Quote:
Originally Posted by ROLLGUY
How much different is the wiring between both cars? Is it possible to use the cabin wiring for the wagon and just use the CDI front SAM and engine wiring? It seems like it would be a major job to swap over the interior wiring. Also, does the mileage on the donor engine go with the SAM and gauge cluster? So many questions, as I have not abandoned the idea of doing this to my wagon. I have since acquired a possible CDI donor, but don't want to have my wagon down for a long time. My new (to me) $1,500 '05 E320 CDI |
So the harnesses *look* pretty similar between the cars, and now as I am putting the sedan body harness into the wagon it seems to fit up about the same. To me, it does not look like you could simply plug the cdi engine harness and front SAM right into the wagon body harness. At least on the E350 I am using, they actually do use the same connector on the body harness of both vehicles but they appear to be pinned differently. I didn't have much luck finding diagrams, but if repinned you might be able to plug and play the swap at the front SAM and ECU? I would be curious to see what the plug looks like/how it is pinned on an e320. The only other w211 I have sitting at the house is an e55 sedan which looked to have an entirely different plug into the ecu from the body harness. I'll attach pictures of both connectors, showing the difference.
If moving a few pins on that connector could make this a near plug & play swap, it would save so much trouble. Almost all of the interior has to be pulled out to switch body harnesses as most of the body harness comes out as one big piece. Was kind of surprised this was the case as other manufacturers tend to have a body harness/dash harness/etc that plug into eachother. Fortunately all of the wiring underneath the headliner unplugs just above the drivers side rear wheel.
The mileage on my car will all read as the donor (I believe it was right at 102k whereas the wagon was somewhere in the 160k range). I still need to look into it a little more to be sure, but how you go about that mileage seems to vary state by state. Being that the car is over 10 years old, I believe it is mileage exempt in Tennessee. Plus it won't have to go through emissions testing (where they log the mileage in the county clerk system that shows on carfax reports). I figure I will always just have to figure the actual mileage of the car as the difference of mileage between the cars at the time of the swap plus what is shown on the cluster as the car is driven.
