I've been doing all the research required lately to boost my car, and one thing that really irritated the crap out of me was the cost of these stupid harnesses. I know these things are cheap and easy to make.

I've done some pretty simple component searching and datasheet reading regarding the connectors required to build these things yourself for CHEAP. There are three issues with what I'm suggesting here.

1) I haven't ordered any of these connectors yet, so it may be true that there are significant minimum buys (1000+ pieces). This is a fairly typical situation when they are used by OEMs. This could also be why everyone charges so much for these harnesses... they were forced to buy more than they were confident they would sell. We'll see...

2) As far as I can tell, there is at least an 8 week lead time. No one actually keeps stock of these connectors. The contacts appear to be in stock at most places.

3) All I found for the male 135-pin ECU connector was right angle PCB mount. That means you'll have to straighten the legs with some needlenose pliers and solder the wires to the legs instead of crimping pins. If you're decent with a soldering iron (or know someone who is), then this shouldn't be a problem.

With those in mind... here you go. These are all Tyco/Amphenol part numbers for an 07+ ECU.

1-1376430-0 135p male ECU $23.81
1674925-1 34p female plug $2.64
1674558-1 35p female plug $2.93
1674928-1 35p female plug $2.82
1674919-1 31p female plug $2.88

1674311-1 signal contact 22-20 AWG $0.063
316836-1 power contact 22-20 AWG $0.132
316838-1 power contact 18-16 AWG $0.140

I am going to try onlinecomponents.com when I order mine. They are the only ones that I have found that even list prices for small quantities. I am going to do a little more searching tonight and find the part numbers for the Greddy-side connectors so we don't have to order the Greddy harnesses either. All I have is Greddy blue, so if you want part numbers for other boxes, then I'm gonna need pictures of the connectors.

The crimp tool is about $160, but it's not actually required if I'm not mistaken. Most AMP contacts are crimpable by cheap-o Lowes crimpers. I'll definitely be trying that first. I typically strengthen my crimps with a little solder in the joint anyways.

Do with this what you will.. just remember to be careful. If you don't do it right, then you might let the smoke out of the box.

 

hey good luck if you end up making some im sure they will sell fast on this site!

 

All the time and effort is not worth saving a couple of bucks. Plus it's not easy. Connect the wrong wires by mistake or something and might burn out something. But hey it would be cool if you did manage to do it and worked. Gl you will need it and a lot of patience.


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I hadn't really considered making them and selling them. I'm not sure that the various sponsored suppliers around here would appreciate that. This is simply FYI.

I do electrical engineering and software design at an electronics manufacturing facility. This sort of undertaking really isn't that hard. Patience and diligence are all that is required... essentially competence. You could just as easily burn out your boxes using the splice method recommended in the various EMS installation manuals if you're not careful.

Not to be nit-picky either, but it's a lot more than a couple of bucks ! It adds up to $35.08 for the housings plus maybe $10 for contacts. Assuming you order housings for the EMS connectors as well, you're saving a LOT of money... not to mention keeping the satisfaction that comes with accomplishing something on your own accord.

 

i'm interested to see how makin one works out for ya...keep us posted on what happens with it

 

I absolutely will. I'll build it at work and take pics. Perhaps this will get lodged in the DIY section. The one likely thing that will foil this plot will be minimum buys on the connectors though. I've got an email in to the onlinecomponents.com people questioning the single quantities they supposedly offer. I just don't believe their site. People don't just charge rediculous amounts for products for no reason. I really do think that the harnesses are so expensive for our cars because of the minimum buys. Demand isn't high enough to justify buying 1000+ of each connector, so they have to make their money back by jacking up the cost of each individual harness.

With that said... I can most likely get samples from our distributor. That's only good for about 10 harnesses (we'll see what I can BS them for). I would be willing to give these out to the brave once I've built my own.

 

I am guessing these part numbers are for the 07+ ecu's. I would be more interested in the 05-06 personally but I would like to see how this turns out. I would defiantly be interested in doing this. I already use an extension harness (which is a lot cheaper) and just solder a harness on from there. I have used it for both the e-manage blue and the AEM FIC.

I am pretty sure a 07+ ecu extension harness is about $150 so I would be interested in the actual cost to make one of these.

 

I'll find the part numbers for the 05-06 ECU today. You are absolutely correct that these are for 07+. I'll fix that up.

 

Here are the part numbers for the 05-06 ECU...

6473649-1 200p male ECU $40.29
1674925-1 34p female plug $2.64
1674558-1 35p female plug $2.93
1674922-1 32p female plug $4.17
1674928-1 35p female plug $2.82
1674919-1 31p female plug $2.88

The contacts are exactly the same.. again for convenience.

1674311-1 signal contact 22-20 AWG $0.063
316836-1 power contact 22-20 AWG $0.132
316838-1 power contact 18-16 AWG $0.140

1827617-1 is the part number listed as the mating connector for the missing slot, but I don't think it is actually used. I didn't find it available anywhere. I also don't have an 05-06 ECU to look at, so correct me if I'm wrong here.

 

Part of the price raise is the labor and R&D. Almost everything that isn't DIY is always jacked up in price, it's how it is. Plus, you have a point in saying that they might be forced to buy in bulk...

 

after you build yours and it works i would be interested in trying one out and i could even come drive down ur way to pick it up...its only about a 2.5 hour drive from where i live

 

Here's the first bit of bad news. This is from our distributor at work...

1-1376430-0 168 piece min.
1674925-1 1600 piece min.
1674558-1 1600 piece min.
1674928-1 1600 piece min.
1674919-1 1600 piece min.

Tyco pricing and availability check shows no distributors have any stock of these parts as well. Now we know why these cost so much. That is many thousands of dollars in minimum buys.

Oh... and Tyco doesn't ship free samples. Sorry for getting hopes up, but this in not feasible.

 

Welcome to the world of major manufacturing; the more we make and sell the cheaper they are.... oh and the easier it is to push the little guy out of the game so he can't DIY and not pay the companies who buy from the other companies. Unless you go to a specialty supplier who will up the price of the difference for single sales vs bulk. Yay economics!

But serisously.. more power to you man. I don't want to pay for a harness either.. that's why I've put off installing my piggyback.

 

Yeah, I didn't want to rain on your parade, but THAT is why these things cost so much! Not to mention the fact of the time, tools, precision and such.

 

I had a feeling... One can always hope!

Although you speak the truth in that it does work this way, these quantities are FAR from the world of major manufacturing. These are actually not that bad as far as minimum buys go. We've been trying to design a blu-ray player for private aircraft companies, and the minimum buys on the SoCs required to handle the AACS, decoding, and HDMI/HDCP licensing require a minimum buy of 25,000 pieces. That's for a $60 chip too. Under $10,000 in spending to develop a new product is chump change even in the world of small manufacturing.

It's disappointing that it didn't work out, but we can always watch the various distributors for stock. Occasionally surplus stock appears in the marketplace... my advice would be to buy it up if you see it . If nothing else you can ship it off to Dezod as a thank you present for everything they contribute.

I don't know if you've ever considered it, but it's possible to mold this style housing at a place like Positronic. You can actually have them build a mold that forms all 4 (or 5) connectors at once that break apart after forming. They quoted us about $3000 for a custom connector mold. In the great scheme of things, that's a lot less than 1600 of 4-5 different connectors. The housings themselves are just a few cents a piece once you've got your mold.

 

Well back to the junk yard to look for a messed up tC to cut the harness and a dead ecu to unsolder the main connector.

 

I did have a question. I think the 07+ ecu had a similar (or exact) connector as a subaru and I think I have seen those connectors for sale. Just some food for thought.

I just did a search and the 04-07 Subaru STI has the same extension harness part number (boomslang) as the 07+ Scion tC.

 

However, make sure the harness populates all the necessary pins needed for the app. For example, if say connector one uses 35 pins, but Subaru only uses 31, and Scion uses all 35.

 

There's that, and the fact that they use the same connectors and still cost $227. It's actually acquring those connector housings from the source that would make this worth doing. No matter what cars they fit on, we still have the same problem.

http://www.dezod.com/pd-aem-patch-ha...09-various.cfm

Apparently Dezod has already realized what cars can help them move stock .