| Wednesday, October 17, 2007 |
13:59 - O smog, chiefest and greatest of calamities
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The efforts to get the Lotus registered drag on.
After leaving it for nearly three weeks in the hands of a local (and otherwise highly reputable) shop to try to figure out why it keeps throwing catalytic converter codes and subsequently get it smogged, I picked it up unfinished and drove it home in frustration only to discover that not only was it still giving me those same codes when I road-tested it, but the four brand-new O2 sensors they'd installed (gratis, perhaps sensing that they were in over their heads) were also giving me brand-new error codes of their own. Specifically, the right-side post-cat sensor was giving me a circuit failure on one of the leads.
So I took out the sensors and peeled back the insulation to discover that the shop had used crimp connectors to attach the universal Denso sensors to the proprietary Lotus wiring harness, filled the connection area with hot glue, and put shrink-tubing on top of that. The friend who had previously done so much work on the car prior to my picking it up gave me to understand that crimp connectors suck, and this was a perfect example of how hard. Soldering is the preferred method. But soldering a previous O2 sensor replacement had reminded me of just why it was that I had not enjoyed practical-track Physics in college: I am very bad at soldering. Solution: FedEx.
After a trip across country to said friend's soldering factory and back, the O2 sensors are now reinstalled, and the car hasn't thrown any codes in about seven full drive cycles. I'm thinking there's a chance that the codes—or at least the ones that can be traced in any way to the emissions system—are banished. Hurrah.
So it's off to your friendly neighborhood smog place, armed with the red window tag that says your registration fees are all paid and the visual inspection is done and the only thing standing between you and having valid license plates on your car is a smog certificate.
Annnnnd... they discover that the car fails smog. Heinously. Like by having NO and HC numbers about double the legal limit.
Frug.
Well, the next step is apparently to replace the catalytic converters. I found that ForcedFed, sponsors of this event back in April, who specialize in making Elises go fast (and thus presumably have at least a passing familiarity with Loti in general), have a leftover pair of cats from an '04 Esprit that they'd built a full exhaust for a few months ago, and I might be able to just pull in there and have them weld those in.
At least, that's the plan. Set for execution upon my return to the Bay Area on Monday. In the interim I'm going to be otherwise disposed. But I'll wait until I have the photos before I describe that in too much detail, because frankly I don't even know yet. But it should be fun.
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Brian Tiemann
