I've been dragging my heels in replacing my failed intercooler fan - mostly due to cost. The intercooler fan use to around $180 from the dealership, now the last I had checked, it was over $400!!

It may seem like a none essential component, but I've realized that on a hot day, it is definitely essential! My IAT reads close to 120C when going uphills on a 25C day. I don't know if its the root cause of intake manifold blowing up (its made of plastic and I've seen a few cases now), but I can definitely see it happening if high intake temps with 17psi of boost sustaining for a long period of time on a hot day.

Here's the solution:

Mounted an Amazon 5" radiator fan on to a 3D printed bracket. Printed with PETG filament, should be okay around 60C-70C temporary. The pics were from a prototype test fit. I haven't taken pics of the one I installed on to my car.

Tested yesterday at 25C ambient temp. On a continuous hillclimb going 104km/hr, the IAT never reached past 69C. I will probably make another with a 6" fan if this one holds up. 7" fan appears to be too big.

If there's enough interests in these fan brackets, I'll print them with polycarbonate or polypropylene once I have a solid design.

Any other idears? Common issues?

I've been off this site for a while, but after dealing with several EGR plugging issues (I've lost count, but I think I'm on my fifth change) and noticing the profuse amounts of oil accumulation at the CCV hose connection on the intake line, I've decided to try and rectify this issue.

I've TIG welded a small canister to fit the best location I can find in the engine bay and am planning to install it next week (as I've booked the week off from work and was planning to do an oil change, plus doing these mods). But before I do ANY installations, I'd like to know if anybody else has come up with one? My plan was to locate it on the passenger's side of the engine compartment, inbetween the wheelwell plastic liner and the small computer bolted to the frame rail. I noticed it could accomodate a decently large canister and mine measures approximately 5 X 5 X 2" (well, it tapers down to 1" width-wise because of the wheelwell, but nonetheless).

My diesel truck-owning coworker (Ford F250) is familiar with the EGR/PCV issues inherent with diesels and we poked around in the engine bay of my car, offering suggestions. My plan was to just run a vent line to the atmosphere out of the canister, but he said when he did that with his truck, the stink was unbearable. He said I could try and venting to atmosphere first and see how it smells, but figures I'll run it back into the intake shortly afterwards. I think it'll defeat the purpose and just reintroduce oil vapours back into the intake circuit. Although as I've looked into mine, I think the issue with profuse amounts of oil is just because it literally dumps right out of the valve cover into the intake pipe (not like a true PCV system that uses a valve. I used my boroscope and looked down the inside of the valve cover and it's just a long passage way, no valving or anything preventing liquid from coming out). With my canister I made, the line I plan to run will go UP first, before making a long route to the canister, thereby reducing oil LIQUID from getting into the canister. Any thoughts?

My other job is going to do something about the EGR valve. I'm not keen on removing it entirely, I like the idea of a blank-off plate (as described elsewhere in this forum). My concern is, are there any LONG-TERM issues doing this? Threads I've seen about this go back to 2012 (and earlier in most cases). What I'm worried about is any increased heat that may result in the combustion chamber from the lack of "cooled" exhaust gas coming in.

I've seen the Emulator and that's cool, but I already have the MB actuator patch cable installed and it appears to work awesome. My last EGR plugging didn't trip the error code, so it looks like it works (or so I think... The car did it's usual bogging-down, no-more-than-2000RPM running bit but DIDN'T trip the check-engine light. Sure enough, the EGR was plugged... Again... ).

Sorry for the long post and any repost this may be. Like I've said, it's been a while since I was last here.

Thanks,

Peter

Aside from the clearer directions, I can not get my head around the issue in the first place, if the existing fuel relay is sometimes defective, and if we are tapping into the same wires of the circuit, what keeps the new mod from going u/s?  Maybe what I need is a circuit diagram showing the location of the existing fuel pump relay in respect to the mod fuel pump relay.

PS after the crank/no starts, I discoed the n111 bus and inspected both it and fuse 16 (all good), reinstalled them, turned the key and the fuel pump hummed!!

After replacement I have measured the intake pressure to be 1.1 bar @1800 RPM rising to 1.9 bar @2700 RPM. In other words, huge difference in spool time that affects driveability.

Is there anything that can be done to make this cheap replacement turbo spool faster, short of pulling it and replacing it with a genuine part? I'm not familiar with the wastegate. Can it be adjusted to compensate?

After a few days of working on things, I have written a guide for getting you started with the KWP2000+ and the Smart 450 CDI. This guide includes the (often hard to find) software thats needed, setup of the software and hardware, and instructions on how to read your stock tune file and write a new tune file to it. 

The attachment includes the guide and software. 

Please let me know if you have anything to add or any questions.

Big thanks to @stickman007 for his assistance with the software and troubleshooting!

KWP2000 Smart CDI Edition.zip

I currently have my engine on a stand so took the opportunity to check out turbo oil drain passage from outlet of bearing housing to sump.

A freshly painted turbo oil drain pipe connected without hose clips to oil drain connection at aft facing side of engine. Engine is sitting on a £18 engine stand that came all the way from China. Allows engine to be swiveled around so easy to work on.

There is a sudden change in flow diameter where rubber elbow connects to the special alloy flange connector. I have tapered out the bore as shown using a tungsten rotary cutter. Tip of barb did originally have casting flash that reduced the bore. Also casting flash at other end.

Here we see the internals of oil drain connection at side of engine. Turbo drain connects to the left rectangular passage where I have rounded off the sharp edges to improve flow. Done with various shapes of rotary tungsten cutters.

The two drain passages seen above do also drain oil from cylinder head.

I recommend against using pencil grinders for any of these improvements. Their grinding dust is bad for bearing surfaces.

Of course you get tiny bits of metal flying every where so have to complete a very thorough clean before recommissioning engine.

I intend to refit engine with an old turbo that is known to leak a wee bit of oil into inlet duct so will soon learn whether this exercise was worth while.

Another issue - dip stick tube.

I had trouble pulling out my oil drain tube out of dip stick when changing oil. I found the lower end of the tube had not been deburred. The burr was rather sharp so no wonder my oil drain tube tended to get stuck. Easily sorted by removing dip stick tube and deburring with a large diameter drill or a suitable round file.

Inner inboard race rings were worn due to ingress of water. Outer inboard race rings were still fine. All outboard race rings looked like new.

The plan:

Make one good bearing out of the two knackered bearings. There are two inner race rings in the front bearing, an inboard ring and an outboard ring. These are identical so all I needed do was this:

[*]Decide which of the two outer bearing units to use.

[*]Scrap the inboard inner race ring. Use the two good outboard inner race rings complete with balls and ball retaining rings in the rebuilt bearing.

[*]Additionally, modify the bearing for oil lubrication as opposed to grease.

Internals of the bearing have been cleaned and are ready for reassembly:

This is how the outer bearing unit looks like inside when internals are removed:

Bearing has been assembled. It is important to add grease between the two lips on the elastomer seal on inboard side. The grease prevents the environmental lip running dry. Note that I have not fitted the steel dust seal. This is not required as the bearing is modified for oil lubrication:

Bearing caps are modified with assistance of the Queen. The coins are silver brazed to the caps. Caps are later centre bored and tapped M4. These are "modern" two pence coins made out of steel with very thin external copper plating:

Bearing has been fitted on driver side of Smart. Note the machine screw in centre of bearing cap. The hole where the screw sits is used for filling oil into the bearing. I used EP90 GL5 gear oil. Filled to bottom of filler hole:

The rebuilt bearing spins without any noise or rumble. Oil can be added with ease at any time. My initial plan was to fit a grease nipple in the bearing cap but the grease nipple interfered with the centre cap in the wheel and there was a risk that the high pressure of the grease gun would push the elastomer seal off the bearing. Gear oil is a much better lubricant and having a filler hole and level makes servicing a lot easier.

Only time will tell whether this oil lube modification was worthwhile. I did the other side as well when I was at it.

I realized that I haven't contributed to the CsC in a very long time. So here's some stuff that I made free to all!

I'm tired of propping up the rear hatch with a stick...(then knocking it off accidentally with the glass slamming on my head). Here's a solution:

Over the years, I've found a few air filter tab backing off allowing dust/debris into leak pass the air filter. I'm not sure if this has been a common issue, but personally, one or two dusted engine is more than enough of an excuse to make something preventative:

*use/print at your own-risk as usual

Enjoy!

Izzy

AirFilterBlock V5 Final.stl

HatchStrut.stl

My Canadian 06 Smart Fortwo cdi has 1 fuel filter located in front of left rear wheel(under the removable plastic belly panel). I installed the old Water in Fuel Sensor in the new filter. Noticed some green copper oxidation and intended to clean it out/up with Q-Tip(Cotton swab/bud). There is 3 pins in connector. 2 pins broke away with a gentle brush up against them. They were Corroded through from the oxidation.

I need to use the car ASAP. Will the computer put the car in limp mode if the Sensor is not connected? Filter is not installed in the car yet.

Found some info on internet for about bypassing a 2 wire Water in Fuel Sensor. He said his sensor would detect water at 40K Ohm resistance. He put an 80K Ohm resister between the 2 probe wires. His dash warning light went out. Was not as Smart Car. I don't know how the 3 wire Water in fuel Sensor works. Best guess is 2 wires are for probes in the fuel and 1 wire is the ground. I was thinking of putting 80K resistor between 2 wires and 80K resistor on ground wire and then connect it to ground.

came to a stop and tried all gears including park and neutral but it stayed showing 6 th gear but the tranny was in neutral.

shut the car off and started it and all goes back to normal.  No dash on the speedo and no codes logged and it drives perfectly fine. ?

this one is a head scratcher so far 

Please tell me how to switch + and - of SEdrive

from JAPAN

Thanks.

For those who don't know this yard, they won't let you buy the whole car (or all that's left of it) under any circumstances (half a car at most, IIRC), but the whole swap including engine cradle, clutch pedal and shifter could probably be had quite easily.  It's been there since May 10 so may get recycled soon if someone doesn't rescue it.  I'd definitely do it if we had room for a second Smart (ideally a Coupe that I'd cage), but I've decided to try my hand at tuning our stock Cabrio (with KWP2000+ and probably NefMoto) and finishing some other car projects instead.

EDIT:  I did take some 2.16 MB pics, but can't upload due to 2 MB per file size limitation.

i'm form Europe but car the same I'm having trouble to start my smart fortwo cdi when temperature drop below 5C or 41F.

Changed glow plugs, tested them with multimeter, all get 12v. Changed fuel filter. 

No smoke, car drives as usual when it runs.

Where to search the cause ? 

Battery is also good because i could crank it 15-20 seconds without a problem (and it wont start for example today)

with OBD tested fuel pressure, when it runs it runs on 220-240bar. my SAM unit is old type because it's 2002 year. fuel pump works i can hear it.

Thanks!

This short video is to show both the No-Slam and express up and down window feature.

My apologies in advance for the shaky quality of the video.  Only one person trying to do both record and open the door. .. Me.  That, combined with bright sunlight and "Transitions" glasses meant that I couldn't clearly see what I was doing. 

Smart no-slam.mp4