My very own update thread by BaseDrifter

9 minute(s) of a 155 minute read

Yeah I know the swap to a 2000+ cluster isn't the simplest. I should be able to help with the swap to an LCD cluster. MetalMan really helped me out when I was doing my swap as well.

Anddddd everything works! The headlight relays fired up correctly the first time, the independent fogs took a bit more work. Simply replacing the headlight wire going into the fog relay wasn't sufficient. This is because the fog light switch still wasn't receiving power when the headlight switch was off. The solution was to supply switched, fused power to the fog light switch in lieu of the headlight switch power.

It took quite a bit of sleuthing in the Bentley to trace the proper wires and decipher the circuitry but I now have fully independent fogs while retaining the high beam cut feature and automatic activation of the front fogs when the rear fog is turned on (not that I would ever use this feature.) 

My setup for soldering the relays into the harness.

Driver's side done.

Passenger side completed.

My new power distribution block running off the 75x post. I have it zip tied to the knee bolster frame. This was the best location I could find that wouldn't interfere with the cluster while still being out of the way. Sorry for the crappy photos.

Center console pulled out to access the fog light switch plug.

Grey and green pin pulled. This is the pin that was supplying power to the fog light switch. Like I did on the fog light relay, I shrink tubed over the old connector and zip tied it out of the way. After clipping the purple pin retainer I slipped the old pin out and the new one into place. The beauty of this method is that it is completely reversible, no cutting of the factory harness was required.

Still need to finish hard wiring my iPhone charger and GPS charger, then I'll button it up.

Anddd my car broke down. I'm currently waiting for a tow truck on Treasure Island just outside of SF.

I was on the bridge and got a single misfire, didn't think anything of it and kept driving. Then boom, misfires galore killing the engine. I pull over as much as I can and get it started with some gas pedal mashing. It wasn't happy about it though.

I've got the knee bolster off and can hear the problem. The engine will fire up and within 5-10 seconds it will start to misfire along with a rapid clicking of a relay. I'm thinking the load reduction relay only because I can't think what else is connected directly to the motor like that. Pulling the fog light relay and new headlight relays I installed did not stop the clicking, misfiring, and shutdown of the motor.

Joy.

8-4-2013

Electrical issues are the worst because of their often intermittent occurrences.

I scanned for codes and got four.

1. 18010/P1602/005634 - Power Supply B+ Terminal 30: Voltage too Low

2. 17968/P1560/005472 - 17968 - Maximum Engine Speed Exceeded (Engine Warranty VOID! ☺ )

3. 17967/P1559/005465 - Throttle Body (J338): Fault in Basic Settings

4. 17967/P1559/005465 - Throttle Body (J338): Fault in Basic Settings

Terminal 30 low voltage appears every time the battery is disconnected. I'm fairly certain I cleared codes before starting the car for the first time so this could be related?

The other two I believe are due to me mashing the throttle while getting the car started. I'm surprised to not see any misfire codes..probably confirms that this is some weird electrical issue and not something mechanical like a blown coil pack. Ugh.

I've since cleared codes, started the car (it fires right up like normal now), had it die and no codes have appeared yet.

Today I will be going over the wiring and I'll try to take some logs to see if anything looks peculiar when the problem occurs.

Does anyone have a suggestion for where to start looking on the relay panel?

^Thanks, much appreciated. I've got a few relays lying around myself. I happened to have a spare fuel pump relay, swapping that out didn't fix the problem. I was really hoping that was going to be the problem, it would seem to make sense. Fuel pump relay clicks, engine cuts out and dies. But nope.

I did some logging and didn't see anything that would indicate a problem. As the engine starts to die air g/s decreases along with fuel injector ms. Timing looks normal, knock voltages look fine..battery voltage is close to 14v when running.

I'm not getting any repeat codes from the engine now. The only code I was able to pull was an HVAC code.

01206 - Signal for Duration of Ignition Off Time
27-10 - Implausible Signal - Intermittent

Maybe a faulty ignition switch...

Took it for another drive and everything remains fine with the stock ECU. I am getting an occasional CEL for the vehicle speed sensor. I was getting that code before but it wasn't actually tripping the CEL, so thats a little strange.

I should note that while I was installing the headlight relays on my car I put the chipped ECU into my dad's 99 1.8T since he had always wanted to try a chipped ECU. His car is an automatic so I recoded it for an auto and it ran great. I put it back in my car when I finished the work, recoded it again for manual, drove 20 miles, and started having the clicking relay and engine shutdown problem.

I guess the next test would be to put the chipped ECU back into my dad's car and see how it runs.

EDIT: I'm also no longer getting the "Signal for Duration of Ignition Off Time" code with the stock ECU in place.

8-6-2013

*crickets* *crickets*

Here is the final set up of the power distribution block. It gets its power from the switched 75x post.

From bottom to top:

2A - Fog light relay power (replaced power from headlight circuit)

10A - Power for fogs (goes through the fog light switch)

5A - Driver's headlight relay

5A - Passenger's headlight relay

2A - iPhone charger (already has a 1A fuse in line, didn't want to bother with taking it out.)  

2A - Underdash lights power (through Funk button)

Note: I rechecked the fuses and lowered the headlight relays to a 4A fuse from a 5A shown in the picture and the fog lights from a 10A to a 7.5A fuse.

And the result: A headlight switch that should never melt again and independent fog lights.

8-15-2013

Can anyone decipher what I'll be using this switch for? The switch is not placed randomly on the page.

8-19-2013

The switch above will be for a fuel pump kill switch. Still working out where I'll be mounting it.

Today's haul from the junkyard...

I'm going to start putting together a couple headlight relay kits and see if there is any interest.