S1 Audi Engined Exige

[WillD]

Prompted by Andy’s question about users not posting more, I thought I’d start one related to the journey I’ve been on to get my Exige sorted with all the things that I’ve been tinkering with since buying it 3 years ago.

I’ll start with a picture to introduce the car and then as I find all the other pictures I will post more of the jobs I’ve been working.

Pictured with my brothers hillclimb S2 when we did an Andy Walsh driving day last year. Highly recommend it, my 14 year old son also drove mine and did really well considering it’s got 360hp

[thommo]

Excellent, looking forward to your write-up

[WillD]

So one of the first jobs was to sort the gear linkage out. This was autotechnik car number 3, Bernard informed me he used the Toyota gear changer in later conversions. As a result I fitted the Dolimiti changer.

It’s nicely made. Had to buy a second hand S2 handbrake lever as they are slightly different.

I married this with new SSC gear cables and rerouted under the gearbox to feed the Audi 6 speed from the normal way Audi does. The Autotechnik linkage on the gearbox required additional pivot points as it fed from the back side of the engine. The original design seemed to worked ok but but mine had all worn so needing attention anyway.

I also fitted an Audi quick shift fulcrum to the gearbox as it allowed adjustment.

The long bit was adjusting to get it just right. The gear linkage, the cables, the quick shift all had adjustment so it was a case of working through and tweaking bits in all 3 places to get the throw and side to side movement and gear selection both positive but not stupidly short.

Some not so great photos.

[WillD]

Next up I changed the horrid roof fed airbox and pipe work. AliTech came up trumps with their CF version. They had made a one off for their car so I sent a message and found them hugely helpful and willing to make a second one.

Wasn’t cheap but pleased with the change.

I’ll continue to look for more pictures

[andybond]

That looks decent!

[WillD]

Thanks yes turned out ok in the end - a bit of fettling was needed and also shopping about for the right pipes and hoses etc.

[andybond]

Have you seen / noticed / logged any gains?

[WillD]

The airbox has been cosmetic really, it’s a little lighter maybe.

[WillD]

I’ll skip forward to a current job before I go back to cover some of the previous ones.

The car appears to have never had a lambda sensor fitted as part of the conversion back in the mid 2000s.

When I went to have it mapped last year the tuner requested I fit a wideband before we embark on tuning.

It’s running an emerald ECU which is quite an early one. I wanted to fit a 3 way switch to have something like normal road, wet track and dry track (undecided currently).

My ECU being so early needed to be upgraded by Emerald. A three way switch also arrived and has been fitted in front of the gear stick.

All good so far.

To wire in the wideband controller I had hoped I could ‘simply’ follow the emerald instructions and minimally touch the wiring loom (on the basis it’s an engine conversion car the wire loom has been ‘worked on’ …).

First pictures are me midway through running the wires from the wideband controller

However, I soon found the logical part of my brain meant I had to tackle the dreaded mess of wiring which I knew was there and was trying to ignore.

A few pictures so you can feel my pain . This is behind the seats where most of the original exige loom is.

A good few hours with a multimeter and carefully cutting, rerouting re soldering etc. is required but that will have to be in a few weeks when I get sone free time and a good run at it.

[WillD]

Managed to find some time to wire in the wideband to test that it all worked before tackling the loom mess and unfortunately it didn’t. The little LED that is supposed to light up was not.

I check my wiring again. Still nothing. Contacted Emerald and was told yep the LED should light up. So took just the LED off and put it across a battery and sure enough it worked. Hmmm.

I checked the feed to the LED and it is a constant 2v which to me seems a little odd as the LED is supposed to blink when the lambda is cold (I’m not that confident here but surely the signal to the LED should pulse?) I will need to call Emerald again.

I put tools down and went for a coffee to think.

Suddenly had a thought - the main feed to the wideband controller comes from the fuel pump relay (T off the main feed to the fuel pump), this is as per Emeralds wiring diagram.

On the Audi conversion there is a second in line high pressure fuel pump so decided to check and sure enough the wire I have connected into goes to the positive feed to the secondary fuel pump.

Then for some reason whilst the engine was running and I was thinking, I touched the fuel pump relay to see if perhaps there were loose wires and I found that the connector on the relay which feeds both the secondary fuel pump and my newly wired in wideband lambda was getting hot. Hmmm

Not the relay itself, just the terminal and connector. Ok usual thing is poor contact causing resistance. However the connection is tight and clean. Hmmmm

The had a thought - if there a short somewhere?

Cut off the feed to the lambda in case it was something I had done. So now the car was back to as it was before I started and sure enough fuel pump relay connection feed to the fuel pump still getting hot.

Next I checked if there was a short to earth with a multimeter and sure enough there was.

Touching the multimeter to the terminal on the fuel pump relay (which feeds the inline fuel pump)and to chassis earth. Done when the engine is not running and hence when the relay has not switched on the live feed). There is a direct feed to earth!!! Hmmmm

This is where my stupidity kicks in

So I think I have found something at least. So my thought process was “Yey, this is it, I’ve wired the lambda live feed into a bad fuel pump live feed and this is my root cause.

Next I take the fuel pump off and test it with a multimeter- sure enough across the terminals there is a direct connection. This is it I stupidly think.

New fuel pump ordered and tested before I fit it and oh!

It also has a direct connection across the terminals. Damn!

My next action was to walk off, lock the garage and try to forget about it for a while…

Any thoughts, insults or words of encouragement welcome

[thommo]

Fascinating stuff for someone who knows nothing about such things! Can’t understand it but I love reading it. Looking forward to the solution . . .it’s like a who(or what)dunnit

[philthy]

I did away with the secondary fuel pump and fitted a Spitfire in tank, capable of supplying enough fuel and tidies up the wiring. Worth a thought

[WillD]

Ah really good point - I’ll need to look at flow rates

[Emiel]

Fantastic the work. Love the airbox.

Really want to keep more rear window so need to figure something else out.

Skipped the secondary and also did the spitfire thank btw

[WillD]

Just a quick update.

Had a really relaxing Saturday, sun was shining, birds tweeting and I was able to methodically work through a bunch of the wires to have an additional fuse box and relay box for the secondary fuel pump, water pump and wide band lambda controller.

Still looks like a snakes wedding but some semblance of order is coming together.

Next on the list is to extend the wires to the main 36way ECU connector to allow better routing and less tension.