Too Damn Hot

[Vimmy]

Hi Guys, I was wondering if anyone else was seeing weird symptoms in the cars with the heat were having at the moment. Since yesterday and having come home from work today, the car runs as if its missing a spark or two and runs like a tractor when sitting at idle. At idle the revs go up to 1200 and you can here the exhaust note jumping all over the place.

I was on my way home tonight and had the CEL light flare up, this now has a secondary use as a knock sensor output from the new ecu. I was only doing 60mph at the time and not running high rpm's in anyway but it was rather warm outside. My scoop now feeds hot air from outside onto the fmic pipe that feeds the throttle bodyas the tmic is no longer there, so I'm guessing the car was getting early detonation due to the high intake temps.

Anyone else seen weird things happening due to the heat?

I'm after a reverse scoop now or a rear facing vent to stop this happening

Edited May 24, 2010 by Vimmy

[stum450n]

On a technical note, I've no idea but bloody hell it ain't half warm!!!! Phewwww!

Still managed to somehow get a cold though?!?

[Vimmy]

Aye too blinking hot for me, bein' a northerner I love the cold, wet and windy weather - all this sun is doing me in

Just to add to it all, I burnt me arm on the door panel as I set off for home tonight, no shade were I work so it's like an oven at home time, even with the windows open a wee bit

Is it more like bad/extreme hayfever rather than a cold stu, all this heat would make the pollen fly about like mad?

[Flathead]

My top hose went last night i can't put it down to the heat but who knows. Thanks for the link Iain ordered one today hope they do next day delivery as i'm missing it allready !

[xdeadboltx]

went to bristol and back with no problems . Yes its too hot esp at work with all those pigs and no wind its even hotter.

[Big 'D']

Vimmy you may just have a vac hose off somewhere or perhaps a misfire, I douby that you would be getting det that early esp if you are running V Power.

I am happy to have a look for you later if you want fella.

Cheers Iain

[myles]

Vimmy you may just have a vac hose off somewhere or perhaps a misfire, I douby that you would be getting det that early esp if you are running V Power.

I am happy to have a look for you later if you want fella.

Cheers Iain

As for hot air getting into the engine bay due to the FMIC, why dont you flip your csoop backwards for the time being. It wont look amazing but will vent off the hot air. Just a thought.....

[stum450n]

Is it more like bad/extreme hayfever rather than a cold stu, all this heat would make the pollen fly about like mad?

Never had it before, I'm assuming it's the air con in the courtesy car... jet another reason to hate the poxy little thing!!!!

[Vimmy]

Flathead - that blown hose sounds a bit coincidental, the radiators aren't totally airtight around the sides, top and bottom normally, so not all of the incoming air goes through the radiator core, perhaps this extra heat was enough to push the coolant fluid over the edge and increase the pressure until it popped?

Deadbolt - good news on the car, I 'm quite lucky in work as the air con works too well, by the time I come to leave at night you forget about the heat outside and its instant heatwave as you step outside and end up burning yer arms and hands in the inside of the car

Iain - If it wasn't the knock indicator kicking in, I wonder if it was another ecu based warning coming on, it only happened the once. Also do you know if the two green/black connectors can still be used to read ecu fault codes now that the oem one has been replaced with the Simtek device instead? I didn't want to try it in case it went poof

Myles - grand idea matey, that was on my list of immediate fixes, the problem hasn't come back, fingers crossed, but i need to check out the holes in the under tray and see if they are reversible

Sorry for the late reply, had a rather weird day, not quite fully compus mentus

[Vimmy]

Never had it before, I'm assuming it's the air con in the courtesy car... jet another reason to hate the poxy little thing!!!!

Aye if the car's aircon hasn't been used for a while it could have some wee air borne bugs in there, not wanting you worry you too much

[edmondo]

put the fan on the coldest setting the other day and it felt like it was blowing hot air

[Vimmy]

Fun run home today this heat yet again is causing mischief with the car. I had a half day with the car in the full reach of the sun from 9am to 1230, nearly the hottest part of the day. I had got about 2 miles trundling through swindon with the car sounding like farmer giles tractor, coughing and spluttering away with the car rocking as the engine was throwing a wobbly on me.

The water temps showed as being ok, the oil pressure was fine, the afr was showing spot on but the car's idle was varying from 800 to 1300 when stationary running really lumpy, I thought the antilag was switched as it felt exactly like that. Switching that on to make sure just ran higher idle revs and the thing still rocked all over, the rock continued even when accelerating and at full speed. The car did make boost as expected in both maps settings.

When I got home the engine bay was roasting, both pipes to and from the fmic was rather hot, as was the air filter, radiator hoses, intake manifold - I'll be buggered if I know what is going on, the cars been fine all week with the heat. I pulled the idle air control valve plug to see what happened, the car did run erratically as expected and did the same with the boost solenoid valve plug too. Only thing I noticed here was that this valve was sitting ticking away when I've only heard this clicking at idle with the load pedal pressed so I'm wondering if this may be part of the problem.

I left it with the bonnet open to cool for a hour ans switched it on, things were cooler by then but still the problem existed, the car sounded like a WW1 biplane After another 2 hours of cooling the car was back to normal and after a drive tonight it seems ok now.

With all this buggering about with the heat and the problems its caused I'm going to have to do some work to reduce under bonnet temps. I've bought a replacement vent for the scoop, so no more scoop for me. I'm going to put the engine undertray back on again after reading an Autospeed article about airflow in the engine bay and the effects on air pressure without the undertray being in place. I've got some reflective tape for the intercooler piping and finally I bought (for another car) an enclosed air filter that runs runs from a cold air feed like this one but I don't know if its man enough, it's only a tad smaller than my current one so maybe ok - anyone think it may be too small?

Anyhoo, anybody want a well travelled blue scoop with undertray in good condition?

Cheers,

Col.

[Vimmy]

put the fan on the coldest setting the other day and it felt like it was blowing hot air

Aye I noticed that, I found the best way to get round it was to drive with yer head out the window, teeth firmly shut and sift for bugs for a free lunch

This weather is doing me in, I'm sure I've lost a few pounds this week..

Edited June 4, 2010 by Vimmy

[edmondo]

Aye I noticed that, I found the best way to get round it was to drive with yer head out the window, teeth firmly shut and sift for bugs for a free lunch

.................switched the fan off - all windows open and ice pack firmly to hand