did you guys buy any pre-made cables (ms->relay board & ms main output)? DIYautotune has some for sale but they're pretty pricey (about $70). i was just wondering if you guys made your own or bought one? how hard is it to make your own? also did you guys use the relay board?

The cables are a bit tricky to make, the solder cups on the 37 pin connector are really close together. I ended up making my own because I knew it would be done right that way, but it's a pain in the ass. If I were to make someone a cable I would also probably charge around $70 because it sucks that bad to make them. You have to be really careful with the soldering iron and use lots of heat shrink for safety. If you mess up and pool up too much solder on the connection the molten blob can fall through and stick to all sorts of stuff on it's way down. Been there, had to deal with that. Be sure that when you put on the metal connector shield hood thingy that you clamp down on it real good so if anything ever yanks on the cable the stress is on the connector housing so it doesn't rip the solder joints apart or pull the pins out of the connector.

yea i can see them bein quite a PITA to fabricate... i'm pretty good with a soldering iron but putting together that cable doesn't look like too much fun... maybe i'll just shell out the cash for the cable. i don't mind assembling the rest myself though :P

oh yea so did any of you guys opt to use the relay board? is it easier having the relay module in the engine bay and just running your wires from there? (as opposed to running wires directly from the MS harness)

I made my own too, it was really a bitch and took like 2 hrs, BUT it was well worth it. The relay board rocks.
FYI I put my relay board under the passenger seat. All there, no problems. I just did not have a good place to put it under the hood. You can see here I had way too much wire.

pic

Ok, I don't quite understand the relay board's purpose. I thought I was just going to be able to run all the wires from the MS directly to the injectors and sensors and all?

Here is a hint for you guys making your own harnesses.

Buy all the different colors of wire you can find, buy 2 extra rolls of "white". Why?

Next get a samll piece of vacuum hose and cut a small wedge out of it so you can see inside the vacuum line. now take the white wire cut to length and insert one end into the vacum hose. now insert a sharpie marker into the wedge that was cut out. pull the wire all the way through the hose/marker assy slowly. this will stripe the wire very neatly.

You can get 6-8 colors of sharpie markers now. 6-8 different wires for your harness.

Enjoy and take your time.

Terry

As for soldering the cups on the db37, this is what I came up with..

I had some old TV coax cable laying around, and found out that the center copper conductor in the coax, was a perfect fit to go inside the solder cup. I cut about a 1/4" or so long piece for each solder cup, then soldered that to the db37 cup, then tinned the end of the wire, then heated up the connection at the solder cup, and it flows right onto the small piece of coax wire. I then used the proper size heat shrink tubing to insulate each wire/solder cup. It worked really well. You prob only need like 12" at most(and have some left over) of that cable for a complete db37 connector. It made solering the wires to the cups, MUCH easier.

Originally posted by CarbonFiberRST
Ok, I don't quite understand the relay board's purpose. I thought I was just going to be able to run all the wires from the MS directly to the injectors and sensors and all?

The board just makes it easy to put everything in. It also has fuses to protect your MS unit.

Originally posted by RxR_Eclipse

Originally posted by CarbonFiberRST Ok, I don't quite understand the relay board's purpose. I thought I was just going to be able to run all the wires from the MS directly to the injectors and sensors and all?

The board just makes it easy to put everything in. It also has fuses to protect your MS unit.

i thought the intent of the board was to have it stored in the bay so all your wires had a box to wire to rather than everything coming off a fat wire harness direct from the MS mounted in the cabin? just wonderin why you decided to put the relay board in the car... :P

Originally posted by RxR_Eclipse
I made my own too, it was really a bitch and took like 2 hrs, BUT it was well worth it. The relay board rocks. FYI I put my relay board under the passenger seat. All there, no problems. I just did not have a good place to put it under the hood. You can see here I had way too much wire.

lol i think too much wire is an understatment... were you building with the original intention of placing the relay board in the bay? what's the other box btw?

oh yea and what did you guys do in regards to shielding? i noticed a lot of the pre-made harnesses have a couple wires shielded to prevent interference... or have you not had any issues?

i did not use any shielding, the other box is a tech-edge wideband.

I had originally intended on putting it in the engine bay in a project box, but after careful thought, (I was running out of room under the hood and I was lazy), I put it under the passenger seat.

I did not use shielding either.

Originally posted by RxR_Eclipse
I had originally intended on putting it in the engine bay in a project box, but after careful thought, (I was running out of room under the hood and I was lazy), I put it under the passenger seat. I did not use shielding either.

ic ic. did having the relay board make the install any easier? (even if yours was in the cabin)

i'm kinda leaning towards getting the relay board and a pre-made wire to run into the bay.

yea I thought it was easier, but then again it differs for everyone. I say do the relay board. Its labled nice and makes the install clear. Just remember to label all your sensor/injector wires and then route them to the board, you don't want to get them mixed up.