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2005 - How to ► wire your 4EAT to 5MT swap!

90375 Views 106 Replies 25 Participants Last post by  krausenoel
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so, you've completed the mechanical part of your 4eat to 5mt swap and are stumped with the wiring. well, you've come to the right place. if you're able to get the complete bulkhead dash harness, do it (along with the 5MT ECU). otherwise, read on...

since i haven't been able to find anything clear online to be completely successful, i ordered me the FSM and picked my brain with a ton of wiring diagrams. i'll only be explaining my process as done on my 05MY FXT. though, the premise of this process should apply to other models as well.

for the wiring underneath the car and to keep things plug-n-play as much as possible, i reused the existing 4EAT harness and repinned as much as i could.


left: 4EAT sensor harness with the three sensors (torque converter turbine speed, front vehicle speed sensor 1, rear vehicle speed sensor 2)
right: 4EAT harness for inhibitor switch

i'm on a 5MT ECU, now. but even when i was running the 4EAT ECU, i still was not using the 4EAT TCM and was able to get around town. no matter what combination of those three plugs i had plugged into the TCM, my OBD-ii port wasn't functional. i couldn't use either my AP or a code reader tool unless i removed the TCM. so, i left it out. because of this, instead of running separate wires from the tranny into the cabin, i reused what wiring was already there that ran between the tranny and the TCM.


the following items are what will need to be tackled:
  • key interlock switch
  • clutch switch
  • reverse light switch
  • neutral safety switch (nss)
  • vehicle speed sensor (vss)


here's how to read the pin numbers for the Male and Female plugs...





key interlock switch
so you can remove your key from the ignition, you'll need to jump (forgot what pin numbers) the black and the white wire. i reused the wiring from the 4EAT shift lever assembly that included the lightbulb...




clutch switch
i used this so i can start the engine like on any other MT vehicle. from the clutch switch, i ran a couple wires down to pins 11 and 12 of the 4EAT inhibitor switch harness. this is to mimic Park/Neutral. (this is the only separate wiring i ran. i'm sure i could have used existing wiring like i did with my vss process, but that idea came later. and there were enough wires left to do so.)


reverse light switch
reverse switch and nss are joined to a 4-pin connector. i repinned 2 and 4 to pins 9 and 10 of the 4EAT inhibitor switch harness coupler.


neutral safety switch (nss)
reverse switch and nss are joined to a 4-pin connector. i repinned 1 and 3 to pins 1 and 4 of the 4EAT inhibitor switch harness coupler.


vehicle speed switch (vss)
(NOTE: it's important to understand that i'm using the wiring that ran between the tranny and TCM as a way to avoid running my own separate wiring. because of this method, i highly encourage not plugging in the TCM!)

the 5MT vss has three wires (signal, ground, power)...
speed sensor 1 of the 4EAT sensor wiring harness has two wires. i used one to run signal up to the cabin; the other to run ground up to the cabin. the speed sensor 2 of the 4EAT sensor wiring harness has three wires. i used one to run power up to the cabin. that covers all three wires of the vss up to the cabin.

vss pins (sensor on tranny):
pin 1 // signal
pin 2 // ground
pin 3 // power

4EAT sensor wiring pins (reused harness from inhibitor switch):
pin 14 // speed sensor 1 signal used for vss signal
pin 18 // speed sensor 1 ground [this wire is shielded to ground as well] used for vss ground
pin 9 // speed sensor 2 blahblahblah used for vss power

those three lines run up to the middle plug (medium-sized) that plugs to the TCM. (REMINDER: you're not to plug the TCM!)


^
tap from B55 plug (middle plug)
pin 6 // signal line
pin 15 // ground line (just ground this to chassis)
pin 24 // power line


^
to B56 plug (larger plug)
pin 1 // signal line (runs directly to both speedometer and ECU)
pin 31 or 21 // +12v IG ON line

(should you decided to keep the TCM, starting from the vss, you'll have to use another ground and power source. for the signal, you may still use pin 14 of the sensor wiring harness. for the MT, the speed signal goes directly to both the speedometer and ECU. for the AT, the speed signal goes to the TCU first, then to both speedometer and ECU.)



(this post will be updated as needed to better clarify exact plug identification pin/wiring colour, etc. as i go back and review diagrams, notes and pictures.)
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One thing I haven't noticed in my browsing on 5/6mt swaps is tuning. Have any of you encountered issues running a manual trans on an auto ecu when it comes to being tuned?
My only other question, though off topic since it isn't pertaining to the wiring, would be; Did you guys doing the 6mt swap use the 6mt driveshaft?
clutch switch
i used this so i can start the engine like on any other MT vehicle. from the clutch switch, i ran a couple wires down to pins 11 and 12 of the 4EAT inhibitor switch harness. this is to mimic Park/Neutral. (this is the only separate wiring i ran. i'm sure i could have used existing wiring like i did with my vss process, but that idea came later. and there were enough wires left to do so.)


neutral safety switch (nss)
reverse switch and nss are joined to a 4-pin connector. i repinned 1 and 3 to pins 1 and 4 of the 4EAT inhibitor switch harness coupler.
Bumping a bit of an old Thread from the OPs last response but I was wondering if I could get a clarification on the above info?

I'm completing a swap on a Phase II 4EAT myself and from the FSM wiring it shows the inhibitor switch having the same 2-wire output for both Park & Neutral. I get running the clutch switch to replicate the car being in Park/Neutral, but at that point what does the MTs NSS actually do? Are you running that directly to the ECU? Where on your Forester do you have that signal essentially ending up as it seems that the NSS is only pinned to the ECU on MT cars.

I've attached the page from my FSM that I'm referring to.

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it's been a while for me, and I hardly remember much of this. also, I'm out of state for work, so I don't have much to go by for confirmation. in that diagram, there's not enough for me to see where the rest of the AT line goes to. but other than only being able to start the engine with the clutch down, I believe the NSS will also interrupt CC and will affect your fuel curve when your 4EAT computer thinks you're in Park/Neutral each time you clutch to change gears.


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I'll post an update on this for future posterity.

I did the Phase II 4EAT to 5MT swap over Christmas on my '99 Legacy. I used the clutch switch to simulate the auto-transmissions inhibitor switch. And wired the 3-wire VSS to the appropriate ground, +12v, and I wired the signal output from the sensor to the wire that would normally come OUT of the TCU and head to the rest of the car (ECU/Cruise/ABS).

Other than that, I did no wiring modifications (I did remove the shift-lock module so that the key can be removed) And the car runs, drives, and works great, No CELs in 7K miles, no hesitation or stumbling, no stalling, and even the cruise-control works. I did loose ABS functionality, but to be honest I might have messed up the wheel speed sensor when I did a front wheel bearing at the same time. Either way, I pulled the bulb and am fine without the horrid '90s ABS.
G
It should also be noted that on MY2006, deleting the TCU did not affect ABS.
So from reading this - it seems like some conversions retain cruise control but ABS is non operational for every swap?
So from reading this - it seems like some conversions retain cruise control but ABS is non operational for every swap?
I retained CC, but lost ABS. but I now have an entire MT bulkhead harness in.


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When you say "bulkhead harness" so you mean the general wiring harness or the transmission specific wiring harness (on the 4eat it's the transmission harness)


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it's the main harness (from a MT Forester) behind the dash.


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Those are expensive! Have you thought about getting the other harnesses as well? Might fix the abs issue?


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which harness?

one of my main issues I was having with the 4EAT bulkhead harness was a flat spot from 0 to 1.5 RPM. another was when the clutch was depressed between shifts, it was as if fuel was getting cut off. I got tired of it and just wanted everything to be legit. I had always planned to do the MT bulkhead harness anyway. I even started my search way before the actual tranny swap. it just took forever to source one. and when I finally found one, it took a while to find the time to swap, since I had a traveling job.


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G
another was when the clutch was depressed between shifts, it was as if fuel was getting cut off.
It feels exactly like this happens to mine. When I clutch in and put it in neutral to come with a stop, the RPMs plummet and it sometimes stalls, but sometimes catches itself.

I usually have to feather the throttle when coming to a stop so it doesn't stumble and stall out.
mine got to the point that at every stop I got to, the engine died off. even when just slowing down. I think it has something to do with the computer thinking you're in P/N, so the engine RPMs drop as if there were no load. sometimes I'd turn the A/C on to help it, but that eventually stopped (I think also because of timing issues I was having with my lightened flywheel).

keep in mind I had a bunch of mods i had done at the same time which I had to use a MT ECM to run a higher Stage OTS map with my AP because the AT ECM was limited to like a Stage I map. but the MT ECM on the AT bulkhead was eventually giving a code (forgot what it was now, but was something to do with being near power lines? it was weird) which wouldn't let me use CC. there were just too many things going on with my setup that I got fed up of it.


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finished up my 4eat to 6mt swap on my04 and now I have a p0600 and the airbag light on . Any of you have any of these after the swap?
finished up my 4eat to 6mt swap on my04 and now I have a p0600 and the airbag light on . Any of you have any of these after the swap?
none here. SRS light or ABS light?

I would go back through all the wires that were messed with and make sure nothing is loose. especially check your grounds. you have a communication error somewhere.


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I have check engine , cruise, abs, airbag.

Everything works great besides the light show on my dash.

Anyone have the pinout for the 4eat ecu? Wondering if the tps pinout they have listed on dccdpro is correct for my ecu.
since i'm now running an originally 5MT ECU (even though both sets of AT and MT maps are on all the ECUs) still with the 4EAT bulkhead harness, the 5MT ECU requires pin 34 of plug 134 (first plug on the left) to be grounded. pin 19 of plug 136 for the non-turbo 5MT ECU. i don't really understand how for the earlier subarus they refer to it as an identifier switch. i don't see that anywhere on the FSMs. it just seems like the MT ECUs just has an extra slot where ground needs to be (without any description) because the ATs and MTs are just wired a little differently. and it seems the older subarus were able to get away with being less fussy because they have more leeway than the newer, pickier subarus. i'm sure it's mostly an emissions thing.

no crazy fans and raised idle speeds as though i'm driving when i'm really idling. no switching back and forth between the ECU thinking i'm parking and driving while clutching and shifting gears. and no annoying CEL + blinking 'curse' light because the 4EAT is still looking for the TCM. no loopy engine RPMs when coming to a stop because the ECU thinks it's in Drive yet the shifter contradicts by saying it's in Neutral and then just dies (a few times) because the RPM dipped too low. this shiz was scary when i couldn't stop the car (no booster assist) from rolling forward, dodging a car in front of me.

(i really have ~40K mi less. i swapped to a 5MT gauge cluster.)

i got to test CC on a long stretch. worked both downhill and back uphill.
so does this wire need to be grounded on the AT ecu? That should fix my problem if so .
so does this wire need to be grounded on the AT ecu? That should fix my problem if so .
you can try. but in my case, there was no difference. even when mine was grounded, my AP still recognized it as a 4EAT ECM. I later removed the ground, then shortly after, swapped in a MT ECM. I now have the entire MT dash bulkhead harness.

just wondering.. is your Cruise light flashing?

try to get a hold of those in this thread that did the 6MT swap.


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The 6 mt swap is almost identical to the 5 speed . 2 extra wires for the center diff.
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