Well, I wasn't sure if I should post this here or in the DIY section, but as I havent even begun anything more than planing it, and i figured this would be a good place to start. Here's the basics:

I have an auto, since my wife flat-out refuses to learn stick and up until recently my 01 tib was our only car. I was thinking it would be sweet to convert it into a paddle-shifted manumatic, and unless I am completely mistaken about the workings of the electronic controls, it doesn't seem like it would be a terribly difficult conversion. The auto trany feeds the rev signal into the ECU, which then compares it with a number of other signals (shifter position, throtle position, etc.), then returns a signal to the auto tranny telling it to shift up or down. I'm thinking it should be possible to intercept the signal going from the ECU to the tranny, swap in a signal of my own, and link that to signal-generators hooked up to paddles mounted onto the steering wheel (or maybe a WRC style shifter, or switches on the steering wheel, havent quite decided which would be coolest.) My problem arises in that 1) I'm not sure which wire carries the shift signal from the ECU to the trany controls, 2) I don't know what kind of singal it is (I assume it's a voltage level, like for tachs, but I still don't know what voltage level signifies upshit/downshift/stay in gear), and 3) I might be completely wrong about how the tranny recieves instructions to begin with, that is, it might leave the ECU completely out of it and have an on-board TCU which would complicate things. In any case, I thought this would make an awesome and dirt cheap mod for all us auto losers who don't want to spend the money/time on a full on manual which would still allow us to have a lot more fun with our cars.

If anyone has any info regarding any of these concerns, or about the transmission wiring in general, I would appreciate their help very much.

 

I thought the newer hyundais were coming out with stronger auto trannys with paddle shifting? ... if you can find a cheap way to do it bro, go for it. Otherwise for the money it might take to do this, might as well just get the wifey a new car, and go for a 5spd swap.

 

Thats the beauty of my scheme, the total cost (assuming that i am correct in my assumptions) would only be in the $40 range for wiring and assorted small circuit parts, and whatever the cost of the final shifting mechanism would be (ie: more for fiberglass or plexiglass paddles than for radioshack buttons). And besides, DIY is defenitely much sweeter than anything hyundai can come up with.

 

The ECU doesnt have anything to do with shifting, the TCM does. And it uses deflection (throttle) and RPM to decide what gear to be in, youd have to somehow make the paddle shifter slightly alter the deflection to tell the TCM to shift down or up, but itd have to adjust it just the right amount or itll up or downshift 2 gears instead of one, and itd have to only affect the deflection signal to the TCM when using the shifter or the tranny would shift irradically and possibly not at all, not to mention youd have to deliver a sound deflection signal to the ECU unmolested.

Itd be pretty complicated, more complicated than a tranny swap, and you can easily control when your car upshifts or downshifts with the gas pedal lol, defeating the whole purpose...

What would be "easier" is to mess with a shiftronic shifter assembly and its appropriate TCM, and use the paddle shifter to send the signal like the shiftronic lever was being pushed up or down.

But then again, this would be complicated and not worthwhile IMO..