c101 and x20 wire diagram (e30 M50 adapter)

[The Fast One!]

you are giving us conflicting information.

you request wiring information for an 89 e30......but......the info you gave is for a 90+ airbag car.

go buy an ETM (electronic troubleshooting manual) off ebay. it has all the e30 / e34 / e36 wiring diagrams in pdf format. then make your own chart.

then, if something doesnt work, you will understand how the system works and will be able to figure it out.

cheers, jason

waffleswaffleswaffles the ETM have these the c101 and x20 for all years,



the info i gave was right off of my car. maybe the harness was switched at one point.

going to look for the ETM right now.

[The Fast One!]

ok,

I had no clue those were out there.


went ahead and bought one of those 5 CD packs with everything up to 2001.
Hoefully this will give me the wire diagrams that i need.


my only question is if people have this why don't they lend the information that is on the CD to make an adapter for people doing the swap?

[EtaSport]

You'll be disapointed mikey. I already have the e36 and e34 ETM. It wont show you what you are looking for.

[matt]

If it was easy, Treehouse couldn't charge $400 for an adapter.

[The Fast One!]

You'll be disapointed mikey. I already have the e36 and e34 ETM. It wont show you what you are looking for.

i figured that much, it was only $16 shipped and has other stuf with it. so i'll still be happy with it.

[The Fast One!]

If it was easy, Treehouse couldn't charge $400 for an adapter.

that is so very true, my problem is i have a 94 engine harness with a e34 plug and 88 e30 plug and then my body plug should be a 89 but i guess for some reason it isn't.


i would figure that people would have the diagrams and could post them up for me instead of me not being able to start my car for the past month because of a little plug.

i'll probably end up buying the treehouse plug and then if the car still doesn't start take it to VACmotorsports and have them look at it since i'm out of time to work on the car. I can only work on it for so long each week now.

[Jason89i]

You'll be disapointed mikey. I already have the e36 and e34 ETM. It wont show you what you are looking for.

it shows everything you need. you just have to know how to read the diagrams.

for instance.....the wiring diagrams show a wire coming from the temp gauge, going through a connector, and into the sender. the wiring diagram shows what color the wire is (usually labeled BN/VI for brown wire / violet stripe.) and......IMPORTANT.......the wiring diagrams also label ALL connectors the wires go through AND LABELS ALL the pin numbers.

like this...

. x20 (this is the connector)
--- 0)----- BN/VI (this is the wire / color)
. 2 (this is the pin number)

now you know connector (x20), pin number (2), wire color (brown wire w/ violet stripe), function, and what else its tied into.

i have found all the wiring info for c101 and x20 connectors.....not only do the diagrams tell me what they do, the will show you what else uses that signal, ground, or power. i have made a spreadsheet for all the conversions ive wired......ALL WERE DIFFERENT.....88is, 89i, 90m3, 86es, 90i, 91-318is. also have x20 on 94e34, 92e36, 94e36....only a few differences, nothing major.

i recommend to anyone doing a conversion......MAKE YOUR OWN SPREADSHEET. understand how the electrical systems work, what is looped together, what uses the same inputs......then if something goes wrong, hopefully you can fix it.

my only question is if people have this why don't they lend the information that is on the CD to make an adapter for people doing the swap?

the reason no-one emails the files around, is that they are 16-24mb pdf files for each year. besides, its under $20 off ebay.....but the e91-318is diagrams really stink, so you may need to grab a voltometer.


hope this helps
cheers, jason

[The Fast One!]

yeah thats fine with me if they didn't post the diagrams.


but i had NO clue that those diagrams were right there on ebay.
like i said in a previous post, i already ordered the diagrams, thanks a lot. this should be all i need to get the adapter correct and hopefully start the car or give me some suggestions to getting it started.

[Jason89i]

like i said in a previous post, i already ordered the diagrams, .

you should be set. grab some graph paper and go to town.

this should be all i need to get the adapter correct and hopefully start the car or give me some suggestions to getting it started.

keep us updated. i like to know the solutions to problems.

also, you mentioned your c101 pin20 is R/YL ......and you state its an 89is. ive only seen that on 1990+ cars. so, you may want to verify year of diagrams / your wiring at c101. (that R/YL wire needs special attention, but it only shows up on the 1990+ diagrams as the wiring is different.)

cheers.
drive on.
jason

[EtaSport]

i meant i believe hes looking for something that will show him the plugs straight out, not something he has to trace wires for.

Mike, I already found differences in your wiring using the etm. Perhaps this is the problem as to why the car isnt starting.

I just got etm for every year e30 and every year e36. Looks like your connector is an 88 which is the car you took it from. From what im hearing you may have to adapt your adaptor to make sure everything is correct. ie-once you adapt the e30 side to the m50 side, you'll have to adapt the e30 side to your e30 body side.

[Jason89i]

Looks like your connector is an 88 which is the car you took it from. .....

are you sure? check pin 20. the 88-89's its brown.

Mike, I already found differences in your wiring using the etm. Perhaps this is the problem as to why the car isnt starting.

its incouraging to see someone out there that is willing to do a little work and not just look for "the easy way out."

.... ie-once you adapt the e30 side to the m50 side, you'll have to adapt the e30 side to your e30 body side.

dont forget......wire colors WILL change at the c101 for many functions. ie.....pin 5 is BRN/GRN on the engine side but BLK/BRN on the chassis side. it happens in 3-5 places, depending on year. of course it shows this on the wiring diagrams. its just that most people (myself included) dont think to check.

cheers, jason

[The Fast One!]

jon- I did want a chart with everything already, BUT if i have to trace them then it is not that bad, just time consuming.

because of wire color changes, i'll ignore the wires in between the adapter, and line up correct pin for pin on the engine harness and the e30 body side.

jason-are ALL the colors for my e30 body side the same for ONLY 90+ cars, thats really wierd.

but this car is kind of wierd, we think someone did a 5-speed swap before i bought it and who knows what else.


once i get the diagrams and my own apater made i'll be posting a thread for sure about whats going on.


I might be taking my time though, found a 300zx I want to talk my dad into letting me buy and then the e30 would be a "fun" car that would get extensively overhaulled and modded.

[Mike B.]

I am about at the same point in my swap. I think it is a great idea to get all of this information into one location for future swaps.

The engine side is from a '94 M50 and the body side of the E30 plug is from an '89 325i Automatic (5-spd conversion). I noticed that I too have the red/yellow wire for pin 20, so maybe it has something to do with the Auto transmission. The colors are accurate as they have been triple checked.

There are some gaps and any information that may fill in the gaps would be great. Once the chart is complete and the engine starts, I'll post a finalized version.

Here is what I have so far:

[The Fast One!]

looks good, once i find out some more info on them, I'll add to the chart as well.



EDIT- i just noticed, i have the same plugs but my pin 12 on the m50 is brown/violetinstead of brown. and my pin 14 on e30 is blue/yellow and not black white.

is this going to make a difference, i'll double check the colors just to make sure.

[Mike B.]

The wire color for the coolant sensor shouldn't make a difference. As long as you know that pin 12 on the M50 is for the coolant sensor and it goes to pin 4 (coolant sensor) on the E30.

Colors help identify the wires, but what we really need to do is match function to function.