I found this file I wrote for another member some time ago, so I thought the club can benefit. Basically, the following allows a 4 speed auto to be converted to tiptronic, without changing the gearbox, just the electrics.

TIPTRONIC CONVERSION – KH


Step 1 – Parts;

You will require – KJ BEM, KJ ECU, Shifter mechanism preferably chrome, the plug with wiring on it for the shifter, a spare plug with for the ECU, and a KJ or TJ TCL ECU.
You will also need a key, but while I have supplied all the locks and etc, I would not put them in your car as this means the key under the dash wont unlock anything at all. Boot or glove box, and this means lots and lots less work.

Step 2 – Wiring;

There are only a couple of differences with the wiring of the Tippy system in comparison to normal Auto operation.

The first is plug B111. B111 is the majority of all the editing we will go through. It has 3 rows and is at the top where the clip is it will have 2 groups of 2 pins (wires or spaces) on one side of the clip, and 1 group of 3 pins on the other side. I will provide a colour for this plug later.

A)

First step with the wiring will be the plug from the shifter mechanism.

6 wires go to it.

In your existing plug B111 at the ECU there will be 3 pins.
Pin 110 – brown wire – goes to L at the moment
Pin 122 – yellow/black trace wire – goes to 2 at the moment
Pin 109 – Brown/white trace wire – goes to 3 at the moment.

You will need to cut these wires with enough length so you can use the pins in the plug again.

Pin 110 (ECU plug side)- Is reused and connects to yellow/black trace wire in the tippy shifter plug.

Pin 122 (ECU Plug Side) – Is reused and connects to Brown/White trace wire in tippy shifter plug

Pin 109 (ECU Plug Side) - Is reused and connects to the Brown/Black trace wire in tippy shifter plug.

3 wires down!!!!!!

The next wire to deal with is the Blue/Black trace in the tippy shifter plug. It will connect to the ignition wire power source anywhere in the car. The Audio harness or Climate control is a good place to get it. The ignition wire is always Black/white trace. Don’t get it from the ECU.

After that, the next wire will be Yellow/blue trace (Pin 1 on its own on the top row next to the clip)in the tippy shifter plug. This wire splices into the Yellow (solid colour – no trace) wire in the B111 plug Pin 102.

Last wire in the tippy shifter plug.

This wire is yellow/blue again, but it is in pin 5 under the clip. This wire goes to the D light wire on the dash loom plug but NOT on the ECU plug side.
TIPPY SHIFTER WIRING DONE!!!!

75% complete.

Step 2 for the wiring is to make the instrument cluster lights work to tell you which gear the tippy system is in.

3 wires are needed for this. You will be reusing the ones at plug B111 that you cut earlier. However this time you will be using the ‘Car’ side of the wire rather than the plug side of the wire.

L Light – Yellow/black trace car side wire that was cut earlier will now need a new pin attached to the end of it – Cut this pin from the plug provided. Make sure it has enough length. Plug the pin into the existing B111 plug, in position 105. 105 is on the top row, and next to the clip.

2 Light – Brown/white trace car side wire that was cut earlier will now need a new pin attached to the end of it – Cut this pin from the plug provided. Plug the pin into the existing B111 Plug, in position 118. This is directly below position 105 in the middle row.

3 – Light – Brown/black trace car side wire that was cut earlier will now need a new pin attached to the end of it – Cut this pin from the plug provided. Plug the pin into the existing B111 Plug, in position 117. This is next to 118 in the middle row of the plug.

FINISHED!

That is it. No more issues. 9 wires total to edit, and 3 new pins required.

The end result, will be the shifter works as factory, the lights for 32L in the cluster become tippy gear indicator lights.

The only thing that isn’t like a KJ tippy, is the 4 light. As your cluster does not have a light for 4th gear, I have done the wiring design so that when the car is in D (not tippy mode) the D lights up, but when the car is in tippy mode and 4th gear, no lights work. So that way you can tell if it is in sport mode still but looking at the cluster and simply shifting the lever over to D again makes D light up.

The TCL upgraded software module is plug and play.

You will notice that the ECU behaves a little differently than the old one. It is 256mb as opposed to 128. So it is much more sophisticated and clever. Things like it will instantly apply the torque converter lock up when coasting.

You will also get the 16 beeps with security light flashing when turning the car on. This is because 1 wire that goes to the SRS system from the new BEM is not present. You cannot add this wire without replacing the ENTIRE srs system and having a new SRS ECU and changing the plug for the SRS system. I would never do that. If you have auto headlights, simply open the BEM and remove the piezo speaker inside. The beep stops and you are left with the security light. However this beep is also your headlight warning buzzer which is why I mentioned having auto headlights first.

Job Done.

Mike

I found this file I wrote for another member some time ago, so I thought the club can benefit. Basically, the following allows a 4 speed auto to be converted to tiptronic, without changing the gearbox, just the electrics.

TIPTRONIC CONVERSION – KH


Nicely done Mike, I'm sure it will be a wealth of information for those who are going to undertake it.

Quick question, what if you have fitted a 4-speed tippy cluster (say, a TF Sports)? What would be the process is involved to get the '4' light operational, if you know of it?

If you have the 4 light, then you will have an extra pin available in the cluster. However you will have to run an extra wire from the cluster itself, all the way down to the ECU and you will need two factory plug pins to do this.

Also, if you have a TE/F you can use a TF Sports ECU to the same effect.

If you have a TH, then there may be issues as the tippy cars from TH onwards all have Traction Control. It is a big deal wiring wise to disable it.

Mike

I would just note that having access to an OpenPort cable does mean that dealing with the ECU swap situation can be made easier if a J series ECU is used. I believe I might have figured out how to move H series immobiliser info to a J series ECU but can't test it due to lack of access to a suitable mule :(

The TCL can be disabled if the harness doesn't support this. For F series use the barometric pressure sensor CEL can be neutralised. I don't think the J series ECUs can be used effectively with E series cars - something to do with gearbox compatibility.

The TCL can be disabled if the harness doesn't support this. For F series use the barometric pressure sensor CEL can be neutralised. I don't think the J series ECUs can be used effectively with E series cars - something to do with gearbox compatibility.

They can't be used. TF series Sport Tippy ECU can be however. As long as the wiring is edited to support it.

Nice write up :)
Another way to do this is to use a 4 speed tiptronic engine loom, a 'flashed' TJ ECU (although you do lose immobiliser function i believe) and a tiptronic shifter. This maintains factory wiring harness/looms and takes around 3 hours for someone, like me, that has basic mechanical skills and zero electrical skills.

i have a 99 TH Solara wagon with no TCL what would i need to make this possible for my car :) ( Good old Steal a Part here we come ) :D

i have a 99 TH Solara wagon with no TCL what would i need to make this possible for my car :) ( Good old Steal a Part here we come ) :D

An ECU and BEM from a TJ series 2 (as well as all the locks and keys etc)

Mike

Also people, try and check the diagrams specific to your car, the factory manuals are available for download with a cursory search. The pins are accurate but MMAL had a habit of changing wire colours slightly over the years. So I personally always double check with the diagrams.
I did this install on the weekend and this worked rather well. However, you will need pins from the Green plug going to the ECU. just the green plug.

Almost all of the wires go to the green plug anyway so when you aquire your shifter and cut the wires going to it from a harness for your install, cut the green ECU plug off too and use it for the pins you will need.

Mike

Is a great write up but why not just get an engine harness from a car with Tiptronic such as a series 2 Magna with no TCL and use that, is about an hour and a half to change he engine loom and job is done

WytWun, do you have in your list of maps etc any info on removing the Barra warning from the TJ ECU's

WytWun, do you have in your list of maps etc any info on removing the Barra warning from the TJ ECU's
Unfortunately disabling the Baro CEL can't be done by a simple "option switch" but requires a small code code patch which varies between ROMs. I'm working on a way to to distribute the patch via the definitions which I hope to release, for a subset of ROMs, soon.

WytWun, do you have in your list of maps etc any info on removing the Barra warning from the TJ ECU's
Unfortunately disabling the Baro CEL can't be done by a simple "option switch" but requires a small code code patch which varies between ROMs. I'm working on a way to to distribute the patch via the definitions which I hope to release, for a subset of ROMs, soon.
I've been mulling over options for releasing the code patch mentioned above (that neutralises the barometric pressure sensor CEL), but have been unhappy about aspects of all the options I've come up with :(

While going through some other code last night, I think I found a much simpler way to neutralise the CEL which also has much less risk for the user - while a stuff-up might induce all sorts of other sensor related CELs it doesn't actually change the code execution, whereas the known working approach actually changes the code execution and a stuff-up with applying the patch could have quite serious consequences.

However I'm not able to test this alternative approach, as the car that I was able to test the code patch on has been sold... :(

If you have an F series car and are prepared to test this for me, please contact me by PM. I can loan an ECU (auto or manual) for the testing and am happy to pay for return postage of same, however if you have a manual car you will also need access to a flashing rig (and a car with a reflashing connector if you haven't built a bench harness) as I haven't yet modified my bench harness to handle manual ECUs :roll:

Cheers,
Andy.

Wytwun,

I've got a kf verada now that I won't be selling this time.... If you want to do some testing I'm more than happy to be the guinea pig if Needed. Send me a pm or email. I have the re flash connector on my kf so should be a touch easier

I just followed the instructions to convert my car to tiptronic, Can confirm Mike's instructions work 100%. There is one error, though the coloring for the "L" and "2" wires mentioned below is incorrect, they need to be reversed:



L Light – Yellow/black trace car side wire that was cut earlier will now need a new pin attached to the end of it – Cut this pin from the plug provided. Make sure it has enough length. Plug the pin into the existing B111 plug, in position 105. 105 is on the top row, and next to the clip.

2 Light – Brown/white trace car side wire that was cut earlier will now need a new pin attached to the end of it – Cut this pin from the plug provided. Plug the pin into the existing B111 Plug, in position 118. This is directly below position 105 in the middle row.



the "2" light is Yellow/Black and the "L/1" light is Brown. The wiring diagrams confirm this. The Pinouts are correct though. I found this out when I was testing and I would shift down from 3rd and it would go to 1(the dash light, not the actual gear shift). This is only for the Dash lights, the car will work properly. Simple fix, just re-pin.

Also got my 4 light working, Pulled out cluster and ran an extra wire from PIN 54(Blackout cluster, plug connected to the top left of the cluster, not the 2 in the back). Down to the center dash plug, then from there into the ECU PIN 128. helps having spare looms to hack pins from.

oh and also had WytWun(Andy) flash an ECU for me with the Barometric pressure sensor delete fix, can confirm this works too as the check engine light(mine is a TE converted to a 3.8 running TJ ECU) is no longer present.