Another IMA defeat switch
 

There are obvious reason for wanting the IMA to stand aside: pulse and glide seems like the most obvious of them. Anyway, with the combined inspiration and direct suggestions of RobertSmalls, SVOBoy, and MD2000, I made a small incision in a wire and now have a very convenient switch setup which uses the clutch switch wire to ward off IMA business.

The clutch switch works by grounding its 5v wire. The ground is underneath the dash. This mod just grounds the 5v wire using a switch that is attached to the shift knob.

I used inline splices from RadioShack, a la RobertSmalls' modification for the same purpose (http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ight-7904.html), to splice into the clutch switch's 5v 'hot' wire at the ECM on the passenger side. I did it this way (a la MIMA's forced auto stop design (http://www.youtube.com/99MPG#p/u/1/KdHLT-louzU, http://www.99mpg.com/Data/resources/.../total_fas.pdf) because I had serious doubts about my ability to do clean, accurate, and minimally-destructive work amongst the pedals where I couldn't get both my hands to the same spot and still have any view of what was going on.

After unplugging the ECM's 4 harnesses for accessibility, I stripped back the dressing on the 2nd harness about 3" so I could get at the individual wire I needed to work on. It took a very sharp knife (another project of mine) to cut that dressing in 20degF temperatures. That stuff turns pretty hard. The wire in question is the red wire on Pin 14 of the B harness. The 18-22 inline splice worked to easily make a connection between the wire going to my switch and the clutch switch wire without stripping or soldering.

I didn't really know what I was looking for, but I couldn't find something I was convinced was a ground wire to splice into, so I wrapped the switch ground around one of the stand-off bolts for the ECM and vigorously taped it there. It worked. I re-dressed the B harness wires with 3M SUPER-33 black electric tape (to use this stuff is to experience transcendent bliss) and ran the blue switch wires (blue because that's what I had) underneath the carpet, passed the OBDII port, and around to my shifter knob. After I confirmed that it worked, I ran the wires underneath the shift console and out through the boot around the shifter (a la Mike's MIMA technique http://www.youtube.com/99MPG#p/u/10/Bbs-YgL24iM). The switch is secured via super-33 (!!) right under the thumb and the wires are all hidden from view. Maybe I'll add epoxy putty to clean it up a bit more at some point.

But the switch works very nicely. I still have to key off, but keying back on during a good pulse-and-glide requires no foot-clutching. A small perk. The bigger one is that there's no loss of energy by converting engine power or momentum to electricity and then electricity back to momentum. It stays clear of that loop and allows the use of the hybrid assist only as much as can be paid back with situations where there is excess momentum.


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Nice write up.
The same ECM connector B has a ground wire that I use for the FAS system. It is pin 20, A brown/black wire.
The taped ground will probably work for a while until humidity causes the copper and steel to corrode, so when you get a chance, you may want to move the ground.
Photo showing the location:
http://www.99mpg.com/mima/pininstall...ctionsr1.jpg,0