Sounds good. Be interested to hear how you get on with the brakes. For me the brakes are the one weak point on the car I don't like, other things are forgivable. Like you the previous owner of mine looked after them and upgraded pads and disks however compared to more modern vehicles they are still lacking when 'pressing on'.
Personally I find Brembo brakes to be overrated, perhaps they have improved but I had them on Ducati bikes back in the early 90's and they all benefited from a master cylinder upgrade (pity we cannot do that on the Coupe) before they had true bite. Conversely my Qwaker with Nissins could lift the rear wheel with just 2 fingers on the lever.
I agree, my description of the stock brakes is that the feel is wooden and also feels almost non servo assisted. Coupled with not much threshold before they cook themselves with a bit of spirited driving
Anyway I'll post my progress and views once I've done the work
When I got mine, stock brakes were wooden, check braking in motorway traffic was non-existent. Completely solved with decent pads. Currently using Brembo discs & pads and they're good, plenty of stopping power. The pedal still needs a bit more pressure than most modern cars, but I prefer it that way.
I'll be interested to know how you find the Eibach springs. Mine is on supposedly standard spec springs. I don't feel the need for harder suspension, but it does look a bit too tall imo.
As I plan some track usage I wanted something a bit lower than OE for ride height, as I find the nose dips when you brake heavy, which in turn unsettles the car.
A word of warning when removing the fuel tank, the plastic connectors on top of the swirl pot become brittle with age so take great care when disconnecting
Re the sump bolt Jamie, the technique we used on iour project car - which hadn't turned a wheel in at least 13 years - was a 600mm pipe over the socket driver using very slow rocking leverage.
Naturally we had soaked it in penetrant for days and yes it was a two-person job with one under the car holding the socket in place.
When it comes to the rear trailing arms, you might want to think about replacing with new (bearing included) to avoid the hassle of a refurb that still might end up with the arms looking like a scabby mess. Around £120 each from AutoDoc (I bought 2 pairs at less than that each, but quite a while ago)
1996 Portofino 20vt & 2000 Pearl White Plus 1985½ & 2016 2017 Fiat 124 Spider + XF Sportbrake
My visual appraisal at present is they will clean up quite nicely, but if in reality they are scabby then I'll buy new, albeit I have bought the new bearings from Joe already
In other news today, turbo is being rebuilt as the piston ring and shaft is worn. From what the turbo guy told me it looks like when Owen developments did the job originally they machined the housing out to try and deal with shaft wear. Anyway its getting built with a new 360 bearing and staggered seal to stop the oil seeping through
Also on checking the manifold more closely (as per my pics yesterday), the mating face was quite badly warped and is probably why it's cracked again
That looks like the radiator bracket... I did exactly the same with mine. Used a wheelie bin on it's side with the solution and electrodes. Worked well.
One thing I’ve found with the electrolysis tank is you need to really clean the points where your copper wire touches the parts you’re trying to derust. Otherwise you don’t get all the rust removed.
So this morning I’ve done some additional cleaning and put the bits back into the tank to carry on the clean up
no I just made one after looking on youtube for the basics of how to set it up
cost me about £10 in total
I might take a look at this as I've spent most of this week scrubbing rust off my horn (oo-er) and bonnet release mechanism and leaving them in white vinegar overnight. Absolutely mind numbing stuff but it's 95% there now.
Definitely no issue with plastic, the only metal to avoid as far as I know is stainless steel due to the gases it gives off
Cheers Jamie
I just looked up the guides on YouTube. I had no idea it was this easy. I have all if that currently set up, minus the battery charger, and that is 5 feet from it in the cupboard. I'll have a go tomorrow.
I assumed it was some kind of acid bath that would destroy some materials.
Incidentally, a video on 'bluing' popped up shortly afterwards. This looks interesting for a method of finishing / protecting metal after this kind of thing. I'd never heard of that.
As the car has black wheels, when I refurbish the brake calipers, I plan to paint them yellow. This then got me thinking about 2 other things to paint.
As I have the sparco strut brace which are red, I thought it would be a good idea to paint it in the same yellow paint
Likewise for the rocker cover I also thought to do the lettering in the same yellow and then paint the rest of the cover in black
I will do yellow calipers rather than any other colour. I did initially think to do them red, but for me with black wheels and the body colour I wasn’t feeling it
But the rocker cover and strut brace I’m somewhat torn what to do or not
What I don’t want to do is make the car chavvy, so I may try photoshop to see what various options look like
Well of course you can do what you like, it's your car, who cares what other people think?! Keep going, it's interesting to read about how it is going...
1996 Portofino 20vt & 2000 Pearl White Plus 1985½ & 2016 2017 Fiat 124 Spider + XF Sportbrake
Ive got the derusting bug, the minute I take a bolt or part off, in the electrolysis bath it goes
I had quite some fun trying to undo the nuts which hold the horns and brackets on
Basically had to hammer a 3/8 socket on and despite using pb blaster they snapped off, so I’ll see if I can weld a new threaded stud to keep it looking factory before I reprint the assembly
Front wheel arch is stripped, only a few bits of surface rust, so better than I expected after removing the wheel arch liner
For the very rusted nuts to stop them snapping the bolt/stud get an induction heater, in under a minute the nuts will be off absolutely no problem and totally re-useable. Just give them a few mins to cool before handling.
If there's one tool I wish I'd had 20 years ago it's this, even more so than an impact wrench. The hours and hours I've spent trying to remove very corroded bolts and snapped bolts etc. over the years, this is truly a game changer for working on old cars. Also useful for forming steel or bending an old spanner to any shape to access an awkward nut or whatever.
Hi Simon, I had a look in settings on the iPad but nothing jumped out at me
Hence the google drive link which I hope works
I’ve only taken a few photos at present because of this
However tomorrow I’ll be taking a load of photos as I’ve refurbed a load of stuff and I’m going to try and get the drivers side wheel arch all tarted up
Not sure on the iPad as I use a MacBook. On the Mac its right click on any photo then there are a list of options. One option is "Edit with". When you go to this you get the option to then click preview. Hope that works for you on the iPad.
Jamie, a quick Google search "reduce photo file size on iPad" comes up with a few options, rather too many to reproduce here, but perhaps one of them will work for you...
HI Joe, As per our chat the Ultra racing bar comes with loose brackets that should simply clamp around the bar. Whereas what is supplied are brackets with a far larger diameter meaning it would just rattle around.
So I'll make some shims up to remove the slack , so nothing disastrous, but not what you expect when you buy a complete kit
Hi Jamie, it's good to read about your progress, puts my efforts at a rear end refurb to shame
I'm curious about what paint you've used on the rear subframe. I've heard of "Chassis Black" being recommended, but there's quite a range of options, some that need primer, some that say don't use etch primer, some are satin, some are gloss. I tried spraying with an air compressor and the finish was quite rough, also it didn't stick too well (I didn’t use primer) so I might have to start again.
Any recommendations from anyone?
1996 Portofino 20vt & 2000 Pearl White Plus 1985½ & 2016 2017 Fiat 124 Spider + XF Sportbrake
The rear bearings can't have done more than 1000 miles so surprised they needed fresh grease already.
When replacing the rear hub nuts you should use new nuts and be sure to tighten by pushing down on the torque wrench on both sides of the car (so standing on the opposite side of the wheel arch on each side of the car) to extend the suspension to max stop as you tighten. If you do it the other way you'll be tightening against the suspension spring and won't get the correct torque. Took me a while to work that out myself when I was doing it.
hi graham, The reason for repacking them is that as I've had lots of stuff in bits, and I didn't want any cruddy rust bits in the grease. So was more precautionary than a need, and only took a few minutes each side as I knew that you'd only recently done them.
Regarding the tightening, you're right and it's a lesson I've learnt some years back
Sorry guys I don’t understand the torque comment. When tightening the nut we're talking about the nut turning on the axle shaft, and it doesn't matter whether the drop arm is pushing against a spring, at the bottom of its travel or held in some other position, it's the position of the nut on the shaft that determines the torque needed to move it.
1996 Portofino 20vt & 2000 Pearl White Plus 1985½ & 2016 2017 Fiat 124 Spider + XF Sportbrake
I read it and it took a moment. Normally I'll block under the axle or such to stop the movement and allow me to lean into the bar to tighten. Never really gave torque values the consideration. But I suppose what we're talking about is the resolution of force I.e which direction your effort is applied. I suppose you could have a situation whereby the drag of the nut is such that the force applied is sufficient to compress the spring but not enough to provide the rotation of the nut thereby creating an under torque of the nut
And I'm liking the build! Gives me the kick I need to sort my car out
If you tighten the nut "upwards" then some of the force being exerted to turn the nut is lost in compressing the spring as you're not just turning the nut, you're also lifting the suspension arm and therefore compressing the spring at the same time and that takes some force as well. Therefore you'd need to apply more torque than the required number to get the nut tightened to the correct torque, Whereas if you tighten "downwards" and easily reach max travel of the suspension arm where it locks then all (or nearly all) the force is being exerted on the nut.
Then again I did fail my higher physics so maybe that's all nonsense. To be fair it did feel very, very different tightening the hub nut "upwards" while also compressing the spring and tightening it "downwards" against the locked suspension arm. It took waaaaay more effort pulling upwards to get the torque wrench to click than it did pushing it downwards. So I got a new nut and re-did that side just to be sure it was OK and it definitely didn't feel like it had been on at the correct torque.
Well I understand the argument, I guess I'm thinking more from the point of view of an "angle" torque wrench. I guess you might reach a point where 100Nm might be the reaction from the compressed spring and 180Nm on the nut and your wrench would click, yes I can see where you're coming from. Although I got an A for Physics A level, I was never too fussed about "mechanics" on my Uni Chem Eng course, and that was all 40+ years ago. It would make an interesting exam question though!
1996 Portofino 20vt & 2000 Pearl White Plus 1985½ & 2016 2017 Fiat 124 Spider + XF Sportbrake
So as I’m getting close to the end of the restoration of C 20VT J (formerly R803 CGP), I thought I’d create a job list of things done, and things left to do!
Jobs done
Changed dipped,main and sidelight bulbs for led units from classiccarleds.co.uk, so hopefully night driving will be less dark Bought a Bluetooth headunit Retreated the drivers seat leather and finish Turbo charger overhauled with new shaft, 360 thrust a gap less piston ring and refitted Exhaust manifold cracks repaired and face skimmed flat, then refitted Derusted and repainted the turbo heat shield Derusted and repainted the radiator bottom support bracket Derusted and repainted the cooling fan housing Fitted a new bonnet release cable and bonnet release catch :max: Removed and resealed the washer fluid tank, and broke the pump in the process Realigned the bonnet release mechanism and black framework Stripped,repainted yellow and refitted the strut brace Derusted in general anything from a nut or bolt to various brackets/metalwork around the car, then treated with rust converter and painted with hammerite satin black spray paint Removed the entire rear axle assembly, derusted and painted satin black all metalwork , then fitted new subframe bushes (FCSS supplied), stripped the trailing arms, same paint treatment and new bearings fitted, again supplied by Joe @ FCSS Removed all brake pipes from floor pan to rear axle and replaced with new (MCS supplied) brake lines including all flexi pipes. Removed and cleaned up the petrol tank including the metal straps Removed old shocks,springs, bump stops and fitted the new Osrav/Eibach kit including new bump stops Removed old std anti roll bar and fitted the Ultra Racing 23mm version Repacked the rear brake compensator valve with fresh grease Removed front and rear wheel arch liners, and degreased, and have refitted the front one Removed and fitted a new uprated oil cooler and pipework (MCS supplied) Removed old front anti roll bar bushes and fitted strongflex PU bushes (you have to remove the front subframe to do these bushes) Removed and painted both rear calipers Removed and painted the front brembo caliper Degreased and repacked with fresh grease both the rear wheel bearing assemblies Degreased and stripped the floorpan including front and rear wheel arches, to treat any rust spots. °(Then treated with rust converter, acid etch primer and the resprayed with black Upol stone chip. High impact areas have been double dosed to be sure it is fully protected Cleaned up/painted both front and rear drivers side Eiffel towers Touched up the front cross member where any spots of rust were and painted as per factory colour Refilled coolant system with fresh antifreeze Changed the oil and filter
Jobs still to do……..
Stonechip seal the passenger side wheel arches Complete front and rear calipers, meaning fitting new seals all round and fit to the hubs Change out the last 4 pieces of brake lines including flexis, then bleed with ATE200 high temperature brake fluid ,drivers side brake pipe is apparently a bugger to do because of the route needed. Refit the battery Refit the entire exhaust system Strip out and fit the front Osrav/Eibach assembly including new bearings,top mount and camber bolts Fit the cooling fans Refit the turbo heat shield Refit the wheels Get the wheel arches professionally painted after the clean up Fit the Bluetooth headunit Do the fuel pump wiring mod Retreat remaining leather inside the car, as per the drivers seat Cable for drivers seat is bust, and look’s fiddly to fix Resecure the fuel filter and bracketry gubbins Refit the heat shield stuff on the underside of the car Refit the plastic rear valance assembly refit the front bumper Fit the new reg plate Fit PFC Zrated brake pads to the front brembos Refit the original rear brembo pads Refit the undertray
Order a cambelt guard from Joe!!
Start the car and make sure nothing is leaking!
Take it for a tootle around the block, then if all good give a tank full of super unleaded
Book the car for tracking alignment and a once over on my mates ramps
Book a track session at Donington Park
Fit my FCCUK car sticker
And breathe!!!
I would say so far I’ve put roughly 120 hours of my time to get this far, and I’ve probably got got another 50 or 60 hours left. And I’ve enjoyed everything bar 2 jobs so far
The poxy M6 bolt for the coolant rail is just a twat to get at, irrespective of tools. I found it less painful to lower the drivers side engine mount and remove the tensioner to give a better access.
The rear wheel arch liners are a bitch to remove, so I’m expecting similar pain to refit
As ever the forum has been a great resource and many folks have helped either remind me of stuff I’d forgotten from my previous Coupé ownership or given me key bits of detail, so thanks for this.
I’ll keep the other thread updated with my jobs to do,so I hope people are enjoying either my hammering skills or my ropey videos with commentary.
As a reminder the google drive is updated with some pics and videos from this weekend’s efforts
Cheers Jamie
Last edited by Jamiepm; 20/02/202309:57. Reason: cambelt guard
Yes rear arms need jacked up as if the car is down with the rear wheels on the ground. If the rear arms are just hanging then it's like the car is under massive heavy braking and all weight is transferred to front wheels so there will be zero braking transferred to the rear through the compensator.
And that assumes the compensator spring is in place correctly and the arm is moving freely onto the compensator piston.
Hi graham, When I had the whole rear assembly off, I had a quick look at the valve arrangement and visually looked ok
I’ve pb blasted it for today, so I’ll have another go after work tomorrow night
With the new arb you get a new bracket for the spring to latch onto. From memory the spring was sloppy beforehand, so I’ve tried to mirror that set up when I’ve reassembled it
What I’ll try is put the wheels on and put the car on wheel ramps to try and simulate being on the ground, maybe it’s the spring doesn’t have enough tension?
I once had an issue with an airlock in my rears and I just couldn't get the fluid to the back end after I had the axle off. It didn't want to shift and I'd made sure the proportioning valve was fully open etc.. In the end I put one of the cheap hand held vacuum pumps on the line and it came. Never tried with a pressure bleed kit though.
I once had an issue with an airlock in my rears and I just couldn't get the fluid to the back end after I had the axle off. It didn't want to shift and I'd made sure the proportioning valve was fully open etc.. In the end I put one of the cheap hand held vacuum pumps on the line and it came. Never tried with a pressure bleed kit though.
Stonechip seal the passenger side wheel arches Complete front and rear calipers, meaning fitting new seals all round and fit to the hubs Change out the last 4 pieces of brake lines including flexis, then bleed with ATE200 high temperature brake fluid ,drivers side brake pipe is apparently a bugger to do because of the route needed. Refit the battery Refit the entire exhaust system Strip out and fit the front Osrav/Eibach assembly including new bearings,top mount and camber bolts Fit the cooling fans Refitted the turbo heat shield Refitted the 2 front wheels Replaced the fuel filter and bracketry gubbins Refitted the heat shield stuff on the underside of the car Refitted the plastic rear valance assembly refitted the front bumper Fitted the PFC Zrated brake pads to the front brembos Refit the original rear brembo pads Fitted the cambelt guard from Joe!!
Started the car and make sure nothing is leaking! All appears good
[/quote]
Jobs still to do…
Get brake fluid to the rear calipers Refit the battery tray Refit the rear wheels Get the wheel arches professionally painted after the clean up Fit the Bluetooth headunit Do the fuel pump wiring mod Retreat remaining leather inside the car, as per the drivers seat Cable for drivers seat is bust, and look’s fiddly to fix Fit the new reg plate Refit the undertray
Take it for a tootle around the block, then if all good give a tank full of super unleaded
Book the car for tracking alignment and a once over on my mates ramps
Book a track session at Donington Park
Fit my FCCUK car sticker
And breathe!!!
I would say so far I’ve put roughly 130 hours of my time to get this far, and I’ve probably got got another 30 or so hours left. And I’ve enjoyed everything bar 2 jobs so far
The poxy M6 bolt for the coolant rail is just a twat to get at, irrespective of tools. I found it less painful to lower the drivers side engine mount and remove the tensioner to give a better access.
The rear wheel arch liners are a bitch to remove, however quite easy to refit
As ever the forum has been a great resource and many folks have helped either remind me of stuff I’d forgotten from my previous Coupé ownership or given me key bits of detail, so thanks for this.
I’ll keep the other thread updated with my jobs to do,so I hope people are enjoying either my hammering skills or my ropey videos with commentary.
As a reminder the google drive is updated with some pics and videos from this weekend’s efforts
Right after some advice from Joe, I’ve give the compensator valve a few good touches with a hammer, and I’ve got fluid out of the nearside caliper, but can’t get the drivers side to play
I’ve doused it in pb blaster and will tickle with a hammer again tomorrow night after work
I managed to get the stud out with little effort, so whilst it’s annoying, the bolt must have been fatigued. I’ve found some donor bolts that I will change all of them as now I have a bit of paranoia and don’t want a surprise of a bad kind
Get the wheel arches professionally painted after the clean up, now waiting for the quote....
Do the fuel pump wiring mod
Retreat remaining leather inside the car, as per the drivers seat
Cable for drivers seat recliner operation is bust, and look’s fiddly to fix. Anyone had experience of doing these???
Book the car for tracking alignment (booked for Wed 6th April) and a once over on my mates ramps, but need to free off the locking nuts first, as they are rusted up and mega tight, so the big boy tools are coming out for this job
I appear to have an oil leak I'm hoping its just the oil filter that's simply worked loose, as certainly having the car tickover on the driveway didn't show anything for several hours over the course of work I've been doing
Book a track session at Donington Park- planning for April 12th, so the pressure is on to fix a few points
What I’ve noticed is the flange on the dipstick tube doesn’t get close to the mating face on the block
So I’ve cleaned it all up, reapplied rtv sealant, and drilled a hole above the original hole for where the securing bolt goes.
My theory is that is there was a gap it makes it easier for oil to push past this seal, so by sandwiching down the rubber seal/RTV sealant to the block face it should reduce the chance for any oil to seep out
Also managed to unseize the track rod end nuts, which were properly corroded, meaning I can can get the car tracked up on Wednesday
Tonight’s drive was short lived, so after buzzing around the country lanes near me, the car suddenly died, just as I was coming onto boost. It cut out quite abruptly, so my immediate thought was something electrical
As I’d faffed around with fuses from earlier in the week, I’d got a few spare ones with me, so I get out of the car , cocksure the fuse had gone and I’d just pop another one in
Anyway it wasn’t the fuse
I popped the bonnet and the negative connection on the battery felt a bit warm, so I thought some kind of short
Then I tried to start it, but it turned over without firing.
The injector light stayed on, so I knew it would not start
When I tried again the ignition just clicked, like when your battery is flat , and I could hear something crackling/buzzing in the drivers footwell, so I turned it off and got the car towed back home
Anyway got the car home, had a nosey around, with nothing obvious
After an hour the car had cooled down and would turn over but not fire
So the code and injector light comes on and goes off, so for me this is correct. I hear the fuel pump prime for a second or two, again I’m sure this is normal
But it won’t fire up
I’ve tried the inertia switch several times
I’m not sure about the 2 relays in the passenger footwell, and the fuel gauge is showing about a 3rd of a tank.
I will to be sure check there’s actually fuel in it tomorrow, and given I put about 50 quids worth of fuel and haven’t done more than a 70 miles I hope it’s not just fuel now for why it won’t start
However I still wonder what was going off with the electrics
Any pearls of wisdom that anyone can think of ?
Ps big thank you to joe for taking messages tonight
I've replied to your PM in more detail, but thinking maybe fuel pump as it's been replaced recently with an uprated one and the fuse blew a few days ago too? Maybe the electrical problems are coming from that, or a short or the pump has overloaded the old wiring?
1. Front left, on chassis leg near alternator 2. Front right, on chassis leg in front of battery (opposite to #1) 3. Front right of gearbox (cable continues from #2) 4. Right side under coil pack cover 5. Back right of engine bay near strut top mount next to ABS diagnostic socket 6. Rear of engine near bottom of large triangular support bracket (note, bracket lower bolt must also be present for good earth connection)
so when I took the pump assembly out the flexipipe had come off the pump, so that explains why it wouldn't start, but now it starts. So I've used a beefier cable tie as I'm surprised it could come off, maybe I caught it when I faffed around with it earlier in the week??
But it doesn't explain the electrical weirdness I saw last night
So after chatting with Joe I'm going to borrow an infra camera from work to see if I can see any hot spots on cables in and around the footwell areas
When you replaced the fuel filter was it definitely fitted the right way around? Just wondering if back pressure from there could have blown that hose off and caused the pump to draw too much current?
Or with that hose off maybe the pump spins freely and draws too much current? Definitely something strange with the pump fuse blowing the other day and that hose being off now. Which hose was it, one inside the pump/tank?
Also, is battery voltage OK? If there was a short from the pump that blew the fuse maybe it damage a cell or 2 in the battery and so it's now not outputting full power.
Hi Graham, I fitted it as per the arrow of direction, that matched the filter you had fitted, so I'm sure its correct
My thoughts regarding the pipe is 2 things
1 is the tie wrap that was supplied was tiny and not man enough for its purpose
2 is when you put the pump assembly back in the tank, you can catch this pipe ( when manoeuvring it into place, this is what I think happened coupled with a crappy tie wrap
You could be right that the pump continually running due to no back pressure might be the reason for the current draw, I don't have any other ideas at present so sounds plausible
The voltmeter in the car is indicating 14 volts, so ordinarily you'd say that was ok
so for now I'm planning to drive it to my mates garage (25 miles away) this afternoon for the tracking set up (road & track set up), so let's see....
The print out I have for mine shows zero for rear toe before and after. Given your readings are out so little and different before and after, yet the rear toe is fixed (!), I would read as 'operator' margin of error and not worry too much.
I think that as both sides are even I'd not worry too much about it.
I do seem to recall that the Bravo/Brava/Marea of the same era all used a very similar trailing arm albeit with slight differences in toe and castor. In theory you could swap the whole rear axle over from something like a Merea to gain more rear toe.
So just got back from the track day at Donnington Park
The car mechanically was awesome, I tweaked the osravs on the front gradually to get what for me was a good balance.
So for those that know the track I was going through craner curves at a little over a 100mph, the only watch out was a bit of lift off oversteer that I could feel
Tyres…… I need some proper tyres for my trip to the ring later this year as the Toyo Proxes TR1s are just average for the track, but for the road they’re more than adequate
Only thing that’s gone wrong is the boost controller, in short it has a high and low setting, and for reasons that I don’t know at the minute it’s only in low mode. But that’s in part why I wanted to test the car out
Just read it through and I'd think the earth cable is shot if there's heat in it. I can't see anything in the car pulling enough current to warm it if it's okay. Give it a good check to the inner wing and also to the gearbox. Possibly loose there.
I did give these a clean up a week or so back, but I will take your advice and check it, as the negative terminal on the battery was warm
Today was weird, I’m been driving the car for a few hours and after several hours of the car being parked up, I came to start it and the dashboard lights dimmed and clicking could be heard.
I managed to bump start it to get myself home, and as a precautionary measure I’ve disconnected the battery in case it tries to combust
I will out of curiosity try to start it in the morning as I suspect it will start, meaning I just need to find which cable it is
Might be the battery itself as it's quite old now. After initially going through a few of those awful Bosch silver batteries that Exide one was fine and was never changed again.
I always used the battery quick disconnect on the negative terminal whenever it was parked up (hence the dash clock being replaced with a voltmeter as I got fed up having to set the clock every time I took the car out!) so if you've not been doing that and the battery is draining overnight then maybe it just isn't up to it anymore.
You could check the connection of the negative cable to that battery quick disconnect screw thing and also how the quick disconnect itself connects to the negative terminal, I never had a problem with it but it was just a cheap ebay part so who knows.
I never had even a single problem with starting or turning over so I'd double check everything you've added (like fuel pump wiring mod) or disturbed during work of the last few months.
Hi graham, I have thought about the screw connection on the negative terminal after my last chat with you. So I’m going to dismantle it to see if there’s anything obvious with it
Regarding the battery, I’m of the view it’s ok, as this morning from cold the car fired up straight away, whereas last night it displayed the symptoms of not enough oomph to do anything
At present I haven’t actually done the fuel pump wiring mod, and given that the apparent draw is significant I can’t think that the change of pump is enough for this level of current draw
So I’m sure it’s a connection issue, I just have to find which one it is
The screws which tighten onto the earth cable for the battery connection weren’t tight, and don’t look like they’ll tighten up further, plus there’s some corrosion on the copper wire.
has anybody ever done different coloured seatbelts???
Fiat did with the LE, there should be pics around of the red seatbelts.
To me, it just looked silly and I think yellow would possibly be even worse, except maybe in a yellow car if the seatbelts properly matched the exterior colour.
has anybody ever done different coloured seatbelts???
Fiat did with the LE, there should be pics around of the red seatbelts.
To me, it just looked silly and I think yellow would possibly be even worse, except maybe in a yellow car if the seatbelts properly matched the exterior colour.
I thought I'd put this video link of the car at Donnington Park
For me it was a shakedown test, whereas my lad was going for let's thrash my dads car
As per my chat with Joe, I'm going to get some Zestino Gredge 07 RS (soft compound) tyres as the Toyo Sports just understeered from the first to the last bend
I thought I'd put this video link of the car at Donnington Park
For me it was a shakedown test, whereas my lad was going for let's thrash my dads car
As per my chat with Joe, I'm going to get some Zestino Gredge 07 RS (soft compound) tyres as the Toyo Sports just understeered from the first to the last bend
Hi Joe, If I wasn't on holiday, then yeah no problem as I've not driven Thruxton
I'm just about to order those tyres we spoke about and assuming they survive the ring then I'll definitely do another trackday or 2 before the years out
Slightly digressing, but on the trackday theme.....
I live quite close to the Curborough sprint circuit and after my holiday I'm going to enquire about hiring it for the day (it would ideally be a Saturday), so would anyone else on here be interested???
I live quite close to the Curborough sprint circuit and after my holiday I'm going to enquire about hiring it for the day (it would ideally be a Saturday), so would anyone else on here be interested???
Cheers Jamie
Jamie, I would start a new thread in the Track Day section and see how you get on..
Anyway I’ve just ordered some Zestino Gredge RS07 soft track tyres. Having read the reviews and spoken to Joe these sound like a good dry weather tyre
Also ordered the 2 poly bushes for the engine mount on the drivers side
Also planning to finally to the wiring mod for the fuel pump as I’ve already run the power cable, I just need to rewire the relay in
Then as per my other thread I’ll be giving the car another test at curborough at the beginning of June, albeit I have a challenge with my son in his MK4 Renault megane rs trophy. If I can get within a second of his time I’ll be impressed
When it's all done you should contact Jayemm and see if he wants to make another video of it, as it was the handling he was most critical of and that's where most of your improvements have been.
When it's all done you should contact Jayemm and see if he wants to make another video of it, as it was the handling he was most critical of and that's where most of your improvements have been.
Hi graham, great idea, is he ‘local’ to your neck of the woods?
Nope he's based in England (not sure where) , he just travels around the UK a lot and knows a few people in Scotland that he stays with while making the videos.
AA tend to supply Birth; I don't have any reason to believe there's anything wrong wrong with them...unlike the wheel bearings from the same stable which had a history of failing after far too short a time.
Not been so active on tinkering with the car of late, but a quick update on things
So after the ring trip, the oil gets a bit too hot for my liking, circa 120 degrees C
So I’ve wrapped the front downpipe to start with, and I’ve already noticed the car takes a little longer to get the oil up to ‘normal’ temperature. So hopefully that will help when on the track
Next plan is to fabricate a better ducting arrangement for the aftermarket oil cooler. I’d say it’s about 20% bigger than stock, so I’m thinking to construct something out of fibreglass
Then if needed I’ll add a water spray to the oil cooler and the intercooler as a final step
If I can keep it closer to 100 degrees C, then that’s good enough for me
It’s been a while, so I thought I’d post a few updates I’m about to make a start with
I’m going to shorten the intercooler pipe work, to hopefully improve the transient response of the turbo.
I’ve bought some vxr injectors, so a trip to flea in March is planned to get it all remapped
I’m going to have a go at enlarging the air duct for the uprated oil cooler I have to maximise cooling of the oil
Finally I’m going to buy a pair of rs3 brake ducts and fit them to the wishbones, they’re only secured with tie wraps and for £40 it’s worth seeing if they keep the inner part of the pad and caliper cooler
Morning folks, Just fitted 1 of the ducts to the drivers side wishbone, with just a small bit of trimming a clip. Will now take it for a quick test drive but clearance looks ok
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