OEM Switch Installed!!

At today's meetup, my goal was simple: install the SigmaAuto EV switch. To help speed things along, I went ahead and put the wires in the back of the switch housing unit.

We met in the delivery/shipping garage where I work since it was warm and dry on a cold rainy January afternoon. Matt and Wayne showed me how to remove the vents and parts of the dash. The initial wiring (wires 1,2, and 4) were the easy part. The documentation was very clear and the Radio Shack telephone taps worked like a charm. But then came Wire #3 to the HV ECU.

Sigma Auto supplied a red wire with a connector already attached. What a great idea! This totally removed the need to get some from under the steering wheel. It took quite a bit of work to realize that the supplied connector was too large. I tried it, Matt tried it, Wayne tried it: too big. Then I got one from under the steering wheel and Matt declared, "hey this fits really well." Duh!

Wire cutters to remove the large connector and crimping the new one and in it went. Jeweler's screwdriver to seat it and that was that. Thanks to all those who went before me and did not seat the wire fully; thanks to your warnings we checked and double-checked.

I took a quick nap and then we all went to Panera for sandwiches. Great conversations with awesome people. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to spend a day with them all. Wayne gave us the low-down on upcoming Alternative-Fuel and Hybrid events in the Chicagoland area and then we broke up. Some of us went back to the garage where my car was still in pieces..

Matt, Wayne, Amy, Dan and I finished up. Actually Amy, Dan, and I simply watched as Matt and Wayne dismantled the left side of my dashboard, the right side of the dashboard, removed my MFD, upended my backseat, and laughed like giddy schoolboys the whole time. All that disassembling - except the backseat which was apperantly done on a whim by Wayne - was nessary to thread Wire #3 from the extreme left side to the ECU on the extreme right side. Once the connection was made, removed, redone and finally confirmed, we reassembled the dash.

The drive home reiterated everything I read here: when to engage and when not to. How it disengages and how it tells you that it's disengaging. I know that I'm really going to have to hone in my EVing skills. It seems that EVing uses more charge than stealthing. I base that on a stretch of road where I can usually stealth in the upper 20s and tonight I EVed it. It seems to me that when I stealth it I can get farther than I did tonight when the EV kicked off.

My hat's off to Wayne and Matt in no particular order. Withouth these guys it wouldn't have gotten done. I feel that I underestimated the endeavor or overestimated my ability to get it done. There certainly was no way to know the Sigma connection was too large and that cost a lot of time. Looking back though I can see how the second time would go much much quicker.

 

Yeah, we were in denial for about an hour. We knew people had posted a tight fit. We assumed that the one provided was correct. Even after I whipped out three plugs from under the steering wheel (done previously) and compared, it was obvious that there was a difference but again we fell back on the assumption that the one provided just had to be right.

Now that I look back, I realize that I probably could do it on my own. I was - and am - more hesitant than those guys when it comes to dissassembling things like $26k highly technical vehicles. I guess it's just me. But now that I've seen it and know how the parts come apart and go back together, it seems like no big deal anymore.

I'm sure Amy, who purchased her EV switch from TeamAlpha, will have a much easier time having used me as her learning curve.

 

Jeez, does she ever stop with the ribbing? :lol:

 

Here are the instructions for the installation:
http://www.priuschat.com/forums/ev-switch-...20e08e1352bb536

And here's a crude drawing of the wiring schematic.
You need to know that the wires are color-coded in the car. The ones in this picture are not. This is only a representation and not intended for reference during the installation process itself. The installation document does a very good job.