Todd's new S2000

[eskimo_firefighter]

Nice write up and congrats on the PB! How many track days and KM's have these RS-3 been through to wear out so quickly?

[Shakeel]

Nice stuff Todd. I wish I remembered to ask you to sit in with you for a session :P

Next time yeah?!

[Toddxxx]

Well done Todd, and nice meeting you.

I was discussing oil temps with the other MX5 owner - he has a similar set up to me and has the same oil cooler located in the same place. He was getting 125 and I was getting 115 (120 if I pushed). Both our cars are turboed though.

Do you have an oil cooler in yours?

Bryan

It was nice meeting you too Bryan. How did you end up going on the day?

Nah no oil cooler on the car so that's why my temps are quite high. Nothing extremely bad though. Once I start getting over 130 or so I'd start worrying.
Oil cooler is on the list of parts I want soon.

Nice write up and congrats on the PB! How many track days and KM's have these RS-3 been through to wear out so quickly?

Thanks man.

I bought the RS3 and rims second hand off ryan and I'm not sure how many kms he did on them but his car was a daily driver for 6ish months.
Since I've bought them I've done roughly 1500kms and the 1 track day. There's still 3mm or so till the wear indicator so they're not bald or anything I just mean they won't be working near their optimum like they would when brand new.

Nice stuff Todd. I wish I remembered to ask you to sit in with you for a session :P

Next time yeah?!

Of course man. I think I should be going to june trackday so we can do it then

[Apu]

I did OK - forgot to load the laptimer onto my phone but I know I do 1:13s in the MX5 so it was just running the car and seeing how it was reacting. Definitely need stronger brakes!

If you and a couple of owners are interested in oil coolers, I can organise a group buy of the Works Engineering kit through JDMYard - can supply the oil cooler and filter relocator kit, and I'll talk to Yonas about doing the lines.

[PG_DC5]

well done Todd!

Both our cars are turboed though.

Dude do you have build thread for this? sounds rad!

[Apu]

Dude do you have build thread for this? sounds rad!

Thanks! If you go to MX5CarTalk, it's in the build threads

[felixR]

Well done on the PB Todd

[Toddxxx]

If you and a couple of owners are interested in oil coolers, I can organise a group buy of the Works Engineering kit through JDMYard - can supply the oil cooler and filter relocator kit, and I'll talk to Yonas about doing the lines.

Thanks man but I'm already pretty set on the trust/greddy unit

well done Todd!

Well done on the PB Todd

Thanks guys

[Toddxxx]

If you read the last update you would know that at the last track day I experienced a constant shaking/vibrating throughout the car all day.
Driving the car around on the streets normally you can't tell or feel that there is a problem. I mainly put this down to uneven roads and not being able to tell that the shake is coming from the car not constant road changes etc.
Once you get to a constant speed on a freeway though you can notice a slight shake and once I was out on the track increasing the speeds it became more prevalent and noticeable.

Over the Past weekend I decided to try and diagnose the cause of this issue.
My first thoughts on what could be causing it were

-wheels not balanced
-warped rotors
-rotors not fitted properly to the hubs
-wheels not seated properly
-driveshafts pitted (im running spacers so i dont think so)

I decided to get the easy things out of the way first. So slowly one by one I started crossing possible causes off the list.

I started by removing all the rotors and inspecting them for warping or cracks. All seemed fine with a visual inspection so I moved on.

After inspecting the rotors I began cleaning the hub mounting surfaces incase any rust build up had created and uneven surface. I also tested to see if there was any play in my wheel bearings but everything was fine there.
Hub surface, rotor surface and wheel surface all sanded, scrubbed and cleaned and put back on made no difference to the ride and I could still feel the shake.

Next up I swapped over all my rotors to my spare set (never had the shaking issue with this old set). Despite the new set of rotors the shaking persisted. I'm almost certain now that the issue lies with the wheels/tyres.

Not related but while doing all this I noticed that my left front brake duct tube had somehow acquired a large slice in it near the carbon backing plate essentially rendering it useless as all the air put into the tube would shoot out through the slice before reaching the rotor. This showed as the left front rotor was scorched and looked like this.



The right hand side front rotor meanwhile looked normal. Goes to show that the ducts do work!

Also while under the car working I thought I'd take my exhaust off, clean it up, weigh it and take a few pics of how it's changed colour over time.

Before and after shots


Nice and blueeee

First thing to do this week is take the ce28ns off and throw the stockies back on to see if it is indeed an issue with the rims/tyres. After that I'll take the wheels to get balanced and the we will go from there.

If anyone has some idea on what could be causing this issue apart from what ive already mentioned feel free to post your thoughts.

[Toddxxx]

Was suggested that the problem could lie with the diff centre bushings wearing out allowing the driveshafts to move around. Apparently it's a common problem.
Got under the car and checked for play and there's no movement so another thing crossed off.

[Toddxxx]

Finally got a chance to throw the stock wheels on and take it for a drive. When getting up to 120km/h on the ce28s the shake/vibration issue became very apparent. However with the stock wheels there was no issue at all.
This narrows the problem down to the wheels/tyres.

I've inspected the rims and there's no signs of buckles so I'll book in to get the wheels rebalanced next week.
If that doesn't fix the problem I'll move onto buying some hubcentric rings and if that doesn't fix the problem I'll seek some professional help as that's the limit of my known potential fixes.
Hopefully have it all fixed soon so I can book more track days!

[Toddxxx]

A thought hit me today. I never really noticed the shake issue with the ce28s until recently. Only before the last track day did I have the tpms sensors installed in the wheels and no rebalance was done.

It is now my belief this has caused the issue and once I get the wheels rebalanced this week all should be good again...I hope!

[plAythiNG]

Sounds about right since the sensors add more weight to one region of the wheel

[Toddxxx]

Sounds about right since the sensors add more weight to one region of the wheel

Yeah I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner. I only thought of it cause I hopped in the car for the first time in a week or so and when I turned it on the tpms moniter beeped and it clicked in my head haha

[Toddxxx]

Well i was able to get the wheels balanced during the week. On the machine there was no signs of buckles or anything so im safe in that department.
They did pick up some irregularities around the valve stem (where my sensors are positioned) and accounted for that when re-balancing. Turns out it was my sensors all along. I cant believe i didnt think of it sooner.

Took the car for a test drive today and getting up to 120km/h and then backing off back to 100km/h there is 0 shakes or vibrations.
Problem = solved!