How to fit a traction control switch (MK4 with ABS)

Content courtesy of Nuttr; Edits, photos and additions by SmellyTofu

Tools
- Drill (Drill bit with appropriate sized bit for the wire)
- Straight head screwdriver
- Appropriate torx bits to remove gearlever surround/ashtray
- Wire cutters/Crimpers

Parts
- Silastic/Glue/Rubber Grommet
- 4.8mm Crimp connectors (3 spade connectors, one spade “double adapter”, ring terminal)
- TC Switch: Part# 90437527
- TC dash mount in black: Part# 90437593
- Wire (Dick Smith Cat#: W2025 (use only one core/strand of the 2) Wire gauge: wire length: about 3m
max

Preamble
- Before starting bring with you some idea of what you will have to do, you will have to be at least a
little inventive as the plug for the ABS unit does not include pin “31” in it, which is what you need to
“invent” for the process to work. Also be prepared to drill in an appropriate location in order to NOT drill
through your power steering bottle, do it right and you’ll have heaps of room, do it wrong, and, well,
don’t.

- These works were conducted on the Australian spec 2.2 SRi and 1.8 CD (where the pictures relate to)
so wiring configurations "may be" different to other markets.

- Models with ESP will need to wire the plug to Pin 25, not 31. (Information courtesy of Lightning Coupé
from Astra Sport UK)

Process
Note: MAKE SURE CAR IS OFF AND NOT TURNED ON WHILE CONNECTOR IS NOT
CONNECTED!!! Otherwise you’ll be seeing the dealer.

- Make sure the ignition is off

- Take off the cover to the fuses

-
- Pull out the relays inside the box by using a screwdriver and pulling them up.
- To remove the relay box, notice the 2 points where it is held by the notches in the pic. This maybe
tight so a bit of strength is sorta needed to remove this. (Pic taken after it's removed so it's clearer)

- Use a straight handle screwdriver and push the “purple” lines you see on the drivers side of the abs
plug itself, you don’t have to force it, it moves fairly easy, do it evenly as the purple piece holds the plug
down in a weird mechanism
– Once pushed through a little, feel the “handle” sticking out under the wiring coming out of the plug,
and it will pull out and the plug will come off easily, come off easily means it will basically fall off.

- Inspect plug for wiring, remove back “cover” off the plug. You may need to take off the cable tie but
the expand the cable end of the cover and the lift.

- Pin 31 is located at the back corner (drivers side back corner), make sure there is no wire in this. If
there is, you are “prewired” for it, if not, continue

- Use pin or similar device and push from plug side (as opposed to wire side) to push little white “plug”
or “grommet” out of the hole. Put this aside as it may come in handy later one day.

- Use torch/light to look “into” wire side of the plug, you will see in pin 31, what looks to be a small
piece of metal with what looks to be purple glue around the metal inside the plug.
- Get your wire and test fit it “into” the wire side of the plug. It should be a nice – not tight fit, but
shouldn’t be too loose. Make sure the wire goes in (unstripped) to the purple glue/metal piece you saw
previously. If it fits, continue, if not, find a more suitable piece of wire

- Strip off approx 1.5cm of sheathing from the wire. “twist” wire so it “stays” together.

- Now, insert carefully into pin 31 – wire side – and try and centre it as much as possible, once pretty
close to spot on, “twist” the wire in the hole a little and insert, if you have cut enough of the sheathing
off, it will fit tight and wire will “just” stick out the plug side of the plug.

- Plug the ABS plug back in and slide the purple clip to lock it in place.

- Check that the TC actually works by stripping the other end of the wire. Turn the key to On (No need
to start the engine), and then just touch for 1/2 sec on the grounding points on the car (the door hinge
is a great place to touch). The TC light should light up. Touch the ground again to turn off. If this
doesn't work, then check the wiring connection again.

- Make SURE you DO NOT connect it to +ve power

- If it's all working, turn the ignition back off.

- Pull out the ABS plug again by pushing the purple clip.

- Here comes a choice, you can use the glue/silastic now to “seal” the wire and hold it in.

- Let the glue dry a bit but you can use cable tie to clamp just the outside of the plug (where you may
have cut before removing the plug cover. Give it enough height so when the cover goes on, it's forcing
the wire down.

- Once glued put cover back on the back of the wire side of the plug, leading the new wire out on top of
existing TC/ABS wiring.

- Find a way to route the wire through the firewall.

- Inspect under dash area (and remove the little cover under passenger side) and poke around.

- I decided to drill RIGHT near the bottom corner of the huge body plug, this may not be “your” ideal
location, spend EXTRA time double checking it is right and you won’t drill through anything. Once
location is found, drill. Carefully.

- Paint around edges of newly drilled hole. Use grommet, if you are using silastic, insert wire now, fit
wire carefully so there is “excess” in the engine bay side, but not a stupid amount of excess, make sure
you can cable tie the wire to a few things to stop it moving around. Then use silastic around hole.

- Replace under dash panel, this way the wire “holds” in place and allows you to move it around while
the silastic is drying and not breaking the silastic seal.

- Feed wire in through car up under to gear level area.

- Once you pull the wire through, test switch for the correct connections, the middle pin is where you
attach the wire going from the abs unit (Pin 31 in white), the black arrow shows the wire you need to
wire to the ground (the factory grounds it to the A pillar but the lower dash bolt is one that works, and
the red arrow shows the wire you need to attach to the lights wire.

- Test a suitable grounding point before you remove anything. Anything that is not painted and just
touching it (with the ignition on but not started) and see if the TC light goes on. If it works, then you've
got a grounding point and fix the cable to it.. Wire it so you can hide all the wiring and not looped
around anything.

Option 1 for +ve power to light the switch (M/T)

- Remove ash tray, will need to use torx bits and remove 2 torx holding ash tray in. Remove small cover
around cig. Lighter – pulls off. The ashtray isn’t the easiest thing to remove, but do it carefully and it’ll
be fine.

- Locate light bulb on cig lighter surround. Remove the spade lug and use double adapter here. I had to
“cut” my double adapter down because the factory uses 4.8mm spade lugs, whereas I used 6.3mm wide
versions. Use a 4.8mm ones wherever possible.

Option 2 for +ve power to light the switch (A/T)

- Find the winter button

- Take out the lower panel underneath the handbrake

- Remove the 2 torx screw holding the A/T gator

- Lift out the winter mode button

- Check with a multimeter to confirm that the Brown is -ve and Black is +ve (Ignition on but not started)

- Cut the black wire (not black & white) which will carry the +ve power (You may need to disconnect the
winter mode button. The connection is about 20cm down the cable for more room)

- Splice the black wire and connect a cable to the TC switch (red arrow in the pic above)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- Turn car on, just to on (no start), and test switch, should be able to get little light to turn on/off as you
do press it.

– Test it works, if it does, cable tie all associated wiring away from the gearstick mechanism

- Remember to put back the relay box in the engine bay

- Reassemble everything, take her for a spin, you’ll notice the difference coming around corners and
taking off hard.