Ok so probably due a report on how things went
So firstly to stop the rear ArB from knocking I jammed a piece of metal in between the bracket and the bar to take the slack out of the bushing. Not ideal but it worked.
Then I went on the road trip. James has put up a report on the trip which I’ve contributed to but the bottom line is that it was an epic trip. Ragging the arse off these cars on mountain passes never gets old and to share that with your mates is an unforgettable experience.
So how was the suspension?
Utterly, utterly fantastic.
As I think I’ve said there are 5 settings. On each one you can set the softness of the front (on a scale of 1-5), softness of the rear, amount of roll prevention you want, and amount of pitch (forwards and backwards) prevention you want.
Pottering around towns/villages with bad roads/potholes I have it on pre-set 1 - softest shocks and pitch and roll at level 3. Pre-set 3,4 and 5 are all with maximum roll and pitch and with ever increasing shock stiffness. So on better roads and/or when pressing on I’ll select 3,4, or 5 and it’s epic.
The closest thing I can relate the driving experience to is driving the GT4. When you go round corners it just goes round. Getting things a bit wrong mid-corner isn’t the drama it used to be because the weight has already been managed by the time you realise something isn’t right. Apart from outright acceleration I was keeping up with GT3s and 964RS’s through the twisties. If you’re prepared to spend that much on your car I’d thoroughly recommend it - it’s the best mod I’ve done to the car (and I’ve done a few) by a long way.
Downsides? Well I’ve had an intermittent error on startup. This happened a few times on holiday. What happens is that sometimes when you start up you get a message that there is a short circuit on the front right shock. When it happened I fiddled around with the connector to the front tight and I thought that had sorted it but it came back. What I’ve found out by trial and error is that if I turn the ignition and start the engine straight away I never get the error. Never. However if I turn the key and let it sit there for a few seconds (e.g. letting the fuel pressure build) and then crank the engine then I’ll often get the error (but not so reliably if it’s later in the day?!?) In daily use I have therefore been able to work around it. However, when you’re spending this much money you don’t want a workaround.
When I got back I emailed the UK importer whose name is Steve from I think SixFour.co.uk. Initially he was helpful and positive. He’d contact tractiv in Holland and they suggested it might be a saved fault and disconnecting the battery for 30 seconds should clear that, or it could be a break in the cable. He was very positive at this stage.
I’ve checked the cable in the frunk and round by the shock and it’s all good there - also, if it was a physical break I doubt I’d be able to create and not create the error at will. However I did re-check it - it could possibly be a duff connector but if so then again I’m surprised I can bypass the error at will. I tried the battery off thing. I thought for the week-end this had sorted the problem so was pretty chuffed. However I got in the car to go to work on Tuesday morning and the error cropped up again.
I emailed Steve and told him what was happening and got a bit of a disappointing reply. He firstly said I needed to have an always on supply so my switched supply wasn’t right (not correct - needs an always on and a switched supply) and if he’d know I was going to DIY install it he’d have got me to get it professionally installed. finally he said I should contact Pete at Center Gravity if I wanted further help. I found this patronising and insulting - he either couldn’t help me any more or wasn’t prepared to. I emailed him back saying that and he got a bit shirty. Very disappointing service.
I ordered it through Center Gravity but I know they got it from Steve who is the importer which was why I’d contacted him for help.
I’ve booked into Center gravity in about 4 weeks time for a follow up front suspension check and they have offered to check over the wiring while it’s there.
This weekend I thought I’d check it out myself to see if I could find anything.
I wondered if the problem was because of something it was sharing the supply with - so that in that gap between turning the ignition on and turning the engine over was messing with the signal somehow (??!)
I’ve also had a weird intermittent problem relating to my aircon and the Bluetooth transmitter I use for my bangin choons. When the engine goes onto tick over the aircon automatically goes into a different mode (can’t remember what exactly) and when it does this it stops the Bluetooth working. Once you set off again the Bluetooth starts and reconnects. Again I wondered if this was relating to a combined power supply. So i thought I’d check that out at the same time.
When I split apart the wiring I found there was a thickish green cable which was supplying the switched power to:-
- The aircon button
- The power amp
- The Bluetooth transmitter
- And now the Tractiv suspension system
I started off by removing every single fuse, one after the other to see which fuse supplied the tractiv/stereo/bluetooth/aircon. Not one of them seemed to supply this circuit. Looking at the circuit diagram this green wire seems to come from the ignition into the radio but I can’t see a fuse involved
So, thinking that the aircon might be the culprit here I disconnected that first and started the engine up again - pausing with the ignition on before turning it over. I got the error!.
So the next strategy was to isolate the tractiv switched supply on its own. I went through the fuses again to find a switched supply. I narrrowed it down to a selection of fuses which I thought were all switched power. I connected that supply directly to the tractiv, but it appeared the one I’d chosen was always on - with the ignition off the tractiv was still live.
I moved on and picked another one - this was a 16 amp fuse serving amongst other things the hazard warning lights (it said). I connected the wire that ran directly toe the tractiv switched supply to that fuse.
I tried switching on and then turning the engine over, but when I tried to turn it over I just got a ‘click’. Panic immediately set in. I fuckn hate electrics. I really missed Ian at this point - this moment would normally result in Ian coming round and talking me down from the panic tree.
After a while I wondered what the battery was like - I know the tractiv uses the battery a fair bit and I’d been constantly testing it without the engine running. I hooked up the battery charger and sure enough the battery was fairly dead. Relief!
I plugged in the charged and left it to revive and got on with my other plan. - moving the drivers seat inwards by 25mm. More on that later.
After a few hours the battery was fully charged. I went to plop the immobiliser but got nothing. I should get one flash of the inidcators and it’s ready. Nothing. Not a sodding sausage. I tried locking it and unlocking it - again nothing with each button press. the light on the remote was flashing whenever I pressed the button so I reasoned the battery was OK.
I fuckn hate electrics.
I left the battery charging but disconnected to see if that did anything. Reconnected after a few hours and nothing - normally when you reconnect the indicators flash on. I tried again with the plipper - nothing. Turned the ignition on and all the lights came on as normal. It gave a double indicator flash as I turned the ignition key but nothing happened - no sound of fuel pump running and no turning of the engine.
I’d welcome any suggestions. At the moment I’m planning on trying to phone auto-electricians on Monday but not optimistic as I’ve not had good experiences trying to get one a few months ago.
I’ll copy this last bit into a ‘help please’ topic separately.
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