How Much Did it Cost to Wire My Own Car in 2016?
The full breakdown and why it led me to start EP Wiring
In 2016, I had been running the stock ECU with a TD04 on 0.6bar for too long on my 1998 Toyota Starlet Glanza V. It was time to go to a standalone ECU. I got a quote from a known shop, £2,400 for a basic DTA S40, PVC and crappy braid wiring loom, fitting and mapping. It was at least a 5 hour drive from me. The wait time? Quoted 3 months, but forums were full of people who had left their cars for 9-12 months.
That wasn’t that appealing to me.
I called up and asked, “Since you're wiring Starlets all the time, can you just build me a loom and send it up? I’ll fit it and get it mapped locally?”
"It doesn’t work like that. We need the car."
But that didn’t make sense to me. You could buy plug-and-play looms for more common platforms like Civics - so why not the Starlet?
That moment pushed me down the path of doing it myself. It took about a year of evenings and weekends, tons of research, trial and error, and slowly building up the right parts, tools, and knowledge.
Here’s exactly what I bought and what it cost me.
📦 Itemised Cost Breakdown
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Air Temp Sensor 1/8NPT | £55.20 |
| Water Temp Sensor M12 | £24.00 |
| Link G4+ Atom | £569.00 |
| Link 'A' Loom (2.5m) | £123.60 |
| 3 Bar MAP Sensor | £84.90 |
| Fuel Pressure Sensor | £147.35 |
| Link CAN Lambda | £285.00 |
| Link KnockBlock | £445.00 |
| Skyline TPS | £44.98 |
| Boost Control Solenoid (Genuine MAC) | £49.99 |
| Dual Channel Ignitor | £59.99 |
| Aluminium Heat Sink for Ignitor | £16.05 |
| 7-pin Plug for Ignitor | £7.99 |
| Spark Plug Conversion Kit | £19.96 |
| 4 Cylinder Coilpack Kit | £42.49 |
| Toyota 4-Way LX17 Connector | £12.65 |
| Stainless IAT Boss | £7.48 |
| Nippon Denso Injector Plugs (x4) | £13.56 |
| Mini Timer Connectors | £4.99 |
| Bosch 3-Way JPT Connector | £5.65 |
| Deutsch DT/DTP/DTM Connector Kits | £34.77 |
| AMP/TYCO 2-Way JPT Plug Kit | £3.04 |
| Ring Terminals (x10) | £1.50 |
| Loom Kit (Thin Wall Wire) | £5.49 |
| RS Heatshrink, Terminals, Splices | £56.41 |
| Wire Strippers | £14.33 |
| Draper Ratchet Crimp Tool + Terminal Set | £29.16 |
| Haltech Crimp Tools + Shipping | £169.99 |
| DMC AF8 Crimp Tool (Used) | £160.00 |
| TOTAL | £2,531.64 |
What I Got for That Money
- A Link G4+ Atom ECU
- CAN Wideband - With closed loop fuelling!
- Link Knockblock for road tuning - Optional but less than a dyno session
- Quality sensors for temp, MAP, fuel pressure, CAN Lambda, variable TPS
- Fake and overpriced Chinese connectors
- Some basic tools: The Haltech Tools were decent enough for DIY, the wire strippers damaged the wire conductors when used so I used a Stanley blade instead (takes forever, not recommended!), the DMC AF8 was great, we still use it today!
- A loom I made myself - bit of a mess but it worked and did the job until I upgraded ECU
Conclusion
Wiring my own car was one of the most challenging and time-consuming parts of my build. I thought I’d save money doing it myself, but by the time I’d bought all the tools, materials, connectors, heat shrink etc - not to mention the wasted time from mistakes and revisions.
Looking back, the total cost was MORE than what we charge today for a professionally built loom, sensors, CAN Lambda & newer G4X Atom ECU! The difference? Ours is much better quality materials, motorsport grade Spec 44/55 wire, 600 degrees C fibreglass braid, tidy, tested, labelled, genuine connectors, crimped with professional tooling and guaranteed to fit, with none of the frustration.
I do not regret doing it myself. It was the stepping stone for creating EP Wiring in 2022 but I went through the hard way so you don’t have to. If you’ve got the time, patience, and desire to learn - go for it, we've helped many budding DIYers too! But if you're building something serious, working to a deadline, or just want peace of mind, sometimes paying a professional really is the better value in the long run.
Leave a comment with your thoughts