Post manual swap - VIN, insurance, title, registration issues? Topic is solved

Post by **smacknab** » 19 Jul 2020, 09:08

Hi friends,

Might go pickup a 99 v70 auto to swap the engine and manual transmission from my 99 s70 m56 today. For anyone in the US, or specifically Massachusetts/NH, when you swap a manual into an automatic car are there any bureaucratic snags I should be aware of?
I'm wondering does that effect the vin, registration, insurance etc?

To complicate things a little more, it's a NH car and I'm a MA resident (soon to be a RI resident). So I'm wondering if any issues will come from registering a manual swapped car in different states, either before or after the swap.

Thanks for any and all input!

Post by **Sveedy** » 19 Jul 2020, 09:28

Well based on my experiences registering cars in D.C., Maryland, California, and now Arizona, I can't see a problem. What transmission you have shouldn't matter at all. They typically just note that the vin # on the car matches your title. I don't think they decode it, nor would there be any reason to do so.
Again just my $ .02

bronco · Post by **bronco** » 19 Jul 2020, 10:20

My expirience changing the color is the only thing you need to remind the registry of in Mass. Got pulled over after repainting a truck and the registration said grey and the truck was now blue and that was an issue. They thought I had attached the plates to a different truck.

Nothing about the driveline matters . You can change pretty much anything internal . In fact I swapped an entire bronco body onto a different chassis without any trouble or changes to the paperwork.

Post by **smacknab** » 19 Jul 2020, 10:37

Cool, thanks for the info folks!

Post by **jimmy57** » 19 Jul 2020, 11:47

The only issue I know of is if the check engine light is on. You can't do a plug n play ECM swap and the Auto trans ECM in V70 is going to report codes for no communication with TCM as will the CEM. The CEM won't turn on the light but ECM will.

bronco · Post by **bronco** » 19 Jul 2020, 12:00

Check engine light is fine in Mass if its more than 15 years old

Post by **volvolugnut** » 19 Jul 2020, 12:18

Here in Oklahoma, VIN is verified when purchased from out of state. Annual inspections were dropped a decade or more ago. Recent changes are color recorded when tag renewed and registration form must be kept in the vehicle. There are only about 10-12 basic colors to pick from. You can avoid insurance requirement and get tag renewed if you sign a form that the vehicle is not running. This known as a 'black tag' for the color of the tag sticker. Without the black tag, if you every want to register on the road again, you must pay penalties and back tag costs. I have many vehicles with black tags.
volvolugnut

Post by **Sveedy** » 19 Jul 2020, 14:22

Only time I've seen reference to color is on the tickets I get

Post by **abscate** » 19 Jul 2020, 15:14

Get a clean NH title transfer , wait until you are in RI and do one transfer.

I think we have settled expertise that a 1999 needs to have matched ECM and immobilizer to run

If both cars are NA you might have a shot at a straight ECM swap

yanga001 · Post by **yanga001** » 19 Jul 2020, 15:43

Having the full car should help a lot. The ECM will need to swap with the immobilizer as it contains a chip that holds the immobilizers code. They connect and talk to one another via this chip. I've attached a post where someone has done this kind of swap in a c70. It should be very similar to what you are looking at which will make it somewhat straight forward.

Cross posted from swede speed:
https://forums.swedespeed.com/showthrea ... U-swapping