Shopping: Real Estate |  Costumes  |  Guitars
This Issue Archived Articles Blog About Us Contact Us
SEARCH


Electric Upgrades

Adding the top-line model's factory electric bits to your base model car

by Julian Edgar

Click on pics to view larger images

At a glance...

  • Instruments, cruise, electrics - all possible base model upgrades
  • Working out if the upgrade is possible
  • Doing it: Fairmont trip computer into EF Falcon
Email a friend     Print article

If you have the base model, it’s very likely that your car is missing bits and pieces. Things like oil pressure and volt gauges, a trip computer, climate control, cruise, electric windows and electric seats. Ah, you think, that’s easy enough to solve – just visit a wrecker and pick up these good bits. Trouble is, what you see is sometimes only the tip of the iceberg – getting the system working might require a lot more than just the stuff on the dashboard.

Click for larger image

What’s easy to add and what’s hard to add depends a lot on the car. For example, on one car that uses electronic throttle (an NHW11 Toyota Prius), adding cruise control is as easy as buying the factory cruise control stalk, buying a new brake light switch, and installing both. That’s pretty well it – the cruise control light is already built into the dash, the wiring loom is mostly already there, and the ECU logic is all built in, ready to be accessed. For just a few hours of time, it doesn’t get much easier than that.

But installing factory cruise on another car (a VS Holden Commodore) is much harder. In some trim levels the loom isn’t present, so that part of the system needs to be bought. Then you’ll need to add the throttle actuator, control stalk and additional brake light switch. Budget on spending a full day....

Factory dashboards that have extra instruments are another case. A dash that integrates a voltmeter and oil pressure gauge into the display sounds pretty easy to fit – just swap-in the whole instrument panel. And the voltmeter part won’t cause any problems – the panel already gets a battery voltage feed and so the new voltmeter will just monitor this. But changing from a dash that uses an oil pressure idiot light to one with an oil pressure gauge will require a new engine sender, as the signal output is no longer just on/off but variable. That’s no big deal, but it is something to be aware of.

Click for larger image

And it might look easy to pull out the original heater/ventilation controls and replace them with digital climate control. In most cases the panels are physically the same size and the climate control panel might set you back only $40. But stop! A climate control system uses output actuators to vary the position of heater valves and ventilation flaps, it uses external sensors that include sun, outside temp and cabin temp. It also has its own Electronic Control Unit. Basically, the control panel is perhaps only 25 per cent of the system. And installing the other 75 per cent is likely to be a complete dashboard-out job!

Information

What you need to do before you spend a dime is to get information. Is the upgrade you’re considering possible, and what exactly needs to be done to achieve it?

In these sorts of the swaps, Web discussion groups are really useful: if yours is an older car, chances are that someone before you has tried to do the same upgrade. So pose the question: what else needs to be done to swap in the instrument panel that contains the oil pressure and volt gauges? Or, has anyone fitted the upmarket model’s cruise control? Don’t necessarily rely 100 per cent on the answers, but take them as generically valid. So if someone says that the upgrade instrument panel swap has been done heaps of times, you know it’s possible. But that answer doesn’t tell you all the bits that you might need...

Another excellent resource to use is the workshop manual for the car. For example, the wiring diagrams of the base and upper trim models will show you some of the differences in instrument panels, climate control and cruise. The manuals might even have two clearly different wiring diagrams: those for the lower trim models and those for the upper trim models. If the upper trim model runs a different body computer, instrument panel and trip computer – and they’re all linked together – it’s obviously going to be a lot harder than if the basics are all the same and the good bits all just plug into the same system. Factory workshop manuals can often be accessed at larger libraries and at the libraries of colleges that teach automotives.

Finally, a wrecking yard can tell you lots of stories. For example, if there’s the top-line model (complete with all the good bits you want) and right next door there’s the base model you own, and both have their dashes out, bumpers off and door-trims removed, you can quickly and easy compare wiring looms. Is it the case that both cars have the same looms, but in the base model the plugs are just unused? If so, you’re laughing. Or are the two looms completely different? If so, well, maybe you’re not laughing... If you want to install the topline model’s foglights and foglight switch, are there wires running to the front and back of the car for the lights? A quick comparison of the two cars will soon show you.

Doing It

Any electrics upgrade will be specific to the make and model of car, so let’s take a look at one. The addition is of the Fairmont trip computer to an EF Falcon Futura, which normally fills the same space with a clock. In this case, the trip computer was purchased on eBay complete with the trip computer wiring plug, a new female plug connection, and specific instructions on how to do the swap. As a result, the acquisition was more expensive than buying the trip computer from a wrecker, but the seller also guaranteed success.... (But see footnote at end of article.)

Click for larger image

Here’s the standard Futura clock.

Click for larger image

With the dash trim removed, the clock simply unclips, with the trip computer able to be pushed straight into the same space.

Click for larger image

But the tricky bit is the wring. The trip computer gets its information (fuel remaining, speed, injector opening percentages) via a single wire data feed from the dashboard. To gain this info, a new terminal needs to be inserted into the right-hand instrument cluster connector, seen here.

Click for larger image

This new female pin goes into the connector in this terminal position.

Click for larger image

This pin is then connected to a new wire that goes to the trip computer connector.

The clock connector can be used for the trip computer, so long as you add some extra pins. However, it’s easier to take the trip computer plug and a short length of loom from the donor car. In this case, in addition to the pin for the dashboard connector being supplied, the trip computer plug was also supplied. The changeover is as follows:

Pin no

Pin Function

Clock Connector

Trip Computer Connector

Action When Fitting Trip Computer

1

Trip computer data signal

No connection

Blue

New wire to instrument cluster plug

2

Clock ignition power

Red/dark green

Not connected

Cut wire

3

Battery positive

Yellow/black

Yellow/black

No change

4

Earth

Black

Black

No change

5

LCD dimmer signal

White

Black/white

No change

6

Trip computer buttons light

No connection

Brown

Connect to brown wire on rear demister switch connector

7

Dash lights dimmer signal

No connection

Dark blue/red

Connect to dark blue/red wire on rear demister switch connector

8

None

No connection

No connection

No change

With the pin numbers being as follows, with the plug viewed from the rear with the plastic spring clip on the left:

1

5

2

6

3

7

4

8

Click for larger image

As indicated in the table above, the brown and dark blue/red wires from the trip computer plug need to tap into the like colour wires on the adjacent rear demister switch. The two rear demister switch wires to access can be seen here.

Click for larger image

The wired-in trip computer plug can be seen on the left with the rear demister switch plug at right.

Click for larger image

The trip computer temporarily plugged in to make sure everything is working...

Click for larger image

...and then working with the dash put back together.

Conclusion

It’s very important that you thoroughly sort out the implications of doing the upgrade before you shell out the cash. Yes, it might be a 1-hour job (as it was with the trip computer upgrade) but alternatively, it might be a full 2-day job with the dashboard and steering column needing to come right out of the car (as I understand a climate control upgrade on the same EF Falcon involves!).

Footnote: The eBay seller’s instructions for the EF Falcon trip computer upgrade were sourced from http://www.fordmods.com/forums/doc_menu.php. For any Falcon owner this is an excellent resource of tech tips on swaps and upgrades.

Did you enjoy this article?

Please consider supporting AutoSpeed with a small contribution. More Info...


Share this Article: 

More of our most popular articles.
Advice on how to get into freelance writing

Special Features - 27 July, 2010

Changing a Life

Reducing fuel use through electronic tweaks

DIY Tech Features - 27 September, 2006

Electronic Ways to Improve Your Fuel Economy

Lots of excellent bits at near zero cost

DIY Tech Features - 26 May, 2009

Getting all the Good Parts out of Photocopiers

Tuning the system

DIY Tech Features - 8 January, 2013

Sound in the Lounge, Part 4

A new low cost data logger - and how to use it on cars

DIY Tech Features - 7 July, 2009

Five Channel USB Data Logger, Part 2

Not just the largest aircraft made of wood, but also with incredible underskin technology

Special Features - 29 September, 2009

The Spruce Goose

Form beads in aluminium, steel and stainless steel intercooler plumbing

DIY Tech Features - 11 February, 2014

Make your own tube beader

Getting a handle on digital and analog signals

DIY Tech Features - 17 February, 2009

How to Electronically Modify Your Car, Part 10

Testing performance

DIY Tech Features - 21 April, 2009

Ultimate DIY Automotive Modification Tool-Kit, Part 4

Yeah, bro. Fit a huge single...

Technical Features - 10 August, 2010

Turbocharging Philosophies

Copyright © 1996-2020 Web Publications Pty Limited. All Rights ReservedRSS|Privacy policy|Advertise
Consulting Services: Magento Experts|Technologies : Magento Extensions|ReadytoShip