v Five passenger door and hatch unlock for Three/Two

Discussion in 'Prius v Accessories and Modifications' started by Weirderal, Apr 19, 2026 at 11:48 AM.

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  1. Weirderal

    Weirderal Junior Member

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    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Three
    Hi all.

    I have a 2012 v Two I've been modding. (Side note, literally the only thing separating Two from Three is the presence of the "voice" button on the steering wheel. Swapped steering wheels with an eBay one and I have an aftermarket head unit with an iDataLink interface and you have yourself a Three!)

    A sibling has a 2012 v Five, and one of the nicer quality-of-life features it has is that the passenger door and hatch will also proximity-detect the fob and unlock the door just by trying to open them (and also lock, in the case of the passenger door).

    Has anyone retrofitted those onto a lower trim? Is it plug 'n' play? (And if you happen to have the part numbers handy...)
     
    #1 Weirderal, Apr 19, 2026 at 11:48 AM
  2. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    The three also had an upgraded radio with navigation, xm and hd radio along with Entune which was an early "Carplay" type tool with a Toyota server. We still use the navigation and xm.

    Regarding the door and hatch antennas, you might be able to add them but Toyota never installs the necessary vehicle wire harnesses and does not include the capabilities in their ecus. Resulting in very difficult retrofits involving big harness replacements and ecu changeouts, one of which is behind the evaporator requiring a complete dash disassembly. There is an outside chance Toyota could reprogram the necessary ecus but they make it unreasonable for security related features.

    There is a setting that allows all doors and the hatch to unlock when the drivers door unlocks. I use that option.
     
    #2 rjparker, Apr 19, 2026 at 12:07 PM
  3. Weirderal

    Weirderal Junior Member

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    Model:
    Three
    Do you know this from experience?

    Just to pick a few of the things I've done--I've had fog lights added, and I replaced the turn signal stalk with the equivalent one with the fog light switch, and without doing any extra wiring, it at least toggled the fog light indicator on the combination meter. Plug 'n' play. (Not so much the part under the hood, but that's what my wiring guy had to figure out.)

    The little footwell lights for the front two seats that come standard in the v Five had their plugs ready in mine--I just had to buy the lights themselves (same type as the glovebox light).

    Replacing the steering wheel with one with the voice command button--just had to swap out a small circuit board under the left grey trim piece of the steering wheel, and the button itself.

    Not that I expect all changes to be plug 'n' play (I wish the headlight sprayers from the Five were easy to do...) but a bunch of them have been, so far.

    Unlocking all doors with the driver door doesn't help if the point is me carrying something heavy and trying to open the hatch in a pinch. Not the end of the world, but still.
     
    #3 Weirderal, Apr 20, 2026 at 9:39 AM
  4. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    It's not that cut-n-dried. It isn't "never", and it isn't "always". Depending on what thing you're trying to retrofit, you just have to find out.

    You can look in the Electrical Wiring Diagram. When there are variant wire harnesses used, you'll see numbered asterisks next to certain wires, and a legend somewhere on the page will show all the numbered asterisks and which configurations come with a harness that has those wires in it.

    Toyota Service Information and Where To Find It | PriusChat

    I don't know any similarly-easy way to look up what features are programmed into the ECU. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it.

    In my 2010, all I had to do was add a fog switch, and the logic that was already in the body ECU would then activate the relay that was already in the IPJB and all I needed was a wire from there to the fog lights. However, my instrument-cluster fog indicator will never light up. I don't mind much, as I can see when the fogs are on.

    On the other hand, I've thought about retrofitting DRLs, and there's an output from the body ECU that's supposed to activate them, starting when you've shifted and taken the brake off, and my ECU just doesn't do that. (n)
     
    #4 ChapmanF, Apr 20, 2026 at 12:09 PM
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