Rep Power: 0

Hey all I have questions about the trans swap concerning trims. I have an 04 ex auto that has a bad transmission and I have an 04 LX manual that's all working. Do I have everything I need with these two cars to have a running manual ex with the lx trans or do I need a manual ecu for an EX or is there a compatibility issue.

I want to have my ex shell with a manual trans and the car I bought for the swap happened to be an LX. I just want to know if it's possible to have the lx trans to the ex with what I've already got or should I just remove the full swap from the LX and store the ex motor and rest of the stuff.

 
Rep Power: 366

The auto trans ECU (or PCM, better saying) will throw a code if it cannot find the auto trans
however, the LX ECU will not be able to control the EX VTEC, so VTEC will just be dead weight
LX also have longer final, so gearing will be longer

 
Rep Power: 0

Okay cool I'm following.

Does the code that gets put out stop the car from driving or would it be just another passive code?

Are you thinking it would just be better to swap the full lx trans and engine into the EX chassis than whatever I would need to do for the EX to run with the LX manual trans?

 
Rep Power: 366

you will need an EX manual ECU to make the VTEC be more than dead weight
the LX ECU will work, but the VTEC engine will not work at its peak
using the EX ECU, you probably will have the CEL on due to not finding the trans. When a real CEL occurs, you will not know since it will be lit full time from the trans

 
Rep Power: 0

Okay planning to get an EX ECU.

Would any of my EX's extras like speakers or sunroof etc need to be rewired or something if I were to use electronics from the LX like the ECU as a placeholder? or is that another fusebox or system I can leave alone and have working no matter what.

 
Rep Power: 366

ECU (PCM for auto) controls mostly engine/trans