New Battery for the Mini

The Mini is now 5 years old so I was expecting the battery to start going bad soon. Well it seems the cold weather has started to finally reveal its impending doom by borderline being unable to start in freezing temperatures so I wanted to get ahead of it and replace it before it truly dies. 

Original BMW is finally dying

Removing it is a bit fiddly with a few panels that need to get taken out for clearance but I'm glad it's not really as bad as some videos made it out to be where they even removed the intake. I'm not sure if it's because I have the Eventuri intake but after I removed the front panel, it was easy enough to slide up and out.

New Duralast Platinum AGM battery installed

I replaced it with an equal capacity Duralast Platinum AGM battery then used Bimmerlink to register the new battery with the system so it knows it's new. 

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 78,416

- New Duralast Platinum H7-AGM 80Ah 850CCA

New Antigravity ATX-30-HD for Bumblestook

The battery in Bumblestook is about 5 years old now and while the battery still seems ok, I didn't really want to risk having it die on me at a track day so I picked up a new Antigravity ATX-30-HD battery to replace the existing ATX-30-HD.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 67,235

- New ATX-30-HD battery

Pre-Winter Cayman Maintenance

Weather is getting colder and starting to see salt on the roads to it's time think about packing up the cars for the winter. In preparation, time to get the old oil out of the Cayman and put in the fresh stuff.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 53,870

- 8.5 quarts Driven DT-40
- NAPA gold filter

Jeep Oil Change

Just noting maintenance done on the Jeep.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 80,982

- New mopar oil filter

- 6qt Castrol Edge 5W-20

Weird battery drain on the 911

For the past few months I noticed something odd, every now and then I'd have the 911 on my CTEK charger but it'd throw an error that the battery wasn't holding charge. I figured that my battery was just dying but it's really only been 3 years. Still after the battery just wouldn't charge anymore, I bought a brand new battery and noticed the same thing was happening. I decided to check for any draw on the battery while the car was off and key out of the ignition and it measured 370mA. That's way too high especially for an "old car" with barely any electronics.

370mA of draw

I unplugged every fuse and relay from the car and nothing changed. This was bizarre. I eventually gave up and took it to Lee's Autowerks so he could get to the bottom of it. He eventually found the source of the problem but it wasn't the usual suspects. For whatever reason, the ignition switch had become faulty and the contacts terminal 30 and terminal X was closed (on) all the time. You can see in this video comparing it to the a new ignition switch (later installed in the car) that those contacts should be normally open.

Faulty ignition switch (left) vs new normally working one (right)

With the new ignition switch install and key out of the car, you the draw is now only 35mA which is well within the 100mA max static draw noted in the service manual. Big thanks to Lee for getting this all sorted so I don't have to worry about the battery just dying on me if it's not on a tender all the time.

35mA static draw with the new ignition switch

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 173,397

- New ignition switch

Oil Change for the Mini

It's been about a year now since the last oil change. We've only logged about 6K miles on the car since then. I'd normally change the oil at around the 5K mark but I think this is fine. Oil level has been rock solid. Haven't had to top it off or anything like that. 

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 77,141

- 5L Liquimoly 0W-20
- New Mahle oil filter
- New oil filter housing (messed up the plastic drain screw last time so replaced the whole thing with a new housing this time)
- New oil drain copper washer
- New rubber oil drain gasket

Suspension Noise and Caster Fixes on the S2000

Once the S2000 starts to generate heat around the suspension, it started to having this clunking knocking sound at low speed like driving around a parking lot. It wouldn't do this at high speed (or at least I couldn't hear it) and it didn't seem to affect performance but it was really annoying me. I resolved to fix this. First, the rear lower control arm spherical bushing had to go. It had started to wear and had a mm or so of play in it causing that knocking sound. This bushing doesn't really need to be a spherical so I opted to have it replaced with Hardrace hard rubber bushings instead. This is still going to provide good feel while improving NVH.

Hardrace hard rubber rear lower control arm bushings

worn out sphericals

The second fix was to allow the springs to rotate more freely as the suspension compressed and unloaded. This is achived by adding Swift thrust sheets between the spring and the perches so that it can glide freely and not bind.

Swift thrust sheets

Finally, I wanted to fix the relatively low caster we were measuring on the car ever since I went with sphericals. S2000s should easily achieve over 5 degrees of caster and I was maxing out at around 3.4. The front control arms were removed and the spherical adjusted over to make the control arm sit at the appropriate angle and now over 5 degrees of caster is easily achievable. 

Control arm spherical adjusted

New alignment looking great

Car drives amazing again with no more clunking sounds in the rear at low speed.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 67,150

- New Hardrace hard rubber rear lower control arm bushing (part no 7423)

- Swift thrust sheets on rear coilovers

- Reposition front control arm spherical bushings

- New alignment

Fixing oil leaks and replacing fuel pump on the 944

I was continuing to have oil leaks from both the front and rear main seals on the 944 so I took it to Lee Autoworks to have this fixed once and for all. He found the crankshaft to having about 1.4mm of play which is well outside of tolerance which should be less than 0.4mm so we agreed to pull the engine out and have a closer look. 

Engine out inspection on the 944

The thrust bearing had excessive play and since the engine was opened up anyway, I had him check everything else out. There was a tiny bit of wear in the conn rod bearings and main bearings. Nothing to be super concerned about but I opted to have it all replaced along with all the seals since I don't want to have to do this all over again.

Fresh parts are here

I also took this opportunity to have the fuel pump, fuel filter, in tank strainer and hoses replaced so that I have peace of mind. I had no record of it ever being replaced and given the car is 33 years old I didn't want to have to second guess the fuel system so it seemed like a prudent thing to do. It did seem like it was replaced at some point so perhaps this was unnecessary but at least I know now exactly when it was done and it'll be happy for years to come. The crankshaft and camshaft position sensors also tend to go bad on these cars and given its age, I also had both replaced with new ones. 

He also go to the bottom of why the car kept stalling or having a no start condition. The connector for the mass airflow sensor was loose causing it to sporadically disconnect. He tightened up the connectors so it would have a firm electrical connection and now it starts like a champ every time. 

Engine back in and fully functional

People say these engines are some of the smoothest 4-cylinders ever made and while it was fairly smooth before now I really understand what they mean. At any RPM the engine is hyper-smooth with good power delivery. Such a joy to drive!

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 97,356

- 6 quarts Valvoline 20W-50 VR1

- Mahle OC142 oil filter

- New OEM fuel filter

- New OEM fuel pump

- New OEM in-tank fuel strainer

- New OEM fuel hoses to fuel pump

- New OEM main bearings

- New OEM thrust bearings

- New OEM connecting rod bearings

- New OEM oil pickup tube

- New OEM crankshaft  position sensor

- New OEM camshaft position sensor

- Fresh antifreeze

- New engine seals

New CV boots for the Cayman

Last year while I was changing oil I noticed a bit of greased around the brake sensor and realized it was coming from the CV boots (both sides). I don't think it was turn but rather leaking by the clamps. Either way, they were getting old and after 17 years, I think the rubber had served its purpose. I ordered a new CV boot kit from Suncoast and finally today went over to Lee's Autowerks so he could make quick work out of it. While it was there also had him change the transmission fluid since the OS Giken diff was started to get a bit whiny. 

Leaky CV boot

Fresh OEM CV boots

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 52,887

- New OEM CV boots on both axles + new clamps and grease

- 3 quarts Motul 75W140 Gear Oil

New Battery for Scarlett

Well for a few weeks now my CTek battery tender would keep showing the red light when trying to charge the battery on Scarlett. I thought maybe it was just the charger being bad but sure enough, the battery was down to 10V and was not holding charge. Very strange since it was only about 3 years old and I haven't put that many miles on the car. Either way, replaced it with a new battery and all is fine again.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 173,372

- New Duralast Platinum H6 / Group 48 AGM battery

Flooded Cylinder 1

I was getting ready for my next track day when the car wouldn't crank. At first I thought it was just a bad battery so I swapped in my spare battery and same thing. It would try to turn but stop like it was stuck. I was looking everywhere for anything broken and realized I was smelling fuel but saw no fuel leak so I started pulling the plugs out and found this. The spark plug in cylinder 1 was very dark and went from fuel and I could smell a strong scent of fuel coming out of the cylinder. I checked the other 3 cylinders and they looked just fine. 

I then took a wrench to manually turn the crank and fuel started com up through the spark plug tube. For some reason the cylinder was flooded with fuel. I soaked up all the fuel as it came up as I kept manually cranking. Once I felt it had cleared and let it dry overnight, I changed the oil and put in a fresh set of spark plugs and tried to crank it and it started for a few seconds then died again. Took the spark plug out and it was wet with fuel yet again. I cleared it out again and just double checked the compression to make sure it was still and and it was still above 240.

So shutting off my fuel pump and cranking allowed the engine to crank but as soon as I applied fuel it would flood. Either I wasn't getting spark or I had a leaky injector. I tested for spark and sure enough I had spark so it wasn't that. Before checking the injector, SJF said to get a noid light and see if I was even getting proper pulses to it. This is when the literal lightbulb turned on. The noid light should be off normally and pulse as the ECU signals the injector to fire. Instead, even with the key just in the on position it was already on causing the injector to just stay open.

Noid light staying on

I then wiggled the wires and the light would flicker on and off. Aha, I had a short somewhere. I stripped back all the harness wrap and the heat shrink wrap around the solder joints. The joints looked good but I'm guessing at some point it poked through the insulation somewhere causing a short so the plan was to apply new insulation. I also thought it'd be a good opportunity to replace the very brittle injector clips that were falling apart with each touch. Perhaps the short was there as well. 

New injector clips

I depinned the clips and slid on some new high quality heat shrink tubing that has adhesive on the inside to prevent it from sliding around. I then put the pins in the new connectors. I wrapped everything in high temp harness wrap, the kind you see on most Euro cars, and then re-tested then noid light. This time it stayed off as expected and no amount of wiggling caused it to flicker. I changed the oil yet again and put in another set of fresh injectors (the previous one I tried was a cheaper variation I could easily get my hands on as a stop gap). It fired up, idled just fine and had perfect air/fuel ratio. It did take a while for the exhaust to stop smoking. All that oil and fuel and had to get burned out but once all that was done she was back to driving like a champ.

Fresh NGK Iridium Laser 7746 plugs

Driving normal again

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 67,079

- 4 x NGK Irdium Laser 7746 spark plugs

- 5.5 quarts Amsoil 10W-40
- New OEM oil filter

- 4 x new injector clips

Post track oil change and splitter wall mount

Given how hot it was this past weekend I felt it prudent to change the oil. I'm actually going to send this in for oil analysis since I'm curious how the oil held up to these conditions.

I also finally got the splitter wall mount SJF created for me on the wall and hung my Racebred Components splitter on it. I'm loving that it's out of the way and I don't need to drive around with a splitter under normal conditions.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 67,037

- 5.5 quarts Amsoil 10W-40
- New OEM oil filter

Finding pace at NJMP Lightning in the heat

I generally dislike summer track days. I'm just not a giant fan of sweaty hot weather so when I saw that our schedule for NJMP Lightning was towards the end of June, I was hoping it'd be before things heat up. Well our two days there was absolutely swamp ass weather. Both days topping off at around 95F ambient but definitely felt above 100F. 

NJMP Lightning - 6-23-2024

I was super eager for this even though because of all the recent changes to the car which included:

• Replacing bad sway bar endlinks and collars
• Changing from Continental Force to Bridgestone RE-71RS 245/40R17 tires all around
• Changing the rear springs to 13Kg swift springs to match my fronts
• Added more rear camber (-3 in the rear now)
• Fresh Carbotech XP10/XP8 pads and fresh rotors all around

All these fixes plus the aero had me excited because I was really hoping the car would finally be well balanced and at a high speed track like NJMP lightning, having aero was going to make a ton of difference.

NJMP Lightning - S2K Takeover - 6-23-2024

My first session on Saturday was a bit sketchy. The tires were still fresh and not scuffed in yet and my new brake pads hadn't been bed in yet so my braking was far from confidence inspiring. After a few sessions though things were starting to feel really good but my driving was lacking. I was still hovering around the 1:19s and I knew I was leaving tons of time out there. After sleeping on it and chatting with the guys about key turns like T1 and T2 where I hadn't been trusting the grip of the car, it eventually clicked and I was able to lean on the car more and trust the grip would be there. I was able to put in a 1:16.32 to set a new PB despite the ambient temps being around 93F at the time. Reviewing the video and data, I definitely left more time on the table so I can't wait to return in cooler temps to see how much faster I can go.

Setup notes:

Tire pressures: 27psi cold

Damper settings:  25 clicks from full stiff (counterclockwise) in the front and 13 clicks from full stiff in the rear. 

Overdue TLC for Bumblestook

We've done two track days now with the new aero and the car just didn't feel properly balanced so it was time to address that before we head to NJMP next weekend. 

I was running 13kg/11kg Swift springs on Sakebomb Garage Ohlins FPSport coilovers and with the added rear downforce that made the car a bit pushy so I had the rear springs swapped out to 13kg as well for a square setup.

13kg Swift springs for the rear - Z65-203-130

I've also been chasing this very bad clunking sound from the car especially after a track session. It got so bad that it would do this whether it was hot or cold even just driving forward a few feet. I initially thought it was the spherical bearing in the top hat of the shocks but it actually turned out to be worn out and rusty sway bar end links. The collars that prevent the bar from going left and right were also cracked and loose. Karcepts revised these in later bars from aluminum to steel to prevent this form happening. Thankfully Karcepts came to the rescue here and got my order for replacements to me super quick! The bar itself wasn't looking so hot so SJF took it all apart to clean the rust off and regrease where needed.

cracked sway bar collar

The diff wasn't sound too hot after the last event so I knew it needed a fluid change so while the car was with SJF, I had him change the diff fluid as well new Carbotech XP10/XP8 brake pads as well as fresh Centric blank rotors. I normally run Stoptech cryo slotted rotors and have them ordered but 2 of the 4 rotors are backordered so I'm using the basic blanks to get by for now. I also got a new set of 245/40R17 Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RS tires all around mounted and finally ditched the Continental Force tires I've been running. While the Contis were a consistent tire, they aren't really the same speed as the REs so it was time to go. I also usually run 255 tires all around but because these tires are wide, the 245 actually fits better on a 9" wide wheel. I'm curious how this will affect handling and it will also shorten my gearing a little bit more too.

245/40R17 RE-71RS

Lastly the car went in for a new alignment. I'm going with a square camber setup of -3.0 all around. This the max camber up front even with my offset joints since I don't run the car really low like others. Toe is 0 degrees front and 0.12in total toe in the rear. For some reason I'm maxed out at 3.9 and 4.4 degrees of caster up front. This might be due to where the spherical bearings are positioned in the arm so we may have to revisit this in the future. This is pretty low for an S2000. It should be over 5 degrees of caster. For my records, the shock settings are 25 clicks from full stiff (counterclockwise) in the front and 13 clicks from full stiff in the rear. 

Also noting that I had SJF fabricate a wall mounting bracket so I can hang my splitter on the wall when I'm not using it. It's super slick.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 66,503

- 1 qt Redline 80W140 GL5 Gear oil

- New Carbotech XP10/XP8 brake pads

- New centric blank rotors all around

- Swift 13kg rear springs

- New front and rear sway bar endlinks

- New front and rear sway bar collars

- 245/40R17 RE-71RS tires all around

Fuel Pressure Gauge and Trans/Diff Fluid change

A few weeks ago I suddenly lost power on the 944 and ran into a no start condition. I swapped the DME relay and got it back working to limp it home and from my investigation it seems like it might just have been a bad ground caused by a bolt that had almost backed out all the way. Anyway, part of my concern at the time was whether or not I actually had fuel pressure but I had no way of telling. I got  Lindsey Racing fuel pressure gauge that fits right up to the rail so now I can see in real time what the fuel pressure is. This will help me detect any fuel flow or fuel regulator issues in the future.

Fuel pressure gauge installed

Fuel pressure gauge installed

While the car was on the lift I also decided to change the transaxle fluid since it's now been 500 or so miles since the new diff was installed and I figure that's a good enough break in period.

New gear oil

NOTE: I decided to remove the fuel pressure gauge shortly after since I didn't feel comfortable adding another potential failure point in case the gauge or fittings fail and starts to leak fuel into the engine bay. 

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 97,305

- 2.7 quarts Motul 75W90 Gear Oil