BMW Garage BMW Meets Register Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read
M2 Technical Topics > N55 Engine / Drivetrain / Exhaust / Bolt-ons / Tuning > CTEK MUS7002 "hard wiring"

Post Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
      09-10-2020, 08:03 PM   #1
F87source
Major General
F87source's Avatar
No_Country
7178
Rep
7,342
Posts

Drives: Bmw M2
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: .

iTrader: (1)

CTEK MUS7002 "hard wiring"

Ok I have promised to show (especially to No_curebimmer )how I route my ctek mus7002 cables so that it is permanently installed and you can still hook up the charger without opening the hood, also this location keeps the cables away from any water whether it be rain, puddles or pressure washing. Also when you are driving and there is air flow moving through the engine bay the car the cables stay cool to the touch, when you turn the car off and let it sit the cables do get warm but nothing crazy, and since these cables were designed to be in the engine bay and waterproof it should be fine when exposed to these warm temps.


Just a warning this is not a step by step install guide, so you will have to figure things out yourself as you go. I wish I could do a step by step guide but I did not take any images while I was doing this a year or so ago.


- Ok so the first step is to get your harness ready, get the ring terminals and purchase the optional ctek extension cable.
- Next remove the rubber protecting cap from the ringlets and move it to the extension, this is the most difficult part as it is insanely tight.
- Then connect the extension cable to the ringlet harness and the extension harness together and plug the rubber cap onto the extension harness, then do an optional water tightness test. I submerged the end with the rubber cap (the side the ctek connects onto) on the extension cord and the joint where the extension cable connects to the ringlets into a bucket of water for an hour. For me no water leaked through so I was satisfied with the seal, if yours is leaking check the o-rings.
- Next wrap the extension cord to ringlet connection with tape, I used wiring harness tape aka tessa tape. I also wrapped most of the cable with this to make it look better than a red and black cable.
- Measure the length of cable you will need to run the connect and bundle up the cable and wrap it up the excess into a neat bundle about 20 cm long so it will perfectly tuck into the fuse box area in the engine bay.

-Now using a T50 torx socket remove the ground terminal plug and positive terminal plug, place the ctek ringlets onto the studs and tighten it back down.

-Run the harness under the weather seal that separates the engine compartment from the fuse compartment. You will have to take off the weather guard from the top of the engine bay, it is held on by 3 X 10 mm rotating bolt. Rotate counter clock wise ~90º and then pinch the clip tab on the left and lift up the cover.
- Run the cable down the side and tuck the excess bundle into the fuse compartment of the engine bay, make sure you measure your bundle so it fits perfectly without any movement.
- I secured the harness with 3m VHB cable clips that have a little gate that can open and close so I can easily remove the whole harness within a matter of minutes.

-Route the end of the ctek connect up near the hood struts to the rubber at the top of the engine bay area by the windshield.

-Button up the car and you are complete, but make sure you use a multimeter to check if you can read the battery voltage, if you cannot read the voltage something is disconnected and you have to address it.

Ok lets move onto some pictures:

This picture shows how I ran the ground end, and where I temporarily taped down the connection between the ringlet and extension cable. I will be 3D printing a mount for this in the future. You can also see a little bit of red where the positive side loops back around to the battery rail connection point.


This picture shows the positive connection and where the fuse sits. You can’t really see it well but the rest pf the harness moves around the washer fill cap and down that little gap where the hood strut is. There is a really large area under there where you will be able to put the excess bundle of wires, make sure you have it wrapped to the correct length so it will fit perfectly and not move. I used the wire clips to affix all of the wires so nothing moves and everything is rock solid. Also there is just enough room under the weather cover so the ctek fuse and the terminals do not rub or touch.


Here is a better view of the cable running down into the fuse box area by the strut.


This image shows where the end of the extension that the ctek plugs into sits, I have it wire clipped onto the fire wall in such a position that the head bends downwards and wedges into between the wire itself and the firewall (this way it is held in place and doesn’t vibrate around making annoying noises). In this position nothing interferes with the hood mechanism, so you don’t have to worry about the hood coming up and down and potentially cutting the cable. Also since the head is faced downwards any water that makes it into this area will drip down and not go into the metal plugs and cause a short (fuse will protect the car in the extremely unlikely event that water makes it past the hood seal and past the ctek rubber grommet, fights gravity going upwards towards the prongs). Also this makes it not touch the hood either leaving a little bit of a gap between the cable and the hood, but when fully extended you will have enough cable to clear the hood and connect the ctek.



Just another image of the cable end.


Here is a view from the windshield looking down, as you can see the rubber seal is covering the area where the cable is sitting protecting it from the elements.


From this image I am wedging the rubber seal aside and you can just see the top of the cable, from this position you can stick you fingers down and fish it up with ease. You can also put it back into the storage position where it is wedged between the firewall and cable with ease as well. Overall it takes a few seconds at most to pull it out and put it back, all without ever having the cap come loose.



Here is an image with the cable pulled out, I recently adjusted it a bit so there is even more cable available to be pulled out, but as you can see you never once have to open the hood. This was my ultimate goal with hardwiring the ctek cable, as I wanted a solution where you can connect the ctek without having to open the hood and where the cables were protected from the elements. This way when I am going to switch to a light weight lithium battery I can always easily plug in my car when I get home and not be bothered with opening and closing the hood all the time. Also when I code the car it is nice to have a bit of extra power going in just in case, despite the ctek only being able to provide 7amps in supply mode, and the car drawing 40 + amps, it does help offset some of the power draw from the lights and idrive which is nice.

Anyways I am pretty proud that I was able to meet my goals with this project and I hope this guide will be able to help those of you who want to do the same. Feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions or improvements you can do to my method, I already have a few things cooking up in my head on how to make this even better (even better cable management) so if I get it done I will share it, but a hint would be 3D printing holders for the fuse, and maybe even going as far as making a custom to length harness.
__________________
Click on the link below to see a compiled list of every review I have ever written:
https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...2#post30368242
Appreciate 3
dtmurf477.00
dinan5m33872.00
philth165.00
      04-01-2022, 01:53 PM   #2
dinan5m3
Colonel
dinan5m3's Avatar
3872
Rep
2,009
Posts

Drives: e39 m5 e46 m3 g01 x3m40i
Join Date: Feb 2019
Location: RTP NC

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by F87source View Post
- Next remove the rubber protecting cap from the ringlets and move it to the extension, this is the most difficult part as it is insanely tight.
If you are like me then CTEK can send you replacement rubber protecting caps.

And yes, those darn caps are "insanely" tight. Took 3 tries, broke 2. The 3rd was a success.

The newer version however seem to alleviated that a bit.



Appreciate 1
F87source7177.50
      11-11-2023, 10:03 AM   #3
philth
Private
philth's Avatar
165
Rep
78
Posts

Drives: F87 N55
Join Date: Aug 2023
Location: GTA

iTrader: (0)

Stumbled upon this thread as I just got myself a CTEK and was looking for a neat way to ‘hardwire’ it into the car. Any updates to your setup F87source ?
Appreciate 0
      11-11-2023, 02:52 PM   #4
F87source
Major General
F87source's Avatar
No_Country
7178
Rep
7,342
Posts

Drives: Bmw M2
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: .

iTrader: (1)

Quote:
Originally Posted by philth View Post
Stumbled upon this thread as I just got myself a CTEK and was looking for a neat way to ‘hardwire’ it into the car. Any updates to your setup F87source ?
Nothing yet, I wanted to make a custom wiring harness that was shorter and much neater than using the ctek extension and I wanted to 3d print mounts. But none of that has materialized yet because I've been busy with other projects lol.

I spent all of this summer making my MMI frijt parking camera wiring harness. Rewired my dash cam. Spent a ton of time on my brakes, on bm3, and a bunch of little side projects. So I didn't have any time to redo this harness yet.

It works fine so I'm not too worried. Let me know if you have questions.
__________________
Click on the link below to see a compiled list of every review I have ever written:
https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...2#post30368242
Appreciate 1
philth165.00
Post Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:01 PM.




m2
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
1Addicts.com, BIMMERPOST.com, E90Post.com, F30Post.com, M3Post.com, ZPost.com, 5Post.com, 6Post.com, 7Post.com, XBimmers.com logo and trademark are properties of BIMMERPOST