The Good, The Bad and The Annoying
Discussion
So...now that I am up and running after the winter diff refurb, new dash and speedo sensor I can report back on my activities to date. I have defined them as good, bad and annoying!
1st....the good bit, I am terrified of my Griffith! in a good way
I love the griff, it is a hugely scary, entertaining and invovling car to drive. I bought the Griff having owned a Nissan 350z and the reason I swapped was because the Nissan was boring! I am sure that on a B road point to point I would be much, much faster in the Nissan but there was no sense of enjoyment or fear. There is nothing like the knowledge and satisfaction of controlling a car with nothing but your own skills and a bit of luck without the ESP, ASM, ABS etc. I am also lucky enough? to also own a 1970 Lotus Europa S2 with Vauxhall 2lt engine, 5 speed box and a few trick bits. When I first started driving the Griff I didn't really like the handling and controls. It felt so much heavier and less comunicative but the more you get used to the weight you can tell that the same senses are there. As a conmparrison, the Lotus wants to be your friend and make you look good whereas you go head to head with the Griff and you need to be fairly "on it" to win, but when you do.....
The bad bit...
During my drives around I have been having problems with my tickover speed, it has been varying from dropping to zero (occassionally it catches at about 250rpm and recovers), behaving normally (i.e. dropping to 1300rpm then down to 750 after a few seconds, dropping straight to 750 and somethimes raising to 2000rpm, I am really worried that it may something to do with the Steve Heath speedo sensor that I fitted as it didn't do this before the change. I guess it is something to do with the idle control solenoid but not sure if this is typical symptons. It really caught me out when I was breaking hard into a roundabout, dropped a cog without blipping the throttle and locked the rear wheels....that was scary and I must appologise to the owner of a Peugeot 407 that I had just overtaken!
The annoying....
My clever magnetic operated boot opening device has stopped working? I think that it is a modwise kit, does anyone have any wiring / fitting instructions that I could copy to try and work out what is wrong.
Hope to see some of you at Chatsworth,
Mark
1st....the good bit, I am terrified of my Griffith! in a good way
I love the griff, it is a hugely scary, entertaining and invovling car to drive. I bought the Griff having owned a Nissan 350z and the reason I swapped was because the Nissan was boring! I am sure that on a B road point to point I would be much, much faster in the Nissan but there was no sense of enjoyment or fear. There is nothing like the knowledge and satisfaction of controlling a car with nothing but your own skills and a bit of luck without the ESP, ASM, ABS etc. I am also lucky enough? to also own a 1970 Lotus Europa S2 with Vauxhall 2lt engine, 5 speed box and a few trick bits. When I first started driving the Griff I didn't really like the handling and controls. It felt so much heavier and less comunicative but the more you get used to the weight you can tell that the same senses are there. As a conmparrison, the Lotus wants to be your friend and make you look good whereas you go head to head with the Griff and you need to be fairly "on it" to win, but when you do.....
The bad bit...
During my drives around I have been having problems with my tickover speed, it has been varying from dropping to zero (occassionally it catches at about 250rpm and recovers), behaving normally (i.e. dropping to 1300rpm then down to 750 after a few seconds, dropping straight to 750 and somethimes raising to 2000rpm, I am really worried that it may something to do with the Steve Heath speedo sensor that I fitted as it didn't do this before the change. I guess it is something to do with the idle control solenoid but not sure if this is typical symptons. It really caught me out when I was breaking hard into a roundabout, dropped a cog without blipping the throttle and locked the rear wheels....that was scary and I must appologise to the owner of a Peugeot 407 that I had just overtaken!
The annoying....
My clever magnetic operated boot opening device has stopped working? I think that it is a modwise kit, does anyone have any wiring / fitting instructions that I could copy to try and work out what is wrong.
Hope to see some of you at Chatsworth,
Mark
MrMCI said:
1st....the good bit, I am terrified of my Griffith! in a good way
I love the griff, it is a hugely scary, entertaining and invovling car to drive. I bought the Griff having owned a Nissan 350z and the reason I swapped was because the Nissan was boring!............
I love the griff, it is a hugely scary, entertaining and invovling car to drive. I bought the Griff having owned a Nissan 350z and the reason I swapped was because the Nissan was boring!............
Grover!!!
I had a similar issue with the idle on mine: when the engine had warmed up the idle was all over the place; dropping near zero then catching, sometimes sitting up at 2000 rpm, sometimes dying etc. It was also running rich and over fuelling.
Turned out it was a dodgy ECU chip to ECU board connection. I was told that the OEM chip socket was not the best piece of equipment and if you got a dodgy solder it could play havoc with the fuelling. Mine was replaced and the connections soldered properly and it has cured the idle problem completely. It now sits at 900 rpm rock solid regardless of the engine temp, even when the fans kick in. It solved the fuelling problem too.
Turned out it was a dodgy ECU chip to ECU board connection. I was told that the OEM chip socket was not the best piece of equipment and if you got a dodgy solder it could play havoc with the fuelling. Mine was replaced and the connections soldered properly and it has cured the idle problem completely. It now sits at 900 rpm rock solid regardless of the engine temp, even when the fans kick in. It solved the fuelling problem too.
I've written a noddy guide for fitting the modwise boot opener Mark.
I'll see if I can find it and send it to you.
But, I heard you comment to your passenger about a sticky door opener yesterday. I'll bet a pound to a penny this was the problem.
Behind the seats are access panels for the door locking mechanism. Well, when I say panel I mean a void with a bit of carpet over it. Its above the seatbelt reel.
The Modwise kit attaches to the rods which connect the door plunger to the locking mechanism and I've known it to move and cause problems with the door catch on my own car.
Check this first. Realign it if necessary and see if it fixes it.
If all else fails, come in the Griff when you pick up the wheel plate and we'll look at it.
I'll see if I can find it and send it to you.
But, I heard you comment to your passenger about a sticky door opener yesterday. I'll bet a pound to a penny this was the problem.
Behind the seats are access panels for the door locking mechanism. Well, when I say panel I mean a void with a bit of carpet over it. Its above the seatbelt reel.
The Modwise kit attaches to the rods which connect the door plunger to the locking mechanism and I've known it to move and cause problems with the door catch on my own car.
Check this first. Realign it if necessary and see if it fixes it.
If all else fails, come in the Griff when you pick up the wheel plate and we'll look at it.
Edited by Barreti on Monday 16th April 11:21
MrMCI said:
The bad bit...
During my drives around I have been having problems with my tickover speed, it has been varying from dropping to zero (occassionally it catches at about 250rpm and recovers), behaving normally (i.e. dropping to 1300rpm then down to 750 after a few seconds, dropping straight to 750 and somethimes raising to 2000rpm, I am really worried that it may something to do with the Steve Heath speedo sensor that I fitted as it didn't do this before the change. I guess it is something to do with the idle control solenoid but not sure if this is typical symptons. It really caught me out when I was breaking hard into a roundabout, dropped a cog without blipping the throttle and locked the rear wheels....that was scary and I must appologise to the owner of a Peugeot 407 that I had just overtaken!
Mark
Worth checking and cleaning the stepper motor, including the housing in the plenum. There are lts of threads on here about how to do it. During my drives around I have been having problems with my tickover speed, it has been varying from dropping to zero (occassionally it catches at about 250rpm and recovers), behaving normally (i.e. dropping to 1300rpm then down to 750 after a few seconds, dropping straight to 750 and somethimes raising to 2000rpm, I am really worried that it may something to do with the Steve Heath speedo sensor that I fitted as it didn't do this before the change. I guess it is something to do with the idle control solenoid but not sure if this is typical symptons. It really caught me out when I was breaking hard into a roundabout, dropped a cog without blipping the throttle and locked the rear wheels....that was scary and I must appologise to the owner of a Peugeot 407 that I had just overtaken!
Mark
I've got the SH sensor fitted and it's not caused me any issues like this.
MrMCI said:
So...now that I am up and running after the winter diff refurb, new dash and speedo sensor I can report back on my activities to date. I have defined them as good, bad and annoying!
1st....the good bit, I am terrified of my Griffith! in a good way
I love the griff, it is a hugely scary, entertaining and invovling car to drive. I bought the Griff having owned a Nissan 350z and the reason I swapped was because the Nissan was boring! I am sure that on a B road point to point I would be much, much faster in the Nissan but there was no sense of enjoyment or fear. There is nothing like the knowledge and satisfaction of controlling a car with nothing but your own skills and a bit of luck without the ESP, ASM, ABS etc. I am also lucky enough? to also own a 1970 Lotus Europa S2 with Vauxhall 2lt engine, 5 speed box and a few trick bits. When I first started driving the Griff I didn't really like the handling and controls. It felt so much heavier and less comunicative but the more you get used to the weight you can tell that the same senses are there. As a conmparrison, the Lotus wants to be your friend and make you look good whereas you go head to head with the Griff and you need to be fairly "on it" to win, but when you do.....
The bad bit...
During my drives around I have been having problems with my tickover speed, it has been varying from dropping to zero (occassionally it catches at about 250rpm and recovers), behaving normally (i.e. dropping to 1300rpm then down to 750 after a few seconds, dropping straight to 750 and somethimes raising to 2000rpm, I am really worried that it may something to do with the Steve Heath speedo sensor that I fitted as it didn't do this before the change. I guess it is something to do with the idle control solenoid but not sure if this is typical symptons. It really caught me out when I was breaking hard into a roundabout, dropped a cog without blipping the throttle and locked the rear wheels....that was scary and I must appologise to the owner of a Peugeot 407 that I had just overtaken!
The annoying....
My clever magnetic operated boot opening device has stopped working? I think that it is a modwise kit, does anyone have any wiring / fitting instructions that I could copy to try and work out what is wrong.
Hope to see some of you at Chatsworth,
Mark
Food for thought! I take your point you believe your Nissan 350Z is faster on B road point to point. However, according to EVO magazine on the West circuit, August 2010, quote, the Griffith "crossed the line 0.2sec faster than a Nissan 370z - not bad for a car launched 17 years ago and quite a marker for Mazda to aim at" Obviously the Griff is faster on track. Also, my nice, fast, safe comfortable BMW is a bit of a bore compared to my challenging Griff. We both cherish our scary, entertaining involving Griff to drive. Enjoy. Hope your tick over is solved ie a Stepper clean up.1st....the good bit, I am terrified of my Griffith! in a good way
I love the griff, it is a hugely scary, entertaining and invovling car to drive. I bought the Griff having owned a Nissan 350z and the reason I swapped was because the Nissan was boring! I am sure that on a B road point to point I would be much, much faster in the Nissan but there was no sense of enjoyment or fear. There is nothing like the knowledge and satisfaction of controlling a car with nothing but your own skills and a bit of luck without the ESP, ASM, ABS etc. I am also lucky enough? to also own a 1970 Lotus Europa S2 with Vauxhall 2lt engine, 5 speed box and a few trick bits. When I first started driving the Griff I didn't really like the handling and controls. It felt so much heavier and less comunicative but the more you get used to the weight you can tell that the same senses are there. As a conmparrison, the Lotus wants to be your friend and make you look good whereas you go head to head with the Griff and you need to be fairly "on it" to win, but when you do.....
The bad bit...
During my drives around I have been having problems with my tickover speed, it has been varying from dropping to zero (occassionally it catches at about 250rpm and recovers), behaving normally (i.e. dropping to 1300rpm then down to 750 after a few seconds, dropping straight to 750 and somethimes raising to 2000rpm, I am really worried that it may something to do with the Steve Heath speedo sensor that I fitted as it didn't do this before the change. I guess it is something to do with the idle control solenoid but not sure if this is typical symptons. It really caught me out when I was breaking hard into a roundabout, dropped a cog without blipping the throttle and locked the rear wheels....that was scary and I must appologise to the owner of a Peugeot 407 that I had just overtaken!
The annoying....
My clever magnetic operated boot opening device has stopped working? I think that it is a modwise kit, does anyone have any wiring / fitting instructions that I could copy to try and work out what is wrong.
Hope to see some of you at Chatsworth,
Mark
The AJP Griff said:
MrMCI said:
1st....the good bit, I am terrified of my Griffith! in a good way
I love the griff, it is a hugely scary, entertaining and invovling car to drive. I bought the Griff having owned a Nissan 350z and the reason I swapped was because the Nissan was boring!............
I love the griff, it is a hugely scary, entertaining and invovling car to drive. I bought the Griff having owned a Nissan 350z and the reason I swapped was because the Nissan was boring!............
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