This year was great Lana. I purchased the car in December 2009, built the car from the ground up with STM, and then had some excellent runs at the track. The car is put together very well, but I want to perfect a few little things I neglected over the year. This build thread will highlight those tasks. Things I have in mind are:

1. Rewire the headlights to have complete, factory working high/low beams
2. Wire my fans and electric water pump to key on, instead of a switch
3. Wire my fuel pump to a toggle switch, for high and low settings
4. Misc. cleanup around the car, inside and out
5. If all goes to plan, extend wires and place the entire fuse block behind the dash

I just started tearing down the front end tonight so that I could inspect the headlight wiring, and figure it all out, and I wanted to show how easy it is to work on this car!

I pulled the STM small battery and Buschur Racing battery tray out of the car with 3 bolts. I am such a fan of small batteries!


Next step to remove the front bumper is to remove (2) 10mm bolts, one in each wheel well:


After that, you simple pull the 2 pins on the fabricated radiator mount, and lift the entire bumper off. Yes that's right, just 2 bolts, and 2 pins to remove the bumper:



Now with the bumper off, you can see how everything goes together on this car:


After that, it's 2 bolts on each headlight, and they come right off.



And I know you all believe me, but yes, it is a stock IX turbo that we used to go 10.635 @ 128.70 on the first night running the car at the track



I am going to try to get my hands on a factory service manual to continue from here, but it looks like there isn't too much wiring that goes forward from the fuse block. If you look here, you can see there is the headlights, the fan relay, and the electric water pump. I should be able to take the wires out of the loom, consolidate some grounds, and get this bundle under control!




I am debating on pulling the fenders off, so that I can get to the wiring better. I know the side markers have wiring under there, but I am not sure if there is also a loom that goes to the interior of the car, or if all of the wires go through the fire wall. It's time to dig in. Wish me luck!

I will try to keep this thread as updated as possible, as I continue over the next few months.

--mark

 

nice

 

looks amazing

 

Fantastic. I can't wait to see the finished product.

 

yeah i will be subscribing to this. Your car must be a dream to work on.

 

coming along good, what's your goal on the stock turbo?

 

I have hit my goal, but maybe I will set a new one for a 9.99 in 2011!

 

Nice!

 

I feel like you should mention that the front end of this car is far from stock

someone might see this thread and go try to pull their bumper off and be like DAMNNNN WTF

considering you have no undertray/wheel well guards/standard radiator support/etc

 

Sick!!! I like your non-MAF intake set up.

 

I couldn't get to sleep, so I went back out in the garage and started taking the electrical tape off of the wire harness. I found Medusa's head, so now I need to trace these back (hopefully with a FSM), and find out what they are, so that I can get the high beams, as well as fog lights all working tip top:



When Brian wired up the headlights, one side is using the factory harness, and one side is hard wired. If anyone has a parts car, or would know how to get this headlight clip, could you please let me know. I need one:



It is the clip that is on the body side, that clips into the headlight. This clip contains the wires for the entire headlight assembly.

--mark

 

Before work today, I snapped a few photos of my headlight. It seems that the RS model doesn't have fog lights, or HID headlights, so that makes the wiring a lot easier. Here is a shot of the headlight. Notice how the fog light area is just solid plastic, there is no spot to even put a bulb:




I then looked at the rest of the wiring, and it seems like the 4 wires I currently have hooked up control the 3 bulbs there. Low beam, turn signal, and daytime running light? Can someone verify what bulbs the headlight has please:



My high beams aren't currently wired up, so I will have to run the 2 wires to that bulb, and most likely wire in a plug there, but that is easy enough. Now, to find the colors I need.



--mark

 

Thank you for sharing! Subscribed!

 

I just worked out the wiring for the electric water pump and fan with Dan. It's great having friends that are really good at electrical, I would have forgot the need for 2 diodes!

Just a reminder, my fan and water pump are both hard wired to the battery, and currently hooked up to a breakers under the steering column. When I get in the car, I have to remember to reach down and turn it on, or else my car would not circulate any coolant. Here is the new plan sketched out, on paper



With this new system, I will have the fan and pump come on automatically with key on, and then I would have the option to also run the cooling system with a switch, so that I could cool the car down in-between runs at the track, without having to leave the car running. The diodes are needed so that I don't charge the rest of the ignition system when I flip the switch to override the fans. This should be very easy to wire up, and I can use a lot of my existing system!

--mark

 

does this car not have power steering?