, whoopidy-doo.
Waste a bunch of time and $30? OF COURSE.
:shrug:
This story was sponsored by: Swearing loudly and excessively.
Something that sort of bothers me about this "luxury" vehicle is that all four windows of the car don't have an auto-down/up feature; just the front windows. I've gotten used to having all-auto in my other vehicle that is by no means "luxury" so when I get in the wagon, I feel like a poor whenever I need to roll down the rear windows and must physically hold the switch down.
Every time I needed to roll down the rear windows like a common beggar, I'd look at the switches and be convinced there was a way to make the rear two function in auto. I'm rolling on a hunch that I could buy another driver-side window control panel and retrofit the front window switch modules into the rear positions. I mean, Honda is pretty slick about designing modularity into their parts bin so it shouldn't be a too difficult.
This is my story...
First things first, I needed to get a donor switch panel so off to the internets to find it. Checking with Acura fiche, we need the "SWITCH ASSY., POWER WINDOW MASTER", Part Number 35750-TL2-A12 and it's an affordable $230. Yeah, that's not going to work. The next stop was eBay and I found a few higher level assemblies of the master switch assy and the plastic trim panel from various 2nd gen TSX; any of them should work. None of them were reasonably priced. So I started thinking a little outside the box and pulled up some pictures of other Acura and Honda vehicles figuring that Honda-modularity might come into play again.
Sure enough, it looks like the master switch assy from a 2009-2013 Acura TL has the same general switch arrangement as the TSX, but the plastic trim panel is slightly different. Peeking at the Acura fiche, it carries a 35750-TK4-A01 part number so it's not 100% certain to be the same, but we'll try anyway. Hitting theBay again and was able to find a few parts for sale at more reasonable prices. Ended up buying one for about $30.
When it arrived, I did a side-to-side and aside from the plastic trim panels, the switch assemblies themselves appear identical when pulled out. I verified that the TL master switch assy fit in the TSX trim panel and vice-versa. Also plugged in the TL switch panel to the TSX and all of the switches functioned as they should: door locks, window lockout, front windows up/down/auto, rear windows up/down, all LEDs worked as they should.
So far so good! I'm excited. I'm not going to need to open the rear windows like an unwashed peasant for much longer- just need to crack the case open and swap out the switch modules!
So I got to cracking with my trusty mini-screwdriver and...
WTF is this shit?
Printed circuit boards? Nemesis! I can't do anything with this. I was expecting a plug-in switch module that I could just plug in. This is, like, not meant to be changed. Fun note: the little white plastic bits in the upper portion of the picture will fall out and scatter everywhere when you open the case. I didn't know that before hand. It increased the adventure significantly.
But I got to investigating the board traces and you can see the markings on the front window have two channels and have two contacts per channel. How that works is the rocker switch switch has two sets of contacts in parallel (so four copper points touching the board at a time) with two contacts always touching the "COM" pad in the middle of the trace. When the window is up and you rock the switch to the down position, you first hit a detent and the window starts to move down. At that ponit, the "COM" pad is being connected to the "MD" pad (see how it's longer- makes sense that it would activate first). Keep rocking the switch further and you click past the detent and then the second set of contacts bridge the pads between "COM" and "AD". The same thing goes for putting the window up: at detent, make contact between "COM" and "MU"; past detent make contact between "COM" and "AU".
So, applying intuition, that means to me that "COM" is common (ground), "AU/MU" is auto/manual up, and "AD/MD" is auto/manual down. Simple enough. Now, the interesting thing is that the rear windows have the same copper pad traces printed on them. So I posit that perhaps the function is already there and all we need to do is enable the pre/post detent capability on the rear switches. So, back to the plastic panel and pry out a front and rear switch. Looking at the back side of the plastic rocker, it's obvious that the front switches have a different molding than the rears- one that allows a detent stop before further motion. Next step: swap the front switch cover to the rear and see if it enables the auto down...
Nope. Shit.
But it's all there. Why not work? WHY?
So I poked around a little bit using a copper probe to bridge all the various pads and while I can make the front windows do what I want, it appears as if the rear windows are just meant to be manual only. I just can't get them to go auto-up/down which is very frustrating.
So, in summary, I wasn't able to unlock the all-auto feature of the windows. I don't know if it's possible but it's certainly smarter than I am. That and I don't really mess around with printed circuit boards; that stuff is just black magic. I wonder if it's a matter of not having the capacitors inline for the rear switches. But again, that's outside of my comfort zone so I call it impossible.
Sorry, this story doesn't have a happy ending but I did learn that the TL master switch assy will work for the TSX and presumably vice-versa so that opens up the future replacement options a little bit if necessary.
TL;DR:
Make Rear Windows Auto Up/Down? NO, failboat.
2009-2013 TL Power Window Master Switch Assy fits 2009-2014 TSX? YES, whoopidy-doo.
Waste a bunch of time and $30? OF COURSE.
:shrug:
This story was sponsored by: Swearing loudly and excessively.