Auto to manual conversions and vice versa. Experiences?

[danthecapriman]

When I first started my Capri resto I did (briefly) consider converting it...

 

 

 

...from a manual to an auto! No joke!

I much prefer an auto in most cars but when I started looking at what would be involved I decided I couldn't be arsed.

Besides that, I think it's going to drive better with a manual since it's a lowly 1600.

[Captain Furious]

I don't know about the Capri, but I know the automatic mk2 escorts had a larger transmission tunnel to accommodate the box, so converting to manual was fairly straightforward, but the other way (not that anyone ever did) would be a faff.

[danthecapriman]

I don't know about the Capri, but I know the automatic mk2 escorts had a larger transmission tunnel to accommodate the box, so converting to manual was fairly straightforward, but the other way (not that anyone ever did) would be a faff.

Same problem on the Capri I believe. That's why I looked at doing now so I could easily replace or modify the old tunnel as the cars a stripped shell.

Sod that though! Far too much pissing about just to make a slow car slower!

[Stebob]

I've still got the Ecu from the donor car on mine in case mine ever goes wonky but to date it still has the original Ecu in it and also the auto box ecu is still connected to which doesn't seem to cause it any issues.

 

Although I think this all depends on the car you are doing it on, I think in the case of the later e36's they got more complicated electronically so don't think it would be as easy, same would apply with e46's too.

 

In most cases it'd probably be easier to sell the auto then go and buy a manual instead, but also in the true autoshite way some of us would want to do it to see if it's possible and also to save a car that we love.

 

You definitely need a donor car though because it's the little nuts and bolts,brackets and fixings that you need to worry about rather than the large items such as the physical running gear etc.

 

If I hadn't have converted mine to manual then it would have been game over for it and I wasn't prepared to let this happen!

 

Steve

[BavarianRetro]

Done a few E24s, 28s and 30s. Pretty straightforward, but to do it right and get the car looking and driving right, you need to change a lot of bits. Easy on these because manual versions of most exist.

[Lord Sterling]

Many years ago when I first started working at a garage we had an E30 3-series come in. We discovered that it had been manual but had been converted to an auto. I think it was a 316 or a 318.

[BavarianRetro]

We did a manual to auto conversion for a chap on his convertible too. He had had it years and, getting on, wanted an auto, but didn't want to go and buy one of the hundreds of auto E30 convertibles for sale.

[holbeck]

I've had an early 92 e36 coupe

Story is that I imported it from Japan, the car was an auto and it never really suited the car in my view.

 

Turns out that apparently cars from this era had to have a certain percentage of parts from the home market and this in turn meant the car was saddled with a jatco box instead (apparently the same one used in auto Imprezas of the era).

 

In fact, there were no such restrictions on local content for Japan at that time.

 

<<off topic -sorry>> 

 

They did exist for other markets, ISTR India had to have a zero trade balance of the manufacturers activities. Ford who were starting to make Escorts in India had to export other stuff from India to make up for all the Escort stuff they were importing.  They tried buying locally made alternators to supply to Dagenham, but the first one that went on test in the UK disintegrated at max RPM with the coooing fan flying off and embedding itself in the test house wall.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

This talk of manual to auto reminds me of an XJ6 that I used to drive quite regularly. The guy who's company car it was JUST had the budget to get a Jag. So C395 RPL, a 3.4 manual in flat blue and grey tweed was purchased. It was before I joined the company but apparently he moaned about it so much the Transport Manager had it converted to auto when it was 6 months old and lost the invoice amongst general service ones.

It was a 'Chauffeurs Pool Car' by the time I worked there, so I used it a lot, even taking it to Paris in 1988 on my honeymoon, because it had rear seat belts for my oldests baby seat. You'd never have known, although it was slow, as were all 3.4 S3s. Don't know if they had different diffs for manual/auto, but that was never changed.

[Stebob]

In fact, there were no such restrictions on local content for Japan at that time.

 

<<off topic -sorry>>

 

They did exist for other markets, ISTR India had to have a zero trade balance of the manufacturers activities. Ford who were starting to make Escorts in India had to export other stuff from India to make up for all the Escort stuff they were importing. They tried buying locally made alternators to supply to Dagenham, but the first one that went on test in the UK disintegrated at max RPM with the coooing fan flying off and embedding itself in the test house wall.

Just seemed to be the only plausible reason as to why it ended up with a Jatco box rather than the Euro cars which had either gm or zf boxes,also the ecu had a loom going to the box that was a completely different one to that of the zf.

 

Guess the only way to find out is to contact BMW Japan.

 

What's also strange is that a lot of the e36's in the Japanese auctions are now lhd ones?.

 

Steve

[somewhatfoolish]

It seems to be(or has been) fashionable in Japan to have a LHD car; quite a few mercs and jags and things of that that ilk that pop up for sale are LHD.