kasin

I have now tried to center the steering wheel by rotating the rack in the universal joint. The first time I rotated it four teeth, but after having a drive that was too much. The driving was a lot better, as it now was just slightly off to the other side. 25 minutes later I had it apart again, and rotated it one tooth back. That did the job, and the steering wheel was as before the crash. To mee it seems as the rack jumped on the splines in the crash. The bolts in the U-joint wasnt very tight - but I really made sure they are tight now. The steering was one of the few parts of the car that I havent worked on yet - so a new experience. This meant that I could use the car the last couple of days, and will be able to drive the car to the workshop to get the other damages appraised. I will of course have a alignment as well.

Hi again I have now been out on a drive with the car. Other than the steering wheel being turned a bit compared to before, everything seems ok. The car goes straight without any steering inputs on the straights, and does not pull in any direction - not even under hard braking or acceleration. I will take the tips from you guys and will have a hard look at the rack and the clamps there - to see if there has been any movement. This will just have to take some time as I am home with two young children. Kristoffer

Hi again I have now inspected the front of the car a bit more. There is no external signs of anything being bent, however I cannot say anything for certain. When the steering wheel is centered the wheels, both the left and the right are turning to the left. So there is a change on the left wheel as well as the right. Kristoffer

Hi Yesterday evening I had a Ford Mondeo drive out into the road ahead of me in very low speed. I hit the Mondeo with my right front wheel and the wing was broken just a bit on the front right side and the two rear rivets was torn off. There is also some scrapes on the rim. Other than this I cannot see any other damage - other than the sentering of the wheel now is off. To go straight I have to have the steering wheel at 35 - 45 degrees to the right. The car seems to go straight if I do this, but because the wing is flapping in the wind, I haven driven the car far. What could have happened to the steering? Is it possible for the steering column to jump in the splines due to the impact and me holding the wheel? Or could the rack have been damaged internally? All the everything else seems ok - at least when I do the inspection. Kristoffer

So today I had progress after spending a lot of time on the car during the weekend. During the weekend I did a lot of swapping sensors, changed the plugs, dismantled the fuel filter/hoses to the filler, changed a plug wire, but nothing worked. The car was not driving great, but at least it ran. Everything in the fuel system looked good. The pump primed every time I turned the key, and the fuel pressure was at 42 - 44 PSI. As I was alone I couldn't see the fuel pressure during cranking or driving, but during priming it was good. After some thought I got the computer out and hooked it up to the Emerald K6 ECU. Everything looked correct, and I even recalibrated the TPS. The only thing that made some strange behavior was the coolant sensor, that would spike to 100 degrees randomly, even when the car was cold and not running. I think that might be unrelated. Today I did two things, I turned the adjustment screw on the adjustable fuel pressure regulator to turn the fuel pressure up a bit, and I went over the distributor cap with emery cloth - on the points as I could see some discoloration. After this the car ran great. I think the fuel pressure regulator was to blame. I hope this was all the problems for a while, if not I will change to the original fuel pressure regulator when I will be mounting a airbox over the ITBs in some weeks time. Thanks for all the assistance. Kristoffer

The reference is just disconnected - yes. The differential fuel pressure will rise with the vacume in the inlets, but as I understand this should be less of an effect when there is ITBs mounted compared to using a manifoil. Will an intermitten signal from the TPS make the ECU stop the fuel pump? Shouldnt the idle values kick in?

Hi I meant popping and banging in the exhaust, not back into the inlet.I thought this might be an indication of a rich mixture and point at spark, but if lean mix also does this, then everything points towards fuel. There isn't any manifold as I have ITBs. I haven't been able to look at the fuel pressure while driving, but during cranking - while the car isn't starting the fuel pressure drops down, quite a bit. As the reference is constant, this pressure should also be constant - but it isn't. The tip with the fuel tank cap was good, I will have to look at that this evening. Is there any drawings avaliable of the tank area for a 2000 ish S3? And of the fuel pump/filters?

Hi New update: The problem was back again yesterday after around 15 minutes of driving - like just after getting hot. As I was a bit more prepared now I have some more info: The Emerald ECU has a green light when i try to crank the engine after it stopped. Cannot see any faults on the sensors on the engine. The fuel pump was priming the fuel system when the car wasnt starting - but the sound was perhaps less audible. When I was trying to start the engine it trys to start a couple of times, but doenst really get up to full speed. After waiting around 15 minutes the car started back up, and I could drive home at very low throttle opening. If I tried to open up the taps, it would hesitate and then backfire - so I had to back off. So I now have two main thoughts: Dirt in the fuel filter that dislodges after standing still a while? Problem with spark? Might the coil be overheating? Thoughts?

Hi Update: Starting and driving the car yesterday was problemfree. However this was just a very short trip close to home, so that I could push the car back into the garage if it happened again. Intermitten faults are the worst. I don't think there is any problem with the TPS or the crank sensor. However I can check them - and have them in the back of my head for the next time this happens. I guess I need to drive with my laptop in the car, so that I can connect to the Emerald to look at the signals that it is getting. Kristoffer

The emerald was green the whole time as far as I could see.

Im not totally sure, I couldnt hear it clearly, but I was out just beside a road with traffic. In the garage this evening it was clearly priming.

Hi My Caterham (K series - 1.8 - running Emerald and ITBs +++) has suddenly stopped a couple times the last two days. Yesterday the car suddenly stopped, just like it ran out of fuel. I got it running a couple of meters again before it stopped. I got my wife to help me get more fuel, as I thought I had run out - even though the needle was between red and 1/4. After getting the extra fuel I drove straight to the petrol station and brimmed it. I had some small issues with stuttering at after this - in the first couple of km after brimming it - but everything cleared up. Today the car was perfect for a long trip, we did over 400 km, but in the last couple of km on the way home the car stopped again. After a stop, where a car came to tow, I got it going again. After 3 more km we were almost home, and it stopped. This time we didnt try anything, just hooked it up, and towed it back home. At the time of the stop today the tank was almost full, we had stopped for fuel 40 km before this. When the car stopped it would sputter when I tried to start it, but only did so for 1 - 2 seconds. I have a pressure gauge at the fuel line, and it shows a pressure of around 2 - 3 bars, just after turning the key over - so the pump tries to prime the system. The lines also get noticably harder. However the pressure really quickly drops off during cranking. This evening I tried starting the car, and it fired right up. The symptoms makes me think that it might be a weak fuel pump, or a dirty fuel filter. Will these thing lead to this behavior? Is it difficult to pull the pump and filter? Will I have to drain the tank? Kristoffer

Hi How is this coming along? I would be interested in one airbox. Kristoffer

Yes, I had a look at that, but still wasnt sure.

Hi I am now in the process of modifying my K – series cooling system. I have bought a PRRT and will be mounting this. I also have a heater that I need to be able to use, as it gets quite chilly over here in Norway. Would it be fine to leave all the original bypass hoses that goes to the heater with the PRRT mod? I have seen some refereces to some people running both the normal bypass and the PRRT bypass. Or would the twin bypass system rob to much flow out of the radiator? Kristoffer