Paul Deslandes

Unless they are high delivery injectors or they're running at very high pressure, 50% does seem somewhat low at full chat. You'd expect them to be at closer to 85%. The ecu can struggle to control fuelling with very low duty cycles at idle if the injectors want to flow too much fuel. Unfortunately the standard narrow band lambda is really only intended to monitor and correct lambda at idle or thereabouts. A wideband would have shown whether the fuelling was running lean at 50% duty. Steve will put in a wideband so he'll really be able to see what's going on. Please keep us posted when you get to the bottom of it. Good luck Paul

To measure fuel pressure you need a fuel pressure gauge inserted into the fuel line. If your car is a factory Duratec you probably have the integrated fuel pump/regulator unit in the tank, rather than a separate regulator somewhere up front near the throttle bodies. If that's the case there will be just the fuel feed line going to the fuel rail so you'll need a T piece to tap into the fuel line and to connect the pressure gauge on the end of a hose into the cockpit if you're going to test it on the road, rather than on a rolling road. Not my preferred setup!! Another way of doing it would be to fit a wideband lambda sensor into the exhaust and log the lambda at maximum load. Significant increase in lambda/decrease in fuel-air ratio would point towards lack of fuel getting through the injectors. An Innovate LC1 can do this for you and you can use a laptop to monitor lambda in real time. Whereabouts are you in the country? Paul

Variation in plug condition would suggest injector flow rate imbalance . Have them cleaned and flow tested on an ASNU tester. SBD has one. Check TPS voltage at idle. You can see what's going on with Easimap although you can't view or edit the maps but may get some clues by hooking up to a laptop. Check that ECU is seeing all load sites over the TPS range. Check fuel pressure at full load/high revs to see if pump is keeping up and/or fuel regulator failing at high demand due to not fully closing. One or two tuning outfits, e.g. Track n' Road (the two Steves) can remap original CC sourced ECUs and it's well known that the factory map is less than optimised. After cleaning the filter (not sure that washing with water is going to do the job) it should be re-oiled with correct ITG or other filter oil to help dust to stick. If all else fails you could get the cam timing checked but leave that and anything equally drastic until you've exhausted everything else!! Paul

Check your air filter, especially if yours is buried in the elephant's trunk inlet pipe to an air box. They can pick up all manner or muck from the road, and clog up, strangling the engine.

Common advice is only to use the easibleed to pressurise the system and not as a reservoir for fluid as they can and do leak. Just keep the brake reservoir topped up during the procedure. And don't be tempted to blow all the old fluid out before adding new as it'll take forever to fully bleed it again . Just keep adding fresh fluid until any cloudy or mucky fluid stops coming out at each cylinder. Paul

Complete manual for 1995 S3 cars available here. Paul

I wouldn't put grease on the seal felt, only thin oil. When I greased my seals they tore out very quickly, presumably because of the stickiness of the grease. Even engine oil may be too thick and sticky so I'd use 3 in 1 type bicycle oil. I wonder if you just have too much grease in the hub or they're getting hot and the grease melting. Paul

Electrical noise from USB chargers is very common and comes from the high efficiency dc/dc converter that 'transforms' 12 volts to 5 volts. RF interference to radios and phones can be reduced significantly by adding ferrite chokes to both the input and output cables, such as often seen as a tubular bulge on many mains adapter cables. These could be bought from Maplin who have very sadly gone bust but if they're still trading from a branch near you they may have them in stock, otherwise RS Components or Farnell. They should be fitted as close as possible (very) to the converter by passing the cable through the middle, looping as many times as will fit. Two or three turns is probably optimum. Separate chokes required for input and output cables. Audio noise to the Starcom is a bit more of a challenge but can likely be improved by putting the Starcom earth and power leads directly to the battery (plus fuse in the 12v line), making sure that it isn't connected to chassis anywhere else, e.g. mounting bolts etc, and don't 'share' the supply cables with anything else. My Terratrip intercom had the most awful whine which was only cured by modifying the pc board layout to get rid of the offending earth loop. My offer to do the same for any member's Terratrip pro intercom with alternator whine is still open. Paul

Reply sent

Tom The DTA S series use pin 2 for tacho drive. If you send me a pm with your email address I can send you the S series manual and connector schedules if of interest Paul

If you're running Jenvey throttle bodies then you must also have an ECU which presumably also runs the ignition as wasted spark.. If so the tacho is usually driven from a dedicated output from the ECU. If it's an MBE I can tell you which pin. e.g. if it's a 956 it comes from pin 13. The cam sensor isn't used, hence no connection. The tacho also has a 12v and 0v (chassis) connection so check these are okay too. You can find the entire 1995 2.0 litre Vx car build manual at http://www.fastgrandad.co.uk/page9.html Paul

problem would be practicability of fitting a scanner in the nozzle (also true of RFID reader) and ensuring integrity of barcode or tag. Electricity and fuel nozzles do not make make a good combination!! Paul

I doubt you'll get very far, especially as no damage was done to your engine. The problem doesn't just lie with the pump marking but with the driver who forgets that they're driving the diesel car today rather than their usual petrol vehicle. The answer has to be mechanical and somewhat more sophisticated than the current two-size nozzle which only works one way and stops putting diesel in a petrol car. Simple rfid tagging would work, and could be retro fitted to both pumps and fillers; much simpler than complicated nozzle shapes that have been suggested such as the square and triangle shapes like the kids learning toy. The device could either warn or inhibit delivery. You'll probably find that the oil companies aren't interested as they'll be out of business in 20 years (apparently). Or just stop and think before you fill. Paul

I thought BP had fixed their Ultimate pump colour issue. I did this a few years ago on my '76 308 but fortunately realised before I tried to start her up and had only added 20 litres. Being an older car it didn't have the smaller fuel inlet to stop diesel being put in. When I went online afterwards I discovered that BP had set aside a considerable sum to settle claims for not clearly marking the different fuel types. I ran my 4-stroke mower for several years on the 50/50 petrol-diesel mix. Don't beat yourself up Martin, we've all done something similar. Paul

If anyone is interested enough to inquire or experiment, Google 'reticulated foam filter media' which is what is used to make the original. A serious conversation would be needed with the manufacturer or supplier re its performance when saturated in hot synthetic engine oil, particularly re clogging and disintegration. Good luck Paul

I've no idea who makes the foam baffle but if you could get hold of the foam you could easily cut it out with a craft knife. Can't be worth more than a quid at the most! The pipe mod involves removing the pick up pipe (three screws as I recall) and filing a chamfer of about 30deg to the end so that should the pipe end move down towards the sump (look for witness marks on the floor of the casting) the oil flow doesn't get shut off. Very easy to do and good for peace of mind. Don't forget to put it back on with its 'O' ring and Loctite the srews. And then there is the mod to the baffle in the cam cover which helps prevent oil being 'held' in the top of the engine when revving hard. See here. Paul

Short answer is yes, unless you have dry sump. Without it you'll have oil surge on cornering with the very shallow sump. When you get the sump off, even if the foam looks okay you must change it as they rapidly deteriorate with modern oils. They either clog or fall to bits - neither good! Renewing every 12 months is highly recommended. While you're in there you should consider the oil pickup pipe mod which has been documented in the archives from years ago. If you can't find it I'll try and describe it again. Paul

It looks as though these bolts have been seriously over tightened in the past and are on the verge of being stripped. Undoubtedly a new hub would be ideal but, given that you have bought the kit, I can see no good reason not to helicoil the remaining holes with UNC. To make sure that everything lines up and is vertical, fit the disk to the hub as a template when you rework the remaining threads.

Oh dear, how very upsetting. I would fit a 3/8" UNC, with the same plain shank as the original UNF, plus Loctite. Increase torque to no more than 30lbft. It won't come loose. It's an allow hub so I wouldn't muck around with it too much more. Best of luck Paul

That'll work fine. Jolly good value too. Just take it easy when tapping after drilling out. Lots of lube, and back off to clear the tap every quarter turn If it gets tight, back right out and clear the tap of swarf. In fact, do that every couple of turns. Make sure the thread is clear before inserting the coil and, once in, that the coil end is below the surface or you won't be able to clamp the disk tight to the hub. Before snapping off the tang, screwing in the bolt after inserting the coil will ensure that the coil is seated properly. Once the tang's been snapped off it's very hard to get the coil out if you need to. It's a lot easier than it sounds when you read it. Just like lots of other mechanical assembly jobs, lots of lube and thoroughly clean before assembly. Let us know how you get on. Paul

I personally wouldn't change the hub unless it's cheaper that helicoiling, or you want to upgrade to the later hub (both sides). Paul

Tom You shouldn't need to thread lock the helicoil in place but you can treat the bolt thread as you would any other. In fact the hardened steel thread insert will be hugely stronger than the original. Generally it's not recommended to use fine threads in castings as they are inclined to strip out, as you have discovered, so the helicoil will make the disk fixing better not worse. In light of the above you could increase the tightening torque but I'd stick with the original spec and use thread lock. The thread lock won't be strong enough to glue them together but make sure you don't get any between the two mating surfaces as this can prevent them from being flush as the liquid can act like a thin spacer. You only need a drop of thread lock on the bolt thread, not lashings of it everywhere. As said before, drilling and tapping vertically can be quite tricky unless you use a pillar drill so I hope you can find one to use as it's all too easy or them to drift off the perpendicular when doing it by hand. Best of luck Paul

Roger King might know as he's the Weber expert on here. You could try sending him a pm.

It's been a long time since I had one apart but isn't the thread in the hub and the bolt passes through a hole in the disk? The helicoil is often stronger than the original thread, especially when use with an aluminium 'parent' body. When you see one you'll realise why that might be the case. Paul

Sounds about right. Make sure you order the correct length to suit the hole depth.