I've finally got my Frankenstein creation more or less buttoned up, I learned a whole lot and even helped a few people out with their DBW conversions so it's time to share this stuff with everyone. First off, this isn't going to be a detailed step by step guide because there are so many variations based on year and engine type that I can't possibly cover it all. If you want to attempt this you'll need to be at least familiar with electrics; if reading wiring diagrams, modifying harnesses and re-pinning connectors is intimidating, this isn't for you. Anyone who's done this too feel free to add what you see fit (I'm looking at you v8 swap guys). Since I went from an AHA engine to an ATW running AWM electronics, I'll be concentrating on 1.8t applications.
Finding Parts
DBW throttle pedal and pedal cluster.
From any DBW B5, C5 pedal and pedal cluster may fit but I'm not sure (need to look up part numbers or get confirmation from someone else). Auto or manual doesn't matter, pedal clusters are identical, auto pedals do have a button that gets pressed at full throttle to simulate a transmission kickdown cable/button but it does nothing electrically. There was a change in the pinout of the gas pedal connector sometime during the '01 model year, it's explained in the wiring diagrams I posted below. Highly recommended to get a connector pigtail with the pedal since you'll be able to tell which layout it is based on wire colours.
Correct engine harness, ECU & sensors.
1.8t guys, you'll want to get these from an AWM B5. Auto hardware can be adapted to work in a manual car if need be, information for that can be found in various auto-5spd swap threads. You could also use a B5.5 Passat donor, but it might require more work to adapt the harness and ECU for B5 use. Most importantly, you'll need to disable the immobilizer before you can do anything. I'm using a B5.5 Passat ECU at the moment and I'm having an issue with the ECU not shutting off when the key is turned to off. I have a feeling it's because of some weird electrical issue with the immo, so because of that I wouldn't recommend a Passat ECU. You could get away with using an ATW engine harness (I ran one for a while), but again not recommended because you'll end up hacking it up to adapt it to an AWM ECU and electrics, specifically the wideband O2 sensor and VVT. Make sure your injectors match the ECU too, ATW injectors flow slightly less than AWM (around 7% less) and technically do work, but I noticed my car ran better after I installed AWM injectors. Note that AEB, ATW, and AWM all use different style injector seats, so match those to the injectors you'll be using, part numbers can be found pretty easily. If you have an AEB you'll need to swap the cam sensor ring with one out of an ATW or AWM.
Instrument Cluster
Not necessarily needed, my '99 cluster worked just fine. To get oil temperature working you'll need to run an extra wire, I'll explain later. If you do swap the cluster you'll need one from an '00 or '01, they're identical except the '01 1.8t cluster has very slightly higher redline markings.
Wiring Modifications
The bulk of these modifications will focus on the 4-5 connectors found in the ECU box that connect the engine harness to the dash harness, I'll refer to these connectors as the body plugs. Before starting anything, buy a few connector pin release tools like this to make your life a whole lot easier. You don't need a set that big, but you will need 2-3 small flat twin blade tools. They look like numbers 4, 5, 6, 11, etc in this picture. Take a look at a few connectors, most will have a slot above and below each pin, your tool needs to fit into these slots to release the pin.
Wiring Diagrams
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d4p6xbkfub...iring.zip?dl=0 Download this, familiarize yourself with the diagrams of your current engine and whatever you'll be swapping in. If you can't find your engine code, let me know and I'll add it to the zip.
Engine Harness
If using an AWM harness there will be very minimal harness modifications. If you're using your old cluster you'll need to run a wire from the original oil temperature sensor to the pin used for oil temp in your old harness, in my case it was pin 6 of the black connector. If you're using an AWM harness with an 058 block you'll need to swap the harness-side crank sensor connector with that from the ATW harness since the AWM sensor doesn't fit the 058 block. It's an easy job since the pins are identical between connectors, just pull them out of the old one and slip the other connector on. Note that you'll have to swap pins 1 and 3 around with each other. I'm not going to get into what's needed to install a wideband O2 connector into an ATW harness since that's been covered many times over. If you're using an AWM harness, check pin 2 of the brown connector on the harness side. That wire is for the CEL signal from the ECU and is sometimes missing from AWM harnesses even though it shows up in the wiring diagram. You'll need to run a wire to one of the ECU plugs, the wiring diagram tells you which pin exactly.
Body Plugs, Accelerator Pedal and Dash Harness
Some people say you need to swap the whole dash harness from a DBW car, I say that's a load of BS. It's much easier to just adapt the current harness to work with the DBW system than tearing apart your whole dash to replace what's probably the largest and most complex harness in the car. Here's where you'll have to do some of your own research. Basically you need to find the difference between the body plugs of your current and future ECU. Use the spreadsheet named "wiring aha to awm" in my zip file as a starting point. Your car will be missing the white plug, you need to add that yourself. Find the correct plug in a junkyard car or something. Make your harness following what I drew up (found in the zip), also included is a picture of the end result so you have an idea of the harness's shape and size. Note that you need to provide the sw/bl wire with a switched 12v source, I used the ABS switched power source (fuse 9 I believe) just like how it was done from the factory in DBW B5s. I tried to make my drawing as clear as possible, if you don't understand something let me know. IIRC, my drawing is based on the later gas pedal pinout, but I'm not sure so double check with the wiring diagrams before doing anything.
If you want ASR to work I can't really help since I never tried. But at the very least you'll need to run install an ASR-equipped ABS unit, run canbus wires from the ECU to the ABS unit, and run wires to the switch. Not worth it IMO, so I just left it out.
Software Modifications
The new ECU should work just fine as is, but you will have a few trouble codes. Regardless of your setup, you'll get codes for canbus communication errors. These won't trip the CEL but are annoying nonetheless. If you're going from an engine that didn't have SAI or VVT originally you'll get codes for those. There's no way to get around them through hardware mods, so you'll have to flash the ECU. Luckily we have Nefmoto Flasher, which works with the typical blue VCDS cables. If you're not already famliiar with it, read this. How to make these modifications is way beyond the scope of this thread, but I'm working on putting together a zip of all the possible variations for an AWM ECU. If you're running or planning on running a custom tune, make sure to inform your tuner if you're missing SAI or VVT so they can make the proper changes.
Side Note: VVT
If you can, swap in a VVT timing chain tensioner and intake cam. Even with VVT properly coded out in software there was a very noticeable difference when I finally installed VVT. Most notably tons more torque at low RPMs (1700 and below), better throttle response, slightly less severe engine braking, and just generally a whole lot smoother at low RPMs.
Bonus: Cluster Swap
Retrofitting an '00 or '01 cluster isn't very difficult, but pretty annoying. You need to move a whole lot of pins around, it's best to make an intermediate adapter harness. Check out cluster pinout.xlsx in the zip for what needs to be moved around. You'll also need to run wires from the body plugs to the cluster for the new style oil level/temp sensor. I found a great little piece of software that can change the mileage, but I don't know if it would be against the rules to post it so I'll have to play it safe. It's not very hard to find, I got it from somewhere on nefmoto but I've seen it linked from other places.
I know there's things I'm missing, I'll add those in when they come to mind. But that's the gist of it, a bit daunting at first but once you get into it you realize it's actually not that difficult.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by gdoggmoney
Just dump it on the ground!
ROADRACING AT ITS FINEST
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