bro. I can help you probably but right now im too irritated by your quoting my whole post. WTF was the point of that. Took me like 5mins to delete that crap in the entry box on the ipad to start this reply. Now i am out of time. You had zero reason to change the wiring harness. You probably screwed everything the other guy up in doing that. The difft tranny cars have difft starter wiring stuff. All the info for wiring the starter up for an auto car is here. If you swapped a manual harness in who knows what you have now.
EVERYTHING FOR CONVERTING AN AUTO CAR TO START IS ABOVE AND NEEDS NO CLARIFICATION. now that youve done some manual harness swap who knows...
2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)
Former:
1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)
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I'm curious of your opinion: Flat out in terms of performance, is the 6spd V8 touring much faster compared to the automatic from a dead stop?
I'm going to have to rebuild my valve body in the next few months, and if it is a fair bit quicker I would consider doing a 6spd swap for the additional cost.
Yeah I think the 6MT conversion is more a quality of life issue. More fun, more involvement. Better ability to keep in the powerband. Faster? I suppose if you're an ace shifter... But off a stoplight type starts w an auto are often faster if the manual guy doesn't nail every shift every single time? Def man is faster on a roll and on the run because you put it in the gear you want and keep the RPMs where you want it and never get stuck waiting for a slush shift - the slush can be slow when you 'catch it by surprise' at the wrong moment...
2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)
Former:
1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)
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And the auto will probably be more enjoyable in cold weather -- where the manual will me notchy until it warms up. The five speed in my 323 is pretty well worn. Rattles like hell with the single-mass flywheel and the shifter is super sloppy (mechanism inside the case is worn) even with new bushings.
You basically confirmed what I thought, thank you. Besides the driving "experience", I don't think it's worth the conversion (as I get older) for my needs. Especially since I unfortunately spend a fair bit of time in a traffic dense metropolis. Excellent that you've blazed a trail for all 540iT N/A conversionistas to follow, hats off to you!
That said, I'll be sending my valve body out to Level 10 for mods to rebuild & strengthen the valve body for crisper shifts. Not tire chirping but firm, should match the Dinan tranny software perfectly. I think it'll be worth it, as it should be a sportier drive + it'll be able to cope with a nitrous dose a lot better.
first post updated to correct apparently a major error about being able to fit auto cross-member... apparently a mix-up in what we did or did not install on my car...![]()
2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)
Former:
1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)
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The mechanics is really the simple part of this conversion for me. The unsettling part is I am not familiar with the coding aspect of the job, which is the thing holding me back.
If I find someone who is knowledgeable enough to do the coding for me, would they:
a) need the car in their presence? or
b) would you be able to do it somehow remotely? or
c) would I be able to send them my DME?
Trying to research options as no one I know locally, would be able to do the coding for me first hand.
Thanks for the great writeup.
If you were able to get a cable and can get a decent internet connection by your car, it would be possible for someone to do it remotely. It's always easier to troubleshoot in person, but I've coded enough cars remotely to be comfortable doing it.
You can send someone your DME to be flashed, but since the DME is not the only module involved, it probably makes the most sense to just do the flash while coding everything else.
I was wondering the exact same thing = there would be more than one module involved in the process.
If you or anyone reading this would be interested in doing it remotely, I'd be open to working with you to facilitate the job. I'd pay (what I would hope to be a fair dollar) for someone qualified to complete the coding on my car.
Sure I'd be willing to help you out. Is the car mechanically ready otherwise? Just send me a PM and we can iron out the details
And wiring. Now that I've posted up the wiring procedure in detail, it's really pretty easy, but that was a black-magic indy-trade-secret for a while.
I get PM's all the time from bros ready or in the midst of manual swaps and people think they can always gloss over the starter relay wiring bit ("oh I'm gonna just hotwire the EWS dude so you know then I dont' have to do the starter relay..." uhhhhh no you aren't and yes you do....) What's awesome is, if you half-ass it, the starter runs all the time with the ignition on. Ooops! Not gonna werk.
But its really pretty easy now that the instructions are laid out. Brians recent job seems to have gone flawlessly - started up first time, woo-hoo.
Terra - if you help him maybe you can use it as a platform to test out your "faux USA 540 Manual Touring" coding?
2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)
Former:
1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)
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I should probably back up a bit and give you my point of view.
I'm going to be pushing my auto quite a bit past the factory torque rating which is why I'm considering the manual swap. If I can find a viable solution to solve my coding challenge, it could be a game changer in going forward with it.
So I do not have any of the parts (but I do have the means to install them) only because I have not found anyone to do the coding locally as of yet.
I'll PM you and we can discuss our options.
Exactly what I was planning. Based on the nettodaten my ZCS generates, it looks like it should work just fine. If proven successful, I could probably work on making some other entries, like an s62 touring.
If it doesn't work that way, I do at least know how to do the hybrid coding like you dscribed
JC,
I don't know if Brian told what we ended up doing to make his start up, but we deviated from your method a bit and it doesn't require larger wire or anything. We use existing wire for the most part and it still uses the relay, but takes the DME out of the process (removing the soft-start feature). What we did was take the pin 6 and pin 40 from the DME (pin 6 coming from the ignition switch to the DME and pin 40 going from the DME to the starter relay) and soldered them together. Then we took the blue with black stripe wire at pin 8 of the EWS and cut it near the EWS connector and tapped it to a ground connection. What used to happen in the auto was the DME provided a ground on pin 40 during the soft-start mode and the EWS would provide 12V over pin 8. What we did was basically reverse the trigger on the relay so now the ignition switch itself provides the power and the wire that used to go to the EWS now goes to ground.
It looks like this:
This is borrowed from Trevor's (007008) excellent 99+ e38 6-speed guide found here:
http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...ed-swap-coding
-Paul
2003 "M5" - Full M5 conversion, AMG C63S 6 piston front calipers, Porsche Panamera 4 piston rear calipers, GC Coilovers, Eibach ARBs, UUC Evo3/DSSR, Borla Exhaust w/Muffler Delete, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto, Bi-Xenons, e38 Style 37 M-Pars, e60 Hubs 530i 6-speed swap build thread2005 Range Rover 4.6is (M62TU Powered) - 4.6is Engine Swap from X5, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto (Totalled)
2006 Porsche Cayman S - 987.2 MA1.21 3.4L Engine/Drivetrain Swap, H&R Coilovers, GiroDisc Rotors, 718 Spyder wheels
'
Hmmm.. OK... that's some clever whackiness... Different ways to skin a cat I guess. At first I didn't like the sound of it but really looking at it its more of a slightly different tweak. I admire the cleverness for sure. On other hand, personally I didn't like the extra relay being "inserted" in there so probably prefer the setup I have as being more straight-forward. I knew there was another workaround some of the conversion shops had used, I assume it is this then...
For anybody else doing this, either will work, don't be too put off by Method A - i.e. the factory wiring - which means running a heavier gauge wire - but it just has to go from the ignition to the EWS - which is to say - not far at all. Method B you use lighter wire but you have to get it from the ignition switch all the way to the relay... But nonetheless - I will add the option to the writeup above..! Options for everybody!
2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)
Former:
1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)
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-Paul
2003 "M5" - Full M5 conversion, AMG C63S 6 piston front calipers, Porsche Panamera 4 piston rear calipers, GC Coilovers, Eibach ARBs, UUC Evo3/DSSR, Borla Exhaust w/Muffler Delete, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto, Bi-Xenons, e38 Style 37 M-Pars, e60 Hubs 530i 6-speed swap build thread2005 Range Rover 4.6is (M62TU Powered) - 4.6is Engine Swap from X5, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto (Totalled)
2006 Porsche Cayman S - 987.2 MA1.21 3.4L Engine/Drivetrain Swap, H&R Coilovers, GiroDisc Rotors, 718 Spyder wheels
We actually used the brake switch ground that we used for the clutch switch wiring as our ground since it's right there.
-Paul
2003 "M5" - Full M5 conversion, AMG C63S 6 piston front calipers, Porsche Panamera 4 piston rear calipers, GC Coilovers, Eibach ARBs, UUC Evo3/DSSR, Borla Exhaust w/Muffler Delete, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto, Bi-Xenons, e38 Style 37 M-Pars, e60 Hubs 530i 6-speed swap build thread2005 Range Rover 4.6is (M62TU Powered) - 4.6is Engine Swap from X5, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto (Totalled)
2006 Porsche Cayman S - 987.2 MA1.21 3.4L Engine/Drivetrain Swap, H&R Coilovers, GiroDisc Rotors, 718 Spyder wheels
Hey Paul - I'm gonna hit you up for details so I can add this to the write up...
2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)
Former:
1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)
![]()
![]()
-Paul
2003 "M5" - Full M5 conversion, AMG C63S 6 piston front calipers, Porsche Panamera 4 piston rear calipers, GC Coilovers, Eibach ARBs, UUC Evo3/DSSR, Borla Exhaust w/Muffler Delete, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto, Bi-Xenons, e38 Style 37 M-Pars, e60 Hubs 530i 6-speed swap build thread2005 Range Rover 4.6is (M62TU Powered) - 4.6is Engine Swap from X5, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto (Totalled)
2006 Porsche Cayman S - 987.2 MA1.21 3.4L Engine/Drivetrain Swap, H&R Coilovers, GiroDisc Rotors, 718 Spyder wheels
Yep, Trevor/Paul's way was really rather simple. No new wires run anywhere at all. Just tapping (I did end up extending the ones going to the clutch and brake switches to give me more room to solder in there because it was so tight with the car on the lift) and some splicing was all we needed. It looks very clean.
I even re-purposed some of the now-unused wire to run my boost gauge signal to under the hood![]()
2003 Ferrari Red M3 3.5L wagon // 2011 Montego Blue tri-turbo 335d wagon
2012 Deep Sea Blue X5d // 2003 Orient Blue 330i wagon
In progress/For Sale: 2003 Alpine White M3/ZHP wagon // 2003 Japan Red M3/ZHP wagon
New method added. Now that I understand it (duh was trying to match the Trevor pic w/ the description but they don't match, now I get it... ) I like it and see the elegance. Still maybe prefer to be done w/ the relay myself but the sweet cleanliness of this method is good too. GG approved. ;^)
2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)
Former:
1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)
![]()
![]()
-Paul
2003 "M5" - Full M5 conversion, AMG C63S 6 piston front calipers, Porsche Panamera 4 piston rear calipers, GC Coilovers, Eibach ARBs, UUC Evo3/DSSR, Borla Exhaust w/Muffler Delete, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto, Bi-Xenons, e38 Style 37 M-Pars, e60 Hubs 530i 6-speed swap build thread2005 Range Rover 4.6is (M62TU Powered) - 4.6is Engine Swap from X5, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto (Totalled)
2006 Porsche Cayman S - 987.2 MA1.21 3.4L Engine/Drivetrain Swap, H&R Coilovers, GiroDisc Rotors, 718 Spyder wheels
This board is amazing.
2003 Ferrari Red M3 3.5L wagon // 2011 Montego Blue tri-turbo 335d wagon
2012 Deep Sea Blue X5d // 2003 Orient Blue 330i wagon
In progress/For Sale: 2003 Alpine White M3/ZHP wagon // 2003 Japan Red M3/ZHP wagon
So what actually happens if you leave the automatic start relay in? Does the ME7.2 just not send any signal on Pin 40 when coded as manual? I noticed the E39 M5 has the auto start relay (with the main difference being the relay's pin 8 is always hot instead of being tied to the park/neutral switch), and I'm under the impression that the S62 does not have auto start, unless that's a Euro only thing (in which case the park/neutral switch not being used makes sense)
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-Paul
2003 "M5" - Full M5 conversion, AMG C63S 6 piston front calipers, Porsche Panamera 4 piston rear calipers, GC Coilovers, Eibach ARBs, UUC Evo3/DSSR, Borla Exhaust w/Muffler Delete, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto, Bi-Xenons, e38 Style 37 M-Pars, e60 Hubs 530i 6-speed swap build thread2005 Range Rover 4.6is (M62TU Powered) - 4.6is Engine Swap from X5, BMW NBT with Carplay/Android Auto (Totalled)
2006 Porsche Cayman S - 987.2 MA1.21 3.4L Engine/Drivetrain Swap, H&R Coilovers, GiroDisc Rotors, 718 Spyder wheels
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