DIY 3000GT Active Aero Rewire for Manual Operation

WARNING: This Do-It-Yourself (DIY) article is for informational purposes only.  Working on your car may be dangerous and may result in injury or death.  The author accepts no liability for any such injury or death, intentional or unintentional, resulting from this guide.  You have been warned, proceed at your own personal risk.

Summary:

This DIY is not my own creation.  A brilliant 3SI member, stupidvr4, posted this thread on the 3SI Forum where he created and documented this “How To” for the good of the community.  Big props to him!  The reason for this article is simply to summarize and clarify his instructions as I found it quite confusing and made a few mistakes on along the way.  This isn’t a full DIY, but should give you enough info to get this done.

Before we begin, the motivation for this modification is to address an issue with Active Aero.  On Mitsubishi 3000GTs years 1991 to at least 1993, possibly 1994, featured an electronic front air dam and rear spoiler that actuates at speed.  Over time this system often becomes damaged, usually due to problems with the front active aero motor.  Or, as in my case, the installation of an FMIC often necessitates removing the underspooler, active aero assembly and motor.  Regardless, once the front motor is gone the system doesn’t actuate the rear wing alone.

Let’s get to it.  To perform this upgrade you’ll need to buy a few parts, be handy with wiring (and soldering if you’re so inclined) and about 3-4 hours.

What to Buy / What you Need:

2 x 5-pin automotive relays – like this one.  In Canada you can buy one of these from CarQuest (part # 56-1728) … a bit expensive though at around $15.

2 x 5-pin harness – optional …. like this one.  In Canada you can buy one of these from CarQuest (part # S-564).

Various wiring stuff like electrical tape or heat-shrink tubing, solder, soldering iron, etc.

In Canada you can buy this stuff at Sayal Electronics for a very good price.

Get to Work:

Disconnect the negative terminal from your battery.

On the driver-side of the trunk remove the trunk bins and plastic lining.  You’ll need a Philips screw driver and maybe a common-slot.  Here’s how to do it.

Beside the active exhaust motor are the active exhaust control box (black smaller one) and the active aero control unit (silver bigger one) stacked on top of each other.  The active aero control unit has 2 plugs going into it: a black plug and a white plug.

Now I’m going to assume you know what you’re doing with wiring so I came up with this diagram to wire up the relays.

Cut and tape the indicated wires on the white and black plugs.  On the wire harness side, not on the connector side, splice to the automotive relays.

White Plug:

A. Cut and tape yellow/black wire.  Splice the yellow/black wire from the wire harness to pin 85 of Relay #1.

B.  Cut and tape red/white wire.  Splice the red/white wire from the wire harness to pin 30 of Relay #1.

C.  Cut and tape red/blue wire.  Splice the red/blue wire from the wire harness to pin 30 of Relay #2.

D.  Cut and tape wire red/black wire.  Splice the red/black wire from the wiring harness to the blue/black wire from the black plug.  (See black plug E)

Black Plug:

E.  Cut the tape the blue/white wire.  Splice the blue/white wire from the wire harness to the red/black wire from the white plug harness (See white plug D)

F.  Cut and tape the black/white wire.  Splice the black/white wire to pin 87 on both Relay #1 and Relay #2.

G.  Cut and tape the red/blue wire.  Splice the red/blue wire to pin 85 on Relay #2.

Relays:

H.  Wire Relay #1 & #2, pins 86 and 87a to ground.  That’s 4 wires need to go to ground.

Switch:

Now be careful and make sure you understand this.  Remove the Active Aero switch and look at the back.  You’ll notice the wires coming off the back of the switch are wired to a white plug.  That white plug then plugs into the white connector that goes in to the wiring harness.

In between the switch and the white plug, cut and tape the black wire that goes into the middle of the switch and cut and tape the red wire.  Now wire the switch side red wire to the plug-side black wire (see the bottom of the diagram).

On the white connector, locate the black wire with silver dots in the wiring harness.  Cut and tape that.

Update: Here is a picture that shows a little more clearly which wires to work with on the switch.

Note that I have shown the black and red wires that you should cut and splice.  In this picture I have already taped (with blue electrical tape) where I did the splice.  So trace these wires and perform the splicing somewhere in the middle of the wiring.  Ensure you tape the loose ends of the black and red wire.

Once you’re done double  and triple check that your wires are all wired properly.  When you’re ready, reconnect your battery.

The Results:

Now you should be able to activate your wing by pushing the switch all the way to the left. To lower the wing, push it all the way to the right (off) position.  Personally, I love it!  Thanks again stupidvr4!

Check the thread here for any questions.

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