Mild thread hijack:
For quite a while I have been knocking about in fly-by-wire FIATs and although everyone has loved the cars, no-one had actually thought to do the conversions themselves, presuming it is impossible or expensive, even though I said it wasn't hard with a little knowledge and it wasn't expensive at all. I am still amazed at the amount of time, effort and money that goes into DIY or pro 3rd party fuelling solutions that end up not working at worst or mediocre at best.
The tide seems to have changed recently though. I have no less than 3 unanswered messages in my inbox right now asking me how to make their T-Jet work in a Panda/Uno/whatever. The questions asked are expansive and take a long time to answer properly. I don't have time to answer such large questions over and over again for each case so I have thought about doing a guide for quite a while. This would be an over-arching guide that would discuss modern FIAT electronics in general as they are all the same when it comes down to it. I could then put in detail for individual models. Not sure of the best format for such a thing. Obviously it would be a general guide, outside the Panda section.
For now I will answer the questions as they come here.
Right then, I have had a look at the standalone systems but unless you are doing something with a Vauxhall or Ford engine, it appears a bespoke setup would be needed. So would having a complete donor be the 'simplest' option?
If I happened to have a donor car I assume that the following would be needed
- Complete loom (interior and engine) including fuse box
- All the ECUs/nodes
- Keys and ignition barrel
- Throttle potentiometer
- Dials
Anything else spring to mind?
Cheers
Dave
There is little knowledge about FIATs in the tuning world for many reasons, so there aren't any off the shelf solutions as you say. I agree that a bespoke solution is expensive and difficult to investigate and set up for someone without a rolling road in their garage. There are a lot of DIY solutions and geek tools, but the investment of time is extreme.
So, from a donor car you need:
- Engine complete with all it' sensors and wiring loom
- Engine ECU
- Body ECU
- Throttle pedal
- Dials (but actually dials from other cars can be made to work)
- Aerial around ignition barrel (plastic coated ring -£10 from FIAT)
- Key (grip, not shaft required)
Wiring-wise, you leave the engine as it is with all the sensors attached and the plug coming from it. Otherwise, you can just chop the loom a foot (or more if you can) from every plug in the body ECU and the remaining plug on the engine ECU. You might think that keeping the loom in one piece is a priority, but you will use so few of the wires to make it work that having some of them connected straight off is not the advantage you think it is. The configuration in your project car will be different and much more simple. You only need 3 or 4 fuses, not the fusebox full the 500 will have.
You will need to rely on wiring diagrams found in the eLearn CDs, pin numbers written on plugs and colours of cable to guide you.
I think specifics about the wiring is something I should leave until a guide is written?