Hodaka Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 (edited) Hey everyone, My first guide, wooo~ I recently bought myself a D1 Spec GT Throttle Controller from Adrian, and I thought I'd write a guide to clarify the installation process. Hopefully this will be useful to anyone struggling to understand the instructions (although it was quite good, some bits were a tad ambiguous), but more likely for those of you on the fence as they're not sure if they can install themselves. I'm a novice when it comes to car DIY, so have faith - you can do it! Note - I have super limited lingo for car parts. Apologies in advance! If you can let me know the actual names of the parts, I'll update this guide. Experience level required Beginner Time spent ~1 hour depending on how "clean" you want the installation to be. In this guide I'll be installing the control unit by the A-pillar, but if you don't mind it elsewhere, it will be much quicker. Plus I say 1 hour, but I did do this tonight outside in gale force winds, with pretty much no light (penlight used) and while taking photos. Which leads me to my next point - sorry the photos aren't the best quality. I did what I could with what I had, but to make matters worse, my phone screen was broken which meant I couldn't turn on the flash on my phone Things you need Everything you need is provided to you in the box, but I would recommend: Double-sided tape Electrical tape or similar Enough waffling already! So first things first, what do you get? You'll get 2 boxes - the one on the right contains the actual unit itself, whereas the one on the right contains the harness that's specific for the 350z. From now on, I'll refer to this pic as the reference pic. And this is what you get inside. Everything you need is provided, however during my research prior to buying it some have found the double-sided tape to be somewhat lacking in stickiness. I experienced the same thing, so as I mentioned before, I would recommend that you get some better quality double-sided tape beforehand. Step 1 - Leave your car to rest for 10 mins The first thing you'll need to do is ensure that you shut off your engine for at least 10 minutes. I have no idea about the validity of this, but the instruction manual states that it could lead to the Check Engine Light to come on. Step 2 - Detaching the gas pedal wire Move your driver's seat back and get your head in the footwell. If you look up by the gas pedal, this is what you should see: The thing you need to disconnect is the white plastic connector. There's a plastic clip on the opposite side, i.e. the side closer to your door. You'll need to press on this clip and pull towards the back of the car to disconnect the white connector. If you're not sure about where the clip is located, take a look at the connector in your Throttle Controller kit. It's the part to the top right in the reference pic. Only one of the connectors will have a clip, and that's identical to the one you're trying to remove. One you remove the connector, it should look like this: Step 3 - Connect the D1 special car-model connector This special car-model connector (as D1 calls it. It's the part to the top right of the reference pic) consists of 3 ends - 2 large grey connectors, and one small white connector. The large connectors basically needs to connect between the 2 you just disconnected. I started by connecting the white connector that we just removed, to the special car-model connector. One end is female and the other male, so you can't really get this wrong. In theory, they should clip together, but I couldn't get it to "click" and lock into place. I did read that other people had this same issue. I therefore pushed them together, and used some tape to ensure the connection lasts. I would have liked to have used electrical tape, but I literally just ran out, so had to use some packaging tape for now until I get some more electrical tape. This is what you should end up with: You'll then need to connect the bottom, free hanging connector, to your electronic throttle. This is what you should end up with. I tucked the connectors to the side to keep it out the way (in the pic, you can see it behind the wires), and then left the smaller connector dangling down in the footwell so that it can be connected to the control box later. Step 4 - Removing the A-pillar As I say, I personally wanted the main device to sit by the A-pillar. My plan was to put it at the top of my windscreen, where it'd be easy to see/access, but keep it out of my main line of vision. I find that removing the A-pillar trim can be a slight PITA, but in case you haven't done it, it's held on by a few clips. You'll need to grab the trim at the top, and start popping out the clips diagonally downwards (towards the handbrake-ish), working your way down. Once you've unclipped all the clips, you'll then need to lift up the trim towards the roof. As I say, a little bit of a PITA, but you'll get there eventually. I didn't take a pic of this step, so best look up a guide if my explanation doesn't make sense. If I get time this weekend, I'll take it off again and take some pics. Step 5 - Feeding through the main device wire Once you've removed your A-pillar trim you'll notice that at the bottom of where the trim was, you can see right down into the footwell. There's probably a better way of doing this, but what I then did was to take some relatively thick gauge wire and feed it between the 2 areas. I started by feeding in the wire from the top (i.e. the bottom of where the A-pillar trim was) until it's about 1/3 of the way down. Then I got into the footwell area and looked up through the gaps, and guided the wire all the way down. Note that to avoid any possibility of short circuiting anything, I taped up the end that I was feeding through. Once you've successfully fed it through, you should have something like this: Might be a bit hard to see, but it's the black wire I used. If you look carefully, you can see it in the footwell area with a white end (the tape). From here on, I'll refer to this wire as the feeder wire to avoid confusion. Now we need to pull the connector & wire from the main device through from the A-pillar to the footwell. I took the top end of the feeder wire, and taped the wire from the main device to it. I wrapped a bit of paper around the main device wire near the small white connector, just to make sure the tape didn't stick there and damage anything during removal of the tape. Once you're happy they're secured, pull the feeder wire from the footwell to pull everything through. You should then end up with the wire from the main device in the footwell: This white blob is the wire from the main device, taped up to the feeder wire. Now that it's through, you can remove the tape and get rid of the feeder wire. Step 6 - Connecting to the control box The control box has 2 white plugs on it, as well as an OBD connection. Connect the 2 small white connectors from step 3 & 5 to the control box. They differ in size, so you can't connect them incorrectly. Step 7 - Connecting to the OBD port This step is nice and simple. Connect the OBD connector to the OBD port, which is next to the petrol cap release button. Step 8 - Stick on the control box You can decide where to put this, but my personal choice was to put it near the petrol cap release button as shown here: Degrease the area (I use IPA), and use the double-sided tape to stick the control unit on. This is where the double-sided tape failed for me (hence the finger holding it on for the pic!). I'll be using some stronger tape tomorrow to stick it on properly. Step 9 - Stick on the main device I used cable ties to carefully secure the wire to the A-pillar, just to try and keep things neat. I then stuck the main device to the top of my windscreen. It's worth noting that you should keep a little slack, so that you're not stressing any of the wires/connectors. Step 10 - Tidy up! Use the cable ties provided (and any extra if you need) to tidy up your wires. You don't want some wire dropping down into the footwell while you're driving now would you? Once you've cable tied everything together, put the A-pillar back on. This is how the main device sits on my car: Step 11 - Initial set up Before you can take your car for a spin, you'll need to configure your new throttle controller (TC). The steps are as follows: Put your car in neutral Turn your car on, without starting your engine. This is the second click/position as you rotate your keys. Your TC should display "nor" for "normal" Press and hold the SET button until you see a countdown Release the button once it reaches 0 The screen will display a value starting with "L", followed by the voltage reading Ensuring that you're not pressing on the gas pedal, press SET again. This seems to set the "Low" reading, i.e. when you're not pressing on the pedal The display will now show a value starting with "H". Press down on the gas pedal fully, and while holding it down, press SET again. Your TC should now show "100" Release the gas pedal. You should see the value decrease until "nor" is shown again Done! If you want to test everything is set correctly, press fully on the gas pedal and release. You should see the display go from "nor" up to "100" then back down to "nor". In case it helps, here's a video I took. I wasn't initially going to talk over it, but I thought it would be more useful. Sorry, I find it pretty awkward to talk to myself on camera Now you're ready to go have some fun! I didn't get a proper chance to play with it tonight, but even from my little "play time", I could tell how much more responsive the gas pedal was. I did, as I'm sure many others have, put it straight on sports 10 though A little wheel spin and a "woah" later, I had a big grin on my face I'm now at the office and don't have the instructions handy, but one important thing I noticed in the instructions is that it says you shouldn't hold the OSPI button for longer than 5 seconds as it'll throw up an error. Not sure what that's about, but just don't do that I guess! Edited July 5, 2017 by Hodaka 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexx Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Thanks for taking the time to create this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairyman68 Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Great job....will use it tomorrow when fitting mine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian@TORQEN Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Good in depth tutorial, nicely done Hodaka! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodaka Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 Thanks for taking the time to create this No problem, happy to try and help. Great job....will use it tomorrow when fitting mine... Sounds good. If you do get stuck, give me a shout and I'll try and help out. Good in depth tutorial, nicely done Hodaka! Cheers Adrian! Struggled a bit as I don't know the names of a lot of the parts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudman Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Gotta love this forum - great work ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodaka Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 Gotta love this forum - great work ! Thank you very much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul K Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Nice guide. Trouble is I'm now thinking I need one of these. Along with all the other bits I think I need !!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kieran_ctr Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 are these any good & do you notice any difference? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian@TORQEN Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Nice guide. Trouble is I'm now thinking I need one of these. Along with all the other bits I think I need !!! Best to hurry up then, last one in stock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodaka Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 Nice guide. Trouble is I'm now thinking I need one of these. Along with all the other bits I think I need !!! I totally get what you mean are these any good & do you notice any difference? I haven't had a proper chance to play with it to give proper feedback, so might be best you ask on Adrian's thread for more opinions. Saying that, from the short time I have used it, I can definitely feel the difference. The throttle feels much more responsive as I believe it's essentially amplifying whatever input you give it, which makes the car feel much more livelier. For me at least, it gave me the illusion that I had more horses under the hood, although I know that's not actually the case. It was a lot of fun to play with We had horrible weather down here yesterday, so I didn't really "go for it" though. I'll feedback on the sales thread once I've had time to play with it more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Payco Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Great work Hodaka. Thanks for taking the time out to document this. Threads like this make this forum what it is. Well done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaqkaudio Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Was going to do one of these this weekend after seeing people struggle getting it all setup! It really is easy, programming literally takes sub 1 minute, its finding a mounting place and cable tidying that takes up your time. Great guide 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PPod Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Brilliant thanks hodako will be following your guide tomorrow when I fit it. Really Like where the unit is placed up through the pillar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodaka Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 Cheers guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul K Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Nice guide. Trouble is I'm now thinking I need one of these. Along with all the other bits I think I need !!! Best to hurry up then, last one in stock i think I can manage without for the moment New tyres is becoming a priority Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian@TORQEN Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 oh, tyres are more important, of course MPSS or Ekona is going to give you a fine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairyman68 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 Guide worked a treat....fitted my this morning. .and yes takes more time to put cables tidy etc..have I missed something or does it set back to normal after engine switched off..? Seemed like I have to alter each time to sports mode 7...and ter engine off its in normal again..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairyman68 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 But wow....what a difference. ...get one..! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodaka Posted February 10, 2016 Author Share Posted February 10, 2016 Guide worked a treat....fitted my this morning. .and yes takes more time to put cables tidy etc..have I missed something or does it set back to normal after engine switched off..? Seemed like I have to alter each time to sports mode 7...and ter engine off its in normal again..? Glad it was useful! Where did you install it in the end? Also concerning the memory, I'm not sure. I've been reverting it back after I use it (back to S-1 and then to normal mode) as I don't want to accidentally change into a setting I don't want. Thinking about it, I swear I read in the instructions that it reverts back to normal for safety reasons? I'll take a look later anyway and confirm, if no-one else does beforehand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairyman68 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 Mounted it just below the left hand air vent of the steering wheel.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodaka Posted February 10, 2016 Author Share Posted February 10, 2016 Mounted it just below the left hand air vent of the steering wheel.... Ah right, that's one of the locations I considered too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizza2000 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 (edited) Mounted it just below the left hand air vent of the steering wheel.... Ah right, that's one of the locations I considered too great write up and definitely be keeping this page open on phone when installing Saturday 😀 Plus going to install mine on left below vent also , great minds think alike hey, well Hodaka's mind is better than mine when it comes to the great install guide, Edited February 10, 2016 by Wizza2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodaka Posted February 11, 2016 Author Share Posted February 11, 2016 great write up and definitely be keeping this page open on phone when installing Saturday í ½í¸€ Plus going to install mine on left below vent also , great minds think alike hey, well Hodaka's mind is better than mine when it comes to the great install guide, Glad to hear you found it useful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PPod Posted February 14, 2016 Share Posted February 14, 2016 How you guys finding it? Am loving it makes every gear from the start pull and super sensitive but got caught out on sport mode 10 on a hill start haha basicly kangarooed back and forth like three times cause I over revved lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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