Hello folks,

My colleague has taken the plunge and bought himself a P38. It is a well maintained 99/00 DT. It doesn't quite have as many extras as my older DSE. According to Martys Nanocom mine has the highline BECM fitted. Would a 99/00 DT be likely to have a highline BECM? Would it be likely to have any of the wiring in place for extra equipment such as heated front screen? He is looking to keep this vehicle long term so it would be nice to know what options are potentially open to him for improvements.

Regards,

Si.

What does it have? Things like sunroof, cruise control, trip computer, headlamp wash/wipe, ect, all require a highline BeCM. Heated front screen is controlled by the HEVAC not the BeCM but the wiring is probably there, most other bits of wiring usually are. Does it have AC?

I have got a bog standard 2000 DSE and I think the wiring looms are the same across the range, petrol, diesel, highline or lowline.

I have got spare unconnected plugs behind the dash and even fog light plugs, that can't be fitted to the diesel because the auto gearbox cooler is in the way.

The engine looms are obviously different, petrol/diesel, but they are just an extension that plugs in.

Thanks for the replies.

It has HEVAC and air-con and cruise control. But it does not have sunroof, headlamp washwipe, heated seats or stereo steering wheel controls. I do not know about the trip computer.

As for the wiring looms, my DSE does not have the wiring in place for electric seats (other than the heater elements) so there would appear to be some variation in the looms.

Good to hear that the screen is controlled by the HEVAC unit and that the wiring is likely to be in place. That will make him happy.

It'll have a high line BeCM then. Sunroof, headlamp wash/wipe were fitted to higher spec models and the steering wheel controls only came if you had the high line audio system (with CD changer and sub woofer), mid and low line didn't have them. Wiring for electric seats is just an additional supplementary loom between the BeCM and the seats. Without electric seats there's an unused socket on the side of the BeCM next to the transmission tunnel.

HEVAC will need to be swapped for one with the heated screen button if it never had it. If the button is there, either the HEVAC has been swapped in the past or the screen has been changed and someone got the non-heated one.

Thanks for that, just to clarify, his vehicle does NOT have a sunroof or headlamp washers. But it does have cruise control. So that means it still has a highline BECM?

His HEVAC unit looked to have a buttun in the front screen position but without a symbol on it. I assumed it was a blanking plug, unless it is just part of the facia moulding to blend in with the rear screen button.

I will keep an eye out for the seat looms, just in case I decide to go full tart with mine. It needs new door cards anyway so if a full interior comes up when I can afford it but with electric seats at least I know I can fit them.

Cheers,

Si.

I have a feeling that all later cars were fitted with a highline BeCM anyway, so it almost certainly does. Blank with no symbol on the HEVAC does mean it never had the heated screen.

For the seat looms your best bet is to find a car in a breakers although there are multiple part numbers depending on whether it is pre or post 99 (up to WA of from XA VIN) and whether you have electric seats or electric memory seats (where you would need the seat outstation too). Most appear to be available to buy new too. See http://new.lrcat.com/#!/1234/88880/89292/7043/89377

I might contribute a bit confusion, as I discovered during a chronic attack of this enthusiast disease called „featuritis“, with symptomizes with acut cases of installing / altering genuine features ...
On LHD SE of my model year, the footwell illumination is NOT prewired. Neither left or right, nor in the rear part of the Centre console.
Left hand rear door has plug and connection to Becm for a puddle light prewired, right hand, where the connecting wire is much shorter, the part between b-post and BECm is missing in the loom and connectors, whereas the plug in the door is existing ... should have taken a selfie scratching my head while trying to make sense out of this ;-)
Earth strap to bonnet is not existing ...
I think there are 6 editions of the electrical trouble shooting manual?

If You open the fuse box lid under right hand seat, above the fuses under a usually thick layer of dust could be a paper label with a printed number ... there should be either a „L“ or more probably a „H“ for highlife readable ... as well as part numbers.

Electric seats are at least pre facelift easy, if You got a matching loom and seats together. You can do a neat addition which looks like factory fitted. I had manual heated leather seats, now the driver seat is electric with memory ... the Electric ones are much better adjustable and comfortable (for my ergonomics).
Funny finding, I had to disable mirror dip after plugging in the seat with memory into the BECM, because I have only the 6-wire mirrors, which went down everytime I engaged reverse, but never went up again ... after two times reversing I realized and heard mirrors moving ... another surprised facial expression ;-)

Thanks for the replies, all good stuff! He will be in work again Monday so we'll do a bit of investigating.

Thanks for the info regarding seat looms, I'll keep an eye out at the breakers and hope I get lucky. Annoyingly there was a Vogue SE down there a couple of years ago that had already had it's seats unbolted and would have potentially still had the looms in place.