CanTCU Integration

The Canformance CanTCU is a control unit you can add to basically any car to integrate BMW-based ZF 8HP transmissions or the Getrag 7 speed DCTs.

CanTCU installed in an E46

Features

• 100% OEM torque-based control resulting in real OEM drivability
• No additional gearbox tuning needed
• Gear indicator in instrument cluster (including E/D/S/M-modes) (currently only in non-M3 clusters)
• Fully working cruise control (Standard/Braking/ACC)

Integration

The integration is very easy because you basically just need +12V supply voltage, ground and a CAN bus connection to the chassis CAN.

Depending on your car already having an automatic transmission before the swap you need a relay for the rear lights or just connect the existing rear light relay input to a digital output.

The CAN bus connection can be found directly inside the ECU water box, ideally you just add the CAN wires to ECU connector X60002 (Pin 3 Low & 4 High) or use existing wires. This is where you connect CanTCU CAN3.

Coding

Car needs to be fully coded as an automatic (S205A in VO/FA) and the DME/DDE programmed using automatic transmission software to support torque interventions.

Usually the later happens automatically when a gearbox controller is seen on the CAN bus network. If you can't code the whole car, make sure you set following coding options manually:

• (A)KMB - GETRIEBEART = automatik
• MK20 - GETRIEBE = automatik
• MK60 - GETRIEBE = automatik
• (A)EWS - PARK/NEUTRAL_EINGANG = nicht_aktiv

The immobilizer (EWS) module is used to activate the starter in E38 to E53 models but it is not connected to the vehicle CAN bus therefor not knowing if the gearbox is in park position.

So if you don't connect a digital output of CanTCU to the EWS transmitting this signal, or you have a manual car, you need to set PARK/NEUTRAL_EINGANG to "nicht_aktiv". Otherwise the starter wouldn't activate.

Limitations

• Early E39 (E38 based) instrument clusters are not able to show higher gears than 5th.
• The gear display of M3 cluster swapped cars is not working, because M3 clusters require a checksum in the same bit as the transmissions torque intervention.
• There is currently no support for the automatic gear selector, however the SMG shifters will work (or any supported 8HP / DCT shifter)

Torque Correction

MS42 and MS43 based cars unfortunately lack a real torque based engine control, but have certain tables used to transmit current engine torque.

While the 8HP transmissions are a bit more forgiving, DCTs need these tables to be very exact. On stock engines the value is very accurate.

Unfortunately these tables are often forgotten by many tuners, or decalibrated because they are confused with a torque limiter.

If your ECU is locked or your tuner refuses to give you precise values, there is a last resort: The torque correction factor in CanTCU configuration utility. This is just a band-aid and can temporary help you get the car moving, however the right way is to have the engine report correct torque even when tuned.

Diesel ECUs (DDEs) usually always report the correct the torque since they already operate torque based.