NEW! Smart Comfort (lazy indicator mod) 3 flash indicator upgrade

[Rick-sta]

New Smart/Comfort Indicator mod kit for Rover 75/MG ZT.

Here's something new I'd been meaning to develop for some time now to add a little modern touch to the car and finally got round to it. Smart/Comfort indicators kit which flashes the indicators 3 times (can be set up to flash 4 or 5 times as well) on soft touch of the indicator stalk. This mod was offered by gazza190 around 10 years ago, my set up is slightly different but achieves the same end product.

This is a feature you find on many newer Fords, BMWs etc which I find a useful feature when overtaking/switching lanes or exiting a roundabout. My wife's kuga has this feature so been meaning to add it to my ZT.

Achieving this actually turned out to be much harder than I expected, as the indicator stalk communicates with the LSM via one wire controlled by resistance for both the left turn and right turn signals as well as the parking lights function, which caused some issues with the parking lights on my initial prototype design. Got there eventually after multiple tweaks, now with 2 timer relays and 4 change over relays, some complicated wiring and around 2 hours to make the kit from scratch. So all other factory functions via the indicator stalk all still work as normal.

I've made the kit so it's pretty easy and straight forward to fit. The kit is wired directly to the indicator stalk's circuit board, which plugs into the control box I've made, and just 1 wire has to be connected to an ignition live fuse slot on the interior fuse box (behind the glove box) using a fuse tap.

To install the kit you:
1. remove the two screws from the bottom steering wheel cover and pop the top half and bottom halves of the steering column covers off
2. unscrew the two securing screws in the indicator stalk, disconnect the stalk and remove it
3. fit and secure the new stalk and plug it into the factory plug
4. locate the control box behind the dash to the right of the steering column via the access panel in the footwell
5. plug the connectors from the control box to the additional connectors from the indicator stalk. Secure the wiring to the steering column loom with cable ties.
6. connect the power wire from the control box to an ignition live fuse slot in the interior fuse box (behind the glove box) using the fuse tap supplied.
And that's all that's require to install the kit.

I've set the kit up on mine to flash the indicators 3 times, but this can be set to flash more times such as 4 or 5 times. I may change mine to flash 4 times as the flash rate on our cars is faster than the kuga, so 3 flashes on the kuga lasts slightly longer than 3 flashes on the MG.

Would there be much interest in these? The kit would be £65 + £6 postage 1st class signed for.

As the set up requires me to wire directly to the indicator stalk's circuit board, it would mean you'd need to send me your indicator stalk to set the kit up. I could do these on exchange basis, but bare in mind with wear and tear the stalk you'd receive may not be in the same exact condition as the one you send me in exchange. And I'd have to ask for an additional £25 security deposit which is refunded when I receive your old stalk in exchange.

The kits would be made to order, so would need on average around 2 weeks to make the kit for you depending on how busy I am.

See my demo video below showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/XJOECnEQRWg

If you'd be interested in this let me know below. If there is enough interest in other models such as ZR's, ZS's and MGF's/TF's I could look into seeing if it's possible to achieve this on those as well (the indicator set up is completely different on those models though).

[suzublu]

Would this work on a message centre stalk Rick?

Sent from my SM-A326B using Tapatalk

[stocktake]

Originally Posted by suzublu

Would this work on a message centre stalk Rick?

Sent from my SM-A326B using Tapatalk

On the youtube vid it appears to be a message centre stalk Ron, would be something I would consider.

[Rick-sta]

Originally Posted by suzublu

Would this work on a message centre stalk Rick?

Sent from my SM-A326B using Tapatalk

Ah yes forgot to say, yes it works with the message centre and non message centre indicator stalks. Mine is a message centre stalk in the video

[KWIL]

Is the wiring directly into the board by yourself absolutely necessary or just a matter of competance of the installer?

[Rick-sta]

Originally Posted by KWIL

Is the wiring directly into the board by yourself absolutely necessary or just a matter of competance of the installer?

I would say it is necessary as the internals of the stalk are a bit fiddly and the wiring requires soldering + modification needed to the board. I wouldn't supply it as a DIY kit unfortunately.

[KWIL]

That's a shame as I would not wish to "exchange" the lever assembly.

[Rick-sta]

Originally Posted by KWIL

That's a shame as I would not wish to "exchange" the lever assembly.

There's the option for you to send me your stalk to have the kit fitted to it as I mentioned in the post.

[scoubix]

Just wondering why you'd need special hardware to achieve this as I've had this in both of my cars, early 75 and ZT-T 260, for years ?
There's a hidden feature in the LSM that does just that, you can code it with Navcoder for instance, or other BMW iBus tools such as BMW Scanner...

[stocktake]

Originally Posted by scoubix

Just wondering why you'd need special hardware to achieve this as I've had this in both of my cars, early 75 and ZT-T 260, for years ?
There's a hidden feature in the LSM that does just that, you can code it with Navcoder for instance, or other BMW iBus tools such as BMW Scanner...

Oooo, instructions and a link would be most appreciated.