I am back with another DIY. This time we are going to take e38/e39 switches and convert them to fit in the e30. This is a great mod as it give us an electronically controlled switch, that we can run a variety of relays off of, and looks much better than stock.
A few notes before I begin:
-Shameless Plug: I currently have about 18 switches with pigtails that I impulse bought on ebay in bulk. I would like to pass these on to you guys as I dont actually have a need for them. I will modify the internals, and solder on extra wires for you, basically do the first half of the DIY - you just have to wire up the relays themselves, and put it in the car. Not really trying to make money, just recoupe my original expense. $20 shipped in CONUS for a pair with quick disconnects. Those of you north of the border, shoot me a PM.
-Since a lot of people liked my DIY guide to electronic projects, I have included a lot of information in here about soldering, and working with this stuff in general. I have made it blue. If your only interested in step by step DIY, ignore the stuff in blue.
-To fit in the center console - at least my center console, I had to grind down with a file around the edges of the hole. I mean just a tiny bit, stock switches still fit great, but now the new switches fit snugly too.
-I ended up cutting out the stock harness and just using electrical tape and quick disconnects, but you could take apart an old e30 switch and solder to those ends and make it work.
-There is a guy ( a friend) who will soon be bringing plug and play kits to market- I dont know his prices, or what completely what he is offereing but he can chime in on his own - the moral of the story is that those of you who dont/cant undertake this project on your own, he can send you a plug and play kit.
-You could also add an auto Up and autoDown box, so you could have true one touch control. For that you need an Autoloc box, and those cost 30 bucks per window, and i am way to cheap, but if someone wants to get me one, I would bemore than happy to show you how to wire it up.
DISCLAIMER: I am in no way responsible for any damage you do to yourself, your car, or others. We are working with circuits that can produce 30A if need be, so it can be dangerous. Please exercise caution at all times when working on your car. You fuck up, its not on me.
All images and information are my property, but I give you a free licence to do with it what you want. But if you use it to make money, dont be a jerk and send me some.
-Also if anyone has any cool electronics ideas they want to see worked out - let me know, I would be more than happy to take a stab at it.
Now to the DIY:
Stuff you will need:
-e38/e39 black bottom window switches, and their pigtails
-DEI 451M Micro lock relay - the site i got mine for $5 each has gone down, so look around for the best deal
-22G wiring - can be taken from micro relay harness
-solder
-soldering iron
-quick disconnects (4.6m if going into OEM plug)
-shrink wrap
-wire cutters
-any stuff you think you may need
The first series of steps revolve around modifying the switches.
Lets start with the most basic - take them apart.
We first have to figure out how to isolate the second click on both the up and down switches. There is a lot of RD work that goes into this but basically you should come up with the fallowing:
Now we want D2 and U2 separated so to do that we have to cut traces on the board to isolate those nodes.
Cutting Traces: The best way to do this is to take an Xacto knife and gently scrape off the green isolation on top of the trace. when you can see shiny copper and nothing else, use the Xacto knife to make a switch thin cut to get a nice gap in there, so no electrons can make it across.
Cut where you see the red dashes - one is on top of the board, the other is underneath.
and this is what you should come up with.
Now we need to solder our new leads on.
Soldering: Basically whats going on is you are taking a metal with a low melting point and using a hot piece of metal t melt it. Sounds simple - but to get clean solder points it takes practice and a steady hand. One good tip is to always tin the tip. You always wear a condom the first time, right? Same principle. You want to make sure the tip fo the soldering iron is already covered in solder as it helps make the heat transfer more efficient, and makes your job easier. You can tin the tip simply by taking some solder, and letting it melt on the tip, until it forms a nice even layer, or you can use tining paste like i did. Either way, if you tin the tip, and tin the wires before you try to connect them you will be considerably more successful.
Cut a length of wire that we are going to use to connect one of the nodes to the passenger side relay.
and solder it on:
and now the second connection:
Push them through these two very convenient holes and reassemble the switch
Now both switches have to be modified to work properly but only the driver side has have two extra leads connected, unless you want both switches to control both windows, but thats another story.
Now that the switches are done we move on to the second part of the DIY - we now need to make the harness for the car, including our new relays, and the pigtails for the switches.
Here is kind of a break down of what we are going to connect.
RELAY--------------E39 Switch-------------E30 Harness-----------Function
Small green---------G/Brown----------------Black------------------Lock/UP
Small Red-----------G/Red------------------Green-----------------+12V--
Small Blue-----------G/Black----------------Purple-------------Unlock/Down
Violet/Black---------N/A--------------------Green-----------------+12V--
Green/Black---------N/A--------------------Black------------------Lock/UP
White/Black---------Brown-----------------Brown-----------------Ground--
Blue/Black----------N/A--------------------Purple-------------Unlock/Down
Passenger side Green--Orange----------------------------------Up 2
Passenger side Blue----Blue------------------------------------Down 2
Now we start cutting down the harness, since we dont need miles of wires to make this work. The fallowing pictures only have small references on them as the above wiring explanation should make it all make sense. Basically you have one relay per window, the little wires are activation wires, and the orange and blue wires we put in are going to run from driver switch to the passenger side relay, to trigger the event we want.
First we start with the power wire.
get all the wires shortened and with spade connectors, now hook up the control wires, dont forget to tap in the RED and Brown wires from the switch into the main power wires, as well as tapping the RED relay wire into +12V.
all done - now the passenger side is exactly the same except dont forget to tap in our red and blue wires.
At this point I went back and made quick disconnects near the driver side switch so I could solder in the other ends of the orange/Blue wire to the passenger side harness
Here is the passenger side harness coming together
All done with everything.
Test run image:
Final product:
Video:
Video
A few notes before I begin:
-Shameless Plug: I currently have about 18 switches with pigtails that I impulse bought on ebay in bulk. I would like to pass these on to you guys as I dont actually have a need for them. I will modify the internals, and solder on extra wires for you, basically do the first half of the DIY - you just have to wire up the relays themselves, and put it in the car. Not really trying to make money, just recoupe my original expense. $20 shipped in CONUS for a pair with quick disconnects. Those of you north of the border, shoot me a PM.
-Since a lot of people liked my DIY guide to electronic projects, I have included a lot of information in here about soldering, and working with this stuff in general. I have made it blue. If your only interested in step by step DIY, ignore the stuff in blue.
-To fit in the center console - at least my center console, I had to grind down with a file around the edges of the hole. I mean just a tiny bit, stock switches still fit great, but now the new switches fit snugly too.
-I ended up cutting out the stock harness and just using electrical tape and quick disconnects, but you could take apart an old e30 switch and solder to those ends and make it work.
-There is a guy ( a friend) who will soon be bringing plug and play kits to market- I dont know his prices, or what completely what he is offereing but he can chime in on his own - the moral of the story is that those of you who dont/cant undertake this project on your own, he can send you a plug and play kit.
-You could also add an auto Up and autoDown box, so you could have true one touch control. For that you need an Autoloc box, and those cost 30 bucks per window, and i am way to cheap, but if someone wants to get me one, I would bemore than happy to show you how to wire it up.
DISCLAIMER: I am in no way responsible for any damage you do to yourself, your car, or others. We are working with circuits that can produce 30A if need be, so it can be dangerous. Please exercise caution at all times when working on your car. You fuck up, its not on me.
All images and information are my property, but I give you a free licence to do with it what you want. But if you use it to make money, dont be a jerk and send me some.
-Also if anyone has any cool electronics ideas they want to see worked out - let me know, I would be more than happy to take a stab at it.
Now to the DIY:
Stuff you will need:
-e38/e39 black bottom window switches, and their pigtails
-DEI 451M Micro lock relay - the site i got mine for $5 each has gone down, so look around for the best deal
-22G wiring - can be taken from micro relay harness
-solder
-soldering iron
-quick disconnects (4.6m if going into OEM plug)
-shrink wrap
-wire cutters
-any stuff you think you may need
The first series of steps revolve around modifying the switches.
Lets start with the most basic - take them apart.
We first have to figure out how to isolate the second click on both the up and down switches. There is a lot of RD work that goes into this but basically you should come up with the fallowing:
Now we want D2 and U2 separated so to do that we have to cut traces on the board to isolate those nodes.
Cutting Traces: The best way to do this is to take an Xacto knife and gently scrape off the green isolation on top of the trace. when you can see shiny copper and nothing else, use the Xacto knife to make a switch thin cut to get a nice gap in there, so no electrons can make it across.
Cut where you see the red dashes - one is on top of the board, the other is underneath.
and this is what you should come up with.
Now we need to solder our new leads on.
Soldering: Basically whats going on is you are taking a metal with a low melting point and using a hot piece of metal t melt it. Sounds simple - but to get clean solder points it takes practice and a steady hand. One good tip is to always tin the tip. You always wear a condom the first time, right? Same principle. You want to make sure the tip fo the soldering iron is already covered in solder as it helps make the heat transfer more efficient, and makes your job easier. You can tin the tip simply by taking some solder, and letting it melt on the tip, until it forms a nice even layer, or you can use tining paste like i did. Either way, if you tin the tip, and tin the wires before you try to connect them you will be considerably more successful.
Cut a length of wire that we are going to use to connect one of the nodes to the passenger side relay.
and solder it on:
and now the second connection:
Push them through these two very convenient holes and reassemble the switch
Now both switches have to be modified to work properly but only the driver side has have two extra leads connected, unless you want both switches to control both windows, but thats another story.
Now that the switches are done we move on to the second part of the DIY - we now need to make the harness for the car, including our new relays, and the pigtails for the switches.
Here is kind of a break down of what we are going to connect.
RELAY--------------E39 Switch-------------E30 Harness-----------Function
Small green---------G/Brown----------------Black------------------Lock/UP
Small Red-----------G/Red------------------Green-----------------+12V--
Small Blue-----------G/Black----------------Purple-------------Unlock/Down
Violet/Black---------N/A--------------------Green-----------------+12V--
Green/Black---------N/A--------------------Black------------------Lock/UP
White/Black---------Brown-----------------Brown-----------------Ground--
Blue/Black----------N/A--------------------Purple-------------Unlock/Down
Passenger side Green--Orange----------------------------------Up 2
Passenger side Blue----Blue------------------------------------Down 2
Now we start cutting down the harness, since we dont need miles of wires to make this work. The fallowing pictures only have small references on them as the above wiring explanation should make it all make sense. Basically you have one relay per window, the little wires are activation wires, and the orange and blue wires we put in are going to run from driver switch to the passenger side relay, to trigger the event we want.
First we start with the power wire.
get all the wires shortened and with spade connectors, now hook up the control wires, dont forget to tap in the RED and Brown wires from the switch into the main power wires, as well as tapping the RED relay wire into +12V.
all done - now the passenger side is exactly the same except dont forget to tap in our red and blue wires.
At this point I went back and made quick disconnects near the driver side switch so I could solder in the other ends of the orange/Blue wire to the passenger side harness
Here is the passenger side harness coming together
All done with everything.
Test run image:
Final product:
Video:
Video
Comment