Thread: Auto ECU relocation

This afternoon I thought I'd have a bit of a poke around the Disco and do some odd jobs. Ended up relocating the automatic transmission ECU!

It's been a job I've been wanting to do for ages ( either move or waterproof in situ) but always put off. It was a pretty easy and basically free mod so I thought I'd share how I did it in case anyone else has a spare Sunday arvo.

First, following the RAVE instructions, remove the front passenger seat. You will then see a black metal bracket that the ECU is mounted under. Undo the nuts holding it in place and then lift it up. You will see that the ECU is held onto the bracket with some plastic screws, undo these and remove bracket.

Remove the 4 screws (2 each side)holding the black trim at the bottom rear of the centre console storage box. Remove trim.

When you removed the front seat you will have disconnected the seatbelt pretensioner wires. These are taped up with the ECU wires. Lift the carpet at the join to expose the cables as much as possible. To move the ECU whilst still having the length on the seatbelt wires you need to carefully unwrap or cut the tape to split the loom right back where the loom joins the next lot of wires at the back of the storage box.

Once you have done this you should re-tape the seatbelt wires and the ECU loom separately.

You can now put the seatbelt cables back where they were originally.

I thought about where to put the ECU quite a bit. I decided on placing it in the cavity inside the trim of the storage box. At this level it is at least 200mm above where it was as well as being central ( in case one side decides to fall into a puddle) At this spot it is also at the same height as the slabs and bcu under the dash- if you get water that high then everything is stuffed.

I wanted to keep everything tidy and stock looking so I didn't want to screw it to the trim willy nilly. I had some industrial strength double sided tape lying around and thought that would work. The ECU is very light, and the tape VERY strong. I'll see how it goes anyway.

Make sure you clean both surfaces and apply the tape properly and you should get a good bond.

Refit the trim and the seat and away you go!

Ps sorry about the ordinary pics. Most are self explanatory I think. The last one is a pic of the ECU fitted up inside the trim of the storage box (behind where the other pic shows me holding it against the the outside)