Engine 5SPD swap into an AUTO!

5SPD swap into an AUTO!

Okay here's the deal. I can get my hands on a 2003 corolla 5SPD with cables and brackets and ready to install with clutch pedal, for 600 + shipping. It has 15,000 miles on it. I called around to a couple of shops, and with everything installed it would come to around 700-800. So for the complete swap im looking at around 1500-1700. My only concern is since its currently an auto and now transferring to a 5spd, what do i do with the ECU. I think there are going to be some problems with that right? Any help or comments are appreciated thanks

Oh and can someone name me all the parts i am going to need to swap this baby "ready to install". I want to make sure with the guy i might buy it from that everything needed is there. Thanks again

Chris

Get the service manuals and wiring diagram from Toyota. You can order them from whatever number is listed on your owner's manual. Then look them over (especially the wiring diagram) and find where the wiring is different for manual vs. automatic.

Looking at mine, I can see a lot that would need to be rerouted, including tail and backup lights, starter wiring, etc. However, it also becomes a lot simpler as there's a lot of wiring that can be taken out. Does your car have cruise control? You might need to swap out the ECU, but I'm not sure about that.

Good luck.

No it doesnt have cruise control. Well i can get a wiring diagram of the ECU. Im just trying to figure out what would be better, to just replace the ECU or try to rewire it so to speak. I guess I would have to find a 5spd corolla in my area and just pull em up side by side and compare?

this might off the topic, but why did you get an automatic in the first place??

Well i never expected to modify this car. After i joined this website and saw how nice this car could look I started doing mods that didnt mess w/ the engine. Now that I have completed a lot of mods for cosmetic looks, I am moving towards the engine modifications now. I owe too much on my car to trade it in and i've already put in excess of 4000-5000 into it so im stuck in essence. I should have bought a stick, but i didnt and i regret it. It sux, but oh well..I'll work with wat i have now.

Again, I highly recommend that if you're doing any work that involves wiring, you should get at least the wiring diagram for the car. It shows you exactly what goes where and what's different between models and will be the only reference you have to insure that everything is wired correctly. I don't see how anyone does any wiring work without one of these.

Order it from Toyota. I'm thinking the book is probably around $50. While you're at it you might want to get the service manuals as well, which has torque specs, diagnostic info, installation/removal and inspection procedures, etc. but those are a little more expensive.

I can get an online dvd disk directly from the dealership service center for 25.00. It'll show everything from wiring to basic repairs, same as the service guyz use. Thanks for ur advice MrDisco

CorollaBest, thanks for the diagrams very nice information. Can anyone tell me if I were to have the bare tranny (5spd) and have it come with the Torque Converter, wat else would I need to complete the transmission? Any parts (i.e. clutch assembly, certain brackets, cables, things like that) that you can think of...I am making the guy at the salvage yard a list so he can dig through the car and extract em and send em my way. Thanks.

Manual transmissions dont have torque converters. Just thought ide let you know so your not telling the guy from the yard that you want a torque converter with ur 5 spd, lol.

But im just thinking real quick here, youll need bare tranny, clutch assembly and all related parts, flywheel if not included with tranny(and if not this would be a great time to buy a light weight one), clutch pedal, clutch pedal mounting parts, shifter with all mounting hardware and linkage to the tranny, Im betting that your gona need a new master cylinder too since the clutch uses the brake fluid(since we have a hydralic clutch).

Thats about all i can think of for now. Im thinking you might need a new ECU, since the auto ECU is made to control the tranny it might not know what to do if theres not an auto tranny anymore. And like MrDisco said, theres gona be a little wiring involved, shouldnt be too much thou, main thing i can think of is reverse lite activation.

Alright, yeah i think we figured out there is no torque converter, but it does come with the master cylinder. I can get a clutch assembly w/ cable, pedal, all that stuff, good idea with the flywheel, i'll look into that...the salvage yard im buying it from still has the corolla from which I am getting the tranny from. He said I could get the ECU and the clutch essembly if I wanted it too..I guess this is my opportunity to pick and pull and get wat i want and upgrade wat i dont before it all gets installed. Other then that stuff, anything else major? or is it down to nuts and bolts and some cables here and there?

Here's some info from the wiring diagram that might come in handy:

There's two cable harnesses that run to the automatic transmission itself.

One is a 6-pin connector that runs signal to the transmission solenoids (labeled E1 in the diagram). This one is not needed with the manual and you can cut it, leave it dangling, wire silly LED's to it, whatever.

The other is a 9-pin connector to the shifter position switch (labeled A2 in the diagram). This one has some wires you'll need to reroute:

For starting:

pin 9 (red) and pin 6 (black) need to be pulled back and run through the clutch start switch, which is the switch at the bottom of the clutch pedal travel.

For the back-up light:

pin 3 (red w/ white stripe) and pin 2 (red w/ black stripe) need to connect to the back-up light switch connector on the new manual transmission. There should be a single 2-prong connector on the transmission itself for this.

IF you have cruise control:

pin 3 (red w/ white stripe) and pin 7(blue) need to be pulled back and run through the cruise control clutch switch, which is at the top of the clutch pedal travel. You'll need to splice another wire into the red/white pin 3 wire since this signal is also needed for the back-up light switch mentioned above.


And those two (or three) connections are pretty much the entire wiring setup for a manual transmission... SOooo much simpler than the auto.

That being said, there's a BUNCH of wires that will be left dangling, including stuff to the transmission solenoid, shifter position switch, O/D cancel switch, cruise control, and many that run to the ECM. I'm not sure how that will affect driveability. The ECM may decide that no voltage from these connections is fine and simply do its engine management and send its transmission control signals blindly to nowhere... or it might decide that no connection to the transmission means something is horribly wrong and crash or disable the engine. I don't know. If the latter, you'll probably just need to replace the ECM with one from a manual. However, I think there's only one ECM part number IIRC so chances are you won't have to worry about it.

Don't be surprised if your "check engine" and/or "O/D off" lights stay lit, though... or if your engine doesn't work at all.

(you can kill the "O/D off" light by cutting the light green wire at either E5 pin 7 on the ECM or pin 3 on the gauge cluster harness connector)

Again, good luck. I hope this helps you out some.