The mystery sound continues ...

Today I took the car to Race Torque Engineering in Wangarra to get to the bottom of where that noise was coming from.

The guys lifted my car and checked for wheel bearing noises (there were none), excessive hub wear (none), checked for excessive lower arm bush wear (all were fine), inspected suspension upper mounts, dampers and rings for any looseness (all were fine). They also suspected that the noise could be coming from the pads or even a loose caliper itself but all nuts and bolts were tight as expected and they even removed the pads to eliminate pad travel from the equation.

So what's causing this ??

All fingers pointed to the left, outer CV joint but here is the caveat...it happens in a straight line only and not when turning...which is very unlike a CV joint !

After about an hour or so of trying to find the culprit we concluded that it is the CV joint.

Honda Australia charges over $600 for a single CV joint, ridicilous ! So this afternoon I called one of the Honda dealers in Japan and asked about the prices. Get ready for this ! A whole left driveshaft is $500, a single CV joint which comes with a clamp ring is only $200, the boot with a clamp ring just $40 ! Guess where I am getting my parts from ?

- Rod

Something had to give

Since about 4 months ago I've been hearing very faint "clicking" sounds coming from the front whenever I accelerated from a standstill or whenever the car was reversed and then moved forward. When I was in Japan I mentioned this to my mechanics from SEEKER who checked for unusual play in the hubs/joints as well as checked for a possibility of a cracked suspension spring. Needles to say it was neither at the time and I didn't bother with the issue again. However since recently this sound has become increasingly louder and now it seems like something is seriously wrong with the car.

After some research and talking to a few people I believe it's caused by one of 2 things:

Firstly, it could be a bad CV joint which is the most likely reason (in my mind). Can't tell if it's the inner or outer and can't truly say if it's on the left or the right side of the car. I can reproduce this sound when I drive slowly in 1st gear and "jerk" the car forward and back or when I reverse into a driveway which is on a hill. Driving the car in a circle in reverse doesn't exhibit the issue though.

Another possible reason for this could be a damaged wheel bearing and/or wheel hub. I briefly spoke with a local mechanic here in Perth who thinks this is the most likely cause but wants to disassemble the hubs to confirm his diagnosis (which he wants $100/hr for).

So it looks like this is going to put a stop to my circuit time attacks until the issue is resolved. I don't know whether I'll need to get new driveshafts, perhaps recondition the old ones, buy a new wheel bearing and/or wheel hub but the fact of the matter is I can't drive the car beyond light every day driving and depending on what the problem is I may need to wait a while for parts to arrive before the problem can be fixed.

More to come ....

-Rod

Mark Webber in his F1 Red Bull in Perth !

Last sunday saw the annual Festival of Speed event held at Barbagallo Raceway here in Perth but the main star of the event and the much anticipated drive was that of Mark Webber in his actual F1 Red Bull car !

Here is a video I shot from one of the spectator points



And here is one shot by guys from SpectrumTV



- Rod

More MOTUL !

I finally got my hands on very inexpensive MOTUL 300V engine oil !
Even cheaper than I was paying for it in Japan ! In fact a 4L bottle cost me just AUD$90 and a 2L bottle only AUD$50. Come to think of it, 1L in Japan was always costing me around Y3,250 which is about AUD$40.
DC5 needs approx. 5.3L so this combination of 4L/2L works perfectly !

Started off by removing the oil sump bolt

To help with flow I lifted the car up in front just a tiny bit

Loosening the oil filter was a challenge!
Access is VERY limited but with the help of an oil filter wrench extension it was a little bit easier.

Crap ! When the filter came off all that oil started spilling out all over the driveshaft and lower frame.

Here is the new filter I brought back with me from Japan

After finishing I took the car for a drive and thoroughly enjoyed it !
Fresh engine oil, fresh transmission fluid and a fresh brake fluid made for a very smooth and fun drive !
Afterwards I checked for leaks and since there were none the car is now ready for a wash and storage until the end of this very hot summer !

- Rod

How to change your DC5's transmission fluid ...

Now that I have my own "workshop" and a desire to get down and dirty I took it upon myself to do the already long overdue tranmission fluid change.

So without further ado ...



Put the car up on jack stands and layed down a protective sheet in case of any spillage.

 

A shot of the 2 bolts taken from the wheel hub



Top bolt is where the fluid goes in, bottom one is where it flows out.

Red OMEGA 690 spewing out



Since access to the tranmission case is VERY tight, I put together this clear hose and a funnel.

The funnel goes on top of the engine bay ...



... and the hose goes all the way down to ...

... the transmission case.

Let the pouring begin

And here it is,
1.5L of red OMEGA with a few drips of the green REDLINE (so much for REDLINE being red huh ?)

All in all it took me around 45mins and it was quite easy.
Now I need to find a way to dispose of the excess oil...

And of course this post wouldn't be complete without ...

- Rod

Gear oil is here !

After much consideration I decided to get my hands on the REDLINE Lightweight Shockproof gear oil which just arrived this morning ! Usually one bottle (1 quart) sells at $50 but I managed to get it at $25.

Curious to know what it performs like but like I said before it is just going to be a placeholder until a) I get my hands on OMEGA 690 myself or b) my friend becomes a local OMEGA distributor.

And before I go, some more eye candy from Japan ! Enjoy !

-Rod

Race Queens !!!

Since I began writing my blogs I've received countless requests to post photos of japanese Race Queens and so here is a teaser of what's coming ....

[photos courtesy of TGR racing drivers Mike, Miguel and myself]

Time Attack Battle 2010 - Night Video

Here is one other in-car video from the event taken sometime towards the end of the evening.



-Rod

Time Attack Battle 2010 - Video

Here is a video of one of the 5 sessions I did on the day.
It isn't of the fastest lap though but of one probably about a second slower.



-Rod

Time Attack 2010 Battle Victory !

I've been meaning to complete this post for over a week now but time just wasn't on my side and so here comes what I've written so far ...

Last friday night under the cover of lights at Barbagallo Raceway Raventech Racing held its 2nd TIME ATTACK BATTLE for the year ! The event was very well organised, ran surprisingly smoothly and included a wide range of cars ranging from your every day street-stock types right through to race-built purpose cars.

I'm proud to say I won 1st place in Limited 2WD (up to 2-litres) category !

The event was broken up into Street, Limited and Unlimited classes and within each they were broken down further into 2WD (up to 2-litres), 2WD (over 2-litres) and AWD.

Out of a maximum of 30 cars which were allowed to enter the event, my overall standing was 18th with a time of 58''70 with the fastest being somewhere in high 51''s recorded by a Mitsubishi Evo X RS.
Full results can be found here if anyone's interested.



Live results

and this one with a touch of color :)

It was a pretty cold evening of low 10Cs and right from the start I was struggling to get my tyres up to their optimum temperature with just 1 warm-up lap and 2 hot laps allocated. I presume everyone had the same problem since no one was allowed to use tyre-warmers and so this disadvantage was wide spread. Nonetheless I pushed for whatever I could get out of those tyres.

As far as the car was concerned, it was very well prepared. I was unfortunate enough though to have a full tank of fuel which added extra, extra (!) weight to my car throughout the entire evening! Even after completing 5 sessions of 1-2-1 laps I still ended up with over 90% of the tank full ! I didn't have a fuel can so I couldn't go light and I learnt my lesson badly ! I should have run with just under 30% of the tank as others did and topped up whenever needed. Ah well, there is always next time ! I didn't do so badly though did I !?

The car was definitely very competitive still being in its stock form and all with the exception of suspension and tyres. I can easily slash another 2 seconds off of my best time recorded that evening but I'll need more practice on the short circuit. I found it very hard on the engine and transmission, with running through the "shortcut" in 2nd gear at very high revs until the entry to the back straight didn't do my MT any good. Other than that I prefer the long circuit better.

Oh and where were those race queens I am so used to seeing in Japan ???? :) Nothing makes us go faster than the subconscious desire to impress one of them right ?! :)

Here are some snaps from the evening

Some competition

Waiting to be scrutineered

And some more better funded folks !

Another angle

Next door neighbours

The only other honda at the event.
The guy was very quick !

Transponder

Waiting for my 1st run of the evening

Thoroughly enjoyed the event and the barbacue ! Thanks to my friends Steve and Mikey for showing up and lending a hand pre and post. Perth needs more events like that, Perth needs more motorsport everything to be honest :)

Now it's time to thorougly service my car before my next event which is when well I don't know yet. I just got my hands on very cheap (!) MOTUL 300V engine oil here in Perth and I'm just waiting for my MT OMEGA gear oil to arrive. It's all about the wait now ....

-Rod

Time for a lift !

How do you like my new racing lift jack ?

1.5T capacity, very light (!) and super low (!).
In fact it weighs only 12.5kg and its minimum height is just 8.5cm !!
After trying it out it clears my front bumper by just 1cm !!!

The profile of my tyre is higher than this jack !
Anyway a real bargain !

Routine maintenance

It's time to flush my RacingGear DOT 4.2 brake fluid, a brand I've been using for over 2.5 years with a newly acquired and relatively unknown (to me) CASTROL Response Super DOT 4.
This should improve the overall brake pedal feel and performance and hopefully perform a little bit better than RG as CASTROL's dry and wet boiling points are higher than those of RG's.

I've also been pondering whether I should continue using MOTUL 300V. MOTUL's price of $109.99/4L bottle is a little bit of a deciding factor when compared to MOBIL1 which goes at $94.95/5L bottle. Mobil1 is no MOTUL by any stretch of imagination but it is recommended by Honda mechanics in Japan especially for DC5s.

The other remaining fluid to be replaced is my MT transmission's one which at the moment has OMEGA 690 in it. I REALLY like this gear oil especially when it comes to extreme circuit performance. My only option at the moment is shipping it from Japan but I am not yet sure whether it's allowable for shipment to Australia (dangerous, flammable goods and all...). What other options do I have ? A friend suggested REDLINE ...

Stay tuned ....

Couldn't stay away !

Today was WASCC's last tuning day for the month. I wasn't originally planning on going but when I woke up this morning somehow I had this urge to drive and so I packed my gear as fast as I could and drove out there !

When I reached Barbagallo circuit I was greeted with very strong and gusty winds. After purchasing my session pass for a mere $60 I grabbed a pit and started preparing.

There were only a handful of cars, 10 tops so it wasn't too crowded but the wind was such a nuisance !!

I went out on a track around 10am and did about 5 laps before returning back into the pit lane and adjusting my tyre pressure. From 220kPa all around I went down to 180kPa for the front and 190kPa for the rear  (thanks Ryo for your advice here !)

Immediately after that I recorded a couple of 1'12''s and 1'11"s laps (wohooo !!). I was definitely very excited but I felt there was much more to be had. Firstly I still had more than 3/4s of the tank so was carrying extra weight around plus my rear damper was too stiff for my liking resulting in some minor fishtailing. I decided to give the car a short rest before heading out for my final stint around 11:30am.

My final stint was perfect. I changed the rear damper setting down a notch and waited for a clean track to give this new setup a go. It didn't disappoint ! I recorded my new best lap of 1'10''20 !!! What's even more interesting is that after reviewing the data in CircuitTools my best lap was also my virtual best which meant I drove every sector of the track to its maximum !

Needles to say, I still feel there are about 2 seconds to be slashed off of that time. Maybe I am not pushing hard enough ?! I'm pretty sure I got the racing line just the way I like it, my time is lost in my slightly early braking into the 1st corner, back hairpin and the last corner. Will work on that later and maybe that's where the sub 1'10''s are hiding ?

A word about my newly fitted Project Mu's HC-CS pads !
An interesting pad ! It grips to its full potential much later than Level700s, but nevertheless feels very comfortable and the feedback from the pedal is very good. It's very street friendly but after a few hot laps at Barbagallo I am seeing a bit of excessive burning on the edges which makes me think it can't handle high temperatures of a hard-on-brakes circuit like Barbagallo. I have mixed feelings about this pad. I might go back to Level700s perhaps ? Time will tell I suppose.

And lastly, here is what my tyres looked like in the end :)

No video this time, couldn't be bothered.
Oh and on the way there I got caught for speeding ! F*king WA speed cameras ! Revenue raising bulls*hit !

Hope you enjoyed this article

Rod

A few more [courtesy of Tuk]