Snowed today and I got bored at work and ended up looking up trunk actuators. Beacame curious if anyone did a how to on my car and there wasn't but I notice a gentlemen doing one on teg's and newer civics and he recommended using door actuators. You can find his thread if you google trunk pop civic eg.

When I realized he was right because most door lock actuators are rated for 10lbs. I decided I would
rummage through our old bins of spare parts I found a couple brands of actuators.



I went with the blue DEI Even though it's five wire I just used the blue and green leads and it works just the same.

The model you want is DEI 524T ($16 online). But the DEI524F works as well.




So I did a test fit in a couple of places and decided to put it right below the bar coming from key cylinder to latch.
The goal is to get your actuator as close to the original lead as possible.



I attatched the coupler and the long bar. Found a mounting place that was as close as I could without actually touching the OEM Bar. Basically 3 plus inches from the cylinder below the bar.



I know I'm stripping the vehicle down. So I didn't mind drilling two screws through the shell the little bit that is sticking out underneath the bumper will get cut and sanded along with body work.

The other method would be to drill holes and use bolts and nuts on the lip facing the trunk.

Anyway make two bends in the bar to make the angle better and mount the bracket. Send the blue wire to ground and green to your relay. and all that's left is wiring the relay and sending that wire to a grounded switch or to your remote start. You should have a remote start considering you can get a viper in these cars for $50. I'm sure theres a guide on here for that if not i can do one.



*IMPORTANT when you mount make sure your using just a 1/4 of the actuator motion and only the very end. keep it closed pull out maybe a quater of an inch and tighten coupler. test and see if you're flexing the plastic arm on cylinder. if you try to use full motion you may break key cylinder or latch.

For a grounded switch and for a remote start that has trunk pop button. (Usually red/white wire)
follow the diagram below.






Output goes to green wire from truck actuator. Negative trigger is the wire from remote start or a grounded switch button of your choice.

If this isn't in depth enough or someone wants more photos please let me know.

 

Great write up!

As soon as I figure out why 2 different sets of trunk struts I've put in my car won't pop it open far enough to even unlatch, I think I'll do this.

Thanks

 

Your welcome I'm really enjoying it.