sunnysmith

I have seen a lot of posts about traction control light and the ABS light so I thought I would share all the details about my problem and the fix. Traction Control and ABS lights would come on and stay on. Sometimes after the van was started, the lights would be off but then they would come back on after it had been driven a few hundred feet. Before the lights came on when you pressed the brake pedal you could feel the ABS working then the lights would come on. There were no codes stored in the ECU. First thing we thought was the sensor was bad. Bob checked the sensor and found no reading. If he messed with the cable he could get a reading, so the problem was a broken wire within the cable (keep reading, this is not the whole solution). You could not tell visually that there was any problem. Bob replaced the sensor with a Ford Focus (it fits) sensor and he could get a reading, but the problem continued. After he hooked it up to his computer and drove around, he could see that the sensor would read the correct speed and then every once in a while show 14mph. He ordered a new bearing and new sensor. I have attached a photo of the bearing. There is a magnetic ring on the bearing that is used by the sensor to determine the wheel speed. You will see in the photo that this ring is chewed up and in a couple of places torn off. He put the new bearing on and everything works correctly. HERE IS THE PROBLEM: This bearing is really not shielded well from the inside of the hub/wheel. Clearly something got into this area and chewed it up, so I would caution all of you to drive carefully/slowly on gravel roads, etc. There really is not a good way to check this without taking it completely apart. I guess the best think to do is hook it up to a computer and check the readings while you are driving. If you see something that is not consistent, then you probably have abad magnetic ring on the bearing. I hope this helps you guys that are having the problem or those that will have this problem. We spent a lot of time on this trying to figure it out. Sunny

Hi Guys, I made a video this am that you can check out. Turbo Transit Video. Here is another Turbo Transit Connect 2 On a side note, Randy at FSWERKS made an adjustment to the shift points on the transmission and this has made a HUGE difference. It always seemed like it was jamming itself into 3rd gear regardless of the throttle position. The van is very drivable now. I think this would make a big difference even for non-turbo vans so I recommend to everyone that you get with Randy to get this mod. As always, I owe thanks to Bob@Autobahnpower. -Sunny

All, First, my apologies for being remiss on giving an update earlier! Three months ago during a torrential rain storm, I was driving down the highway and blew the motor. Specifically, a connecting rod broke and punched a bunch of holes in the engine block. I initially thought that we were just running too much boost, but I later learned the truth.... The intake is lower to the ground in the turbo config. I have never owned a turbo car before and it did not connect in my mind that 10psi boost is also 10psi vacuum at the intake. I was driving through standing water at 70 mph hydroplaning a bit here and there. What I did not realize was that I was soaking the air filter with water. Eventually water go into the intake and the motor hydro-locked. We found small amounts of water in the intercooler (bad). SO, blown motor, what to do? Buy a new one. We found a really nice motor with very low miles for $700.00. You should all note that these motors are a dime a dozen on eBay. You can find them as cheap as $400. We paid $700 to an outfit that was closer. Long store short, Bob rebuilt the Duratech. I think he may be one of the few people that has done a full rebuild on one. It now has all forged internals and has been bored and balanced. You could balance a coin on edge on the motor while it is idling. It is a thing of beauty. I just got it back yesterday, but the motor is night and day different. The new motor feels so much more solid and doesn't fell like it is working at all. Here is some advice that I would give you all after having been through all of this... Turbocharge it with the FSWERKS kit. Get an electronic boost controller and cap the boost at 7 psi. Have fun. Do not do anything else and it will last forever. After having looked at the stock internals, Bob really believes that 7 is the limit. Randy has run a lot of motors higher, but I think 7 is practical since most of you are using these for work vehicles. -Sunny

Have you seen high transmission temperatures or are you just concerned? We added a second cooler out of prudence and the max temps I have seen are about 150 and that is flogging it with more power than it was designed.

I can't speak to your tire issue since I am running Goodyear Eagle GTs, but the brakes are a common complaint. We changed the pads to a different compound and I think they work much better, plus there isn't as much dust.

With the current FSWERKS setup I am not sure where we are at on HP, but it is probably above 200. Once we have the electronic boost controller in we can push it more, but even where it is, the van is awesome. I've put 500 miles on it since the install and have been driving a little more spirited now and then. Most people that I take for a ride just smile and laugh. They can't believe it. The van is a real contradiction. You hear the big turbo whoosh and it puts you back in your seat a little bit. I think the real value of the turbo comes out on the highway. Its not a sports car, but it is drivable and you can cruise at 80mph in the wind with no problems. As for the transmission... With the extra cooler on it, I have not seen temps above 150. Granted, the highest outside temp has been 90, so it will be interesting to see what happens this summer. I don't feel that I am abusing it really..

We put the Boss under the passenger seat. It fits *SNUG*. Sounds good.

The FSWERKS cost was about $4,000. That is for the complete kit including everything that we needed. Some of the piping had to be changed because the fitment is not the same as the Focus. I had so many things done on this round that I can't tell you the exact labor cost. It was a good 2-3 days of labor, but some of that time was spent because it was a 'first'. Now that it has been done and is known, it would be easier. I really can't explain how awesome it is though. The van is really zippy and just drives really nice. My wife drives a new Suburban and it is a dog compared to the van, whereas before, the van was the slow one.

I got a question about the exhaust, so I wanted to let everyone know what we did. We replaced the cat with a high-flow cat. The rest of the exhaust is 2.5" with a Borla muffler. It sounds really nice. I think most people are shocked/confused. They see the van, but they hear something else!

Hi Guys, THE TURBO IS DONE! I've actually been driving it a couple of days and it is pretty neat. My overriding impression is that the turbo actually makes the van drivable. I can cruise down the highway at 75 with the cruise control and use between 2 and 5 pounds of boost. It doesn't down shift all the time like it used to. I can merge into highway traffic WITHOUT FEAR!!! Now, you cannot get on it in first or second gears. Its all over the place. The gearing is so low and even with the new tires, its just too much power/torque. Top gears are nice though, so 1/2 throttle through 1st and 2nd and then wot in 3rd and 4th. We added another transmission cooler so the van now has 2. With an outside airtemp of 85, the highest the transmission temperature reached was 125. After some 'normal' driving, the temp returned to 100 after a few minutes. I thing the transmission is going to survive. I don't flog it and I try to work with it so I am not abusing it. You can turn the overdrive off and just power out in third gear. Great fun! There van is speed limited to 90, but I am sure it could go must faster. We are going to switch to an electronic boost controller. Bob turned the manual controller (comes with kit) all the way down because we were seeing big spikes. With the new controller, we should be able to stay around 10psi (7-8 now) without spikes. This should make another 30hp available. I would recommend this to you guys. If you use the van as a work vehicle, it actually makes it much more usable. I only drove it for a few days before it went in for the turbo, but it was frustrating and even scary (merging) sometimes. The van is actually really cool now!

Here is a pic of the window tint. We are going to remove the bottom piece of tint.

Here is what I did: PVC TPMS Containers You can't pull the fuse because there are so many other important things on the circuit. I built two containers. One for the front sensors and one for the rear (different pressures).

We tinted the top 6" of the window and the bottom 6". I didn't like the way the bottom looked, so we are going to take it off. The top looks really nice though. I will try to get a pic to you.

It's a cat.

Hi Guys, When he was replacing the wheels, Bob noticed a major problem with the existing lug nuts: Look at this Picture The lug on the left is the one that came on and the lug on the right is one from BBS. The threads on the left lug do not extend all the way to the end. There is very little thread being used, and the threads in several lugs had started to fail. I am not sure if these lugs are stock or not, but they are the ones that came on it from the dealer. This is a dangerous situation. If the lugs fail, you could be in great peril. I urge all of you to pull one lug off your van and just check it to make sure it isn't like this. If it is, you should replace them. -Sunny

Hi All, Well, Bob started installing the Turbo yesterday: Turbo Pic 1 Turbo Pic 2 When he scoped the cylinders he noticed more carbon on the valves that one would expect at 2,000 miles. You guys might want to keep track of this and if you have this problem run an additive or something. -Sunny

Hi guys, We don't have all of the service manuals for the Transit Connect, so I was hoping someone could help out a little. Can you look at this Picture and tell me if this is a Cat or a Resonator. It is immediately after the downpipe. It look like a Cat but it only has an O2 sensor BEFORE it (not after) so that seemed unusual to me. Thanks! -Sunny

We'll contact H&R and see what they say about the front springs. Then would just reform the rear leaf springs. Some new developments today. The FSWERKS Turbo Kit came in today. All of the parts/pieces are very high quality. Also, Bob finished mounting the new tires on the new wheels. He has not put them on the van yet, but you can see a pic of the wheels and the turbo kit in the gallery. Click here to see the new pics

Ok, I will let you know where I am going and how I got here. My last project was/is (still own it) an '06 V10 M5. It is for sale, you can check it out here at Autobahn Power.. It has ALOT of power. ALOT. And is very fun to drive, but just driving around town it pretty boring. Too refined. The engine sound is incredible, but you can cruise all day at 120mph and feel like you are doing 70 in a normal car. Whereas say an old Alfa, if you were doing 85, you would feel like you were really out on the edge. I saw an episode of Top Gear with Guy Ritchie. He spent 100,000 pounds to outfit a Mercedes Van. That van is too tall and won't fit in the garage at home. Then I saw an episode of Top Gear where they put a Jag engine in a regular Transit Van. I thought that was pretty neat, so I started doing some searches and realized that they had brought the Transit Connect to the US (I hadn't seen one or maybe just not paying attention). Then, of course, I stumble on the two projects that you outlined and I was very interested. I found the Transit Connect 'Limo' on eBay at Valley Ford in Ohio, so I bought it. Bob Harris at Autobahn Power here in Wichita, KS is an accomplished driver/super mechanic. A real genius that puts things together in such a way that they are reliable. I known him for 20 years and if you see a car he has wrenched on you can tell that it is just done 'right'. He is really fun to work with and he likes doing new things too. So, here we go with this project. There is a big difference in expense though! Much cheaper. The BMW was really expensive, $1,200 per Fikse wheel, $3,000 for Dinan Diff, $400 per tire, $900 to change spark plugs, etc. etc (on and on). I hope to wrap this project up for under $6,000 net (after selling off the stuff I pull off) and end up with a very unique and fun daily driver. -Sunny

I took a picture of the running boards. You can find it Here We saved all of the bolts. The big bolts use existing mounting points, but the little ones need to be drilled. They included self-tapping bolts so you could just drill them in.

Hi All, I am in the process up upgrading a Transit Connect that I bought and part of the project involves replacing the wheels and tires that came with the van. The wheels are Verde Regency Chrome 5x108 17x7.5. The van has 2,000 miles on it so the wheels are flawless (I checked them). The tires are P225/50R17 Nexan N5000. They too have 2,000 miles on them. There are no TPMS sensors in the wheels. They won't work in this case since the TPMS expects 49psi. These are high offset wheels so they fit/look great. I found a set of 4 of these wheels on eBay for $857. eBay Wheel Link The tires seemed to go for about $80.00. So, brand new, this config would be $1,217.00. They are used, so I have taken that into account. I will sell them to someone here in this forum for $750 plus packaging/shipping, or just $750 if someone wants to pick them up in Wichita, KS. If no one buys them by the 7th, I will list the set on eBay for $900. I created a photo gallery for this project. You will find photos of the van with the wheels and a detail shot Here Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks! -Sunny

Ok, first item(s) came off yesterday. I will post here before I try eBay. I have the two running boards for sale w/brackets. They came off cleanly. Here is a link for the type that they are: eBay Link I would like $150 + Packaging/Shipping Any takers?

Hi All, I wanted to let you know that I will be selling off all the pieces/parts that I take off when we start the transformation next week. I'll post links then, but I will be selling the front seats (leather) w/Airbags, the second row seats (leather), and the wheels and tires (2000 miles). The stock radio 6000cd and speakers are being replaced. Let me know if you have any interest in these parts. Thanks! -Sunny

Good news!!!! FSWERKS says that the ECU is go; SCT has all that they need. There are 2 primary differences between the Focus ECU and the Transit Connect. The maximum values for Vacuum and MAF are different. that is it. We are shooting for the first week in March for completion of this step (turbo). We are trying for a VERY conservative tune, but FSWERKS says that it will still be 200hp at the WHEELS (maybe 247hp at the crank)! It will be very interesting to see if/how long the transmission holds up! Vroom!