Disco 2 td5 Auto to Manual swap

DiscoEsko · Mar 12, 2023

Hello, I'm quite new around here, my English isn't perfect so bear with me.

I have:
03 Disco Auto 15p td5 with a recently developed trans shudder. I have regretted not getting a manual for years now since it would suit my needs better.
01 Disco manual 10p td5 (pre facelift) which hasn't been on the road since 2014, I bought it for pocket change. It has a rotten frame, burned clutch, squealing wheel bearing, possibly a noisy rear diff and interior eaten by dogs.

The plan is to swap the manual transmission from the rotten 01 into the 03. As far as I know, the trans parts and pedals can just be swapped over but the question is, what kind of issues am I going to run into when it comes to the ECU and other electronics?

The questions:
1. Can the 10p ECU work with the 15p engine? I'm assuming not.
2. Can the auto 15p ECU be reprogrammed to work with the manual box?
3. If I were to get a 15p ECU out of a manual disco from somewhere else, can I just plug it in?

What else?

NPG · Mar 12, 2023

There a good write up with picture here - https://landroverforums.com/forum/discovery-ii-18/discovery-2-auto-r380-manual-swap-79203/

From what I can see, it's possible but not for the faint hearted

Best of luck and please keep us in the loop with your progress.

DiscoEsko · Mar 13, 2023

NPG said:
There a good write up with picture here - https://landroverforums.com/forum/discovery-ii-18/discovery-2-auto-r380-manual-swap-79203/

From what I can see, it's possible but not for the faint hearted

Best of luck and please keep us in the loop with your progress.

Thanks for the reply. That's a very interesting thread. If I am understanding correctly, the path of least resistance would be to get my hands on a manual BCU and ECU, doesn't sound too bad since I'm not financially deep in this... yet. My case differs from the linked thread quite a bit though, since Conrads disco is a v8 and he is coupling it with a D1 manual box.

sierrafery · Mar 13, 2023

DiscoEsko said:
Thanks for the reply. That's a very interesting thread. If I am understanding correctly, the path of least resistance would be to get my hands on a manual BCU and ECU, doesn't sound too bad since I'm not financially deep in this... yet. My case differs from the linked thread quite a bit though, since Conrads disco is a v8 and he is coupling it with a D1 manual box.

Hi. You dont need a BCU, that's completely programmable, you need a manual engine ECU with Eu3 fuel map but it's not plug and play, you must make it learn the security code and set the injector codes with nanocom or similar also you have to wire up the clutch switch circuit but that's easy

DiscoEsko · Mar 13, 2023

sierrafery said:
Hi. You dont need a BCU, that's completely programmable, you need a manual engine ECU with Eu3 fuel map but it's not plug and play, you must make it learn the security code and set the injector codes with nanocom or similar also you have to wire up the clutch switch circuit but that's easy

Can you direct me to a good thread about the security code and fuel maps.

sierrafery · Mar 13, 2023

It's about plugging in the diag tool and go to the proper section in the engine ECU menu where you confirm the "learn security code" action and for the codes it's also simple ... do you have nanocom?

DiscoEsko · Mar 14, 2023

No, I don't have a nanocom... been planning on getting one for a good while now, seems like it's time to pull the trigger. I need to read up on that clutch switch circuit too.

sierrafery · Mar 14, 2023

You might be lucky to find the clutch switch connector unused cos i've seen cases when the wiring was there on autos too, it can be in the area where the clutch master cylinder will be fitted or close to the engine bay fusebox, two pin connector with black/white and black/green wires

DiscoEsko · Mar 20, 2023

Alright I'm back. Happened to find a guy not too far away who was selling his used nanocom, that's coming in the mail. My auto disco doesn't have the clutch switch wiring, I guess I'm going to use the wiring from the donor 01.

Any recommendation on from where I should get the 15p manual ecu within the EU? They are a pain to find within my country.

DiscoEsko · Apr 30, 2023

It's a boy!

Finally found time to take it out. Quite a heavy lad...
This one has a locker, which my main disco is missing.

Also I got my hands on a NNN500250 ECM...

last picture is of the nasty rust damage.

Dervishi · May 1, 2023

Good spots for parts are Ovoko around baltics and Imedepöld in Estonia.
Definately not Finland as the junkyards have very little parts avail, and what they have, they have had for a decade, and with stupid high prices.

BTW. drop by the rover friends finland forums.

DiscoEsko · Jul 10, 2023

Got creative with the angle grinder... I will be repurposing the extra high-low lever and the actuator wire I have. There's just enough room on the gear lever plate for two of them.

Thanks @Dervishi for the advice.

.

DiscoEsko · Jul 15, 2023

Holy moly the drop was easy with an engine lift.

DiscoEsko · Jul 16, 2023

Rough around the edges but it works. You might notice that i had to shave down one of the levers quite a bit for it to fit.

marjon · Jul 16, 2023

Curious.
why couldn’t you use 1 lever for hi/low, lock/unlock?

is it just, this is what I have cos it’s not easy to get stuff?

J

DiscoEsko · Jul 16, 2023

That's pretty much it. I had 2 levers laying around so I thought why not.

Also 2 levers looks cooler.

DiscoEsko · Jul 18, 2023

Now... I'm not great at this whole thread making thing and i keep forgetting to take pictures. Haha. I mainly want to share the things I have not seen other people do or show.

That being said, the manual box is now installed, I took out the auto box loom (3 taped up plugs) that goes under the car and the manual box loom had just 1 blug (white) and without doing any research it looks like all the wires match, so, things like reverse lights should work? Gotta test that soon.

Pedals are in, one weird problem I ran into was that the brake light switch didn't make contact with the pedal at all. My theory is that the rod that connects the brake booster and the pedal is slightly shorter in the project car than in the donor car. But oh well, I had already tightened everything down before noticing. I fixed it by ziptying a piece of rubber tubing around the pedal so now the switch gets depressed correctly.

I also made a short "custom" clutch hose. The old one is like 2 meters long!

Very happy with how the levers turned out. They were a pain to install but it was worth it.

NPG · Jul 19, 2023

DiscoEsko said:
Pedals are in, one weird problem I ran into was that the brake light switch didn't make contact with the pedal at all. My theory is that the rod that connects the brake booster and the pedal is slightly shorter in the project car than in the donor car. But oh well, I had already tightened everything down before noticing. I fixed it by ziptying a piece of rubber tubing around the pedal so now the switch gets depressed correctly.

The plunger on that switch can be adjusted to touch the pedal -

Stanleysteamer · Jul 19, 2023

NPG said:
The plunger on that switch can be adjusted to touch the pedal -

View attachment 293173

True, I kept on doing that when mine didn't work suddenly. Thentook it off and realised it was bust!!

DiscoEsko · Jul 19, 2023

NPG said:
The plunger on that switch can be adjusted to touch the pedal -

View attachment 293173

Thanks! I actually tried to pull it out before but it was really stiff so i gave up. Looks like i just needed courage.

Disco 2 td5 Auto to Manual swap

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