ThanksFoggening
Ah it was so peaceful on the day of Feasting...
Once I saw Dean and Jon in the proper bloat and snore positions shortly before dessert, I knew my work was done here.
Ah.....
 
All was on schedule, the holiday stalls of shops installed in Union Square lit up the night and it was packed with shoppers on Black Friday.
Then came the news....
60 frikin degree days for the weekend.
Say what?
Look at calendar, look at weather forecast. All I could think of was driving.
And Fogging.
I wrote to Shawn thinking he would think I was out of my mind for suggesting he spend his Thanksgiving Sunday working on my frikin car.
He was up for it- and I jumped at the opportunity.
I forgot about Peter Paul and Mary at the Bottom Line, threw a few things in bag and ran out the door.
It was hot.
Last I saw Emmy she was perfection, except for that damn hesitation.
We're going to Florida in 2 months, this is a chance in a million to let Dr. Fogg check her out before I go. Otherwise, I will have to live with it until spring, since no Z3 would willingly drive to New England in the winter.
Good morning, here is your car, and here is your airbag warning light on for no particular reason, have a nice day.
Argh.
Airbag light? That feels like getting chicken pox at midlife. Isn't that a kid's disease? Didn't we do the damn airbag thing to death already? Fixed it so many times a couple years ago. Ended up being a connection under the passenger seat. Stabilant 22. Oh well at least it happened on the way TO Shawn's.
Oh how to get to Shawn's. Well I am so damn lazy having the Traffic Pro, I get into the car now practically without looking at a map. It's North and East and I have to take I-95 to get there, so what the heck.
Natch it was a sunshiney morning driving up the FDR as the sun rose across the East River over the 59th street bridge and Yankee Stadium. I was top down with only a light sweater and it was November 24. It's a crazy world.
I was having Traffic Pro problems. Later it turned out that it was the interface between the seat and the radio (me) that was at fault, as usual. I did learn though that Traffic Pro could conceiveably pay for itself, because it can route you up 95 without paying any tolls.
So, after some self induced circular travel, I was hitting the multilane.
Despite the banal driving of so many yuckleheads up in the morning on Sunday (where DO these people come from?) I was making fine time. I knew I was getting off at exit 5, so as soon as the numbers dropped from the 90s to one, I started to pay attention. Already I had seen the road dotted with state troopers, every couple miles it seemed. By the time I got to Rhode Island it was more like I had a police escort and a V1 concerto.
It rained and got cold a little, but I was top down the whole way.
I was in the wrong state, I realized too late. Had to pass through Rhode Island to get to the Land of Fogg, Massachusettes.
OK, so Rhode Island is about 20 minutes long. La, la, la.
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Casa Fogg. Emmy pulled in next to Shawn's Supercharged HellRot 1.9 like when your cousin is your best friend coming over for holidays.
 
Red and Green, how festive!
Shawn was moving so fast ... From this point on all the techincal information that is correct is from Shawn, all the mistakes are mine. Please check out Shawn's web site for great information on the most frequently asked questions.
The Deluxe Dolly, holds your head up :)
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Happily, Shawn had just purchased a air light resetting device, and got to try it out for the first time on Emmy.
End of that problem. The light did not come back on, so it must have just been a blooper.
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::: up music ::::
IN SEARCH OF
The Hesitation.
A little background:
Last year in March my clutch went bad.
After the repair I noticed a hesitation that happened shifting into first and second gear.
I had the dealer re-install the clutch.
I took it back to Shawn's, he was able to reproduce the effect. Shawn said it was not the clutch, it was the engine. He demonstrated this by engaging the clutch completely then while only giving it gas, reproducing the annoying hesitation followed by the burp of acceleration.
I took her to several knowledgeable friends and mechanics and recommended shops.
Carlos at JMK BMWconfirmed that in his opinion also it was not the clutch. He tested for faults, Emmy had a clean bill of health. He thought perhaps there is a sensor that is functioning at borderline. His tests included engaging the clutch in third gear from a standstill. If the clutch is working properly, the car will stall. Again Emmy passed the test.
Carlos recommended trying to swap out my Bosch +4 spark plugs and replacing them with the oem plugs.
Mario swapped them out one day at his garage, bled the brakes, changed the oil. (Man, I am a lucky person to have friends like this!)
For a while we thought we'd licked it, but each time the hesitation would return.
I have forgotten how to drive properly. I compensate my leaving the clutch in far too long. :(
Next Dr. Fogg diagnosed the Throttle Position Sensor, using his computer attached to Emmy's console.
Another test passed.
Shawn went after Emmy's Dinan Cold Air Intake.
Using another great new toy, his dolly with the head lift. Very nice!
First he removed the pan behind the spoiler and Emmy coughed up a small pile of leaves.
Melissa brought in cocoa to keep us warm
Shawn asked me if I had been letting Emmy jump in the piles of leaves, because they were packed in around her radiator.
I love fall.
My car really sucks. (grin)
Shawn accessed the CAI via the front driver's side wheel well.
Rachel, the Prime Directive forbids us to tamper with alien civilizations. We might have to check with Star Fleet on a couple of these species.
Or the ASPCA
Or the ACLU
 
All kinda of little bugs and things in the filter and it was tar black. Strange how the flash shows the photo with some of the original pink showing. In real life it was black.
I don't know if all this is normal or if perhaps my penchant for the backroads means Emmy is sucking up more dirt than they average bear.
Shawn reasoned that this could be a good suspect for the cause of this particular hesitation. If the filter is clogged, the first suction of air would have to fight a path through the debris. Once the air flow has begun, the rest of the air could come in quicker causing a dearth of air followed by a rush.
He also explained why it really couldn't be the clutch.
Shawn would have preferred to replace the filter, but it was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and I was terribly lucky he got a filter cleaning kit.
Cleaning the filter is a multi stage process.
First Shawn throroughly sprayed it down.
Then he dug some holes for Melissa to plant Daffodil and Iris bulbs, while the spray set.
Then back to the kitchen sink to rinse off the filter.
The reason why Dinan no longer recommends cleaning the filter is the sensitive HFM inside the canister. The HFM measures air flow to the engine and can easily be contaminated by the oil applied to the filter outside after it is cleaned.
Shawn cleaned this too.
While waiting for the filter to dry...
Cleaning the Throttle Body
Shawn is holding Emmy's Traction Control (ASC) throttle body in his hand, below is the main throttle body
Showing the throttle body closed and then open exposes the black ring of carbon inside.
Compare it to dpeete's Traction Control throttle body and main throttle body.
 
dpeete's euro MZ3, 3.2 engine is very much the same. The important differences for this discussion is his bored out main throttle body from Dinan, and the fact that his thottle bodies are already clean.
Shawn makes all this seem like playing with Legos.
You can see that the bored out Dinan throttle body has a wider opening to allow more air into the engine faster. There is some discussion on the merits of a wider main throttle body. What difference can a wider main throttle body make if air has to pass a narrower ASC throttle body first?
dpeete removed his ASC throttle body in the hopes of taking advantage of the wider main throttle body upgrade from Dinan. Please check out his marvelous article, ASC Modification, for mo' better info.
This opens up a discussion of throttle bodies and traction control.
Newer Z3s have "drive by wire" and DSC instead of ASC- so they don't have the ASC throttle body pictured and discussed here. The gas pedal controls the new main throttle body by computer, and so does the new Traction Control (DSC).
On older Z3s like mine and dpeete's, the throttle is controlled by cable from the gas pedal, and the Traction Control is this additional ring. So, if you have a newer Z3 with DSC, (MY2000) you don't have this extra throttle body for traction control.
 
Let's take one more step into Emmy's engine before we go look at Shawn's supercharged 1.9.
The main throttle body is attached to the black plastic intake manifold. Inside the manifold is the Intake Air Temperature Sensor (IAT). When you first start the engine it is used to determine initially how much extra fuel to inject to get it to start. After the engine is running it is only used as a trim on the ignition advance to avoid detonation. It is also used to determine if the car is being run in "unusual" conditions.
Grin.
Here is Emmy's air intake system. Air comes in through the Dinan Cold Air Intake, passed the HFM where it is measured, turns a corner through a black hose into the Traction Control Throttle Body, then passed into the Main Throttle Body, into the intake manifold, passing the IAT where the car measures the air and gas again.
 
Now let's look at Shawn's air intake system in the 1.9.
 
Air coming in from the Fogg Air Intake Box through a black hose into the supercharger
 
 
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