2008 Lancer CJ VRX - Build thread

[lancerdarryl]

Have you sorted the ASC error yet?

[Avenir]

@mars - Thanks man, appreciate the support. Defs no crackle tune! For me personally, someone told me a while back that really in reality when you hear your exhaust crackling and banging like that your car is just straight up not running efficiently, it's not doing the combustion process properly. It's all LOOKS - show, no go.. Now when I see it I just go yeah that's really cool but your engine isn't running properly lol.

Also the big reason too was I gotta be a good boy for a year and not get any police attention remember?

@awood - thanks!! Let me know what parts I should get next! For me at the moment it's like a lucky dip ahah.

@bumble - yeah thought so, turns out to be 1500$ roughly when all said and done. I'll consider saving for it especially since I've got the short ram anyhow.

@darryl - nah man, it's still broken. I'll get that sorted when I get my Headunit all swapped out.. because the guy is going to scan my car with a much better tool and find the source. If it still occurs, I'll just have to get an auto elec to look at it!

[Mars1811]

@mars - Thanks man, appreciate the support. Defs no crackle tune! For me personally, someone told me a while back that really in reality when you hear your exhaust crackling and banging like that your car is just straight up not running efficiently, it's not doing the combustion process properly. It's all LOOKS - show, no go.. Now when I see it I just go yeah that's really cool but your engine isn't running properly lol.

Oh absolutely, that's exactly what it is. It's to emulate old carburetted racecars.
With their carburettor jetting tuned for maximum power, as soon as you lifted off the throttle you'd get a mixture going through the engine so rich that it couldn't hope to burn it all.
When that unburnt fuel came out the cylinder it'd hit the manifold or the muffler and suddenly ignite, going POP POP BANG. Sometimes it wouldn't even ignite until it came out the other end, where the fresh air would make it come out as a flame.
If you get a carburetted car and pull a sparkplug lead out, you'll see it spit pop and bang like crazy as a cylinder's worth of fuel is just getting thrown into the manifold

Nowdays with fuel injection, a car can put in exactly as much fuel as it wants and not waste a drop when you lift off, which fixed backfiring and such. Then ricers come along and put it right back!

[bumblebee]

The pop and crackle in the ECU tune is achieved by editing the spark map, not the fuel map

[Avenir]

LANCER UPDATE:

Hey Guys, I have a bit of an update for you all. So yesterday I ran my car to my brothers Burson's shop, as I wanted to get my car scanned properly to find the issue to the ASC being off. He led me around the corner to another workshop and got old mate to scan it there.

After 15 minutes and 3 different very large scan/diag tools he finally found the potential issue. As he tried to calibrate the steering sensor because I told him that the steering rack had been replaced, he noticed the ECU was reporting the wheel is straight when it was physically turned, and when my wheels were straight the ecu reported a 160 degree difference half turn.

So all in all we figured out a couple things from this: The steering sensor is reporting the false position of my wheels, so it throws the ECU out and then the ASC was turned off as a result and the steering column overall is off by some margin compared to the Steering rack itself. This explains why when I drive on a straight line I was having the wheel pointed slightly to the left all the time, dad believed that it was just the camber of the road and I was being too analytical, but there was a method to my madness and it was never pointing straight. I thought I was going crazy.

I don't blame my dad at all because he did all the work to put in the rack while I was away on work, he just didn't test the column with the rack to make sure both were aligned I spose... All in all, I am going to Bairnsdale next week for the whole week, so I have booked it in by this guy for Monday and he will adjust all of the column, clock spring (surprised it hadn't snapped), wheel alignment and reset the ECU to fix.

Oh and when he tried calibrating the steering it now flashes the ASC light and continuously BEEPS forever, so the car is almost undriveable anyway because of the incessant beeping, I also can't see temp readings or anything because it won't clean the screen. This is hopefully 1 problem squashed with the lancer. All for quite cheap too.

Next few issues to sort out are:

- RWR camber bolt as mine is stripped
- Front & rear Sway Bar kit to stop all the rocking and clanking
- Exhaust fix up with high flow cat etc. Finishes off the exhaust entirely and then also get the guy to remove all the rattling on idle.
- Headunit upgrade will hopefully ease some of the issues with the radio as it will have stronger signals and all that jazz (technical audiophile words go here)
- Tune to make it run properly and idle higher etc.

After those things the car is pretty much golden and not doing funny business constantly.

Also as some of you may know I was considering selling the lancer and putting money together for a 350z that I found in very good condition, stock, etc. Manual too. I am not sure still if I want to, I am undecided. But I know I have to fix some of these issues first before I try to see what my car is worth because they ultimately take a lot of value off the car. Doesn't help the decision when I get compliments on it haha

I have also finished off uni for now and have a month break so a few more developments might come soon.

Avenir.

[awood]

Good update and good news on potentially solving the ABS problem.

[bumblebee]

When you dropped in the front lower control arms did you get a full wheel alignment done ?

[Avenir]

Yeah should be good! I reckon I'll go straight to the exhaust shop next after this fix.

Yes full alignment as best as the guy could. He lost a little bit of toe adjustment because of the coilovers creating so much camber on the rear end but other then that they were aligned.

[bumblebee]

i remember the guys at Pedders who did my lower control arms , they said you need to get an all 4 wheel alignment done after the control arms are done, if not, the ECU will have a spit
i went hunting, i thought that mmcoding writer would reset the error you had, but doesnt seem like it
however , i have no doubt it could be if you had the MUT 3 software, this can be obtained and needs the tactrix open port dongle

[Avenir]

SMALL UPDATE:
Things have progressed a little further...

The ASC and steering is fully fixed. Turns out the clock spring was a bit wrecked inside my steering wheel as being 160 degrees out and doing full locks over time it needed to be changed. So had one shipped over night to my brothers shop and got his friend to finish it all up yesterday. Aligned the steering column, new C spring, aligned the front wheels again and reset the ECU with it.

I now I have traction control again, no more beeping and alerts etc. and the steering is very much on dead on centre now which is great, lot more stable/reliable at high speeds.

I have been doing LOTS of jobs lately as I am off uni (not car related), so next up I think - is going directly to the exhaust shop and getting this exhaust finished off, I'd like to do it before uni again which is in 3 weeks.

A few small things I have thought about getting over time as well:
- Cabin air filter (Not sure this has ever been changed in the car)
- Fuel filter (Not sure if this has been changed in a long time either)
- 2 last poly bushings for lateral arms (Not super important atm cos the OEM's are still working)
- Coilpacks (Expensive but will eventually need to be changed as well)

I also brought a whole kit of LED replacement interior lights for the lancer to change out which should be nice.

That's all so far for this month,

I saw an absolute mint Ralliart being sold for 15k with an EVO turbo making 220awkw on Gumtree, got me kind of sad because I thought of just buying that instead. I hope this tune is good when I get it

Avenir.

[bumblebee]

good to hear the ASC error is fixed
why did you pull the steering wheel off for in the first place?

the coil packs for the lancer are inexpensive. i have seen a set of 4 under $150
fuel filter- it lives in the tank under the back seat. make sure fuel level is below half before even thinking about doing it, the less fuel in the tank the better.
cabin filter is behind the glove box, pretty easy to pop out the glove box and swap it out.
i know guys with over 300,000 kays with the original coil packs. they are quite sturdy units

[lancerdarryl]

Don't worry about changing coil packs. They don't wear out,you achieve nothing changing them except wasting money.You only change them when they fail.
Did the steering wheel get removed when the rack was changed?

[awood]

One of the first things I did when I got the "BEAST" was change the cabin filter.
Didn't even need tools to do it , one xxxx cans work , compared to my former Mazda 3 SP 23 , OMG . that was a nightmare , even needed to pull the fuse box thing under the dash to change them out , yes , them , two stacked on top of each other!!!!!

[Avenir]

@bumble - yeah irs good to finally have it back to normal! Works a treat. No my dad did it when I was gone on a work trip and he did not remove the steering wheel at all. He didn't touch it. But it wasn't aligned with the rack properly.

Sounds good, I may end up changing it because I have changed a lot of maintenance items on the lancer but there are a select few that haven't been touched in literal years and years.

My lancer use to struggle starting a while back, did it for a long time, wasn't sure what it was after doing servicing etc, spark plugs.. but who knows it could have been the fuel filter the whole time..?

Alrighty I might put the coilpacks on thr backburner then. Wasn't sure they were in the best condition... genuine coilpacks go for about 300-400?? Checked then out a bit ago at my bros store.

Steering wheel wasn't removed when rack was changed! I think it was just turned etc?? By accident haha

@awood - Yep I'll get onto the cabin air filter, found a nice ryco one with 99.9% effectiveness with pathogens lol. Taking the lancer into the future aye.

[Avenir]

Build Update:

Hi guys, things have progressed again I have a few additions and changes that are coming too.

EXHAUST FIXUP/HIGH FLOW CAT - I went to an exhaust shop twice last week to get my car on a hoist and checked out. Seems like my exhaust is okay but it is not aligned properly and some parts may end up needing to be cut so it can fit better, this combined with my new high flow cat and extension of piping etc is all being done tomorrow. The high flow cat is a Magnaflow (same as exhaust system) and the guy is going to make it all on the spot, stainless steel etc. I will deliver the car tonight, and get it done tomorrow sometime. Think its going to cost about 600-700$ Bit more then anticipated but a better quality cat and the extra work done to the exhaust propped it up.

CABIN AIR FILTER - Chucked in a new one of these, have a look at the pics below. Clearly mine has never been changed. I got a middle grade Ryco one that blocks 99.6% of pathogens etc all that jazz. But not the stupidly high price medical grade ones they make. I'm happy I have changed this over, was easy.

LED INTERIOR LIGHTS - Took the time out to install the interior lights that I could. So the boot has been changed, and the 2 inside the cabin. Just white LED lights. Although I ran into an issue with the license plate lights, I changed them over and they still don't come on when the car is on, even swapped them both ways.. I think some part of the wiring might be fucked? Its very dirty underneath where the housing sits. Not sure what to do.

WHITELINE BMK007 - Brought the whiteline swaybar kit. Its on backorder from VPW. About 670$ which is better then every other retailer I could find. Apparently they expect it next week friday. Which is exactly when I'll need it. Fingers crossed it gets home in time for the weekend.

FUEL FILTER - After seeing the state of the cabin air filter I am very much wanting to not neglect any others after this amount of time, so I'll buy a fresh filter from my brother probably tonight, change it when I go back home. Any tips on this would be good. I'll make sure the fuel is low when doing it too.

HEADUNIT UPGRADE - This is scheduled & booked for next week friday. When the sway bar kit comes. It's good to finally have that all locked in, so I look forward to it getting done very soon.

Once these items are done next week I will get the tune finished by merlin's mate. I wanted to get the fuel filter changed before that, just so that it doesn't strain any of the process if the fuel maps, timing etc is changed I don't wanna be inhibited.

This will also complete all the upgrades to the suspension system a part from 2 poly bushings at the back.

Might consider rims next not sure. Or Vland headlights to finish off the lights.

I'll let you know,

Avenir