Loxxrider's 200 20v Revver: See you on "The Project Pad"

Post by **Marc** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 12:01 pm

The only time I've ever seen a VEMS ecu 'lose' power', EG lose laptop communication is when either voltage drops too low (below 6v) or when nearly all the outputs are shorted to ground, which is a protection mechanism. Does your engine crank over slowly (eg bad grounding)? Kevin Black should be taking care of you on support on this, its part of the deal when selling VEMS ecus, or should be anyway..

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 2:06 pm

Thanks for all the great responses guys.

@ newt, I'm not getting into this with someone who is inexperienced at this kind of chip tuning. That being said, I'm definitely not stuck on that or anything. I should have just said its an option that I'm considering. I am considering all options, but I cant do anything until Kevin gets back to me. I don't know what is fair to do in this situation...all I know is I'm tired of the BS.

@Marc, I don't know what is wrong with it man. Like I said my friend with the shop and I went thru the car for 7+ hours looking for things wrong with it. The battery ground was pretty bad, but we replaced the entire cable and still the same thing. Engine cranks like a champ, and the car runs perfectly on the stock ECU.

Here is a log of when it happened once if you are interested. Its at 24710.143 seconds. (the red lines you see are not from the ecu dying...its cuz my USB to serial converter)

Kevin is helping out...but maybe could be better. There is only so much one man can do though, so I understand.

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 12:00 am

Phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

wow that brake job is a pain in the EFFIN A.

Mostly the struts were a PAIN to get out! We ended up pulling the damn tierod end balls out. We had to press them back in so I could drive home. Will be ordering new ones tomorrow or wednesday, so if anyone has suggestions for what kind, let me know. I can't believe how much work it is to get the suspension off of this car in the front. I dont ever want to do it again lol. Of course I will to put the coils on, but shit I am getting EVERYTHING that can possibly be replaced while I'm at it. Its just not worth the time it takes to pull that all on and off.

Anyway, we got it all on and it looks and stops pretty nice. Now I just have to wait for my MAF sensor and find my narrowband O2 sensor and I'll be good to cruise around for a while.

Will bring my camera to the shop tomorrow so I can take pics.

We dropped my friends motor out and COMPLETELY disassembled it in HALF of the time it took me to do my brakes haha. His car should be making major power tomorrow if all goes well!

Post by **Marc** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:07 am

what size injectors are you running? the log is reporting abnormally low pulsewidth... .2ms at idle. Is that correct? Doesn't sound it.

What firmware?

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:03 am

I believe they are divided by 10 in these logs. So multiply them by 10 and then you have the real value AKA 2ms.

Here is firmware info from config dump from feb 6th

1. CurrentTime?: 2009-02-06 15:06:42
2. Version: 1.1.27
3. SerialNumber?: v3.3_n001883
4. CompilationTime?: Mon Sep 3 15:10:58 CEST 2007
5. Signature: VEMS v1.1 12x12 kpa=2,2

(pretty sure #2 is firmware version)

This should be the same firmware thats in it now, just with a patch file for the MAT sensor.

Its not the newest firmware but thats because Kevin was never comfortable with the newest version (it kept messing stuff up with him).

This ECU has caused all kinds of other problems though. It makes my tach flip out along with my trip computer (pullup resistor?) just to name one. Not to mention that my config files are always getting corrupted. Sometimes I will go in and see like 15 or 16:1 across the board for AFR for no reason at all. Shits weird!

123quattro · Post by **123quattro** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:38 am

I would not drive the car with the current tie rod ends. Now that the balls have been pulled from the socket, it will be much easier for them to come loose. Be careful...

nuugen · Post by **nuugen** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:50 am

loxxrider wrote:Phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

wow that brake job is a pain in the EFFIN A.

Mostly the struts were a PAIN to get out! We ended up pulling the damn tierod end balls out. We had to press them back in so I could drive home. Will be ordering new ones tomorrow or wednesday, so if anyone has suggestions for what kind, let me know. I can't believe how much work it is to get the suspension off of this car in the front. I dont ever want to do it again lol. Of course I will to put the coils on, but shit I am getting EVERYTHING that can possibly be replaced while I'm at it. Its just not worth the time it takes to pull that all on and off.

Anyway, we got it all on and it looks and stops pretty nice. Now I just have to wait for my MAF sensor and find my narrowband O2 sensor and I'll be good to cruise around for a while.

Will bring my camera to the shop tomorrow so I can take pics.

We dropped my friends motor out and COMPLETELY disassembled it in HALF of the time it took me to do my brakes haha. His car should be making major power tomorrow if all goes well!

loxx, did you remove the swaybar when you pulled the struts? Makes life MUCH easier!!
Also, go to Autozone/FLAPS/Sears/local tool place and pick up a cheap tie-rod removal tool. they are inexpensive and once you use it you will never want to be w/o:

Post by **Marc** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 7:19 am

why are they divided by 10 in the logs? I've never seen that.

also, your TPSAccell is flipping out even when your TPS is reading 0...

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 7:27 am

Ok, this is what Kevin said about pulse width when I asked about it a while ago

"There is a mismatch somewhere in the 1.1.x firmware that only affects the datalogging output.
And the PW and DC are /10 in the logs. In this case its just a display problem. These geeks really like changing things, too often sometimes."

Nuugen, yeah I took the sway off. PITA lol. Also, we would have had that puller tool, but someone borrowed it. We just wanted to get the damn thing done. Ill have that when I put the new ends in which will be like NOW.

John, yeah I am not really driving the car at the moment. Just drove it to get home. I'll have those ends ASAP.

heading to the shop, wont be able to get back until later!

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 5:36 pm

Small update.

Kuma wanted pics...lol, these are kinda crappy but you get the idea!

It also shows wheel and tire fitment as best as I can. Front wheel lips come almost EXACTLY to the front fenders. Rears TIRES, come to the rear fenders. Wheel lips poke out a good inch I'd say. (which is pretty much exactly what I was trying to do)

(promise I'll get some sexy lexy pics soon of the brakes

)

brakes...(rotors are a bit tired, but will resurface ASAP)

front fitment

rear fitment (comes in a bit when its lower on the suspension)

and to make up for my super lame stance (lack of lows), and kinda crappy pics, I present you with these

cuatrokoop · Post by **cuatrokoop** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 6:43 pm

I got Flenner (Flennor?) brand rear links and tie rod ends, reportedly good stuff, better than Meyle. RockAuto I believe is where I got them.

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 6:54 pm

sweet, I think I'm going to order those, fix the fuel sender, and trim the ef out of the fender liners!

oh and I also have to get config dump out of the standalone box, etc.

also gotta find my stock narrowband o2 thing.

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 3:48 pm

so I'm going to get the config dump and send some other stuff off to see wtf is wrong with my VEMS boxes.

I trimmed one fender liner today and then stripped a lug nut. wtf lol. O well, that just means its time to buy wheel locks anyway.

and here is are the hondas I've been working on. Holset power ftw!

(and borg warner)

the second one is super sleeper. That motor looks stock but its about the furthest from stock it could possibly be.

bimmerboy · Post by **bimmerboy** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 5:56 pm

loxxrider wrote:Nuugen, yeah I took the sway off. PITA lol. Also, we would have had that puller tool, but someone borrowed it. We just wanted to get the damn thing done. Ill have that when I put the new ends in which will be like NOW.

Did you take the bar off the control arms or off the subframe? If you just drop the sway bar off the subframe its pretty frickin easy to do everything

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 6:03 pm

I took it off of both. I had to since I was taking the struts all the way out...I think? I cant remember how it all went lol. I'm pretty sure there was a reason we needed to take it completely off though. Sorry for the brain fart.

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:32 pm

So tonight was my first time getting paid by someone to work on their car

some random ass dude (turns out to be really cool guy) saw me in the advanced auto parking lot scanning a friends car and yapping about IAC valves, etc. and he came over and asked if I'd like to do some work for him.

I was kinda taken aback because I was wearing a ralph lauren button down dress shirt, khaki pants, and some ballin ass johnston & murphy shoes lol...definitely looked nothing short of a business man...not a mechanic.

So I did the alternator in his Mazda MPV. Took like 2 hours not counting the time to get the part, test drive it after, etc.

I was just happy when it started up and kept running when I took the neg battery cable off. I definitely didn't cut any corners, so I feel good knowing that I did a great job.

sorry for the off topic, but i wanted to share and didn't want to start another thread.

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 9:20 am

sweeeeeeeeeeeeet.

dude paid me more than I offered to do the job for

Anyway, my car has been making a squeaking noise upon startup for the past few months.

Lately it has turned into a different noise while the car is running normally. Its not terribly loud. I'm almost positive its one of the timing belt tensioners.

There are two that I can see when looking down from the front of the car. There is a left one, and a right one. I believe the one on the right is the one making the noise.

Soooo question of the day is how long do I have to replace this thing. Obviously I'll just throw a new belt on at the same time and replace anything else that I should while I've got the front end off.

I'm thinking new crank pulley, new tensioners, water pump, crank pulley bolt, etc.

I'll also be buying all of the cool new tools I need to get the job done lol including the crank holder, a cam gear holder, etc.

if you have suggestions for parts I need, please add them.

my2000apb · Post by **my2000apb** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 9:30 am

um its a 3b right? you have one pulley and the tensioner on the right is the waterpump, if its noisy replace it now, keep the crank pulley but replace teh timing cog as it will def fail at some point
you dont need the special tools if you pay attn mark stuff , double check timign marks a bunch of times, etc done several I5 timing setups with nothing but basic hand tools.

cuatrokoop · Post by **cuatrokoop** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:12 am

You need zero special tools. You have an idler pulley that is located on the oil pump housing, and the water pump acts as your tensioner. Either one can be squeaky...I wouldn't let it go too long though.

I use an impact on the crank pulley bolt (don't mess with the four cap head screws, I've never had good luck!) and regular tools for the whole job. I use a combo wrench on the cam pulley bolt to rotate the cam in position for timing, and a breaker bar w/socket on the crank...

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:43 am

Ah sweeet, sounds much easier than I thought. So basically I need a water pump (as long as that is what's making the noise)...and I'll just get an idler pulley too for the hell of it if that's possible without getting a whole new oil pump.

I'll also get a new cog. Thats what I meant...not the crank pulley, but the crank pulley cog.

Cuatrokoop...you said you use an impact on the crank pulley bolt...but a breaker bar and socket on the crank. I haven't seen the setup on this car but does the crank pulley have a separate bolt for the crank pulley and then one for the crank cog? How do you hold the motor from spinning without the tool to hold it in place? Just put the car in gear? lol

shit sucks because its just costing me money I dont have...but I dont want to have to put my other head on. Glad I do have a spare tho! That means that I can feel a little better about driving it around for a few weeks at least.

my2000apb · Post by **my2000apb** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:54 am

to get the crank pulley off, i dont know if itll work with motor in the car, but i popped off the oil pan and put a small piece of 2x 4 in there to not let the crank spin and the bolt will back right out

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:02 am

lol damn i dont really want to drop my oil pan.

ok another question...wtf is up with the super torque stuff. The cog on 034 says for super torque. I dont know if the belt they sell is that kind.

Also there is a timing belt roller which says not for super torque...but i dont see one that IS for super torque. Also there is a t-belt tensioner bearing. So does this bearing go inside that roller or something? If so, is it an easy press in or what.

I need to figure out whether its the water pump making noise or the belt roller. I would really rather not spend $70 on a water pump if I dont have to.

my2000apb · Post by **my2000apb** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:09 am

go to 034 oem parts area, select car etc its right there for stock components

loxxrider · Post by **loxxrider** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:10 am

yeah i know...thats where I found all of the stuff I was talking about above

my2000apb · Post by **my2000apb** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:12 am

i also have no f'in clue wtf supertorque is but i want it hahahaha

i just used all oem stuff

Loxxrider's 200 20v Revver: See you on "The Project Pad"

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