C34 Stagea Cruise Control Installation Guide from A32 nissan maxima

[daneprostamobrown]

Alrighty guys so this guide/ build log/ r&d will outline how i installed the entire cruise control system from an a32 nissan maxima into my 2000 wgnc34 nissan stagea rsfours type b.

 

So firstly I’ll just state I am just a 19 year old who has absolutely no qualifications, just an interest in electronics and car audio with, in the big scheme of things, not much experience at all. Take all of this information as just a guide and your own r&d as who knows, some of the things may even be considered dangerous! I do welcome feedback and questions though!

 

Prerequisites and Warnings;

• If you can’t understand how to read, interpret and follow a proper Nissan wiring diagram I’d advise you not to attempt.
• You must be competent with a soldering iron and or crimping connections
• If you don’t know how to use all the functions of a standard multimeter do not attempt at all
• You will have to modify the clock spring, which houses the airbag wiring. This is a large risk that can result in airbag deployment if completed incorrectly  then there is the obvious risk of fire/short circuit if any electrical connections are incorrect or poorly terminated etc/not fused
• i will not be wasting time showing you how to take your interior apart. if you cant workout how to remove your steering wheel/speedo cluster etc you probably dont have the ability to install cruise control into your stagea. 

 

Step 1 Wiring diagrams;

• The wiring greatly differs between automatic and manual vehicles, with the latter being far more simple as transmission control is not needed. It is probably possible with autos but I have not investigated if the transmission control systems share commonalities. I have included both so you can see the differences.  
• Manual transmission

•  Automatic transmission

• This  series of diagrams --cruise control wiring diagram.pdf-- are the in depth wiring diagrams showing all factory pinouts, wire colours etc. they are just what a proper wiring diagrams are.
• within these diagrams there are various notes such as this one--  what i did was print out the full diagram and white out any unnecessary automatic parts of the diagram to simplify it.
•  i also suggest taking note in this document ---how to read wiring diagrams.pdf---on how to properly read these wiring diagrams and most importantly for pinouts, understanding if a pinout is shown from terminal side or harness side.

 Step 2: What you will need

• A32 nissan maxima parts
  • ascd control unit 
  • vacuum motor
  • vacuum cable actuator 
  • ascd clutch switch
  • ascd brake switch (looks the same as clutch switch, just take both switches on the brake pedal bracket and the clutch switch)
  • ascd steering wheel switch
  • ascd hold relay 
  • ascd main switch (can get a usdm d21 pathfinder switch i believe if you want the writing on it to be correct and not horizontal)
  • note: cut off everything with any plugs etc included and give yourself as much loom behind it as possible (atleast 100mm or so), take all bolts/fasteners too
  • take the clock spring and all the wiring inside the steering wheel becuase it comes in handy
  • if you want to incorporate a dash light that says "cruise" take the maxima cluster and connectors too
• stagea parts 
  •  you will need a steering wheel that has the large D shape side airbag bolt covers with brackets housed inside. i think series 1 wheels are like this but im not sure what models come like this. all i know is my rs4s wheel is smaller and doesnt have provisions for any audio control (left side) or cruise control (right side). second photo shows said bracket

the 

• throttle with second wheel bit (think this came on most autos but again not sure)
• 

 

• parts you can get from any car
  •  the longest fattest section of wiring loom you can extract from a car (you could go try and find all the colours in maxima wiring diagrams, but i just used what i had and spliced the colours i had in between the maxima terminated ends.
• consumables and tools
  • 6m of 7 or so mm split loom
  • a heap of double wall heatshrink of assorted sizes
  • electrical tape thats decent
  • your usual pliers,flush cutters, crimping pliers, wire strippers 
  • solder and soldering iron
  • pin removal tool and afew of them in different styles
  • the most dangerous tool in the shop (stanley knife.utility knife)
  • t50 torx socket
  • t40 torx socket 
  • 17mm socket
  • 10mm socket but seriously does anyone have any of these? 
  • phillips head screwdriver and tiny flatheads etc
  • parrot clip leads for your multimeter (the spring loaded clamp ones that allow you to lock onto wires/pins)

Step 3: modification (guess you could say fabrication) 

in this step il be showing you how i (poorly) mounted the ascd vacuum pump, actuator, modified the clock spring, modified the ascd controller case and modified the brake pedal. 

• Clock spring
  • the stock clock spring in my s2 rs4s type b has 3 wires in stock form, (steering wheel side) brown (batt12+), blue and yellow (airbag) The connector on the steering column side of the clock spring had 7 male pins as shown in this photo, (ignore the pen markings) so that got me thinking, if there is a 7 pin input to the ribbon cable there must be a way to add 4 more wires to the steering wheel side. see 7 copper pins through clear window in clock spring.
  • 
  • i then peeled the sticker on the face back to reveal the clip that secures the steering wheel wires of the clock spring. to remove this cover the two plastic pins that appear quite butchered in the picture below (top and bottom) need to be cut down with a utility knife as they are melted down larger than the id of the covers holes to ensure if the two centre clips fail there is no chance the cover can come off. they need to be cut down so the "od" of the centre squashed pins are smaller than the "id" of the cover holes as shown in the picture. once the plastic "pins"were modified and free, the centre clip needs to be squashed together releasing the cover. 
  • 
  • the next picture shows the connection of steering wheel wires to the clock spring copper with cover removed (stock rs4s type b). you would probably find a tiptronic series 2 clock spring has 2 wires you could use for cruise control which means you may not have to perform these modifications. thats just a guess though, and i choose modifying my own over sourcing one to find out if thats the case.
  • 
  • next, i cut the connector off the maxima clock spring show in picture below to add to the stagea clock spring. i removed these pins from the maxima connector with a custom pin removal tool that is inserted into the front and the plastic tabs were lifted up, releasing the pins out the back. 
  •  
  • the wires were then pushed through the stagea wire black sheath shown in picture below and roughly bent to where they would be soldered. (top 3 blue yellow green wires) i then realised there would be a spare pin available so i pushed a blue/orange wire through the airbag black sheath for any future use i think of.
  • 
  • the wires insulation were then stripped about 4mm or so, and all were soldered onto the copper pads. (see blue/orange wire second from right). only 2 wires are needed for cruise control out of the 4 that i added total, but i happened to have the opportunity to buy a rare factory option steering wheel audio controller and knew this would require one additional wire, and planned to use that final blue/orange wire in some sort of a scramble high boost mode button configuration on the wheel, hence using all 4 wires. Important soldering tip: pre tin your wires and pre tin the pads. DO NOT put excessive heat into the copper pads at any time. this will melt the delicate ribbon connector attached to the other side ruining the clock spring for good. i did one at a time quickly (tinning helps this) allowing the copper to completely cool between wires. the base of the wires were then secured to the plastic with a small amount of 2 part epoxy. 
  • 
  • i then pushed the three pins (blue green yellow) into the stagea black connector with the brown wire (horn batt12v+) and there the blue orange wire is loose coming from the airbag connector wire sheath.
  • 
  • i then checked continuity between steering wheel pins and rear of clock spring pins and ensured there were no shorts between wires, especially the airbag pins!
  • 
  • once i new the modifications were successful, the wire cover was put back on. some material needed to be shaved off the inside to allow more room for the 4 extra wires. once it clipped into place with the centre clip, i used the soldering iron to slightly melt the plastic "pins" ensuring it would never come off, slightly similar to how it was secured from factory.
  •  
  • thats it clock spring done!
• ascd vacuum pump and actuator 
  • All i did was mount the pump to the same bracket i had my catch can on in the back passenger side of the engine bay, and made a shitty bracket out of some steel and aluminium that i had lying around to mount the vacuum cable actuator to. this actuator is on the drivers side rear of the bay. im sure far more elegant nice mounts can be made up it works for me haha. 
  •  
• ascd controller case (mounting)
  • i mounted the ascd controller behind the drivers side kick panel on the relay bracket. first thing i did was remove one half of the ascd controllers case by bending out the pressed metal around it. once removed the outer metal case, i drilled out the 4 spot welds without going all the way through, removing the factory bracket. i then wire wheeled both the case and relay mount bracket and soldered the 2 together. the case was then put back together and edges bent back to secure it. the photo below shows the final product once completed.
  • 
• brake pedal 
  • in my rs4s there was only one weld in nut/captive nut whatever you call it on the brake pedal bracket for the stock brake switch. there is a second hold there but no weld in nut. there is also only one contact for the brake switch and no second one at all. for from my limited research i believe all autos come with both weld in nuts and both contacts ready to go (no modification necessary) 
  • 
  • (photo below shows view from behind with welded nut, contact and second hole with no nut)
  • 
  • to modify; step 1 crack a bleed nipple on a calliper with a clear vinyl tube over it going up to a reservoir/drink bottle or something to collect brake fluid. this is necessary because you need to be able to push the pedal to the floor.
  • step 2: push down pedal with your elbow or whatever and attempt to pry out that little rubber contact you can see in photo above. 
  • step 3: get yourself a bolt and nut ( i used a 16mm long m8 high tensile bolt and nut) and steel plate 
  • step 4: put bolt through steel plate (if the plate is less than 2mm thick you wont need to grind down bolt head) and push pedal down and put bolt through the hole where the rubber contact previously was and put nut on the back. align plate with the hole where the second brake switch will go and tighten nut and bolt with pedal pressed down.(first pic is side view showing bolt-2X1mm plate-pedal-nut)
  • 
  • step 5: this step will make you want to give up. if you finish this you can finish the whole install. you will need a mate with a broom stick or some sort of long pokey device to push the pedal down while your upside down in the footwell. get the stock brake switch and a second nut in hand. get your friend to push the pedal down to the floor and get up in there and put the brake switch through the hole and try and thread the nut back onto the switch from behind. you will now have 2 nuts on the switch clamping it to the bracket. do not tighten down yet. 
  • step 6: adjust brake switch back and fourth, with your friend pushing pedal in when necessary, with both nuts so you achieve around 0-0.8mm gap between the switch housing and the contact. to see this you will need to get a phone camera up in there or something. step 5 and 6 definitely are the most difficult, curse inducing, hatred building, case of beer break worthy aspects of the whole cruise control install.
  • step 7: put the brake interrupt switch in and adjust so there is 0-0.8mm of gap between the switch housing and the contact (now the bolt head) see photo below
  • 
  • brake switch modifications complete! see photo below for photo
  • 

 

Step 4: The wiring 

So you should have gathered a heap of body loom or wires of different colours from a wrecker/parts car already. ideally you want to use the same colour as the diagram but as long as you record what colours you use etc you should be fine. il tackle this section in the same way i did in mine, one page of the wiring diagram at a time. i will often refer to "running pin so and so to a given location" and in virtually all circumstances out of the car this wire run was a 1.5m or so extended length i had soldered in the colour i chose to the nissan maxima plug if that makes sense. where possible to simplify wire routing i grouped as many as i could in the one run of split loom and when i new i would have afew wires going to the same location i used a drill to for twisted pairs or a larger twisted loom. i ran 3 main "runs" of split loom, one to the main switch, one to the clock spring and any brake switches and a third into the engine bay for the ascd vacuum pump. i suggest soldering extended lengths of wire for all "runs" to the plugs/pins you will add such as brake switches, clock spring connector etc, then running these wires through split loom so they all end up at the ascd controller area and final soldering is consolidated to one location after all other connections are finished.

• Page 1 of wiring diagram (EL-145 main switch) and page 5 of wiring diagram (el-149)/ "run 1" of split loom
  
   
  • so this page for the manual transmission diagram only has just the main switch wiring and ascd hold relay. 
  • first wire: pin 1 of the ascd main switch. this is ign power and it is the same source as the ign power for the ascd hold relay. what i did is i found luckily in my scrap wiring loom, a pin that is the same as the pins on the interior fuse panel connector. i chose to do this as factory as possible so i pulled out the fuse panel, bridged the ign relay and traced out  10A fuse that isnt used with the continuity function and found the ign output pin for this fuse. the first photo shows that bottom row, 3 from left (white out indicator) pin will give you 12v+ ign through the red fuse in photo 2 with the white out on it (bottom row 2 from far left)
  • 
  • 
  • to add the female pin to the harness side connector i sourced the same pin out of the scrap loom i had which looks like the photo below. according to the wiring diagram this wire runs to the main switch (which goes rhs of steering wheel next to fog light switch in speedo cluster surround) and also the ascd main switch (mounted on the ascd controller relay bracket) so i ran the wire off the pin back down the loom towards the mass of wires inside the upper part of kick panel (as a sub loom) then, as i earlier spliced a second wire into the long length (made a y split), i ran one side down to where the ascd relay mounts and one forward out the dash where the ascd switch goes. 
  • 
  • just incase your connector falls apart like mine did (dont fully take out the inner pin securing backing plastic on connector, i learnt the hard way) here is the wire colours and placement on the connector. the pink/blue wire is the pin i added that connects to third from left as referred to before and the fuse.
  • 
  • 
  • now pin 4 and 6 of the main switch are both just grounds (pin 6 shows it goes to el-ill or the speedo cluster but upon further investigation its just a ground). i soldered pin 4 wire to pin 6 wire 100mm or so down from the connector and then ran the ground wire right down to where the ascd relay is (same run as the 12v ign+ pin 1 wire). pin 2 and 3 wires were ran down to where the ascd relay is and pin 5 wire was ran 150mm or so down the run of wires then came out of the loom as it were to go to the speedo cluster. 
  • now page 5 (el-149) shows pin 7 (speed sensor) and pin 13 (cruise lamp indicator) both go to the combination metre (speedo cluster) so i ran these lengths of wire up the same split loom as the ascd main switch wires, and had them come out in the same spot as the pin 5 of the switch to form a sub loom that heads towards the cluster. (photo below shows 3 speedo sub loom wires before i moved them 150mm down the loom for neater routing.
  •  
  • a thicker gauge ground wire with ring terminal crimped and soldered to the end is then thread up "run 1" from the ascd relay area up to where the "Y" is that goes off in the sub loom to the fuse panel connector. this ring terminal is bolted to the common ground thats really obvious just above the large opening in the kick panel metal.
  • pin 2 of the ascd hold relay is crimped and soldered with the ground (pin 4 of the ascd main switch), and pin 3 of the ascd controller to the other end of the thicker ground (down at the ascd relay to form one large common ground for everything.
  • so this "run 1" loom, from ascd main switch to ascd hold relay/ascd controller" has all 6 wires from the switch, a ground and the ign 12v+ fuse panel wire thats splits off in the middle , then 3 split off to the speedo (pin 7 of controller speed sensor, pin 13 of controller cruise lamp, and pin 5 of the main switch the illumination). 
• Page 1 (EL-145),2 (EL-146),3 (EL-147) or "Run 2" of split loom
  • this will be split into 2 sections, brake switch interrupts and clock spring connector. all wires in this section run down the same loom
  • Brake switches
  • so following on from the first section or "run 1" of loom, pin 2 of the ascd main switch on diagram EL-145 when you simplify it, ties into pin 3 of the ascd hold relay, pin 4 of the ascd controller and also then goes off to pin 1 of the ascd clutch switch. what i did here is i connected all 4 wires together in one location down where the ascd hold relay/ascd controller is. the photo below shows run 1 coming in and hidden under heatshrink and tape this 4 way junction takes place and the green/black wire thats visible is now going off in run 2 towards the clutch switch. 
  • 
  • also in "run 2" a length of wire is ran from the ascd controller area to the brake switch area to connect to pin 5 of the controller and pin 2 of the brake switch.
  • another run of wire is ran from  the ascd controller area to the brake switch area through "run 2" split loom to connect to pin 11 of the ascd controller and splice into the factory brake pedal pin 1 (this is the stop lamp switch, sends +12v to the ascd controller when pressed like your brake light) 
  • thats it for the brake switch part.

will continue the next sections in more comments as this is way too long for poor old sau and its lagging heavily (probably my crappy late 2011 macbook pro)

 

 

 

[daneprostamobrown]

 

• • Clock spring connector
  • so pins need to be added to the clock spring abs connector (4 in my case as i added 4 wires to the clock spring but i will only focus on the 2 necessary for cruise control). the pins that go into the abs connector look like the photo below. you cant use the maxima abs/clock spring connector as its completely different. i found that the pins out of the maxima clock spring steering wheel side were a close enough match and worked so i used those (2nd photo below) and also i used blue pin 12 from the ascd controller also which again, was a close enough fit.

once the 2 pins were pulled from the connector long runs were soldered on to the pins and ran down "run 2" split loom back to the ascd controller. i then triple checked with the multimeters continuity function what pins of the clock spring connector (harness side) went to what wires i added to the steering wheel side (wrote the colours on the clear window) so i knew where to add my pins to the abs/clock spring connector. the photo below shows the pins added to the connector.

 

 

• Page 4 (EL-148) "Run 3" of split loom
  • This loom contains the 4 wires that go from the ascd controller to the vacuum pump in the engine bay. i soldered the extended runs of wires to the ascd vacuum pump connector in the colours i chose then used a twist drill to make some really nice looking twisted loom. first picture shows said twist and second just the connector and loom behind it. 
  • 
  • 

 

this loom was punched through the main harness grommet along with all the other stuff i have put through. i had the wheel off anyways for the brake pedal mods and cracking the bleeder so taking the inner plastic guard off was easy.

this "run 3" just comes out close to the ascd controller. thats it for the running of wires.

• Splicing into stagea wires and terminating the wiring
  • going back to run 1, at the speedo cluster area there are the three wires, pin 7 of controller (speed sensor) , pin 13 of controller (cruise lamp), and pin 5 of the main switch (the illumination). 
  • i chose not to solder splice as i wanted to leave the stageas wiring harness unmolested so i used 3m wire taps. so for the pin 7 speed signal, we tap into the yellow/green wire on the connector thats in the middle of the other 2. the transmission sends a signal to the speedo cluster, it changes it from a sine waveform to a pwm signal. this yellow/green wire normally goes to pin 29 of the ecu connector. below is my poor diagram of what pin it is on the speedo loom connector (view from harness side looking into the rear of the connector).  second photo shows what pin it is and third photo shows wire tap into yellow/green wire 
  •  
  •  
  • 
  • 
  • for pin 5 of the main switch we tap into the red with blue stripe. this is the same wire used in virtually any headunit install aswell. this wire is directly above the yellow green stripe speed signal. i didnt get a photo of the wire tap of this in the end but you cant get that wrong. you can see it in a previous photo.
  • for pin 13 cruise lamp indicator i temporarily wired that to an external led until i modify the speedo cluster so it has a "cruise" light where the "o/d off" light on autos is. 
  • next is wire tapping/ splicing into the factory stop lamp switch. this will connect to the wire we ran through "run 2" to pin 11 of the ascd control unit. the picture below shows the wire tap on the pink/black wire which is pin 2 of the stop lamp switch connector (only gets +12v when pressed in. the other blue connector is the brake switch interrupt. 

• now everything should be terminated at the ends and all thats left is a bunch of wires from "runs 1,2,3" that are loose near the ascd controller. at this point i would tuck all "runs" where you want them and cut the extra length of wires back so you can now solder them to whatever pins they correspond to on the ascd controller. this step is where you rely on what you recorded previously in terms of what wire colour you used to extend the maxima plugs. i used continuity testing on the multimeter to ensure the wires that were coming into the ascd controller were what i thought they should be before soldering, ensuring they went from "a to a" instead of an unintentional "a to b" if you get what im saying.the picture below shows how everything looked once runs 1 2 and 3 had all been soldered in their final place.

thats it for the wiring side of things. everything should be somewhat done now. 

 

5: How i ran the "runs" and all the pictures that didnt really have a good place as they are more just what i did, not whats crucial" 

• "run 2" and how i routed it
• 
• more of "run 2" with sub loom to clock spring and also some of "run 1"
• 
• photo below shows "run 1" going in kickpanel and splitting off for ign 12v+ from fuse panel connector
• 
• photo below shows more of "run 2" routing under dash and a little of "run 1" routing
• 
• steering wheel without internal modifications "connector on left side is for factory option audio controls. the clock spring connector has added wires.
• 
• the photo below shows how i modified the internal steering wheel wiring with what came out of the maxima wheel plus my modifications (connector for cruise switch on the right, the red batt 12v+ wire and two signal wires for cruise control green and yellow) i just cut and soldered so the wires so they went where i wanted them to go according to  diagram EL-147. this meant i ensured the res/accel button went to pin 1 of the ascd control unit, and the set/coast went to pin 2 of the control unit. 
• 
• the series of photos below just show some final locations of various things like ascd main switch steering switch etc.
• 
• 
• me cruising at 60 with cruise control on (ignore the look of the switch, i have the early model a32 switch here which doesnt fit the stagea wheel) I need to get the late model one like below
• 

 

 

so thats pretty much it. i feel i covered the important bits but just remember you need to run the wires the way you want, extend the plugs you cut out of a nissan maxima with whatever colour wires you choose and continuity test everything to ensure its correct. print your own wiring diagrams and when you deviate away from whats written, write down your changes for future reference/troubleshooting. i didnt include my modifications and diagrams because they are just the same with my wire colours written over the top etc. if i have left any details out you need just message me here or on facebook or whatever and il try to answer. i didnt include every single step by step pin connection becuase this is already long enough and if i did that, it would be phd thesis length. 

**edit- here is the full electrical system part of the nissan maxima A32 service manual***

----EL.pdf

Cheers!!!

special thanks to chris rogers and scott bailey for their assistance when i initially started doing research and especially scott (@SABBAi) when my fuse panel connector came apart and i couldnt put it back together *see below* also thanks to any guys i got parts from josh for the scrap wiring scott for the second auto throttle. sorry if i missed anyone!

Edited November 1, 2017 by daneprostamobrown

[KiwiRS4T]

Well done...Amazing! I think I would just buy another car unless you were close enough to do it for me (I know you are not).

Ask a mod to shift this to the DIY section.

[PranK]

One of the best DIY's ever! I'll add this to our DIY list. 

[Binarydata]

Wow awesome write up. Gonna have to look at making this work for my R34. 

[daneprostamobrown]

yea the wiring and everything would be easy enough as it would be similar to what i did, but the steering wheel and clock spring on a 34 would be the bit that needs more research. 

[PranK]

On 04/11/2017 at 11:31 PM, Binarydata said:

Wow awesome write up. Gonna have to look at making this work for my R34. 

If you do do this, can you post back here how you went? 

[Binarydata]

30 minutes ago, daneprostamobrown said:

yea the wiring and everything would be easy enough as it would be similar to what i did, but the steering wheel and clock spring on a 34 would be the bit that needs more research. 

Yeah, I'm not sure how I'll go with the clock spring yet. I'll have to give it a look on the weekend. But I want to put stereo controls on the wheel anyway so hopefully I can do both. 

 

19 minutes ago, PranK said:

If you do do this, can you post back here how you went? 

Yeah I'll see how I go but if I do I will for sure do a write up

[daneprostamobrown]

ok so bit of an update of things i did afew months ago,

finally got another brake/clutch switch and late a32 maxima / early y61 gu patrol steering wheel switch and put those in. it is the oem switch that bolts in to this steering wheel

got a full a32 nissan maxima cluster for some pins and the "cruise" light in the cluster. 

i took apart both the stagea and maxima clusters and cut the "cruise" light out of the maxima one and slowly using acetone on a cotton bud, removed the black tint stuff and orange from the "O/D OFF" light as my c34 is manual so i dont need it.

clear nail polish cleans up the acetone job and makes it more clear

then i superglued the "cruise" light to the c34 cluster strip.

i then had to cut a small slit into the trace for the light pin i chose as unlike i originally thought, one end of the traces is NOT connected to ground so i needed to bridge it to ground with the solder pads i made and a bridging wire.

 

you cant see it very well as the photo i took is terrible but the final product is a fully oem looking clearly visible "cruise" light when i activate the cruise control.

next in the list of things to do is take the steering wheel off and investigate a bolt in solution for the clock springs by testing a early y61 gu patrol clock spring i got from a wrecker and i might then if successful make up some "kits" that will be a little bit more difficult to install than a headunit/sub amp and will require some amount of mechanical knowledge. 

^ some testing i did with acetone on the junk maxima cluster. i found to make it as clear as possible it is best to do one small light wipe with the cotton bud then use a fresh section of cotton but to limit contamination. 

^

Edited December 5, 2018 by daneprostamobrown