Heads up for trackers

[Hrant]

I took a few pictures of items that might chafe so keep a watch for those who track their cars.

Picture 1: For those with 97+ spare, keep an eye on the wire harness to the left of the spare. If you remove your spare regularly, you know that it is very tight and often you chafe the wire. Mine was chafed to expose the colored wires. So I (well, ok AL aka Fearless Leader) put a protective tubing, held with two zip ties.

Picture 2: Al also noted that the AC tubing behind the wheel might also get chaffed, so he put another protective tubing. Once Al gets going, he will find things .....

Picture 3: If you hear occasional clunking on heavy g loads while taking Ss, this might be the reason. Comptech sway bar on stiffest position; Bilstein on lower perch with OEM springs. I taped the area to keep an eye on it; last track event did not show any chafing but then my last event had the Dali air deflectors on the lower position. I am suspecting the movement is from the OEM links; what do you think?

Picture 4: Well, before it happens, you may want to tape your socket to avoid scratching the paint of your new wheels. This may not solve the problem if the head of the socket scrapes the paint. I am not aware if they make one that has the mouth rubber coated but sure would be nice.

HTH

 

[Hrant]

Picture 1

 

[Hrant]

Picture 2

 

[Hrant]

Picture 3

 

[Hrant]

Picture 4 , well it's a simpleton solution ....

 

[ncdogdoc]

......... I am not aware if they make one that has the mouth rubber coated but sure would be nice.

HTH [/B]

Griots sells a nice set for both metric and SAE lugnuts.

 

[Hrant]

You are right, I forgot about those!

Griots'

http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?&SKU=77100

and Harbor Freight's

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=40035

 

[Hrant]

Found another cluncking noise from the rear area at the track that I recently tried to chase! I am not sure if this was posted before.

Make sure this nut/bolt is tight enough so that it doesn't bounce back and forth with g loads. I use the lever to change CDs only occasionally, so heavy users may be surprised how loose this can get. HTH.

 

[Hrant]

Took me a while to find this post even with advanced search .....

Found another item that might come loose with stiffer suspension and perhaps just because of age. The two end screws that hold the OEM wing brake light have come loose; funny but just to two end ones! Just noticed it while drying the car an felt a little looseness rattle.

Easy fix though; the plastic caps come off with your fingernails and then a philips screw does the job. Make sure you don't drop the plastic cap as it might slide over the trunk and into the fender/engine crevices.

 

[SlipAngle79]

FWIW: I noticed after the Billsteins were installed, I went to shake the car down through some curves and I could smell rubber burning somewhere. I had the SOS oil cooler installed at the same time and there was some concern that the one rubber hose that resides rather close to the pass. rear axle might touch under compression. We marked it with a grease pen and that was not the culprit. I noticed a thin line scraped into the inside sidewall of both rear tires. It turned out that the collar/perch on the Biillsteins was just barely too close to the inside of my rear tires (OEM 16/17, stock sized tires). We ground off some material on the collar to give plenty of clearance (more than .5" gap). I don't know if this has been covered on here, but I read your first post and noticed you had Billsteins too (back in 04) so I thought I might remind some people to check if they have that set up-Billsteins with stock springs. Perhaps with a stiffer spring it would not have happened, but I would not want to run the risk of something carving the inside sidewall of the rear tires, especially on track.

 

[illwillem]

My sump and cooler system rubs on the rear axle too, I had to replace the push hose and then ziptied a few more split hoses like sleeves around the section that i check it semi frequently. I have 18inch rears and the KW V3's with the 343lb springs when this was happening. Ive upped the spring rate since, ill see if that helps and report back.

 

[Hrant]

SlipAngle79: I did not have that issue with my Bilstein on lower perch and OEM springs with Comptech adjustable sway bars. [But you have to rotate the end links of the sway bar if you are going to stiffest holes.]

What is/was your alignment on the rears?

 

[SlipAngle79]

Good point, I believe I'm over -2 degrees camber at the rear or right at it. I didn't think of that.