Hi Guys

I have just completed my conversion on my AU3 XR6 (T56 with a custom hydraulic pedal assembly and dual plate clutch) and everything went as planned HOWEVER the original ECU (still auto) seems to be getting a little confused.

I have not done anything electrically yet other than bridging the Park/Neutral pins to trick it into letting me start. I still need to be wire up the reverse switch and cruise control kill switch (any help on locating the plug for the cruise switch would be great as i cannot see anything spare under there)

The real issue I'm having is the base idle is now at 1200 RPM (without AC on or moving the steering wheel).

Does anyone have any thoughts on ways i can fix this? Would resetting the ECU work permanently or is there another way? I cannot find enough info on the resistor fix as this seems to be for the AU series 1 and older models.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Steve

Plugs on an AU manual box are reverse switch and speedo sender... What cruise control plug are you talking about? The fail safe cruise control plug is on the master cylinder...

You wont fix the high idle and poor engine mapping until you either trick the computer into thinking the gearbox is there (resistor trick) or actually fitting a manual PCM... I've never done the resistor trick, always fitted a manual PCM... But there is two resistors from what I've read... One is oil/box temp and the other is something else...

Cheers,
Tim

Cheers Tim

The cruise plug I'm talking about is on the pedal box that disengages the cruise when you press the clutch in. There does not seem to be any spare plugs under the dash near the clutch pedal that are usually there (or is there a different dash loom for a manual!!).

I'll have to look further into the resistor trick as not only the high idle but the thermo fans are always on too (it thinks the auto tranny is over heating.....). If anyone can shed any more light here that would be great.
Long term i have a Wolf V500 that will look after the spark and will be gas only (gas research) so i'm not keen to spend extra $$ on a new manual ecu and programming from Ford to match car when it will come out anyway.

Cheers again for the help.

Ahhhh....

There is an extra bit of wiring you need as well as the switch to actually fit in the pedal...

Up under the dash above the accelerator pedal is a big orange plug... That plug that is mounted to the steel bracket is the entire cruise control loom... You'll be able to see where it comes out into the engine bay under the cruise module/booster... May be easier to remove the loom from the car, not sure what under dash space is like... Right up under the dash, right at the big grommet in the firewall is the plug taped to the harness fitted with a bridge... You need to remove the bridge plug and run the wiring down to the switch fitted at the clutch pedal...

When I fitted AU wiring into my ED I had to modify this short loom to suit the ED pedals and that plug at the grommet got deleted to suit my requirements...

Yeah fair chance that's the case... I wouldn't be surprised if it is retarding timing and going into LHM to try and avoid further "damage" to the transmission...



Here you can see the wiring colours, so if the tech docs says which circuit needs which resistor you should be able to align that to the colours in the above link (It's AUII but I doubt any different...)

Gearbox Temp (Engine Bay Loom Side Of Plug): Yellow - Grey w/ Yellow
Gear Select (Engine Bay Loom Side Of Plug): Pink w/ Light Green - Grey w/ Yellow

I bet those are the two the PCM is looking for, solenoids are outputs, those two would be inputs to the PCM... For gear select you can probably whack the old auto in drive and get the right resistance (assuming drive is where it needs to be)... Measuring operating temp is a little harder but...

Cheers,
Tim

Being that it's an AU, why not visit Mr Ford and get a manual binary flashed onto the existing pcm? Even try some forum members. I think FAT245 offers this service

I have a spare clutch switch if interested....

Thanks again Tim, awesome advice!
I know of that orange plug, it was a pig to remove the plug base from the auto pedal box!!!!

I will trawl around the site to see if anyone has the correct resistance for the temp and gear select otherwise I may have to measure this on the old box (like you said) and the temp off someones car when running.

Actually just found this, pretty sure this is what i need:

Input term 30: transmission position SW gets a 6.8k resistor between it and term 46: Sensor Earth
and
Input term 42: A/T Oil Temp sensor gets a 1.2K resistor between it and term 46: sensor Earth.

@ Macxr8 thanks for the offer, i have the switch on my pedal box already I just had no idea where to connect it Cheers for that though.

@ xafalcon I called my local Mr Ford, I was not filled with confidence after our conversation..... they basically said they could 'give it a go' and if it works it will be $120. On the other hand if i can save myself $119.50 and use some $0.50 resistors to do the same thing why not.


To summaries my intentions, late last year I had finally finished my daily driver AU2 fairmont build (T56, Gt25/40 with external gate, gas research twin system, LS1 coil packs, locka diff etc etc) when a tree decided to fall on my car and write it off. Insurance (shannons) covered me and i was able to buy it back for a great price so I purchased a 2002 AU3 XR6 (auto) and am slowly changing literally everything over that is not damaged. So far i have done the electric leather seats, plush carpet, door trims, roof lining and plastics (i also added in the grab handle for the driver....why is this not standard is beyond me), t56 / hydraulics / pedal box.
The engine (purpose built with forged pistons, rods, custom cam etc) I will freshen up with new rings and bearings before it goes back in as i had driven more than 50,000 km since i put it in and i was running over 25 psi

Still got plenty of work ahead of me and I have 3 kids under 5 so i'm in the garage when i get time.

Thanks for all the help guys.

It may be cheaper to trick the ecu into thinking it still has an auto connected, but remember that the ecu will also control the engine as though it still has an auto attached.

There is a reason why there are auto and manual ecu/pcm variants. The code is different in many ways to make driveability and performance better for each application.

If it was me (and I've done many manual conversions) I would do it the right way to get the better result. But of course I have V8's and use the Moates QH for tuning, then burn the tune to a chip. This option isn't fully available for AU I6's AFAIK

Did you contact FAT245

@ xafalcon

Unfortunately I'm located in Melbourne and i believe FAT245 is in Sydney.... i really cannot afford to not have my car running at this stage (i'm on the road most days for work).

I did have a play around last night with some resistors with some mixed results. The 1.2k resistor replicated a signal from the temp sensor and as such the fans no longer run constantly (1 win), the 6.8k resistor on the gear selector wiring provides a neutral position signal (i.e. N on the dash board) and the cruise will not work in neutral. Then i released i have bigger problems anyway, I do not have a speed signal yet (my FG T56 manual does not have this) and my plan is to implement an ABS sensor setup, so either way the cruise will not work as it does not think I'm moving.....

Back to using the resistor trick, I will replacing the engine management with my WOLF V500 (i already have extensive maps setup the 4.0 six) quite soon so not worth the effort and $ of remapping the auto computer.

Anyone have any pointers on the ABS speed sensor setup? I understand I may be able to get a kit from Jaycar? Perhaps the WOLF V500 could decode the ABS signal to a suitable speed signal.......

Cheers

Steve

Your other option is the $120 TI Performance J3 chip - with a manual Bin.

Im using one with my AU II 220kw, in an (E36... if you know what they are), with a TS50 bin, working paddles..... all of the stuff that isnt quite factory . The ECU is a standard XR8 one.

Having it flashed is 100% better, but a J3 chip means no downtime.