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This car just hates me! Post track-day woes...

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ga41
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This car just hates me! Post track-day woes...

Post by ga41 » Thu Mar 02, 2017 12:05 pm

Honestly... I think I bought a lemon and the thing just hates me on top of it.

As a few of you may remember about 3 years ago my car suffered rod-bearing failure while making a pull on the highway. It took a long time to rebuild using new bearings, a used connecting rod and a used crankshaft off an E46 M3, along with gaskets, rods and various bits and pieces. Since then I've barely been using it, maybe driving it 10.000 miles total since.

A few weeks ago I took it in for its Inspection, everything normal, no major faults, also had new tires in the rear, brake pads had lots of depth so was feeling happy to take it to the track with a few mates last Saturday.

The car for the first 2-3 sessions (about 20-25 minutes each) ran beautifully, engine temperature was good, brakes were completely fine (I run a Stoptech big brake kit with Pagid RS29 pads and Motul 660 fluid), engine response was perfect for heel-toeing and I was having a blast, finally driving the car in anger and talking cars with the rest of my gearhead friends. I was even just 1 second a lap slower from my personal best! Keep in mind I hadn't driven on track for more than 3 years!

At the 3rd or 4th session though, after 4-5 laps I noticed that sometimes the engine would cut-out as it was revving past 7000 RPM in 3rd gear. Just a split second cut-out and then it would continue revving as normal to the red-line. It started at 3rd gear, then the following session again after a few laps, it did it on 3rd and a few corners later on 2nd as well. I retired the car at that point. I'd done 5 sessions I think by that point.

When I started the car up again when we were leaving after a kilometer or so the check-engine light came on....... I called my mechanic and thankfully he was in working on some cars. As it's on the way home I stopped by to check it. The diagnostic put out several fault codes, a few were electronic stuff, the bluetooth module, the sat-nav for example and one was the post catalytic converters oxygen sensors and the throttle actuator..... At that point we noticed that the exhaust was leaking from somewhere under the car, I could not hear it on the highway as i'm on RPI exhausts but when stationary you could clearly hear it from outside...

We reset the codes and I took it home as he didn't have a spare car for me at that point and his garage was packed with customer cars so we couldn't lift the car to see about the exhaust. We didn't think of lifting the car with a normal jack to check under the car at that point though I don't know if we could've noticed anything... I'm going to take the car to a friend with a 4 post lift so we'll check underneath if the catalysts are damaged...

I was going over kerbs on the track so probably something got scraped or got loose... But would that cause the engine cut-out at high RPM? The situation is really weird... And I hope that the freaking throttle actuator doesn't need changing as it failed on mine a few years and I replaced it already!

Next action is lifting the thing up probably today to check for visual damage and then arrange to take it to my guy to give everything a once-over and pray that the bill is not too high.

It seems I bought a freaking lemon and in spite of a freaking rebuild this thing probably still hates me! :headbang: If I hadn't invested that much money on it I'd have given up by now and turned it into lemonade using a very big hammer and/or a great big cliff somewhere.

So there. That's my rant. Continue on with your day. I attach below a picture and a video of a friend driving it on our little track for your enjoyment.

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This car just hates me! Post track-day woes...

Post by Vanne » Thu Mar 02, 2017 6:00 pm

Looking good on that track vid. :D
Looking at your signature pic, looks like you've had some great times in her too. So it can't all be bad.
Book it in at a good shop and let them run some diags. Oxy sensors Are not very expensive and they do go now and then. Also check your egt probe, thats pretty prone to getting beat up if your running the ramparts. Cheers. :thumbsup:
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Post by Fishy Dave » Thu Mar 02, 2017 8:45 pm

i can't help with the problem, but the car does sound great driving towards the camera at the end of the clip. 8)
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Post by buzyg » Thu Mar 02, 2017 8:53 pm

Oh the price of fun. :wink: Hope it's not too costly to get her healthy once more.
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Post by ga41 » Thu Mar 02, 2017 8:55 pm

Thank you all chaps. Didn't manage to do anything about it today as I was working until late... hopefully won't take long to get fixed.
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This car just hates me! Post track-day woes...

Post by Mad Professor » Thu Mar 02, 2017 9:50 pm

I would perhaps suggest going on the track is very hard on any car if you're pushing it to the limit -i used to have issues every time i took my 7 on the track and i wouldn't dream of taking my Z there as i know it would end in tears .Best of luck anyway .
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Post by ga41 » Thu Mar 02, 2017 9:58 pm

I get what you're saying but even so it was just after a service, the car was in supposedly perfect shape and while I was trying to push, I was much slower than what the car is capable of (on a flying lap anyway)... it should have been OK for at least one track day. :(

It is getting on now though. Can't believe it's a 10 year old car! But a single freaking track day? After 3 years of up to date and regular maintenance? I was and still am a bit gutted...
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Post by FD3S » Fri Mar 03, 2017 1:03 am

My friend as I knew how badly you wanted to track her from our last conversation I feel you. I hope to be something not important and that the whole problem will not cost you much.
And Do some euxailaio next time. :D

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This car just hates me! Post track-day woes...

Post by D4dawg » Fri Mar 03, 2017 6:31 am

Have you checked cam sensors etc?

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Post by Beedub » Fri Mar 03, 2017 7:56 am

TBh this could have easily happening on a long back road blast on a really sweet B road.... so dont feel like its the track day thats over stressed it.... But i know how you feel when something just seems to never be working correctly... infact uve probably considered something newer and less problematic.
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Post by Havard » Fri Mar 03, 2017 8:18 am

Chin up. My 330Ci has it's first track day at Oulton Park next Saturday. I have now had the car since last April and everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong bar the engine and gearbox. It was supposed to be a quick service and a complete set of pads and off we go.

I am now at new pads (not used), new hand brake shoes, new pads and calipers and the original caliper bleed nipples had all seized and I had to upgrade to K Sports. K Sports then didn't fit the wheels so new wheels. Even then the exhaust started blowing at the first cat as the bolts had rotted away, this was on her first hard run.

On the way back from the exhaust place the handbrake assembly collapsed as the pins that hold it in place came through the rusted plate at the rear of the hub. I had to start again with the whol rear brake assembly and get some bits off the MG owners club to get it sorted. 11 months, £3K of extra spending and several days between working, kids etc to get this thing fixed and I haven't even started on the interior yet.

Was it worth it? I'll tell you next week..!!

H.
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Post by ga41 » Fri Mar 03, 2017 9:26 am

FD3S wrote:My friend as I knew how badly you wanted to track her from our last conversation I feel you. I hope to be something not important and that the whole problem will not cost you much.
And Do some euxailaio next time. :D
Αγίασμα και κάπνισμα!! (bless it with holy water and incense!)
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Post by ga41 » Fri Mar 03, 2017 9:27 am

D4dawg wrote:Have you checked cam sensors etc?
They were checked during the rebuild but I will note it down for my mechanic to check again.
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ga41
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Post by ga41 » Fri Mar 03, 2017 9:29 am

Beedub wrote:TBh this could have easily happening on a long back road blast on a really sweet B road.... so dont feel like its the track day thats over stressed it.... But i know how you feel when something just seems to never be working correctly... infact uve probably considered something newer and less problematic.
Because of sporadic use the last few years that's exactly how it feels, as if whenever I drive it something goes wrong... I've not thought of replacing it, not cost effective any more. I'm more likely to buy an additional car as a track bitch (mk1 MX5 perhaps) than sell the Z and replace it with something else.
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Post by ga41 » Fri Mar 03, 2017 9:30 am

Havard wrote:Chin up. My 330Ci has it's first track day at Oulton Park next Saturday. I have now had the car since last April and everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong bar the engine and gearbox. It was supposed to be a quick service and a complete set of pads and off we go.

I am now at new pads (not used), new hand brake shoes, new pads and calipers and the original caliper bleed nipples had all seized and I had to upgrade to K Sports. K Sports then didn't fit the wheels so new wheels. Even then the exhaust started blowing at the first cat as the bolts had rotted away, this was on her first hard run.

On the way back from the exhaust place the handbrake assembly collapsed as the pins that hold it in place came through the rusted plate at the rear of the hub. I had to start again with the whol rear brake assembly and get some bits off the MG owners club to get it sorted. 11 months, £3K of extra spending and several days between working, kids etc to get this thing fixed and I haven't even started on the interior yet.

Was it worth it? I'll tell you next week..!!

H.
Totally feel you mate. You go out for some fun driving time and you end up rebuilding half of the thing...
-- http://www.freerice.com/ For each answer you get right, they will donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program --
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