Minimalist Toyota/ALH transplant: cluster required?

[five10man]

Hi All,

The threads I see on this topic all seem to involve using the cluster from the engine donor, or otherwise jumping through a bunch of hoops to get the immobilizer to cease its interference.

My project involves installing an '03 NB ALH into a Toyota pickup. I have the mostly-bare engine, no pump, and plenty of mechanical/electrical/computer skills and tools (VAG-COM included) and a few transplants under my belt. There is a u-pull-it yard 50 miles away that is well populated with potential donors.

My question is: how little VW electronics can I get away with on this? I can make/remake harnesses and power panels, as well as microcontroller projects for translating gauge signals and that sort of thing if needed. Is it absolutely necessary to have a matching gauge and keys and ECM all from the same car? Or is it not a big deal to tell the ECM to not check for the cluster and just run the engine?

I am planning on minor mods after getting it up and running, and I don't mind putting the screen or wrench time in myself.

Thanks for your help!

 

[PickleRick]

You can have the immobilizer deactivated via a tuner. You also need the throttle pedal. Some of the tuners like fast can even make you a stand alone harness. In one of my 1st gen 4 runners I'm running a passat cluster the other the 4 runner cluster.

You can go mtdi...but...why?

 

[five10man]

Thank you PR,
Deactivating the immobilizer must be done via tuner? It's not something I can write out using VCDS?

 

[PickleRick]

I think there is a write up but I don't know specifics. I'm a grease monkey, I don't handle fancy things like tuning, auto trans rebuilds or injection pumps.

 

[ThatBruceGuy]

My question is: how little VW electronics can I get away with on this?

You can pair it down quite a bit. Have you followed

Nick Jay Osterbaan
part 1

part 2

or Austin for a 2nd opinion?

Break out your note taking skills.

 

[Hasenwerk]

Hi All,

The threads I see on this topic all seem to involve using the cluster from the engine donor, or otherwise jumping through a bunch of hoops to get the immobilizer to cease its interference.

My project involves installing an '03 NB ALH into a Toyota pickup. I have the mostly-bare engine, no pump, and plenty of mechanical/electrical/computer skills and tools (VAG-COM included) and a few transplants under my belt. There is a u-pull-it yard 50 miles away that is well populated with potential donors.

My question is: how little VW electronics can I get away with on this? I can make/remake harnesses and power panels, as well as microcontroller projects for translating gauge signals and that sort of thing if needed. Is it absolutely necessary to have a matching gauge and keys and ECM all from the same car? Or is it not a big deal to tell the ECM to not check for the cluster and just run the engine?

I am planning on minor mods after getting it up and running, and I don't mind putting the screen or wrench time in myself.

Thanks for your help!

ALH into Toyota Pickups is simple, Fast Forward does harness and software for these regularly. Removing the immobilizer and unnecessary electronics and providing signal adapters so your gauges will work correctly is what we do!

 

[gmenounos]

Deactivating the immobilizer must be done via tuner? It's not something I can write out using VCDS?

It's on my to-do list for kw1281test (see second link in my signature) so you'd be able to do it with one of the older VCDS cables that supports the Virtual COM Port drivers as described here: https://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/usb/virtual-com-port.php