Nitrous1024

The above is correct. You can even keep the automatic ECM, but you will have to do some rewiring to bypass the interlock (to start the car) and then trick it to think that you have the shifter is in DRIVE to get the full RPM range (but it won't stay in the red-zone like the manual ECU would).

Kunkle2000

im sorry for all the questions but if I used the manual ECM and engine and tranny why would the car need any rewiring or tricking if it's all coming off the other car essentially wouldn't it be the same car as far as the car is concerned?

Nitrous1024

You may ask as many questions as you wish.
If you use the manual ECM with your automatic harness, you will still have to re-wire the automatic harness to enable the engine's starter to be engaged (as though the clutch pedal was manually depressed) (the automatic equivalent being that the vehicle is placed in PARK or NEUTRAL). If you keep the Automatic harness, you will still need to connect the reverse-selector plug to the switch on the gearbox.

Swapping over the manual harness is the neatest solution, but it is time consuming to do all that work behind the dashboard, hence I suggest using the automatic one.


Edit: Yes, it would be the SAME car as far as the car is concerned, but it is more WORK for either yourself of your mechanic to do.

Kunkle2000

so I can take the plug from the manual gearbox take those wires to the ECM? I know I'm getting way ahead of myself but I just Wana know how much work is involved and I would like the rpm to work correctly as well but if that's to much them a well running car is OK with me😁

Nitrous1024

...harness? Yes

That can be done, but it is just going to be time consuming (although just as neat as swapping over the complete manual harness). You don't want to make the process more time-consuming than it needs to be. You can use the existing automatic reverse selector plug (and break/cut/crack-off the existing housing that prevents it from sliding onto the switch for the manual gearbox. The downside to this is that it may slip-off during normal driving (but that never happened to me)

------------------------------OR----------------------------------

You can simply cut about 6 inches from the donor manual harness (for the plug) and attach it in place of your stock automatic one (that takes a minute or two to do).

Kunkle2000

ok so I took car to transmission shop they said clutches are toast and it's clogging my filter. Now I learned my 2002 LX has a bmxa tranny in it. I bought a parts car that is an ex and has an Alexa transmission in it. It's throwing a range code faulty park netral position_ park netral switch open - poor electrical connection. Is this slxa a JDM tranny and is that what's throwing the codes in this car from what I read online that's a jap tranny and it only has N. R. D 2 and my car had N R D D3. D2 if this is the case is there a way to put the slxa into my bmxa car and have a car to get to work?

Nitrous1024

Are you saying that you've abandoned the automatic to manual conversion?


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To answer your other questions, the two transmissions are the technically about the same. The ECM have different part numbers, (to represent the various markets that they were released for but it is all the same in terms of the wiring harness. It will be a simple "plug & play" procedure that you could almost do blindfloded as you would just swap the transmission and keep your existing ECM (or swap the one from your donor car if you so desire).

They are both 4 speed automatics, the gear ratios are slightly different.

The Lack of the D3 in terms of shifter position is just the lack of the physical switch (that prevents the car from automatically shifting past 3rd gear even in red-line). The actual "throw" or range of motion on the other end of the transmission cable is the same from PARK all the way to "2 or D2".

If the shifter came with "L" instead of "D3" or "D2" then it would be CVT and not a 4-speed automatic (but the same ECU would still work)

Your LX would have the longer gear ratios for better fuel economy on the highway. Howerver the EX transmission has the shorter gear ratios for peppy performance (at a slight reduction of fuel economy).

Kunkle2000

thats awesome news I thought the blinking D meant it was a dead tranny I'm going off the word of the man who sold me the car that was the only code it had, now when I out this thing up on jackstands and tried to run through the gears I watched the wheels. The passenger side soon as it should through all the gears. The driver's side was slow and it seemed to almost act like it was binding up like winding a rubber band up one way then spun itself backwards. I thought this was kinda weird but I don't know how the inside or differential works. It seemed odd but other than that it ran it's courses even with the d light blinking the range code I believe it was p0705 could this be the culprit of the wheel spinning slowly the letting off gas on jackstands and literally spun backwards the engine on this car has no zip and no power so I can't take it for a drive just on jackstands any ideas before I start the dreaded teardown in my drive way with no lift I'm gonna try to take it out the bottom remove support and axles and ball joints and upper shock bolts to swing axles out of the way. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas do I leave all the sensors on the slxa do I use the range connector from my bxma and the shift cable from bxma and what about ECM do I use the same one as they are both automatic. Any way to test the clutches without being able to drive the car cause the engine is toasted like no power. Under load. Not really any power without load on it either someone went apeshit on the harness on this car to begin with but my main concerns are sensors range connector and easiest way to take this out without a cherry pick or if it's that much easier should I rent one? And one final how hard to replace rear seal after I got it all apart? Thank you so much for taking time to help me this is my only car and I'm dying without it. I drove it to transmission place today to get diagnosed drove like a new tranny they looked at it said clutches are gone filter clogged don't change fluid or I would not make it home or would clog my filter more. The car is stuck at the shop I didn't make it out of the parking lot. It sits three days then it will drive like new again wish I could clean that screen and knew enough to put new clutches in I'd rebuild it. But I'd probably end up in an assylum trying to tear this thing apart and put together. Damn Honda . I also found a recall about an electric surge that effects transmissions and my VIN is included says 5:1 shorts transmission drivetrain ECU..Wandering if this is an issue and being 2nd owner of this 2002 would Honda replace the recall it's a 2002 and I'm second owner there's also SRS and seatbelt recalls as well my seatbelts don't stay clicked in at all...I'm sorry I know there's alot of questions I'm asking but I really do appreciate it. I love learning new things. And had no idea a forum could be so informing. How do you attach pictures to posts here I'd like to keep a record for others to see and learn as I do this as I'm sure there isany before and many after me with this built in filter tranny that should be on a minibike...Lol jking I love my Honda

Kunkle2000

yes I abandoned it after finding out the car I have here is throwing a range code because it's an slxa tranny in a us market car I just learned this today that's why it's throwing the code this is correct yes?
And I have the car sitting in my driveway I thought it was trash because of the code. But further investigation I seen it's an slxa in a car that I believe should have a bmxa like my LX . The donor is a 2002 civic ex they did not come with slxa trannies did they?

Kunkle2000

i like that idea better

Nitrous1024

Your automatic uses an open differential. At no time should you have the wheels spinning in oposing directions unless there is an issue with one of the gears in the differential that is ceased up. With no load/resistance placed on both wheels suspended in the air is is natural for one wheel to spin faster than the other since they are unequal length shafts and one of the bearings may just naturally have more resistance than the other (such as sludge accumulation around the wheel bearings). The test I'd recommend you try is to very lightly apply the brakes while the car is in gear and the wheels are spinning (to ensure equal load/drag/resistance on both wheels). You would then have someone check to ensure that both wheels are spinning at the same speed. If they don't rotate at the same speed, then you have an issue with the differential which would need to be addressed.

I can't troubleshoot your OBD2 error codes, as I've been out of the Honda world for some time since owning my 2008 Golf GTI.

I removed my automatic and installed my manual from underneath the car by unbolting the engine from the trasmission and lowering it on the subframe (so the car was jacked up during this surgery procedure). I unbolted ball joint, and axles during the procedure as I didn't want to place any stress on the CV joints or rubber boot by leaving them hanging.


It sounds like you purchased a car with a bad engine (or one with electrical problems). I'd recommend you test drive the donor EX model with your LX ECM swapped inside (although you won't get VTEC-E), before going any further. You need to know the mechanical state of the donor engine you got (since you know your original ECM is good. I just want to verify that it isn't an ECM issue. You can troubleshoot the basics to verify that all the spark plugs and coil packs are working (coil pack failure is common for some of these cars).

It does not make sense to do a full tear-down on your semi-functional car for a lemon that you don't know the complete vehicle history of. Hence I suggest testing to verify that the donor transmission is working "differential-wise" before attempting the swap.

I'm going to answer all your other questions, but I'll need some time to do it.
In the interim, I'll leave my Jamaican build thread for my 2001 EU1 that I did the swap for. Unfortunately I didn't document much of it in terms of all the steps that was taken.

http://www.wheelsjamaica.com/wheels_...topic=187284.0

Kunkle2000

thanks for response it may have been an optical.illusion but my donor car is throwing range switch sensor code it's JDM I'm going to put it up on jack stands video it and link it to you tube and supply video of how it's acting good idea on ECM transfer I'm also going to try and adjust the range switch sensor on jackstands in neutral toake sure it's good I tried to drive it and it bogs down no power but engine revs high rpm when had applied I will do further investigation and post back thank you for replies as this is almost like a surgery on my car per say.

mac25

Do the conversion it is easy.

Here's the DIY I used, It's great and has pictures to fallow.

http://www.7thgenhonda.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18057

Sean Eginton

So I'm about to do this swap but have a few clarification questions. My car is an 04 and I've gone through 3 junkyard autos. I bought an 02 manual with a blown engine. Now I know the mechanical side of the swap. My confusion comes from the electronic side. is it safe to assume that I'll need the 04-05 manual computer? (My engine is non vtec donor car is vtec). Also is the under dash wiring changes the same on the 04-05"s as it is on the earlier cars?

Nitrous1024

You only need the computer if you want to revv higher than the limitation in the automatic ECU.

Sean Eginton

So what your saying is that the car will run without the manual computer, which I understood from this thread already, but in order to do it right technically I'd need the manual computer and the computer flashed to match the key correct? And are the wires under the dash that I'm supposed to ground out the same for the 04-05's as it is for the 01-03's?

Nitrous1024

Yes, the harness from 2001 to 2005 is supposed to be the same.
The automatic ECU is expecting the interlock for the PARK and NEUTRAL position to start the car (while the manual has the interlock switch connected to the clutch pedal switch so that you don't absent-mindedly start the car in gear).

Otherwise, your automatic ECU needs to be fooled into thinking your car is in DRIVE to allow you to revv throughout the entire RPM range. You don't need to change your automatic ECU (if you know how use switches or relays to get the swap done). Using the manual ECU on your automatic harness makes like simple as only few wiring changes need to be made such as connecting your automatic reverse-gear selector switch to the manual gearbox (to illuminate the tail-light)

Sean Eginton

So I have the swap all done except one thing. I have the clutch pedal installed inside but noticed that there's no hole under the dash to bolt the top of the pedal bracket to. How didn't guys go about this? Can I use a self tapping screw or is there a way to drill out a hold and use a nut and bolt?

Nitrous1024

I drilled out the hole and used a nut & bolt to keep it together.

Sean Eginton

Can you explain how you managed that? Because I'm looking at it and I can't see anyway to get a bolt or nut in there. There's no access

Nitrous1024

My car was a 2001 EU1 Civic. This has the same firewall as the EP3 Type-R and the Civic Si in the 2002-2005 year range. The firewall came with the 3 or 4 "dimples" in a triangular or square pattern which I simply drilled out to do the nut and bolt arrangement. This process required 2 people (one to hold the nut on the firewall, and one to screw the bolt from under the dashboard).

Doing this on my car might be easier than yours, because my car had the firewall pre-contoured for it and the dimples to show me where to do the drilling. I did the clutch installation with the transmission out of the vehicle, so I had space to work.

Decade

Wankenstein

Be best if you leave the manual transmission in and avoid any potential large expense associated with automatic transmission failures. Beside that an MT is more responsive and more fun to drive (rpm's per gearing control)

Colin42

Best to have both cars sitting next to each other to make sure you have everything

Slumpertcivic

Be aware of all the fees Copart tacks on.

$700 bid won car cost me $1,150 not including towing which they will tack on a $50 gate fee if you don’t use their delivery service which took two full weeks for $150.00 more.

That said, if your planning to fix up the lx using the ex as a donor, coupe vs sedan uses few different engine mounts, subframe, and drivers axle. Add in wether one or the other has antilock brakes.

Perez

Colin42

For a 5 speed trans? Either one, check that the input shaft bearing is still ok. Try to grab a VTEC trans if you can, that way you get shorter gears

Perez

aragon1301

thats what i want to do to mine, also can anyone tell me if the LX engine will fit on to the EX, i dont care about the Vtec,..thanks

Colin42

..................................... it's the same block