Howdee Doodee All... I have a quick Q about the neutral switch on a 5sp manual.. I have searched the forum and found quite a bit of info on faulty neutral switches on manual equipped cars causing pinging and odd timing issues. I have a feeling my switch has shatt itself as I get pinging occasionally even when I turn boost down to 12psi and my CAS is way off center @ 15deg (I have checked the belt and it does not appear to be off a tooth). My question is.. is there a way to bypass the switch (ie make it always think it is in gear for example) so I don't have these issues espesially the pinging. Does anyone know if it is really just a switch as in on/off so if I just cut the wires or join them to bypass it. Thanks in advance....
hmmmm... not sure on how you would bypass it or trick the ecu into thinking the car is always in gear, but essentially the neutral switch is simply that.... just a switch that sits on the gearbox near the reverse light switch... i forget the actual voltage changes, but essentially put the car into and out of gear and the voltages will change.... the easiest way to see if its working is with Datascan or conzult, where you can see if the neutral switch is switching between off and on when you put the car in gear... Cheers
Cool... now my next Question... Is there any adverse issues with bypassing the switch so the ECU thinks it is always in gear (so I can get away from the inherant false neutral problem). Oh.. yeah.. is the switch closed or open when in gear.. anyone know? I was thinking if it was closed when in gear I could temporarily cut the loom before the switch and solder the wires together to give a constant 'in gear' signal.
Z In the service manual it says if there is continuity when in Neutral it is working. BUT, is it possible to get to the NEutral Switch without removing the transmission? From all the pics I've seem it appears to be at the top of the transmission, making it difficult to get to. If I ever work out how to do it I will write a FAQ. Donovan
How bout at the ecu then.. that's nice and accessable... could you cut the wire to the ecu then there is no continuity therefore it would think it is in gear... then join it back up when/if I replace the neutral switch... or is the barcardi skewing my idea of working around this...
Appears 8-9Volt is needed at the ECU.. I have poured through the manual and found that the ECU see's ~0 volts when in neutral and 8-9 volts when in gear. My guess is the easiest way to trick the ECU into thinking the car is in gear is to supply 9v to pin 44 on the ECU.. A number of pins at the ECU use 8-9v for input.. is there a constant 8-9volt signal somewhere in the Z (like the 12v ignition signal) that I can tap into to trick the ECU.
