Year: 2016

165,000 Sunrises

165,000 Sunrises

That many sunrises would actually be somewhere just north of 450 years, so that is not how many I have witnessed, but perhaps in another life if I was Count Magnus Brahe, a Swedish noble, who was born on September 25, 1564.This particular sunrise was experienced by Donna and I on our way to work this morning.

Not too far into the trip to tonight’s MMC monthly meeting the Emperor pass thru the 165,000 mile mark.

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 0
Totals So Far: 60 points & 970 miles

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 195

Inattention Giveth and Inattention Taketh Away

We went to Bed, Bath & Beyond on Monday to buy a couple of new pillows. We have two different sleeping styles, so we usually buy two different styles of pillows. I am a stomach sleeper and Donna is side or back sleeper, so I get a regular pillow and Donna gets a thicker one. Mine is $10 cheaper. I plopped both pillows down on the counter and the kid checking us out didn’t really pay attention, so he just scanned one pillow twice. It was my cheaper pillow he scanned, so in essence we were gifted ten dollars.

Later on we did a little mop-up shopping at Krogers. As we usually do whenever we are not doing our weekly shopping, we used the self-checkout. Donna asked if we should go to the express line because we had a coupon, but I waved her off noting that there was a clerk at the station. Donna also recommended I take $20 cash out for the work week, I agreed. I was buying wine, so I knew I’d have to show ID and scanned the first 4 items, saving the alcohol for last knowing that I wouldn’t be able to go any further until the attendant came over and looked at my license. Beep! “Attendant Has Been Notified To Assist You.” The attendant didn’t hop to, she was tapping away on her phone possibly making plans for when she got off shift, so I went to her. She came back, scanned my ID, then scanned the coupon before heading back to her station and texting. I grabbed the bags, the receipt and another $5 off coupon for my next wine purchase. It wasn’t until we got home that I remembered I never picked up the $20 bill.

Karma? Had pointed out the ten dollar undercharge at B,B & B would I have remembered the twenty at Krogers?

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 190

The Whole Script?

I haven’t been writing about spam here in a while, but today was slightly noteworthy. I received just 4 of them, 1 in kanji characters, 1 short and sweet “THanks for sharing, I am glad I read this.” and two that must have sent out the whole script instead of random selections from it:

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It’s appropriate tiome to make a few plans for the longer tem and it’s time to be happy.

P0010

or: “A” Camshaft Position Actuator Circuit (Bank 1)1

After breakfast at Hardee’s and weekly grocery shopping at Krogers in the Sonata we came back home and got in the Miata for a drive. Before getting in I popped the hood and unhooked the electrical connection to the VVT oil control valve, disabling the system. As expected, as soon as I started the car the CEL came on, and stayed on.

Cruising out of the neighborhood the VTCS surge (formally the VVT kick) happened right around 3k RPM as expected and virtually disappeared after warmup as expected. What didn’t happen as expected was the ugly exhaust note at full throttle. Also missing was the slightly out of tune feeling at higher RPMs. My highly un-calibrated butt dyno reported that it was accelerating like a normal Miata, only with slightly less power. Although the less power thing might have been influenced by yesterday’s chart…

Part way through the drive, as Donna was buying some fresh peaches at a local stand, I jumped out and reconnected the wire to the VVT system. Sure enough, as I accelerated away briskly the annoying sound and sluggishness returned. When got back home, I dropped Donna off and did one more set of runs down a local street, one connected and one not just to be positive.

Well, that confirmed it, the culprit is in the VVT system somewhere. The only things left I can think of are the actuator on the camshaft itself, a lack of oil pressure to the system or it is in the ECU itself, all of which are above my meager skills. This leaves two options; 1) take it to a professional or B) disconnect the system and live with the CEL on all the time.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 189

1.Back in the garage when I read the fault code, instead of the P0012 I expected it was a P0010. Another VVT related code, but the obvious one when pulling the wires off the valve to disable the system.

VVT or VTCS?

VVT Dyno Runs

I was led to the VVT system by the CEL fault code that the car keeps throwing, P0012, which translates to “A” Camshaft Position – Timing Over-Retarded because the VVT controls the intake (A) cam. The image above is from the fine folks at Flying Miata who actually dyno tested the effects of the VVT system; the blue lines show the system operating and the red lines show it disconnected. Looking at the lines there are no noticeable bumps at any RPM value, they are relatively parallel with the only difference being that the numbers are higher with. than without.

Well, it turns out my idea of the VVT kick, that feeling of a surge of power at certain RPM, is not really from the Variable Valve Timing system after all. With further research I now find out it is from something called the Variable Tumble Control System (VTCS) that was created to help emissions at low RPMs. A valve closes part of the intake path, increasing the velocity of the intake charge. The butterflies are closed if two conditions are met: the coolant temperature is less than 65C and the engine RPM is less than 3000.

I’ve always sort of felt that this problem only occurs when the car is fully warmed up, so I wonder if maybe those butterflies stay closed once the car is warm and that is what is causing the slight out of tune feeling at higher RPMs. The only problem with this theory is that the VTCS has its own fault code, P2006, and I’m not getting one of those.

I guess as an elimination test for the VVT system I could go ahead and pull the electrical connector off the oil control valve, thereby disabling it and drive the car until it gets warm and see if my symptoms are still there. Maybe tomorrow.

#%&!@#$

Subtitle: The Check Engine Light Comes On Again

Monday afternoon I backed the Emperor underneath the metal awning in the driveway and raised up the driver’s side of the car as high as my compact aluminum jack could go, propping it up with jack stands. The goal was to change out the mid-pipe and muffler with the OEM pieces borrowed from John. Listing from front to back there was one butterfly shaped brace with six 21mm nuts holding it on, then 4 more cross braces at various intervals with two 21mm nuts apiece and one cross brace with, for whatever reason, four 19mm nuts.

It looked like I could remove a couple of the regular cross braces and leave a couple on, but that big 6 bolt brace was definitely going to come off. Because of my limited clearance under the car for hammer swinging and my wimpy foot long 3/8″ breaker bar I managed to get only one of the six to loosen any after 10 minutes of struggle. So doing what any non-mechanically inclined individual would do, I gave that task up. I knew I could change mufflers, so I did take off the Racing Beat and put the stock one on.

Dropped the car back onto the ground and took a drive around the neighborhood. Quieter for sure, so I took it out a bit further and stomped on it. And while it was quieter overall than the Racing Beat, once over 4000 RPM it had still had that ugly undertone.

When I got back home I went and got the Kindle with the Torque app installed on it. Turns out after monkeying with around with the app for a while I had discovered it can log real time data, so I got back in the car and took it back out for a ride. Around to the first spot I can get on it and I do a rolling start in second gear. Run it up to almost redline before shifting into 3rd and keeping on it until near redline again before having to coast to the stop sign ahead.

Turn right readying to make another run through the gears and I notice my old friend the Master Caution1 light has illuminated. Hmmmm, I figure what the heck, I’m logging the drive and I’m less than a mile from home – I mash the gas pedal and go. High speed through 2nd and 3rd, u-turn, repeat the pattern and return to the hanger2.

After a couple tries I figured out the right way to transfer the log to the PC. It is comma separated value format so I open it up in Excel. Blank column, Time, Blank, Blank, Blank, G(x), G(y), G(z), some more blank columns and some more random parameters. Turns out that even though I had a “dashboard” set up with dials of the parameters I wanted to record you have to actually add what you want to the list of PIDs to be measured, what I got the first time are some sort of default measurements.

I select Time, Engine Temperature, Engine RPM, Vehicle Speed and Timing Advance to be logged. CEL be damned I go for a little longer drive running it through the gears to redline six to eight times before returning home. I dumped the log file to the PC and attached to an email to Steve at Panic. We’ll see what he has to say.

1. The Master Caution light in an aircraft is front and center where the pilot can see it immediately. It alerts him to take a look around the cockpit at the other 100 or so lighted buttons for the one that will tell him what is wrong with the aircraft. The Check Engine Light in the car equivalent to this; we just have to wait until we get home and read the code.
2. Continuing the aircraft analogy.

62,000 Micro-inch Pounds of Torque

Red Valve Cover II

After the last time I put the valve cover on it ended up leaking, so I thought I’d just get a new gasket and start over. Relying on my vast mechanical experience, I also thought maybe because last time I just tightened the eleven bolts holding it down by feel I may have under or over tightened them. The cure to hopefully not create another leaker maybe would be to maybe actually read the manual and torque the bolts to the proper value.

The specifications I have, thanks to a friendly Miata.net Forum member, 68.6 to 96.3 in/lbs, but the torque wrench to use, not so much. When I started looking for an in/lb torque wrench I was surprised at how much they wanted for them and I really didn’t want to spend that kind of money on something I might not use very much. I thought maybe I might be able borrow one. I could have bought one off Amazon for $22, but how good could it be for that price?

I had a line on one from a co-worker, but he couldn’t find his or forgot or something or other, so that was a bust. Today we were at a birthday part at a friend’s house and I asked a fellow MMC member who as there too if he had an in/lb torque wrench and if so could I borrow it. He did, so I told him I’d call later to see about getting it. When I called, he told me his was a beam type wrench, but it was for a lot higher range than I needed because the gradient marks were 50 in/lbs apart. That meant I would have to find the spot a little more than halfway between mark number one and mark number two. And even if I did, how accurate would that rating be with it so close to the bottom of the scale?

Figuring I had wasted enough time and effort chasing the whole borrowing thing, it was time to bite the bullet and just buy one., So I did some internet shopping of the local places and there was only one auto parts store that one in stock, but they wanted $120 for it. So I checked the local BBHIW stores and Home Depot had one for $70. I am now the proud owner of a Husky 20-200 in/lb click style torque wrench.

If you compare the above photo of the red valve cover with the one from earlier this month, you’ll notice that while I had the cover off this time I did some more painting on it – the lettering is now black.

Yesterday on the way home from work the Purple Whale slipped past the 62,000 miles.