Has anyone tried to upgrade to a electronic climate control from a lariat into a XLT or FX4 ?

 

Just wandering why spend the money? I think its kinda hard to use, The manual ones are so much faster and easier to use imho. They do look a little better though.

 

Not trying to sound rude guys, but his question was "Has anyone converted the Lariat Climate Control into a FX4/XLT", not what are your thoughts about it.

Everyone has their personal opinion, mine being I love the Climate Control because all I have to do is put the A/C on 65 and not having to worry about turning the fan speed **** once it gets too cold because it goes down automatically....hence, making it easier to use

KC,

I'm curious about the conversion myself. Even if you traded someone with the CC, i'd want to know where is the "thermostat" or whatever their using to guage the temp to control the fan speed/vent selection?

 

YES... I had this feature in my 1994 Buick Roadmaster and I miss it... Super handy when you have remote start.. Just leave the temp at 76 or so and it takes care of the rest. So what do I need????

 

I have it all planned out right down to each wire/pin change/run, and module changes including the addition of using the Heated Seat switches on my aftermarket seat heaters.

I have already plugged up the EATC control unit in my FX4 and temp and flap controls already work. The changes needed are related to the fan control, and interior temp sensors and one pin swap on the instrument cluster connectors.

As soon as I find a wrecked Lariat so I can get the various harnesses/connectors ends/modules needed I will do the upgrade an post pics and install instructions. I could do it now by soldering the wires directly to the pins of the various connectors but I will not do it this way. The local "junk yards" have me on a notification list to contact me as soon as they get a Lariat in so I can cannibalize it.

After 2 days of testing and checking all the schematics it is not nearly as hard as I first thought.

 

I guess the parts we need are the automatic controller, in-vehicle temp sensor, and blower motor speed controller right? Any idea on prices for those, or you getting that out of wrecked truck too?

 

I was looking at the differences in the diagrams and I cannot find this, can you show me what page its on? I did find that we will need to splice into the data link connector to pin 3 from 12 on the EATC.

 

Plus the "air guide" for the interior sensor AND you will need to make slots in your Instrument cluster surround (below where Lariat Info Center switches would be) unless you have a Lariat cluster surround (I happen to already have one).

The parts needed (other than the EATC module) are not expensive and you can find then in the parts lookups at fordparts.com

 

At the Instrument Cluster you move pin# 2 (AC Demand) from the smaller connector (C220B) to Pin#29 (UBP Bus) of the larger connector (C220A)..

Then at the HVAC Controller you move Pin# 3 (AC Demand) of the larger connector (C249A) to Pin#12 (UBP bus) on the new smaller connector (C228B) of the EATC

The color of the wire is VT (violet).

The "wild card" in this part of the mod is if the instrument cluster will need to be reprogrammed. Since the UBP bus is already in existance on the FX4 I am hoping it will be OK. Still not a big deal if it does have to be reprogrammed

 

I am not saying you are wrong, just a little confused still. To me it looks like we dont need pin #3 in the instrument cluster anymore, since page 60-3 says its for the manual system, I dont see any pin input for an auto system.
What I am seeing is that we just need to run a wire from pin 12 of the EATC to pin 3 of the data link connector, which is where UBP is....once again, not saying you are wrong, just a little confused.
Thanks.

 

>I am not saying you are wrong, just a little confused still.

No confusion here.

>To me it looks like we dont need pin #3 in the instrument cluster anymore, since page 60-3 says its for the manual system,
>I dont see any pin input for an auto system.

Correct, that is what I said you move Pin #3.

>What I am seeing is that we just need to run a wire from pin 12 of the EATC to pin 3 of the data link connector,
>which is where UBP is....once again, not saying you are wrong, just a little confused.

Still no confusion, with my way I use an existing factory wire and move it 6" from one Instrument cluster connector to another WITHOUT having to run a new wire. Ironically it is the same exact color (VT) and wire as original on the Manual and Auto systems. I much prefer to use as many of the orignal wires as possible and not run any additional wires. With my layout the only additional wires I have to run are 3 for the Drivers Side heated seat controls (I am using the 3 leftover from the Fan Resistor Pack to get the wires for the passenger seat heater controls down to the passenger feet area), and if I look a little farther I may find a way to do that without any new "non original" wiring, as a matter of fact I can probably use the wires for the reverse sensor switch harness and at least get me down the parking brake pedal area without adding any extra non original wiring at all in the dashboard area.

 

Sorry, I meant to say that I am confused, not you . Ah okay. I get what you are saying. Thanks for clearing that up. I guess I just figured that pin #29 on connector 220A would already be full, so our harness does not have a wire in pin #29 then, does our instrument cluster support EATC then, since it does not have UBP wire? Or is there a violet wire in pin #3 of the data link connector? Which that would mean that we would have UBP, what is UBP?? Good job on the idea of using an existing wire to make that work then. I remember in an earlier post about this, I believe asinatra(think thats how you spell it) said that we would need the lariat cluster for the EATC to work.

 

>Thanks for clearing that up.

No problem.

>I guess I just figured that pin #29 on connector 220A would already be full,

Yes, and when i said "move" to #29, I should have said clarified that as "splice" into the wire going to Pin #29.

>so our harness does not have a wire in pin #29 then,

According to my schematics and visual inspection it does have it.

> does our instrument cluster support EATC then,

We can only hope. Now that it is available in the FX4 Lux Pak we know it is possible.

>Or is there a violet wire in pin #3 of the data link connector?

There is one there also.

>Good job on the idea of using an existing wire to make that work then.

I am trying my hardest to take advantage of any unused or reroutable existing wiring.

> I remember in an earlier post about this, I believe asinatra(think thats how >you spell it) said that we would need the lariat cluster for the EATC to work

Hopefully due to the above mentioned Lux Pak it will work OK, and worse case just need to be reprogrammed

 

Awesome!! This sounds so easy. If you by any chance run into another plug like we need, let me know. I will see what I can do on finding some. Do you know if we can order them from fordparts.com? I installed the sub in my truck, and I was able to order that connector from there.

 

WOW. You guys rock and I already have the auto climate. I would have never thought it would be this easy to do. Obviously, easy being a subjective term.

It's very impressive what us Ford guys will do to have exactly what we want.