Edcase

/rant on
Right, as anyone thats aware of my car etc. will know, I've had it since last november and have done the body first, then the chassis, then all the monitoring etc. (gauges, knocklink etc) and its been nothing but fun, every mod going smoothly and noticeably improving the car, to a point where I'm happy with everything except the engine.

I finally get round to the engine, and I have nothing but trouble and strife. First all the **** I had with fitting the headers / bad remap / misfiring etc. Then I've been getting a weird knocking noise, intermittently. (At least I thought it was a knocking.)

Then I've been getting a lot of knocklink activity in 5th and an ECU-detected misfire (which I expect is the plugs needing replacing after running so rich recently + 15k old) and then tonight, I'm on the motorway doing a 'scooby 70' and I hear a noise like a bit of paper stuck in some bike spokes.

Gets worse and worse until when I pull off the Mway my car sounds like a VW beetle. It sounds absolutely terrible, and £50 says its the f-ing headers that have split.

I need this at the moment like a hole in the head, and I've already missed silverstone and the ring thanks to the problems before. I seriously feel like stripping the 10-odd grands worth of bits off, selling em, putting it back to standard, buying a pug 205 for a trackday car, and pocketing the rest, then trading the Scoob to something that is already factory-engineered to closer to the performance I want (probably something used so I don't hit the depreciation of a new car again).

My only saving grace is I just drove from Liverpool to Bristol so at least it happened just coming into Bristol and I'm at home.

Anyone looking for some bugeye mods????

Any suggestions of what else to get instead??? How much do Z3 M Coupe's sell for 2nd hand? I miss RWD

/rant off

mista weava

keep the faith, these things are sent to test us.

what you gonna get thats got performance comparirive to scoob for s/hand bugeye money .

sounds like you have had some bad luck.

i used to live in plymouth and the roads round devon are prime scoob territory.

bite the bullet and fix her up.

if you get it right in the end it will be well worth it

like golf - 60 crap shots, then one peach makes up for them all!

don't despair dude

Weava

SlowBoy

iTrader: (1)

Sorry to here about this mate. I've read about some of your recent probs - sounds like you've had more than your fair share. About time your luck changed, mate.

chrome

ed- dunno if it will help- I had similar weird KL activity in 5th a while back.. it was the MAF sensor failing.. ya never know- worth checking it out..

Edcase

Chrome - ta, will get it checked but I think it was a mixture of those headers splitting (presuming that is wheat happened, find out in the morning) and the plugs.

Weava / slow boy - thanks for the support, I know what you are saying, and only an hour ago I sat in a service station and watched throught the window with genuine pride as person after person stopped to look at the car, and I would sure as hell miss the scooby cameraderie.

I would get a fair few quid for my mods and car seperately, and could maybe buy a cosmetically modded My00 and pocket 5k....

mista weava

can you send me a pic of your scoob pls ed?

no worries with the support, it is needed for the fellow bretheren in times of strife!

you a "janner" born and bred or in the making

got to say that i had a truly great time living there.

Weave

Edcase

here

I'm janner born and bred, then 4 years in brum, 5 in London, and now settled in Bristol.

Kane

Dont give up m8 - its a really nice motor. Would be a real shame to see you give in to it. We all have off days but they pass in time. I'm sure some of the guys can help out..If you really get stuck take it in to power station and get them to do a health check and you'll know then the full extent of money outlay to correct the faults.

You know you love the car - dont look at buying another car or another scooby, you may have to spend more again - you never know..I'd never get another car since i purchased mine i'd just get it taken to the scooby doctors and get the medicine it needed to back to normal..

At the end of the day you know what you really want to do - just bite the bullet and take the wallet hit and be happy with the car.

mista weava

ed - that is one seriously nice scoob!

that colour is to die for!

get on the case and get her fixed up - "reet bay"?

"helluvah" waste if you don't!!

Weava

ps: take her for a drag out Bantham way - love that road mate!

Edcase

Kane - all true

Weava - thats the first time i've smiled for 4 hours

I guess tomorrow morning will be telling....

P20SPD

iTrader: (1)

Ed, can you keep me posted on the headers please, as if i remember PE modified them for you. Why do you think they have split?

Just curious, as mine are fine, and i have now done over 5000miles with them on, and i suspect under a lot more stress than you, so would be very interested in what the problem is.

Keep the faith mate, i went through the same thing back in Feb, totally fed up, but glad i did not chuck it all in, like i did three years ago with my 1st scoob.

Steven

NOZZER

Thought you were slower on exmoor than usual

john coffey

Should of bought a Spec C

Edcase

Steven - was too dark to tell when I got home. I think it is one of several possibilities:

gasket between headers and up pipe
PE said the fit was poor and it was stressing the turbo, so may have come away somewhere
all so it is very close to the crossmember, and I have been hearing a knocking sound lately, so maybe it has been hitting the crossmember and has weakened and split.

Noz - not on the 1st part I wasn't!!! I was easing off behind you to avoid stonechips!!!

John - don't remind me....

P20SPD

iTrader: (1)

Ok Ed, just keep me informed as i am curious thats all. Cant believe the problems you have had.

Steven

Nathan L

Noooooooo !

Not a lot I can really add mate. Except maybe strip the headers off and get some HKS jobbies ? I know Steve hasn't had any problems but you might have got a dodgy set and you can't really return them now they have been tinkered with by PE.

Don't give up with it yet mate. IT WILL get better.

Nathan..

Edcase

I know, wish I had left the headers until after turbo and injectors. You live and learn.

Timing couldn't be worse.....

Edcase

Nathan - if it is the headers, I am going to go back to standard headers and get the turbo and injectors I have lined up. I already have the other ingredients - pump / pressure regulator / bigger tmic, decat.

There has been a lot of threads lately regarding split headers, I do too many track days / b-road blasts / road miles to risk more reliability issues.

I have to admit tho, I don't care what anyone says, I would really miss the sound of these equal length headers. It was like driving a Ferrari 360 over exmoor at the weekend.

Edcase

Is it worth porting my standard headers?

How much work is it?

NOZZER

It did sound good behind me over exmoor, could hear it over the decat

Nathan L

Ed

It's catch 22 mate. Port the standard headers and put them back on and you lose the howl you love.

Porting the headers is fairly easy if you have the right tools. I used to do welding and fabrication so I can get the right tools but i'm miles from you.

Porting the standard headers will make a performance difference but obviously not as much as your tubular jobbies.

Nathan..

X SOOOBY

i know you are not happy with your scoob experiances of late but what about a blown engine through vandalism and 3 replacement gearboxes in 2 years thats when you start to think is it worth while i do every time something happens but when it dose run right it is worth it


oh by the way mine has 330bhp no headers and from the sound of it no chance of any headers they are not worth the hassle


and come on who did the dodgy remap

Alex_in_France

"It did sound good behind me over exmoor, could hear it over the decat"

Noz, that wasn't the car, that was me screaming out the window.


SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! !!!!!!

AK47

...sigh

take it easy mate!

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

I've also got a 'cardboard stuck in bike spokes' sound, thought it was an up-pipe / downpipe / headers gasket problem because I could only get it to happen on full boost.
However the other day I did a slow rpm sweep at standstill and the noise appeared between 4k and 5k rpm. So when I get a chance I'm checking all the heatshields, again!!.

Might not be the headers?

Justin

Edcase

Al - lmfao!!!

Jay - mine does it constantly, and is definitly air escaping from somewhere round the headers. Just off to the dealers in a minute.

LitchfieldImports

Hi Ed,

sorry to hear about your problems email me your address and I'll send you some money to cheer you up

Iain

www.litchfieldimports.co.uk

[Edited by iainlit - 10/10/2003 12:12:35 PM]

Edcase

Iain I was seriously discussing an ITR last night....

Edcase

Ok, so it looks like I'm just a drama queen. In my defence I was really busy and just didn't need the hassle / stress, and was still smarting from missing the ring trip.

Turns out the problem was as simple as one of the blanking plugs on the headers had come loose and fallen out. :blush:

Still getting a very strange knocking sound coming from under the rear of the car. Only happens at low speeds, and totally intermittent, cant even get it to repeat over bumps. Sounds like a fist-sized ball of jagged metal hanging down on a wire and clanging into things. And then it disappears. Absolutely no continuity to it, except only seems to happen under 60mph.

BTW next time I come on and rant about chucking it all in, just ignore me and I'll go away

mista weava

pleased you got it sorted "bay" !

now take it for that run down one of the many wicked roads near you!

Weava