360S in Charleston(ish)

[Austin David]

8 minutes ago, KnifeySpoony said:

My plan is to wire my 12V socket wires to an SAE plug for battery maintainer. Haven't got around to it yet.

 

You wouldn't run that straight off the battery?

[KnifeySpoony]

I could but a plug under the dash would avoid having to take the bonnet off and save me 17 seconds. Hence why it's not a priority and I haven't done it yet. Also the fact that I have a battery disconnect so I haven't needed to do any battery maintenance actually. I do have a tiny little antigravity battery that I need to modify the current battery tray to accept. But in theory, the lithium will be in even less need of a top up charge.

[Austin David]

OK, I think that makes sense; you would effectively be piggybacking on the 10A fuse for that socket, so you wouldn't need an additional inline fuse. 

 

I was thinking of running a fatter fuse for a Stiebel horn (~18A, it claims), have been trying to confirm that I won't nuke something else inline.  I assume the wiring is pretty much battery -> fuse panel -> horn fuse -> button -> horn, without any other electromechanical stuff in the way.  Alternative path (for like MCs and stuff where you aren't sure it can bear the load): horn wire -> relay, and run ~20A direct from battery to relay.  Still get the horn function but don't potentially overload the button or whatever else might be inline.  Downside is yet another fuse required for that 20A run, plus the additional wiring and the relay hanging out somewhere.

[Austin David]

for the record: Motive 1100 and 1109 both fit the Ate reservoir which came with my ~2021 build.  The 1100 part is plastic one-piece, the 1109 is an aluminium with swivel.  Apparently (per Motive) that's the difference -- that and $12.  My front brakes bled fine, the rears did not -- but 15# with the power bleeder pushed through whatever lock was in there.

[Austin David]

weekend update:

- my front brake system + clutch bled normally, rears are (were) doing something weird.  As above I used 15# on the power bleeder and it shoved through whatever bubble was in there.

- the temp sender (submarine) appears to read high, like 110 indicated == 100 (ish) actual.  That sender is only connected to the gauge, the ECU kicks in the fan at what appears to be the right time.

- wet sump oil dipstick may be high, checking on it.  2015 and v2 Ikea manual differ.  My engine came with the dipstick tube mounted high (Ikea manual), the 2015 shows a lower mount.  5 qts of oil and it's building the right pressure, so this feels like a dipstick issue and not something else.  Have not tried to peer into the pan or otherwise, objectively measure the oil level.

- tach is reading 1/4.  Still figuring this out, I sincerely hope I don't have to mail the ECU in for a reflash.

- now that I have power I can play with the dash.  I feel like there are ~ 2x as many switches as I need, and not enough gauges.  

 

For starting, the book (new Ikea manual) has a fair series of steps.  Mostly: build oil pressure before firing, and use the inertial switch/sensor to stop the fuel pump.  Once pressure is up it just kinda works.

 

Couple nagging coolant leaks; nothing major, just super annoying.

[KnifeySpoony]

Check the dipswitches inside your tach - mine were set wrong. Went back and forth with Caterham, trying different ECU tunes, wasting time. Took 2 min to fix (against Caterham's advice lol).

[Austin David]

The white-backed tach?  I pulled the tach off the dash enough to see that it's mostly / appears to mostly be a sealed unit.  Not too hard to pop the cover?

[Austin David]

referring to your previous post: https://usa7s.net/ips/topic/13527-tach-misreading-on-420r/#comment-124677

 

For future reference: the table for switch settings.  1+2+8 on (rest off) are the factory settings.  Per the table, 1+2 is 2 pulses per revolution, which is "correct" for a 4-cyl / 4 cycle motor.   Switch 8 is always "on".

 

So I need to get it reflashed to make the tach work.  Womp womp.

 

To pull the tach: had to nip 2 zip ties under the dash to free up the cable a little.  Gently pry the grommet loose, the switch is right under there.

[Austin David]

OK, some working through lunch... I set the switches to 0.5 PPR, on the logic that if my ECU is truly sending 1/4 pulses, I can just tell the tach that.  Confirmed with ODBII, the tach now reads correctly with some caveats:

 - it's probably slightly less responsive, since it's getting 1/4 the data as before.  Nothing I notice by blipping the throttle in the garage.

 - it bottoms out at 1100 RPM indicated.  800 actual (ECU) RPM -> 1100.  1200 actual RPM -> 1200.  I assume this is a feature of the pulse-measuring algorithm, but doesn't otherwise seem to affect my usage.

 

Per the book, 0.5PPR is 1-7 off (0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1).  8 stays on all the time.

[Austin David]

Confirmed my temp sender+gauge reads about ~15C high, using an external IR sensor against the water rail, block, and hoses at the submarine.  Fan cycles correctly (kicks in around 95C external read on the water rail).  Hopefully I can calibrate the gauge, but failing that it's either a new sensor or some shenanigans with a trimpot.

[KnifeySpoony]

You may find this an interesting read:

 

https://www.autometer.com/blog/faq-post/water-temp-gauge-reads-high/

 

 

[Austin David]

ok mr KnifeySpooney I will straight up buy you a burger at Alice's, if you drive.  And fries and stuff.   tl;dr the sender was wired backward.  Read on for some data.

 

I tried running a dedicated ground to the sender wire (submarine chassis / screw terminal) and the temp gauge shot UP.  Which is nuts, right?  The original wiring (as I assembled it a week-ish ago) was with the loom single green wire -> submarine chassis, and loom two black/yellow -> sender center.  So I flipped it and the temp read more like I expect: slightly above 100C (indicated) when the fan kicks in, drops slightly below 100C (indicated) when the fan finished.

 

While I was over there I also took ohmeter readings for a few fan cycles.  It was very consistent.   The fan consistently led the temperature / resistance swings (that is, the submarine reading trailed the ECU behavior and fan cooling) so I assume the internal temp reader is up front / upstream, cooling action is upstream, and the submarine sees cooler water about 10 (ISH) seconds late.

 

Fan kicks in at 134 ohms, the reading drops as low as 131 before it starts rising.  Higher reading == lower temperature.  I haven't found a good table for this sensor; autometer's article says 210F (100C) is 123 ohms, so maybe this was south of that a little?  Fan cuts off at 136.5 ohms, and resistance rises as much as 144 (cooled fluid circulates to the submarine) before it starts falling again as the cycle repeats.

 

I observed this several times very consistently.  

 

About the sender: I just again scoured the 2015 and v2 Ikea manual and can't see where the wiring is mentioned.  I must've incorrectly ASSUMEd the single green wire was the earth and the two colored wires were the signal.  I further assumed it didn't materially matter, since it's a resistor and not itself connected directly to the chassis ground.   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  I put it back to the "original" connection and confirmed it was as before (reading ~ 110C).  The "other" way has it reading more inline with expectations at 100C when the fan cycles.

 

Anyway, that article got me to first double-check the ground which pointed out the wiring issue.  Onion rings on me (eventually)

[KnifeySpoony]

I'm glad the article helped get your ohmmeter juices flowing. I'm definitely not an expert on this kind of stuff; I'm constantly learning. 

 

Oh and the roads around Alice's are fantastic. Oh and the weather is (almost) always perfect.

[Austin David]

20 hours ago, KnifeySpoony said:

I'm glad the article helped get your ohmmeter juices flowing. I'm definitely not an expert on this kind of stuff; I'm constantly learning. 

 

Oh and the roads around Alice's are fantastic. Oh and the weather is (almost) always perfect.

 

Yeah, I lived out there for 15 years.  I don't miss the 2-hour commute, but I definitely miss the weather and the roads.

[Austin David]

Carpet: apparently I ordered "more carpet."  There's a biggish panel for behind the seats, not listed in the Ikea 2.0 manual.  In 2015 it's the "rear bulkhead carpet" or "seatback carpet" (p145). I used thin carpet tape, not glue.  Had to unscrew 6 "poppers" holding the boot cover, tape this big panel to the back face of the cockpit.  It will need some trim around the belts (I have 3-point / retractable).  The top edge of this section is matching vinyl.  I pulled that into the boot area, held it snug, and folded the two outside corners over.  This exposed the screwholes for the two outside poppers, which I used to fix the position of the boot cover.  With that in place I was able to seat the center 4 poppers through this vinyl flap.  One at a time, holding it nice and snug, and already centered with the tunnel, the seatbelts, and secured (a little) with carpet tape.  The screws are pointy enough that they went right through the vinyl, no issues.  

 

I've also got a whole tangram set for the rear boot.  I've puzzled that out (pun) and I think every piece will need to be trimmed.  Have not yet decided if I will actually apply every piece.

 

Josh (RMC) recommended the carpet tape, I love it.  It sticks to the bulkhead or boot floor, and holds the carpet BUT is also easy to reposition.  

 

Edit: the seats pretty effectively block the belts and where they interfere with the carpet / feed into the retractor.  If you want to trim, do it before installing the seats.  Also it may not be obvious for the less-initiated, but the seats take up every bit of available space -- do them last.  Kinda like the transmission and duratec (at least in S3): the car is essentially the bare minimum, snugged around a transmission, motor, and two seats.  They touch the carpet on both sides, effectively block the harness attachments, and press the buckle against the cutout in the tunnel.  I've taken to telling people it's basically a kayak.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Austin David
seats

[Austin David]

Tunnel carpets are in.  This is a standard S3; there's a frame member across the floor.  The floormats are cut to JUST fit in the trapezoid between the tunnel, front of footwell, side, and that frame member (about under one's knees).  Unfortunately the carpet also comes down to the floor, which makes the floormats too big (or the carpets too long).  For now they're folded up a little at the sides, I'll hold off a bit before cutting anything.

[FE07]

Probably sounds stupid but the floor mats are not the same from right to left and can make it look like they don't quite fit.  Almost took an x-acto knife to mine when I got them, UNTIL I put them into the correct footwell and saw they fit just fine.  So..... might want to check that.

 

Jim

[Austin David]

Not at all stupid!  I had already played "boot carpet tetris" so I was prepared for two similar-looking-but-not-identical parts.  Without the carpet they were *perfect*.  With the carpet they're a little too wide -- exactly one carpet-depth too wide.  NBD, just funny.  I assume they make one size of mat, and not everyone gets carpet.

 

I put the seats in today and see that the frame member is under the seat, so that rubber mat entirely consumes the actual footwell.  Clever design.

 

Also I've officially upgraded from "noisy collection of parts" to "noisy loveseat."  

[Austin David]

Toe is adjusted by rotating the steering rods (which AFAIK is very standard).  The flats are hiding under the boots -- nip the installed zip tie, push the boot back, there's room for an 11mm wrench.  But not a lot of room, my stubby did fine.  The boots don't move *except* when adjusting toe.  One of mine was kinda sticky so I put some grease on the flat and slid it forward/back, then finished the adjustment.  There's a groove (past the flat) where they sit while tied.

 

Apparently for track cars, or any application where you're making several adjustments per day, it's a thing to just not re-apply the ziptie.

[Austin David]

Mirrors: terrible.  Per instructions you have to remove the mounting screw to remove the mirror post.  WHAT THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW: that screw holds down a metal cup, spring, washer, and backing nut.  Once you let that go, they're all loose inside the mirror housing.

 

Press out the glass, reassemble the stuff to the new mirror post, then hop online and look for better mirrors.  I'm in that step right now.  I think 4" round chrome would look good, complement the headlights.

 

If that fails I'll reassemble the mirrors and use them until I find something better.  

 

My aeroscreen mirrors are much nicer, but they don't match.  Asking about that now.  LHS is carbon (nothing on my car is carbon), RHS is shiney black.