ok so if im to plug nf/nl dash in everything will work except door adjar and boot and fuel flap adjar i wont have any trouble with trip computer or gear positions or lights? also if i put an au wheel on will cruise and radio buttons work?

you mean NL cluster? Not dash?

Yes... Again you'll need to patch harness... But everything you'll need will work... You wire up the stuff that you need accordingly... So on mine the Airbag has no pin the ED plugs because the ED has no airbag stuff it it is just taped up... But things like ABS and that I have wired but they're just not in my car... You wire the stuff up and it will work fine... Gear position, trip, airbag, ABS, etc etc...

The AU wheel will bolt in... But really all you need is the cruise buttons... You will need an AU airbag as the horn buttons on an EF/EL to AU varied... The buttons are on you wheel... Where an AU has the button in the airbag itself...

You'll also need the AU clock spring because it has an extra wire in it for the radio buttons... Then you'll have to run the wire from the clock spring plug to the radio... And the you'll need to buy a radio which supports a wired remote input and the buy a signal adaptor to make it all work... Again this may be in my build thread as it was part of the BA wheel I modded in... And it is part of my FG wheel mod which is on hold til I find an airbag... Not sure how much I went into detail about it though...

Cheers,
Tim

AU Cluster into E series can be done. As mentioned above, it is a simple matter of making adapter looms. Ensure that the cluster is a series 1, as there are differences between the series 1 and 2/3. There are only a few wires different, but it is simpler to use the series 1 cluster.

IF you go this route, the trip computer may not work. You may be best off installing a clock of a futura instead.

If you want the working trip computer, you also need to have the climate control too (as it is the 1 unit on the AU). The reason for this is that the data line between cluster and the trip computer is different on the AU to the EL. On the EF/EL, there is 1 data line that runs between the cluster and trip computer. The AU uses 2 - Tx/Rx.
For the climate control, The ambient sensor on the EL has different resistance values to the one on the AU. When connected to the EL, the value was 2-3 degrees out (on the night that I tried it), from what the sensor would show on the EL. The EL matched the thermometer that I had sitting on the bonnet at the time. The heater box and vacuum controller do not need to be changed.
I had the AU climate control working in the EL, but then realised that I needed to have the cluster to have the trip computer running. It is a project that has been put to the side - my house is more important than the car lol.

As for the steering wheel controls - these are tricky too. As Timmy mentioned, you basically need to convert all of the electrics on the steering wheel (combination switch, clock spring, air bag and audio controls) to AU spec. If you have cruise control, there is a bit of chopping and changing needed. From there, the adapter is needed for the AU controls to work with the Sony stereo as above.

^^^combination switch and clock spring

^^^Air bag and cruise/audio switches on the EL steering wheel
I am running a CAT9 adapter, and have the cheated. I am running the infra red transmitter, mounted on the front of the gear lever...

thanks mate do you recommend the au wheel onto ef conversion?

I had an EF/EL wheel for a while... Reason I went with the EF/EL wheel is I wanted the set - button on my cruise control... Something not possible with the ED wheel... (I run an EL cruise module too)... Reason I went to a B series wheel is (I know the airbag is ugly) that the EF/EL momo (expensive tastes) wheels are rather quite expensive and usually three parts shagged... The B series momo was $100 A B series wheel has radio buttons so next step was to buy a head unit that they would actually work with and then an adaptor to make it work...

So from wanting a set - button for the cruise it has come all this way...

Next stage is the FG wheel I have already modded all the boards for the buttons to work with an EL cruise actuator and a signal modifier because EL cruise requires an "on" button and a separate "off" button... The BA & FG wheel have only one button... So on my BA wheel it is just an on button and on the FG this board will enable dual functions on that button...

Again we can't tell you if you should do it or not... If you like the way they look/feel/operate and are willing to research and have a crack at it and understand how the system works to know what your moving where then by all means have a crack at it...

Personally the AU clusters don't interest me and I quite like my NF/NL cluster with white illumination... So that isn't a road I'd go down...

Also... an AU wheel is the same as an EF/EL wheel... The other difference is the buttons and the horn/airbag

Also... As total tool has just reminded me here... I forgot to mention that you will need an AU combo switch because the on/off button gets moved to the indicator stalk and you'll need to re-wire under the dash to move these wires from the clock spring loom to the combo loom to work... The button resistances remained the same so no changing there (where I have different resistors in my BA & FG ones to make them work)...

There is some work and some learning on your part involved... As all of us have done but these are the perks of having a custom car and something fits your own personal taste...

A question for you total tool... The AU cluster... How does the aspect of physically mounting it go? Does it leave gaps and not fit real well? I'd have thought it'd be a lot more rounded than the EF/EL one and maybe a bit smaller?

Cheers,
Tim

According to the wiring diagrams, the resistance values on the set- and set+ are different on the AU to the EF/EL.

Set- is 120 ohm on the EL, 160 on the AU
set+ is 680 ohm on the EL, 560 on the AU
coast is 2200 ohm on the EL, 1500 on the AU

I never tried the AU buttons, I swapped the PCB from the EL onto the AU loom.

I also never got around to doing the cluster. This was as far as I got into my attempt...


and yes, the unit that I have suffers from the missing segments issue lol. I had the direction the temp and everything working on that climate control unit. To go any further, I needed the AU cluster. This is due to the difference in the data line I mentioned earlier. I have an AU1 fairmont cluster sitting here. I have full genuine workshop manuals for the EF/EL, and can easily borrow the AU one off my mate. I just could not be bothered doing the homework at the time, and now too many other things have come up
It is still on my 'to do' list, and will be done when I have nothing better to do.

as for the cluster fitting, it does fit. If I recall correctly, there were gaps. They were noticable, but not that bad. macxr8 had the AU tickford cluster in his EL dash but had the full AU loom in the car.
EDIT - macxr8's cluster...

Last edited by Ballast on Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

hey m8 did u get the climate control to fit in ur ef /el ?