I don't believe it (TM Victor Meldrew) - Good and Bad!
 

The Good:
I was asked to go and help set up a customer's car for Round 2 of Time Attack, which was all the way up and Croft at the weekend. The Cesil needed another few hundred miles on the clock, which would then enable me to take it to Elms for an oil change, which would finally allow me to drive the car how BMW intended (following a full engine rebuild under warranty), so naturally it made sense to take this.

Unfortunately the TA car chewed a rear driveshaft, so with only an hour away from the circuit I got a call to see if I could locate and collect one on my way up :119:. Thankfully, I was not too far from one of my suppliers, so quickly made the 100 mile detour to Paul at North Yorks RS Spares to collect the drive / spiggot shafts.

So with a mixture of fast and slow A roads, and driving at a steady 55-85mph (traffic dependent), I was absolutely amazed to see this figure recorded as the average of the 300 mile trip:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/07...ps4c60da5a.jpg

With fuel economy like that, who needs a diesel :-D. A mate said he only gets 34mpg out of his Golf TD on a similar run :supz:.

I also spotted a CSL behind the pits with a registration designed to spell out CSL GT - I believe it is Gavin Renshaws?

Now the bad:
50 miles from Croft the emissions light came on :(.

Now I believe this can be one of three things:
1. One of the lambda sensors
2. The intake air temp sensor
3. Head gasket failure :(.

I'm going to be speaking to Emma today and booking the car in anyway, but I was wondering if there was any additional symptoms that would point to one or the other. The reason being, I didn't notice the light had come on until I gave the car a "tickle" and under full load in the mid-range above 5000rpm, you could hear a "rattle" (which reminded me of Toughy's recent posts). I immediately backed off and checked the dash to see the light on.

All experiences in this regard would be greatly appreciated.

To top it all, when I arrived at Croft with the parts for the race car, I was greeted with this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/07...psfa21ee88.jpg

The car had suffered a back-fire in the morning qualifying (third fastest after only nine laps and never having been to the circuit before), which blew apart the aircraft spec alloy (stronger than steel) plenum apart :smt107. Somehow fuel is getting into the plenum and because it is running wasted spark (which fires two cylinders at a time), the fuel is then being ignited. It looks like the FPR may be faulty :(.

Is the engine management light on still today?

The Supersprint cats can cause the light to come on sometimes but normally when the car gets hot.

Id ring Elms and ask if Emma can put Gareth on the phone.

Billy

Not checked today. However, it hadn't gone out by the time I left the circuit.

It didn't get hot - weather was cool (with sporadic showers) on the way up and as you can see by the MPG, I was taking it steady.

I was thinking it didn't like the economy run :hahaha:.

Mike with mine it was like it was running off a cyl as well. Sounded a little stuttery.
I never had any lights on and the car was not registering any faults. The rattle was like a dodgy cam on an old Nova.

Probably just a Lambda gone down.

You coming to Munich with it? :partyman:

Thank fuck - you know how the old imagination runs riot LOL. It fires on all cylinders and runs like a dream otherwise.

I've spoken to Gareth and he also thinks it is one of the lambda sensors, which seems to be born out by the slight reduction in fuel economy on the return journey, where it dropped from 32.4 to 30.6, but due to less traffic the average speed was fractionally higher anyway.

Unfortunately I've come into CSL ownership too soon to allow me to drop everything and come along to Munich at such relatively short notice.

I am hoping to be doing DN9 with you though :).

Hahaha ohhh yes :hahaha: Imagination overload :119:

Yeah DN9 will be my only venture onto the ring this year. I often have a browse at the atendee list just to see who's signed up :smt023

Billy's bung on the money :thumbs: My Cecil's Supersprint cats do the same :banghead: especially when you "take it easy" :gayfight: chasing high MPGs and not give it the beans.
Disconcerting at first but you get use to it :) This has never happen on track :smokin: but more often then not after TD, tootling along on the way home.
Sometimes the light will go out on it's own, other times I have to clear it with a diagnostic tool.

What is a good tool to use - link me up baby (as I have the Supersprint cats) ;)

And I wasn't "chasing" mpg, it's just what it ended up doing on the long journey due to the constraints of the traffic :).

Hey Mike... what I use is a Snap-On ETHOS http://www1.snapon.com/diagnostics/UK/Diagnostics/ETHOS a generic diagnostic tool but it's been a very useful tool to have :thumbs:

Many thanks :thumbs:.