Alex and the Extended City Frame - 08 Sport/Automatic Donor

[Bretter]

OK after the holidays and hopefully most of the cold weather is over, it is time to get back to it!

We have wheels and tires - changing to 4x100 bolt pattern for all wheels.

Tires: Continental Extreme Contact Sport
Front: 15x6.5 Drag DR69 with 205/50ZR15
Rear: 17x7.5 Drag DR69 with 225/45ZR17

 

[Bretter]

Looking for some advice on removing the old shell...

Being here in Austin, I have called around and the scrap yards are willing to take it, but I can't find someone willing to pick it up at my home and take it to the scrap yard. I am willing to go as well with the title and even let the person doing the hauling have the cash for the shell.

Now you might ask why don't I take it in my truck... Well, I don't own a truck. Naturally your next question is "why would this guy try to build a car without owning a truck?" ... Don't ask... Maybe I'll explain in my memoirs someday...

Any advice on who I can call to haul away a 1000lb piece of metal? (I think it is ~1000# - not positive)


Thanks!

 

[JSATX]

Craigslist and Facebook market place are your friend.

Will it fit in a truck? I have a truck but not a trailer. I think you need a trailer for the donor....

How did I not know you were in austin?

 

[Bretter]

3/19/18 Thinning the Dash Harness Build Video 9 Complete

Quick update from last posting: I found a place to actually come and get the shell and take it away - and they gave me $150 for it!

Talk about sticky?! That tape and wrapping on the harness just sticks to everything, huh! A bit daunting at first, that harness looked menacing! Then once we got into the process, it went well.

One item that we had which not sure about yet is that during the removal of the 16-pin harness, ours did not come out altogether. Some of the wires went to another connector - anyone know what that connector is for? I have downloaded the manual with the list/picture set of all of the connectors - will check that next.

Anyone know what this connector is?

We got this dash harness done and laid out the Body harness to do next. Wow that one looks like a fun!

 

[Briann1177]

It kind of looks like the headliner harness connector, but I'm not sure because it looks like there are several empty pin holes. Do you remember the general area it was located?

On a side note, the shininess on those wires is bringing back sticky finger memories all over again.

 

[TheNuker]

Almost looks like the connector that goes into the back of the radio?

Nuker-

 

[ctuinstra]

It's not a needed connector that I know of. I didn't use one like that.

I soaked my harness in a gallon on paint thinner and then rinsed with water and then a final dunk in a gallon of alcohol. This cleaned up the stickiness very well and came out like new. Just don't leave the rubber seals in the paint thinner for extended periods of time, they will swell.

 

[Bretter]

Thank you both! You got me going in the right direction. Turns out that connector is the Audio Amplifier X2 (UQ3) connector going to the middle of 3 connectors on the amplifier module.

As I dig through the connectors and wires, it looks like I won't be needing any of these wires on these 3 connectors - all audio related. That will further reduce the dash harness and I think remove an entire "extra" harness that we had (see below) coming from the small white connector on the amp.

 

[ctuinstra]

I had that same amp. It's not in the directions to remove it and it's wired because it's not in the base models. Remove everything associated with that amp and radio. Somehow I ended up with one medium gauge yellow/blk wire I didn't know what to do with and after much searching, it was a speaker wire.

I think I still ended up with a connector from the radio in my harness and now that I am about done I'm just going to have to chop it off and abandoned the wires. Bugs me profusely to leave them in there.

 

[Bretter]

3/22/18 Thinning the Body Harness Video 10 Complete

We think we are done with video 10 - it has been an interesting time. Our donor was a Sport model with extra stereo plugs, power windows, door locks and ABS. We could mostly follow the video, but we had a number of extra items - and we don't think we are done with the extra stuff yet. i.e. we have a giant red plug that went to the ABS system in the engine compartment, yet it appears the video references a black/purple connector in its place. So, i am sure there is more to take out regarding the ABS connectors.

I haven't done a search yet to see who else has gone down this path of extra wires due to ABS etc. Are there build logs we should review on this wiring?

Below is a picture of what the harness looks like right now. And, there are still a couple smaller ones under the table we haven't even gotten to yet

 

[Briann1177]

Everything on the red ABS plug can be cut out. Keep track of the ends on tan and black twisted wires as they run through that connector. When everything is thinned out and combined together, you'll end up with a single pair of twisted tan and black wires that run straight from your BCM to the ECM. All the junk in the middle can go in regards to those wires.

 

[BaltimoreHokie]

Hey it looks like we are on the same stage of our build. Check out my build. I had the exact same question about the ABS connector on my thread. Good luck!

 

[Lonny]

The black and purple connector we reference in the video should be on your wiring harness.

The mating plug is on your engine harness. It will be black and purple and have either 8 pins, for early models, or 16 pins on later models.

Brian is correct, the data wires that connect from the ECM to the ABS plug needs to get cut loose from the ABS plug and extended forward to the BCM. The rest of the ABS wires can be removed.

There should be a long data wire that you removed from the ABS plug that you can use for the extension.

It is important to use a twisted pair for data wires. The twist keeps electrical interference from corrupting your data stream.

It looks like I can see a bundle of data wire just to the left of your ABS plug.

 

[Bretter]

3/25/2018 Reorganizing the Wiring Harness #11 Complete

On Friday we went and picket up Stage 1 and Stage 2 of our kit - it was great to see Lonny and Adam and talk through some questions! Also saw several others there ready for pickup - they are rolling them out the door quick! Here is the frame after we got it home to the garage.

With the wiring harness, we are done with #12 with 1 more to go on the wiring. Thanks to Lonny, BaltimoreHokie and Brian above! When we got rid of all the extra ABS wires and connector, we end up with a slightly different arrangement of data wires. There is not a twisted pair from the ECM to the BCM - we will have to figure out which pins are needed on both and put that twisted pair in. There are 2 sets of twisted pairs from the Black/Purple multi-plug to the PCM plug on front of fuse box (both sets ~2.5' long) - probably need to remove them or use one as an extension.

In this last photo, there is the coil for the fuel pump in the upper left. The ground extensions for the fuel pump on the lower left. And the tail light wires on the lower right. We could not find the center brake light connector at that stage and thus there is not a light blue wire in that coil. We will have to find the right connector for the center brake light and run a light blue wire to this coil in the next step.

Corrected: Also, there is not a ground connected to the white fuse box plug. Lonny told me that it was very important to have one, so I need to put it in. The problem being that I cannot find a pinout of this white fuse box plug - anyone know where I can find the pinout? For that matter, I can't find the pinouts for any of these fuse box plugs. Any suggestions?

To do: (Update 3/27/18)
1. [DONE on black/purple connector] Determine pins on BCM and ECM then install twisted pair between them.
2. [DONE] Find light blue center tail light pin and run light blue wire to rear with other 4 tail light wires.
3. [Future Video 13] Install ground lug on fuse box square white connector.
4. Add extra power lines to area near gauge cluster for potential tablet connected to OBDII plug. Lights/switches to be added to area. Maybe front/rear view cameras also.

 

[Lonny]

The ground comes from the square white plug not the square gray plug.
I will look for the others tomorrow, the data and lite blue wires.

 

[Briann1177]

You'll have to extend the wires from the BCM to ECM.

Here's a diagram from the Chilton Library for a 2008. If you need wiring diagrams, you can check this post out for more info. It's a pretty handy resource.

http://dfkitcar.com/forum/index.php?threads/track-day-monster-2009-ss-tc-track-frame.396/page-2#post-4358

 

[Bretter]

Some research answers...
1. GMLAN between BCM and ECM: Looks like there is a low-speed GMLAN and a high-speed GMLAN. Not sure which needs to be connected.

2. Brake wire: Thanks Brian! There are a lot more schematics in there than I had thought before!
Looks like the 5th brake light wire (light blue) comes from the fuse block position F5 and tied to the TCM at B5. Hmmmm I have a cut light blue (and an uncut) wire at I think F5, but nothing at B5. Not much else is making sense - see #3 below...

3. I thought I found the fuse box white plug pinout - labeled as BCM (X4) on the list of Connector End View. Pin E12 is the only ground listed and it looks like via a large black wire. But, when checking the other wires that are present, most don't seem to make sense. Am I looking at the right connector diagram?

 

[Briann1177]

You definitely need to keep the green wires. Those are for the low speed GMLAN. They all tie together and run to things like your gauge cluster, OBD-II, and anti-theft module. The tan/black wires are the high speed GMLAN.

I don't think you're looking at the right connector. BCM X4 should plug into the bottom of the BCM. The bottom only has one connector. The ground I think Lonny is referring to is on your fuse X3 connector which is your headlight connector. It's a square 32 pin connector. The one you posted is 68 pin.

 

[Lonny]

This plug.

 

[Bretter]

OK I have that headlight harness and see the ground attached to it. Looks like it is configured in video #13 which is good - we didn't miss the connector so far!! Also, it looks like at ~1:15 into that video 13 it says to cut off the ground lug and I can't see where it says to put it back on. So I am assuming that we shouldn't cut it off at that point.

And thanks Brian - looks like I showed the BCM plug which I now see/remember is part of the dash harness. Which brings me again to trying to find the pinout of the fuse box connectors. I can't seem to find those at all anywhere. Can you point me to where those pinouts are shown?

It seems I need those fuse box pinouts to find this light blue wire for the backup lamp per the schematic above.

Thanks!