Racelogic Traction Control Installation

[Rhino]

I'm finally getting round fitting my race logic traction control system and I'm planning to tap into the wheel sensor signals at the ABS control unit in the boot, either off the wiring loom or from internal to the ABS control unit.

I was wondering where people have installed these before, where did you wired in to the ABS wheel sensors, was it at the ABS control unit or elsewhere?

Also did you have any issues using un-screened cables, as the original ABS wiring throughout the car is screened?

Thanks

 

[JoeLanger]

Try and use screened if you can. The speeds signals are particularly prone to interference.

 

[Sacrilegious-FD]

I'm finally getting round fitting my race logic traction control system and I'm planning to tap into the wheel sensor signals at the ABS control unit in the boot, either off the wiring loom or from internal to the ABS control unit.

I was wondering where people have installed these before, where did you wired in to the ABS wheel sensors, was it at the ABS control unit or elsewhere?

Also did you have any issues using un-screened cables, as the original ABS wiring throughout the car is screened?

Thanks

Love my racelogo T/C however can't help as I had an autoelectrican wire it in. And dynotorque putting into new car (if we can make it work with direct injection)

 

[4packet]

Mine is spliced into the harness near the ABS module. You need to run the rear sensor wires to the back of the car and its easier to trace the fronts from there too.

The TC ECU is mounted where the stock Mazda engine ECU was.

It's been too long to remember what wiring I used. I can't recall shopping for shielded wiring though. If I stumble across any images I'll share, but I don' think any of it is easily accessible on the car.

I swapped the TC injector harness connectors at the front of the car for sealed Delphi GT range (like the rest of the GM plugs). Think I had to make a whole new harness as my ECU is in the drivers side front corner like the Camaro and the original harness would not reach. I've designed it so you can bypass the TC injector circuit if required. My first unit failed after a year or so. Racelogic claimed I must have got it wet (I didn't), so make sure it is well protected. The case is pretty primitive!

 

[Sacrilegious-FD]

Mine is spliced into the harness near the ABS module. You need to run the rear sensor wires to the back of the car and its easier to trace the fronts from there too.

The TC ECU is mounted where the stock Mazda engine ECU was.

It's been too long to remember what wiring I used. I can't recall shopping for shielded wiring though. If I stumble across any images I'll share, but I don' think any of it is easily accessible on the car.

I swapped the TC injector harness connectors at the front of the car for sealed Delphi GT range (like the rest of the GM plugs). Think I had to make a whole new harness as my ECU is in the drivers side front corner like the Camaro and the original harness would not reach. I've designed it so you can bypass the TC injector circuit if required. My first unit failed after a year or so. Racelogic claimed I must have got it wet (I didn't), so make sure it is well protected. The case is pretty primitive!

Hey dude didn't realize you had one,


Riddle me this do you see any problem with rigging up to cut the coils instead of injectors, I cant cut the injectors with Direct injection? i think this is what we are going to try.


Neil

 

[4packet]

Hi Neil, do you know what the issue is with the direct injection? I just had a quick overall look at the LT4 system, but would take me a while to find anything specific on the controller side. The solenoids are probably going to require significantly more power to actuate which is likely the issue for the TC ECU. Have you spoken to racelogic at Buckingham? Helpful, friendly bunch. I spent a bit of time there when we were trying to diagnose the issue with my unit.

The concern with cutting spark, is spraying fuel at the bores. It was always a concern with diesel applications where a late injection on the exhaust stroke was used for aftertreatment warm up. A lot of the fuel hits the bores (rather than combusting centrally in the chamber) and runs passed the rings into the sump. Fuel in oil was a key measurement of any durability test. With petrol the effect of that is going to be more detrimental due to the lower lubricity. To what extent will depend on frequency of TC use and better knowledge of the engine. Throwing unburnt fuel at cats is also an issue which may or may not be relevant to you.

 

[Rhino]

Thanks for your replies, definitely food for thought.

I'm locating the TC ECU under the radio and my engine ECU is in the passenger foot well in the original Mazda location. I've got the Delphi range of connectors as well, but am using the unsealed version as these are all within the cabin. The injector wiring was going to be through a connector anyway as I want the ability to completely remove the TC from the injector circuits if necessary.

I've got a multi core cable for running from the ABS control unit back to the TC ECU, but going off the back of the connector inside the ABS unit isn’t going to be as neat as I would have liked, and splicing the wire there doesn’t look fun. Wire splicing is usually my last resort.

Part of the reason I asked about the screened cable is that I've also probably got enough screen Spec55 wire left over from when I built my engine loom, but it doesn’t sound that screened cable is a must to get the TC to work correctly.

 

[4packet]

There is a chance the supplied ABS harness from Racelogic was long enough and I used that which is why I have little recollection of it. I remember the injector harness well as I had to find all the different wire colours to make it up! Agreed on the splicing, it pains me to break into harnesses.

Have you got a neat way of mounting the adjuster? I stuck mine to the pocket underneath the stereo temporarily while I tested it and its still there 6 years later! I was going to dissect the adjuster and mount it recessed in the dash, but couldn't be sure it was going to fit before drilling the hole.


Just quickly googled it out of curiosity. From the Racelogic support site:

Connecting Traction Control ABS Wires
The 4 traction control ABS wires are coloured Red, Blue, Yellow and Green and form the 4 core shielded cable.

Connect each wire from the traction control loom to each of the 4 ABS sensor wires as follows.

• Strip back the shielding of the ABS wire exposing the cores.
• Tin the cores using the soldering iron and solder.
• Strip back the shielding of the traction control wire.
• Tin the cores using the soldering iron and solder.
• Solder the traction control Wire to the ABS wire.
• Cover the joint with insulation tape.

 

[Rhino]

Shielded it is then, had a closer look at the TC loom as the screen was terminated ~15mm inside the cable sheath at the end, annoyingly I missed that. The loom is only about 1.0m long so will have to extend the screen to cover the new cables to pick up the wheel speed signals.

The adjuster fits snugly in the cubbyhole for now, but I don't really like it and have had three different ideas for it, as the circuit inside the adjuster is pretty simple, each selection just changes the resistance.

Modify or remake the cubbyhole to include the adjuster.

New adjuster mounted on the steering wheel, as I have two spare connections steering wheel connector, but I don't know how the resistance will change as the steering wheel is rotated.

Re-purpose the RX7 headlight level switch to replace the selector, but it only has 4 positions instead of the selectors 6. The RX7 adjuster seems to be a standard size item, secured in a RX7 specific housing for the RX7 switch profile. I was thinking of looking into the possibility of using another headlight adjuster switch with more positions, but can't seem to find many other similar adjusters with 6 positions

 

[Rhino]

Thought I'd update this, I ended up tapping into the ABS wheel sensor signals in the wiring loom near the ABS computer and I ran a screened 4-core cable back to the traction control unit. I was able to mount the control unit behind the LS ECU that's in the standard RX-7 location.

The traction control system is all installed with the config loaded, I just need to test it but I need an MOT first, one that is emissions friendly.

For the connection to the existing loom I used some open barrel splice connectors (RS 718-7640) instead of cutting or soldering the wires, and its similar to what's used for splices in the mazda loom. Just had to wrap the connection up before re-wrapping the loom back together.

 

[4packet]

Those splice connectors look good. We carefully sliced the insulator fully around the circumference. Slid both sides back to reveal bare copper sufficient to wrap the TC wire around and solder. Then de-pinned the Mazda connector, so some heat shrink could be slid over the joint.

With regards the settings I've bumped the thresholds by about 10%. Car will happily drift on the 10%/15% setting, but stops it hitting the rev limit instantaneously if I get caught out. The only occasional issue I have is at low revs on a tight bend (maybe a bit of gravel or wet) it will try to mildly spin the inside wheel. Even with the 8 channel TCU it still feels quite rough as each cylinder is cut due to the low revs (2000RPM-ish), but high load. Think that is in part due to the Torsen (T2R) rather than a plate style locking diff. It's great on track when wet though. Gives me half a chance to get some heat into the rear tyres. Also brilliant if I want to overtake on a wet road (adjust it to wet) and can't afford to be making a massive correction and backing off with an oncoming car etc. I've let friends drive it on track and feel a lot more relaxed being able to adjust it to baby mode.

 

[SchuKingR]

so you can splice into the wires without having the ABS doing some crazy stuff? Sounds very good!!

 

[Ryan.Rx_]

Hi All, I'm looking to wire all 4 wheel speed sensors into my Link G4X on my 99' FD. Can someone tell me the wire colours for each wheel speed sensor? Hoping to utilise the traction control and also use it for 3D launch control setup. Thanks

 

[Gunnytron]

You can see the colours here. This is the abs unit in the rear wing. If you haven't already, download the wiring diagrams and service manuals. FYI the wiring my vary depending on year. IIRC the abs system changed around 94/95.

 

[Ryan.Rx_]

You can see the colours here. This is the abs unit in the rear wing. If you haven't already, download the wiring diagrams and service manuals. FYI the wiring my vary depending on year. IIRC the abs system changed around 94/95.

View attachment 40359

Hi, Very belated response but finally got round to trying it out but couldn't get it working. I didn't seem to pick anything up on the ECU input, even at higher speeds.
I spliced into the white wire for the LF wheel speed and connected it to my Digital Input and setup the ECU accordingly. When logging no voltage or pulses were recorded. Is this is the correct wire?
I am now looking into a VR to Hall effect converter to give me a 5V signal which the ECU should pick up. For this I assume I will use the Red and White wires from the LF, does that sound right? The red and white wires were twisted together making me think they are the correct wires. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[JoeLanger]

Colours may be differnt on the JDM drawings

It should pick up something. Try measuring voltage with your meter and rotate the wheel. Should be able to see a short spike on every tooth