2000 VS Manual Ute

[godatfourdigital]

g'day every one, my names Ray.

Im migrating here from the EH Holden QLD forum, cheek out my EH.
EJ EH Club of QLD discussion forum - Rays Sedan

i been reading this site for the last few months getting alot of info about utes in anticipation of buying a VS ute...

well anyway i got a ute, picked it up the other day... (you may have seen it on ebay from hartley)
the ute is a 2000 VS V6 Getrag 5 speed.

the motor is perfect with 160k’s the gearbox is new with 12months warranty and the car drives awesome and is neat inside with a few chips on the outside.

Now in very much wanting to add some “stuff” to the ute…

I want cruise, power windows, climate and level 3 dash

I have read all there is about doing all four and am very much aware of the work involved especially when it comes to climate.

Now think is, I have checked and my ute and it has no wiring for cruise… has low BCM
So I know there are a few ways I could go about getting all 4 that I want but what do you think would be the easiest…

If I do a full harness swap for say a v6 berlina auto, will I have troubles with the existing ecu and converting the harness for manual? Or is it relatively straight forward…

Also are ecu’s coded to the bcm? And can they be mixed matched as pleases ( I know you can’t just swap a BCM as they are different) But what im getting at is can I swap the whole harness from a berlina and keep my original ecu?

Ray.

[tezza]

Are you it doesnt have the connector in the LHS engine bay behind the plastic cover? Normally if its got central locking, then the cruise or power window wiring will be in the car.
Also, check your fuse box and see if it has both pins for the fuse on the cruise and power window slots. If it only has one, then the wiring harness will not support it.

The low BCM you have it is a 150 or 148? (take photo's if possible).

A low or mid BCM will plug straight in although you will need the matching key head for the car to start (or get one made up). For a 2000 VS, I would have thought that the wiring harness for cruise etc would be in there and the BCM should support it all as well.

I just added cruise (still need to mount the control system), central locking and power windows to my ute. My ute did not have central locking and only a LOW 148 BCM so I changed the engine wiring harness out of a executive in along with the low series BCM. Your ECU should work fine. Everything was simply plug and play with the only modification needed was for the drivers power window to work (low series BCM does not support the drivers window auto down). If you have any other questions let me know. Hopefully you dont need to do a full harness swapout!

[tim005]

Sounds like a clean buy mate.
Good luck with your modifications, they sound a bit tricky.
Any pictures of the beast?
Are you going to do any visual/engine mods or is this car purely for work?

[godatfourdigital]

cheers, for the fast reply’s... i have no pics of my own yet but here are the ebay shots..

i have no ambitions you change the outside at all for the time being... maybe if anything bring the ride height down, not too much, but its like a 4x4 atm...

my kind of car is a drivers are before a car that people look at... neat and tidy all the way with everything working...

bcm only has low 496 written on it...

i checked the fuses and both are missing one side of the pin...

i must say i was disappointed when i found the harness didn't have the options there for some of the goodies... i was under the impression that most cars from series 2 and up had the options in the harness...

if i was to be happy with just cruise and power windows i might be able to get away with patching into existing harness but i want climate anyway... i know they are big jobs but they are the kind of thing i like stuffing with... and i have the space and a good shed to take it on...

im fine with leaving it as it is until i can fine a calais or berlina that is being scrapped or damaged to take the harness from...

would there be any preference as to what i get the harness from? im guessing finding a car with running gear as close to mine would be the go wouldn't it? but that could be a challenge...

[tim005]

after checking out the pictures i gotta say mate, it looks absolutely clean as shit.
just thought i would chuck my input in again....

[tezza]

If your keen on the climate control then the easiest would be to swap the engine and dash loom out of it, as you'll need it for your climate control setup along with the power windows and the such.
You can also then just use the BCM out of it and swap the keyhead from the Berlina / Calais and screw your key bar onto it, then you dont need to change your ignition and locks.

The only thing I am not 100% sure of is if there are differences in the mid to lux BCM, which might give you a preference to look for a Berlina or Calais.

[monarols71]

I've done it both ways with VS utes. I've made patch harnesses for cruise and climate to retrofit them, and I've done it with a harness change (my preferred option, less mucking around, although it's extremely fiddly getting all those wires through that hole in the firewall). I've also made a patch harness to put a "high" bcm in a ute with low wiring. Took me months to get all the information sorted before I started.
You don't need to worry about the engine harness, but you will need to put an extra wire into the ECU connectors if you put the level 3 dash cluster in.
You'll need the body harness that's in the (mainly) right hand side of the engine bay and has the fuse box, and the dash harness as well, from a high bcm vehicle. Put in the variable intermittent wipers and variable height aerial and factory alarm bits while you're at it.
Lo bcms are "ute", "low" and "mid", which have 3 connectors.
Hi bcms are "high" and "lux", which have 5 connectors. From memory I think the LUX bcm does the speed sensitive steering along with the tail lamp failure warning above the high bcm.

[godatfourdigital]

cheers, thanks very much, im very picky and would much rather a whole harness swap as apposed to cutting up my exisiting harness.

now i know im not going to be able to find a manual vs calais or berlina, im just not that lucky... so there arn't any issuses converting a auto body harness to a manual i know it can be done but i would like to have it look nice and clean.

also, i have the plastic cover off that covers the gearstick and under that i seen what looked to me to be original auto plugs with a patch loom between the 2, i can take a pic if anyone likes but the car is 100% for sure factory manual, is this how they did it in factory? just used a auto harness with a few mods?

[tezza]

Whole dash harness swap is not hard, just a bit of patience getting the fuses through the firewall.

When I swapped my dash harness for a executive one, I just used a automatic one and you just plug the patch loom in around the gear shifter so the car can start (bridges the inhibitor switch on the auto's). I think from memory there were a couple of extra wires for the automatic transmission shift lighting which I just pulled the globe out.

[godatfourdigital]

hey guys, 2 quick questions...

1. can you still buy the spare wheel winch new from holden or am i best finding a 2nd hand one, mins rooted...

2. where in the utes is the wheel jack ment to be stored? i don't have a jack, and don't know where to put one.

cheers

[tezza]

hey guys, 2 quick questions...

1. can you still buy the spare wheel winch new from holden or am i best finding a 2nd hand one, mins rooted...

2. where in the utes is the wheel jack ment to be stored? i don't have a jack, and don't know where to put one.

cheers

Mine was missing the carrier and I got one second hand. I didn't price one up for a new one. From memory they are the same from the early VG till VU shape I believe.

The jack etc sits behind the front drivers seat and the jack handles and tyre winch rod are clipped on the wall part

[cander24]

now i know im not going to be able to find a manual vs calais or berlina, im just not that lucky... so there arn't any issuses converting a auto body harness to a manual i know it can be done but i would like to have it look nice and clean.

also, i have the plastic cover off that covers the gearstick and under that i seen what looked to me to be original auto plugs with a patch loom between the 2, i can take a pic if anyone likes but the car is 100% for sure factory manual, is this how they did it in factory? just used a auto harness with a few mods?

A factory manual vs calais or berlina doesn't exist, so you could be looking a while
Re: the plugs, yes that's correct and to confirm this your vin plate on the firewall should say "M35" for Trans if it's a factory getrag manual.
Cheers

[godatfourdigital]

Mine was missing the carrier and I got one second hand. I didn't price one up for a new one. From memory they are the same from the early VG till VU shape I believe.

The jack etc sits behind the front drivers seat and the jack handles and tyre winch rod are clipped on the wall part

this would explane the mess of twisted metal where it looks as if a bracket has been pulled off the wall.

[tezza]

Here's what the jack, jack handle and winch bar look like setup in mine (im also missing one or two of the plastic clips)

[godatfourdigital]

Arrr cheers, thanks a heap. Pics are worth a thousand words.

What about the winch? Mine is broken. Do other models fit the vs or do have to get one from vg-vs?

[tezza]

I was told the winch is the same from VG - VS.
Winch handle I bought new fro Holden as I couldnt find any second hand ones. That cost $60 odd.

[godatfourdigital]

spent the last day putting in new bluetooth cd player and iphone cradle.

had to make a bracket to get the iphone to sit where i wanted it but its all sweet now, can spin it too so i can use it as gps.

also put in power areal

[monarols71]

I think all harnesses were automatic ones, and they used a little patch plug for the neutral/park start switch and didn't put the globe in, so anything from a berlina or calais will be fine. Berlinas could be ordered from the factory as a manual option, but I don't reckon there were many. Go the whole hog like I did. Climate, intermittent wipers, level 3 dash cluster, factory alarm etc.

[justbad4you]

what would be in a 1998 vs sIII maloo? id likea hight ajt ant(mines elec but go up and down on power up)and will mine handle a veriable speew whiper as well?

cheers, thanks very much, im very picky and would much rather a whole harness swap as apposed to cutting up my exisiting harness.

now i know im not going to be able to find a manual vs calais or berlina, im just not that lucky... so there arn't any issuses converting a auto body harness to a manual i know it can be done but i would like to have it look nice and clean.

also, i have the plastic cover off that covers the gearstick and under that i seen what looked to me to be original auto plugs with a patch loom between the 2, i can take a pic if anyone likes but the car is 100% for sure factory manual, is this how they did it in factory? just used a auto harness with a few mods?

[godatfourdigital]

Well I just put the electric areal in, and I honestly don't know why you would want the buttons to put it up and down. Like the idea that when you switch to radio the thing goes up.

But hooking up the wiring up to buttons would be pretty easy. You would have to figure out if the areal youhave shuts off by it's self at full height or if its the radio that shuts it off once the circuit reaches a particular load.

[justbad4you]

Why lol....so when i play cd i can lower it and when i go thrue a carwash it dosnt rip the ant off

well i just put the electric areal in, and i honestly don't know why you would want the buttons to put it up and down. Like the idea that when you switch to radio the thing goes up.

But hooking up the wiring up to buttons would be pretty easy. You would have to figure out if the areal youhave shuts off by it's self at full height or if its the radio that shuts it off once the circuit reaches a particular load.

I CAN LOWER IT UP AND DOWN ON MY VT,AND MOST OF THE TIME IF IM LISTNING TO THE RADIO THE ANT IS JUST UP A LITTLE(GOOD RECEPTION) THEN WHEN I PLAY A CD OR MP3 THE ANT GOES FULLY DOWN.....ID LIKE TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT IN THE MALOO ALSO....THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT,,,HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR, BEST WISHES.

[godatfourdigital]

The way I hooked mine up is, it's down, when turn the stereo on it's still down, stays down on all functions, aux, iPhone, cd. Automatically comes up when the stereo is switched to tuner. Perfect for me, but if someone else needs variable option then that's up to the person I guess. I'm more then happy with mine though.

[justbad4you]

what kind of stereo your eunning?

The way I hooked mine up is, it's down, when turn the stereo on it's still down, stays down on all functions, aux, iPhone, cd. Automatically comes up when the stereo is switched to tuner. Perfect for me, but if someone else needs variable option then that's up to the person I guess. I'm more then happy with mine though.

[godatfourdigital]

sony explod mex-bt2850...

i would think that most cd players would all have the same feature. run the ant remote wire straight to the areal

[justbad4you]

With the up and down ant switch???

sony explod mex-bt2850...

I would think that most cd players would all have the same feature. Run the ant remote wire straight to the areal

thanks for the reply make take it easy and have a good 2011