Britludes NSX story

[britlude]

as i'm rapidly approaching 160k on the odometer, it was due an oil change... i was trying to delay it until i did the aircon pump replacement too, as i wanted to do the sump gasket (flagged up at the last MOT), so after a bit of pondering decided to do the gasket and oil change.... as i'd worked out , that with the rubber sump gasket, i should be able to manoeuver it into place without too much hassle.....

great plans and all that! car up on ramps, sump unbolted, there's not enough room between the torque converter and sump to get the gasket through the gap!!!! so sump has to come off....

... so front header has to come off....

.... so front engine mount cross member has to come off...

.... to chassis U brace has to come off...

... so headlight covers have to come off....

(not really, just checking you are paying attention!)

so what was going to be about an hour job, turned into 4 1/2! fortunately i'd replaced the cat shield fixings with stainless bolts and brass nuts, so at least i didn't have to struggle getting them apart!!!

in other news....

think i've finally sussed the damp issue that has plagued me since day 1, the typical symptom being the flock door edging strip being wet at the bottom where the sill cover trim bit is (the other end to the petrol door release) tracked down to the upper rubber body seal not directing the water away to where it should... a close inspection to work out just what was supposed to be happening, and some non setting gutter sealer, and an extensive test with the torrential rain monday and all is well

my other issue, that i'm not going to mention, because last time i jinxed it, seems to be behaving at the moment with the substitution of shielded signal cabling, replacement engine ecu and tweaking the TPS baseline voltage up a tad.... time will tell, been there before!!!

so all in all, happy with the car again!

[Senninha]

New wheels suit the car Jonathan ... have you considered dropping to take away the 4x4 look ..?

[britlude]

I have enough issues with speed ramps and drives as it is, without lowering it too, and I'm not going to the expense of airlift cup kits!!!! If anything I am considering putting the original springs back in as the replacement seem a little softer.....

[britlude]

Forgot to mention.... I found no gunge, sludge or bits in the sump, so that's encouraging

[britlude]

been a bit tardy with posts lately... so a quick bit of house keeping, as i seem to have a few straggly threads...

http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/showthread.ph...-gearbox-issue .... chasing a gearbox glitch that is related to throttle position sensor signal...... not resolved here....

http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/showthread.ph...-unstable-idle.... also an unstable idle issue which also includes an added bonus of an aerial change, and TPS change (which should be in here!)

and finally http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/showthread.ph...eset-procedure 3 pages of unstable idle, associated investigation, blowing up of components and a resolution!!!!

upshot, lots of investigation, swapping of bits, swapping back, more testing, accidentally killing ecus, replacing ecus, and more tweaking and all is well! we have a gearbox behaving, an idle in the 750-800rpm area, and the exhaust is running far cleaner... so finally we can move on

at Beaulieu Supercars, it was noted by Sarah, that her leg was getting wet as we pulled into the show..... hmmm.... no coolant pipes around her, but put the heater on full and drips were spitting out of the lower heater vents...... hmmm....

pull the carpet mats up, and the carpet .... fortunately i had made new, finest green carpet, so its in sections, rather than a single moulding, so i quickly found the puddle of pure fresh water in the footwell.... a proper sloshy puddle! so unscrew the footwell vent cover and pull that bit of carpet out of the way, and lo, the heater box was dripping quite profusely! pull out the drain hose, and nothing, prod a twig up it and it starts to drip....

now i've only seen a AC wee puddle under my car about twice in the 14 years i've had it! so avoiding using the AC and on returning home pulled the carpet and under mat sound deadening, which does a really good 'sponge' impression and dried it all out over a few days.... wringing wet was the literal phrase!

putting a tiny camera up the drain tube hole showed a couple of bits of dead foam so a quick airline blow was used to clear it, and heater on full had airflow out of the drain tube.... but i still wanted to make sure...... so.....

start digging
IMG_20190921_161957 by jon sutherland, on Flickr

find the heater....
IMG_20190921_162002 by jon sutherland, on Flickr

(as a quick aside, the small white 4 way connector on the mat at the bottom... that's connected to the diagnostic blue terminal, and the diagnostic terminals of the upgraded later ABS pump, which in turn plugs into a switch on the passenger footwell cover, allowing me to put the car into diagnostic mode from the drivers seat... came in very handy for finding gearbox fault codes, where switching off resets the ecus and loses the codes!)

after lots of studying the few pictures on the interweb..... decide where the viewing window is going....
IMG_20190921_162127 by jon sutherland, on Flickr

and carefully cut out the hole.... after checking what size grommets i had in stock! now, very gently, and stop when it goes 'soft' it's thin plastic with a stick on foam covering!
IMG_20190921_162319 by jon sutherland, on Flickr

and a hole, with AC evap pipes close behind, so wise to go gently! the foam was cut with a scalpel.....
IMG_20190921_162332 by jon sutherland, on Flickr

so now i have a viewing window, that i can investigate with my lil camera thing! (after finding out it wifi's to my phone, and sulks if it's near metal, so camera in car, control box and phone outside, just to be awkward!)


no doubt going in from the other side would be better, as the evap pipe loop isn't that side, but then you have to fight around pedals..... and cant get the carpet out of the way so easy.... and there'a a steering wheel in the way..... etc etc!!!

[britlude]

with that bit (hopefully) done, onwards...

i broke out the powder coating kit once more, and finished off a couple of brackets under the bonnet, and the fuel pump resistor bracket in the rear.....

remove
IMG_20190920_153845 by jon sutherland, on Flickr

sand blast with £15 worth of ebay gun and dry sand from B&Q
IMG_20190920_154309 by jon sutherland, on Flickr

then powdercoat satin silver, so it looks the same, but wont rust!
IMG_20190920_155458 by jon sutherland, on Flickr

while i had the kit out, i redid my TB cover, as the paint and lacquer always went like crazy paving..... (the bit on the left, as you cant powder coat plastic! it tends to sulk at 180 degrees C!!
IMG_20190921_100549 by jon sutherland, on Flickr

took a couple of goes to get the colour about right, bit more experimental than mixing paint, as you can't see the final colour until its baked! several sample bits later it was close enough!

the best bit about the powder coat system is the speed... once it's baked (about 5 mins) and cooled it can go back on.... no waiting hours for paint to dry!!! i'll be doing brackets under the car next time...

[Senninha]

Always interesting to see what else you’ve found to address ... and how you have all the toys to complete ... with ref to powder coating of brackets, I did all th front bay one some years ago returning them to an OEM look but with a far more resilient finish that still looks good today ... definitely one for your to do list Sir ...

[Pride]

been a bit tardy with posts lately... so a quick bit of house keeping, as i seem to have a few straggly threads...

http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/showthread.ph...-gearbox-issue .... chasing a gearbox glitch that is related to throttle position sensor signal...... not resolved here....

http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/showthread.ph...-unstable-idle.... also an unstable idle issue which also includes an added bonus of an aerial change, and TPS change (which should be in here!)

and finally http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/showthread.ph...eset-procedure 3 pages of unstable idle, associated investigation, blowing up of components and a resolution!!!!

upshot, lots of investigation, swapping of bits, swapping back, more testing, accidentally killing ecus, replacing ecus, and more tweaking and all is well! we have a gearbox behaving, an idle in the 750-800rpm area, and the exhaust is running far cleaner... so finally we can move on

at Beaulieu Supercars, it was noted by Sarah, that her leg was getting wet as we pulled into the show..... hmmm.... no coolant pipes around her, but put the heater on full and drips were spitting out of the lower heater vents...... hmmm....

pull the carpet mats up, and the carpet .... fortunately i had made new, finest green carpet, so its in sections, rather than a single moulding, so i quickly found the puddle of pure fresh water in the footwell.... a proper sloshy puddle! so unscrew the footwell vent cover and pull that bit of carpet out of the way, and lo, the heater box was dripping quite profusely! pull out the drain hose, and nothing, prod a twig up it and it starts to drip....

now i've only seen a AC wee puddle under my car about twice in the 14 years i've had it! so avoiding using the AC and on returning home pulled the carpet and under mat sound deadening, which does a really good 'sponge' impression and dried it all out over a few days.... wringing wet was the literal phrase!

putting a tiny camera up the drain tube hole showed a couple of bits of dead foam so a quick airline blow was used to clear it, and heater on full had airflow out of the drain tube.... but i still wanted to make sure...... so.....

start digging:

and a hole, with AC evap pipes close behind, so wise to go gently! the foam was cut with a scalpel.....
IMG_20190921_162332 by jon sutherland, on Flickr

so now i have a viewing window, that i can investigate with my lil camera thing! (after finding out it wifi's to my phone, and sulks if it's near metal, so camera in car, control box and phone outside, just to be awkward!)


no doubt going in from the other side would be better, as the evap pipe loop isn't that side, but then you have to fight around pedals..... and cant get the carpet out of the way so easy.... and there'a a steering wheel in the way..... etc etc!!!

So I'm assuming Jon you found the leak, was it from that very small pipe indent area you've shown or are you still investigating where it's coming from??? 🤔

Very good photography by the way. 👍

[britlude]

The 'leak' is not from the Aircon circuit, or the engine coolant circuit, it's a product of the Aircon doing its thing...

Think of a coke can straight from the fridge, open, pour and the can/glass gets wet on the outside with humidity condensing on the cold surface. The same happens on the air con evaporator (hence why a screen demists quicker with the Aircon on).... And the evaporator is a heat (cool) exchanger with a lot of surface area... So a lot of water can be generated!

The Aircon/heater box has a funnel arrangement at the bottom feeding to the drain tube, but as it was not draining it was filling, and spilling into the interior.... So the drain tube was blocked, usually by ingested debris, tho I have a filter on the air intake to the heater system, or old foam that has become unstuck or broken down and fallen down. A probe with the camera up through the drain hole showed some dead foam, so I wanted to get a better look, hence the 'drastic' measures.... The alternative is to strip out ALL the dash to get to it!!!

Anyway, took it out for the day, air con on all the way there and back, and an investigation under the car when we returned....



The Aircon drain tube dripping fluid as it should