bugster70

Update (would you believe it took until today to find myself with a spare 10 minutes to do this?! ). The good news is that I retrieved my resistors, they were easy as hell to plug in and the airbag warning light on the dash behaves normally again ie. lights up when ignition is turned on but extinguishes shortly after the car is started. The bad news is that I did as Ninka advised and I don't have the additional wiring required to connect to a side airbag sensor, so it looks like the side airbags will never be operational. Oh well, it was worth a shot, thanks again for all the help everyone.

Whilst they may not have been exactly subtle about the way they said it, I think the guys actually have Michael's best interests at heart. It may be true that you need don't need the extra levels of grip afforded by better tyres in MOST cases, but it's not most cases that we're worried about - it's those nasty little unexpected surprises that you never anticipated/saw coming that are the problem. Now, I'm not saying that a better tyre WILL save you in a nasty situation, but they will certainly give you a better chance, absolutely no argument about that. And Zap's right, it makes little difference what power you're running. Even the best drivers are subjected to tricky situations, often through no fault of their own. I'm hardly what you would call an aggressive driver, but my decision to stick with 18" rims was largely due to the fact that I wanted to be able to afford to put decent tyres on the car. It is my daily driver, is driven regularly by my wife and regularly carts around my two little girls. Whilst I don't 'need' the levels of grip my Goodyear F1s can give me, I feel all the better for knowing that, should they be called upon (and I hope I never have to find out), then at least the driver will have a better chance of getting out of a nasty situation unscathed.

You most definitely keep the rear muffler. You can replace the centre section with either straight through pipes or twin hot dogs. Some people have reported droning when using straight through pipes, but many others have been happy with the end result.

Sorry to say mate, but no. Having seen it on and painted in a solid colour, it's most definitely rice, IMHO.

Hi Ben! And thanks for the reply mate, comprehensive as usual. Okay, starting to make sense now. I do recall seeing photos of the turbo off a car, and think I recall the 'output' end (excuse all my technical jargon, won't you ) being just one big opening. I also understand that the 4" SMB dump is perfectly matched to that opening, thus confirming your advice re the single larger opening being best for a stock turbo/wastegate setup. So then, why would a company like Exotic Exhaust in Brisvegas be offering a twin dump pipe as part of their upgrade for a stock setup (I'm just using them as an example as I rang them asking about this stuff - I'm sure they wouldn't be the only ones)? If what you are saying is true, I would imagine that the vast majority of people would be after a single pipe, not one with a separate wastegate pipe? Also, is there any truth in the theory that a larger dump allows the turbo to spool up faster, therefore bringing the power on earlier in the rev range?

Thanks guys. The answer is no, I'm not planning for over 300 at the treads. But, purely out of interest then, when DOES it become worthwhile? And what about single vs twin dumps?

I know dump pipes have been done to death before, but I can't seem to find comprehensive answers to the questions floating around my head. First up, I understand that, for a stock unit anyway, the factory dump pipe on the XR6Ts is very good. That's fine, but to what sort of power level? And, even if you're looking at relatively low power levels, is there any advantage to changing it for an aftermarket item? Let's say we're looking at around the 300rwkw mark (and we can assume that there is already a better/higher flowing cat as part of the overall system). So, at 300rwkw, do you think it's worth the money changing the dump pipe? If so, what pros and cons are there for, say, a twin 3 1/2" dump and a single 4" dump? For that matter, why do we have single and twin versions? Is the single only really beneficial when you're talking really big numbers or are there other considerations? Thanks for your help/advice guys!

My car is edited and I occasionally have TPS issues too. Strangely enough, it seems very much to coincide with whether my car is warm(ish) or cold. If I start the car and I'm in a hurry to get away and I put it into reverse while it's still idling quite high, I will quite often have the TPS light come on and have those idling issues (resolved, as you said, by restarting the car). But if I let it warm up for a while and the revs drop, then I rarely have TPS issues. Go figure.

It'd be close I reckon (fitted). I just rang Ross (yup, he's a nice bloke) and these are the prices I got: 3 1/2" double dump pipe - $450 (to fit 3 1/2" cat - see next item) 3 1/2" XForce brand metal cat - $400 (with adapter to bolt onto stock twin system) Centre muffler replacement section with hot dgos - $260 Total of $1,110, but if you do the whole lot in one hit he can make it cheaper. All gaskets, etc, supplied, will take about two hours work to fit up. Hope that helps.

Why aren't I getting email notification of replies to my subscribed threads?! But yeah, in answer to your questions, she knows about some mods!!

Thanks mate. Only just saw this reply, something must be wrong with my subscription/email system. I'd forgotten all about this, but now you've resurrected it I'm on the war path again!!

I am running F1 GS-D3s in a 235/40/18 configuration and have no complaints at all - good ride, grippy in the wet and dry (quite grippy enough for me anyway, but I'm not a very aggressive driver), quiet, etc. BTW, $270 for a 245/35/19 is an INCREDIBLY good price! How are you getting them so cheap? Mine set me back $350 a pop.

Thanks for that, Ninka, most helpful. I definitely didn't have the wiring going up the side of the B pillar like you have but will remove the seat track trim, etc, as you suggest to see if it's tucked away down there. From the look of your photos though, it's a fair bit of wiring (with a protective cover) so I doubt that it'd all fit under there? If there was provision for it, I would have imagined that it'd run up the side as yours does and just not to be connected to any sensor? I hope that's not the case, of course, and will report back after I've checked.

Yup, agree it was a totally TOP night! Great to meet some new people and put faces to forum names. Really good to talk to some of the more experienced/knowledgable members too, before I got stuck too much into it! Jules, hope your sunnies turned out okay, I got sick of fixing them on the night and confiscated them until the next morning! That early morning walk saved my bacon and was worth it to experience Rob on full song alone!! Jeff, thanks for the safe cruise home, my P2 map was working just fine, thank goodness. Thanks to all for a great night (and to Gary for doing the commemorative cruise certificate), look forward to doing it all over again!

Yeah, I'm not sure how feasible that is without knowing a lot more about it eg. whether it's as easy as just 'connecting into' the existing wiring, whether the RDC will need replacing too (as per FORDTECH's earlier advice), etc, etc. For now, the short term fix is to put back the 'blanking' resistors. The good part about that is it is totally reversible if I do choose to try and have the side airbags wired in at a later date.

Just an update on what the situation is, for those that are interested. Unfortunately, despite being told otherwise by several seemingly reliable sources (including some Ford techs), it would appear that not all cars have the same wiring loom (or at least not the same wiring in certain parts of the car). I took off the B pillar trims and there was absolutely nothing there except an empty 'cradle' where the side airbag sensor should have been located. I have an electronic copy of the workshop manual and looked up the relevant section (501-20b) so knew exactly what I was looking for. I was half expecting not to see the sensor in any case, so when I saw that that was missing I really didn't worry too much. However, the worst part is that there is no aditional wiring in the B pillar at all! I was hoping to see some wires with, at worst, some electrical tape on the end and, at best, with a connector that didn't plug into anything. So, as FORDTECH initially recommended, it does indeed appear that my best bet is to retrieve my resistors and plug 'em into my new seats so that the car thinks it isn't equipped with side airbags. Seems a crying shame, but short of doing a fair bit of additional wiring (at a minimum), I think this is my only realistic choice. My sincere thanks to all those that have offered advice and tried to help (with a special thanks to Ninka for taking the trouble to actually call me and explain a few of his thoughts), it's very much appreciated and, IMO, represents the very best of what this forum is all about! Cheers guys!

Well, yeah, that could be true - there are some really bizarre and VERY ordinary cars in that collection. Mitsubishi Magna anyone?!

Good on yer Jeff!!!

Check this out, apparently the single largest private collection of cars ever offered for sale in Australia. "A Gentleman's Private Collection" EDIT: The referring article, with a better description of the story behind the collection, can be found here (just scroll down to the auction article).

Are you serious? Have you seen recent stats on average earnings around the country? For a small town there's a fair bit of money here.

This may be a repost, but I thought the article was interesting. Apparently, with 23 recalls in 9 years, the Late model camira tops the list as Australia's most recalled car. Carsguide article

Thanks for the link, but that sort of stuff looks like it's waaaay outta my league! It's also the only car we have and, with two young daughters who need ferrying around seemingly constantly, I'm not sure I could afford the time for a job like that. Might just have to take the easy option for now and retrieve my resistors...

Ouch, sounds like a lot of hassle. Many thanks for your advice mate, I really appreciate it.

Well, I wouldn't even have to do that if it's actually possible to change RCMs - I could just swap my RCM for the one in the car that now has my seats! From what FORDTECH was saying, I'm assuming the sensors are already in the B pillars and that it's just the RCM causing the problem. The question is whether it can be changed over or not.

← Thanks for confirming that. Seems a crying shame to have two perfectly good airbags that won't work. So I assume that it isn't feasible to swap over RCMs? The guy who has my old seats is registering exactly the same problem with his dash airbag light. If we could swap RCMs both our issues would be resolved. Is this an option?