The KRS thread....

[Kernow Rotary Specialist]

a family friend dropped by yesterday evening with a exhaust leak. as it was after hours i couldnt repalace the flexi so i made a attempt, but welding it turned into a exercise in futility, so he had to leave the car here and i sorted it this morning...

much better.

[brad_wil]

another random job

ford focus ecoboom 1.0. intermittent no start, slow to no crank.

(heh, autocorrect tries to replace ecoboom with ecoboost.... even autocorrect knows )

i was able to get it to misbehave once. it cranked very slowly then stopped cranking even thought the key was still held. no clicking, no misbehaving dash. very odd.

the attempt right after i had a very sluggish crank, that slowly sped up to normal and it started.

also weird. i never got it to do it again.

i started by voltage drop testing the grounds. i found a very large drop between the battery and body. i cleaned all the paint off the body side of the connector, and retested, the drop almost entirely disappeared. this is a big issue, but i wasn't satisfied, as this fault doesn't entirely explain the symptoms. (ie why is it intermittent? )

so i hooked up the scantool and put it into oscilloscope mode. set to the battery voltage pid, i then repeatedly started the car. i was getting mostly drops to about 10v (acceptable, barely) but just sometimes, it would drop down to 8v (not acceptable at all)

i then chucked my jump pack on it and repeated the same test. it never went under 11v. most lows where 11.2-11.5

this makes sense for all the symptoms, Especially considering its a Lion battery (eurocarparts own crap and notoriously poor quality) and... totally the wrong battery for the car. not stop start capable and too small.

chucked a good quality and more importantly correct spec battery on it and tested again, and all the results now match with those i had with the jump pack connected. who'da thunk it

reset the bms and stop start now works, which apparently it never had. weird

now if id gone in blind on the initial symptom, the parts cannon method would have had me chuck a starter at it. which just goes to show, follow the process, test, retest and confirm.


oh and yes, the workshop was a mess, it was a rush fit in job, had been doing a big job all day and squeezed her in at 6pm, which was my tidy time...

[warpc0il]

I've heard of some garages deliberately fitting the wrong battery, to disable stop-start, because owners hate stop-start that much.

[qwakers]

bit of a foolish way to do it though, when you can just unplug the battery sensor. no error messages and stop start buggers off

[Kernow Rotary Specialist]

not a happy time for a customer of mine. he had a bad accident a few weeks ago and well.. the car is a completely unrepairable structural write off..

it shows though just how strong the rx8 is. its bad but the survival cell is totally intact, all the doors still open and close, even though they are slightly misaligned. the chassis rail on the passenger side is like a banana all the way down to behind the front door....

well, just look.

i literally had to cut the engine out it was never getting between the chassis rails.


on the plus side, the driver was ok, just a bit sore from the seatbelt, and all the weld repairs i did all those years ago are as invisible now as they where when i did them, and whilst the body tore at the spot welds, the area my welds where performed the same as a un repaired area, which is the mark of good work

this car will never live again, but hopefully the engine and all the rrp and racing beat parts survived and they will be going into a new shell.

[warpc0il]

What sort of impact and was the engine running?

I've heard of perfectly good engines being recovered from crash car, only to find the the forces from the impact has caused the rotors to mill sections out for the housings

There was a good gallery on an Aussie website but I can't find it now.

[qwakers]

heavy frontal and yes it was. hes hoping its ok, but im offering no guarantees.

there where too many electrical faults to start the engine in the car, but it did turn over, just no spark.

[warpc0il]

fingers-crossed

[Kernow Rotary Specialist]

Stripped and gone. Now just to get the replacement here and rebuild it.

[qwakers]

replacement being fiddled with attempting to get it to start.

known good starter, known good power loom, massive battery. only cranks at 100ish rpm....

cut belts off, no seized pulleys.

cant turn engine by hand, takes far too much effort with a bar.

short of taking the gearbox off to check for obstructions in the bellhousing, which i doubt as the clutch works fine, im going with seized stationary bearings. which is a new one for me but not impossible as the engine has suspected bearing faliure at point of sale anyway...

[Kernow Rotary Specialist]

the re-shell commences.....


engine out, engine bay cleaned up, welding of the common area completed and subframe cleaned up and enblackened...

[brad_wil]

subframe and battery crossmember cavity waxed, subframe, steering rack with good used uj and racing beat arb fitted.

engine going in next.

[qwakers]

so the engine is in but not started as no rad in it yet (top mount rubbers are on backorder was promised them today... no joy)

suspension and brakes are in on the front, all cleaned up and painted with new boots

the battery might be on its last legs though...

gearbox is in, new output seal, prop fitted, ppf fitted. clutch softline has a leak so will be replaced. that's about where it sits.

to do, rad and hoses in, airbox , battery tray, coolant, start.

then rear brakes and suspension then start on the bodywork

[Kernow Rotary Specialist]

i dont know why battery testers show good with such low cca left..

i also dont know why i keep forgetting to switch accounts

[Kernow Rotary Specialist]

Annnd....

It's back out.

@Warpc0il you'll never guess why...

I'm not entirely surprised, and the pair of engines will be on a pallet off to a rebuilder.

[warpc0il]

Annnd....

It's back out.

@Warpc0il you'll never guess why...

My x-ray vision isn't what it used to be...

[qwakers]

It dropped a seal when it made compression and the es thrust washer have been compressed.

[Kernow Rotary Specialist]

the welding task on this was mammoth. it was bad. however it all came out nicely.

ive never had to weld in replacements for the bottom 20mm of the structural inner sill, as well as the last 50mm of the return to the floor before!

and lastly, with the ac on i dont want the windows open. but smoke and dust is a issue so...

filtration. works well.

[Kernow Rotary Specialist]

paint started yesterday primer was finished at 9pm. my da sanders hook and loop pad threw in the towel right at a inopportune moment, so i ordered a replacement from amazon and stole dads da this morning...

[JEllis]

basecoat x3 coats:

and lacquer x2
(i seem to have lost a load of pics so a mirror pic will have to do.)

[Kernow Rotary Specialist]

the missing picture... lacquered. mmmm shiny

[Kernow Rotary Specialist]

strakes removed, sandblasted, primed, flatted (repeat twice) painted black then shadow chrome:

all the painted areas unmasked...

underbody coating completed:

and exhaust repacked. the perforated tubing was in pieces on the bottom of the silencer and there was no packing in it at all. reconstructions left it looking like this, with all the clamps removed and pipes welded solid.

[warpc0il]

Open heart surgery