lca13's 93 California VX Thread

[GasSavers_James]

Cool,
i'm going to try that passenger mirror blockoff. I put in the new cap rotor and wires in mine and it idles smoother...way down to 550. I like how low it idles. I am waiting for the o2 sensor to see if that fixes the lean burn miss.

lca 13, wish i could help more i am still learning about this efficient yet sensitive car.

[lca13]

OK, back to thinking about the lean burn addition. Someone suggested the CA VX's don't have an EGR, but I just saw what sure looks like one in the right place. I also poured over the schematics last night and came to the conclusion that the 5 wire O2 and the 4 wire basically overlap in their connections (not fully sure but it looks like it). This has me thinking I can swap in the 5 wire O2 w/o any other change..... maybe.

One thing also is that the 5 wire O2 pig tail harness is significantly different than the 4 wire.... not the same with a missing wire for example, so that is another complication.

[Gary Palmer]

Your assesement on the wiring is correct, their are several wires which are common. However, in order to switch in the 5 wire, you need to have a ecu which is built for the 5 wire. The 49 state, manual transmission has a special ecu, which has 2 processors, one which controls just the 5 wire sensor and one which runs the engine. I don't know if you could just add the ecu and the 5 wire, to your existing engine, but I believe you could, technically. I don't know how it might work because the mapping in the ecu is for a different cam profile than what is in your engine. It might work Ok, which is what I suspect, but it might not, which is what other people probably suspect.

Good Luck. If you decide to make these changes, please be sure to post it and let everyone know how it goes. I have an 89 and a 91 that I have considered this as one possibility, for.

[lca13]

Yeah I have both the 49 state O2 and the ECU... so an attempt could be to wire up the new O2 to match the existing wiring, get the 5th wire to where it needs to be, drop in the other ECU and start it up.....

Should I try this?

[Gary Palmer]

If it were me, I would be inclined to try, but I dangerously like to fiddle, which sometimes creates a lot more grief than not. You could just make a 5 wire adapter, and make it so you can plug into the 4 wire connector. Then you could switch back and forth with pretty much no risks.

[lca13]

After pouring over the schematics, I came to the conclusion I could just swap out the VX California ECU and drop in the 49-state ECU... the only difference I could see was O2 related.

So I did, and the engine started up, seemed to run fine... I drove it around for a while and everything was good. I do have a CEL which was expected... and the diagnostic code was encouraging: 41 - primary oxygen sensor heater.

So at this point I suspect I am running in open loop, but running .... and just waiting for the 5-wire O2 install. (figuring out how to map the 5-wire to the existing harness will be a little bigger challenge though).

[Telco]

Hey, on the brake issue, don't screw around. If you have a ridge on the piston, you'd be a lot better off just getting 2 new calipers. This is the simplest way to fix the problem correctly. Well, the simplest way would be to take it to the mechanic, but that would cost a whole lot more than a couple of new calipers will.

Before installing new calipers, I'd suggest getting the brake lines flushed out. If you have crud in the calipers you likely have crud in the lines which will quickly find its way to the new calipers. If you have ABS it's best to have this done by somebody that can command the ABS module to cycle, otherwise the fluid inside the ABS unit won't be flushed. Otherwise, just get a vacuum bleeder and start draining, keeping the reservoir filled, until you see clean fluid coming out. Two other things to do, change all the flex lines and use DOT4 fluid. The flex lines deteriorate from the inside, and will look perfectly fine on the outside. DOT4 has a higher boiling point, so will reduce brake fade. If you use stainless flex lines, you will get a much better pedal feel.

[lca13]

So I did replace the calipers a while back, but I still had some brake stickage... much better than before but some still. I re-bled the lines last week to see if that helped (noticed some sponginess from the 1st bleed).... maybe better yet (heck, my last tank was 58 mpg... 4 better than ever), but if I spin the wheel, the pads are still dragging.

Just how free should a disk brake setup feel? The drums in the back show zero drag... the wheels will spin free for 60 sec or so after a good spin. The front drags to a stop in a turn or a turn and a 1/2.

I am thinking of getting the rotors turned to thin them out a little.... they need a turning anyway.

What is the control/governor for how far the piston should retract? Vacuum in the line I would guess, which is a function of fluid capacity. But the reservoir content is variable.... what am I missing here?

[GasSavers_James]

Yes I am wondering about this too. The same thing with mine, the back ones spin so nicely, but the front ones require quite a bit of force to get moving and they stop quickly, though when you feel the discs after driving they are not too hot and one is not any hotter than the other.

[GasSavers_TomO]

Remember that these are front wheel drive and when you spin the front wheels you are spinning the driveshaft and the differential and the trans gears/flywheel/engine if you left it in gear. If the trans is in neutral, you'll only be spinning the components to the diff and other side of the car.

My VX front wheels only spin a turn or two and stop when the car is in neutral and both fronts are off the ground.