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Re: What did you do to your Fiat lately ?
Posted: Thu May 02, 2019 8:49 am
by VisualKei
I've been trying to outsmart the CANbus system this week.
Installed the Morimoto 2Stroke 2.0 LED headlights and they play nice. It was the brightest, non-blue shifted (5300k) light output I could find which wasn't a fly-by-night brand. Works great! I bought the in-line anti-flicker units under the impression I'd need them to get the CANbus to play nice, but they weren't needed at all. Everything fits neatly inside the access hatch. I just need to wait and see if anyone has successfully run an LED system on the DRL without flagging the CANbus.
Tried three different "blinker" units for the 3rd brake light to get a "4-flash, then solid" pattern. After Twisted Sisters, I felt like having a more eye-catching brake output would help under bright direct Sun with my visibility to other drivers.
Units that did NOT play nice with the CANbus and set off the "light out" warning and ended up being useless (2015 Abarth, not sure if pre-2015 tied the CANbus to the LED 3rd brake light):
Signal Dynamics Backoff XP
Stop Alert LED Brake Pulse Brake Flasher, 24w
A unit that DID work, and what I'm leaving installed for now:
Mobilistics Safe-T-Stop BBL-5
Blinking the 3rd brake light is in "gray area" legally, but I'd have a hard time imagining a cop ticketing you for a safety mod meant to increase visibility under adverse conditions, as I see these on bikes all the time. If I ever do get ticketed, I'll splice some wires from one of the tailights and figure out if there's a grommet I can punch out to run wires down to the diffuser and install a 4th brake light in the F1-type position behind the diffuser grill (thank goodness FCA molded these as an actual grill and not a solid panel with a raised grill texture).
Re: What did you do to your Fiat lately ?
Posted: Thu May 02, 2019 9:24 am
by texanbrit
sportfan wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2019 7:48 pm
Today I cleaned off 500 miles worth of bugs off the front end from the Twisted Sisters trip.
LOL, know that feeling. I had to leave my car in Round Top due to some family health issues. Covered the vents with what we could find to try to keep the water out with the rain for the next few days (all of my rain gear was at home).
- 40785863643_7c6640a8b2_o.jpg (24.66 KiB) Viewed 7051 times
Re: What did you do to your Fiat lately ?
Posted: Thu May 02, 2019 5:52 pm
by MadFiat
VisualKei wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2019 8:49 am
I've been trying to outsmart the CANbus system this week.
Installed the Morimoto 2Stroke 2.0 LED headlights and they play nice. It was the brightest, non-blue shifted (5300k) light output I could find which wasn't a fly-by-night brand. Works great! I bought the in-line anti-flicker units under the impression I'd need them to get the CANbus to play nice, but they weren't needed at all. Everything fits neatly inside the access hatch. I just need to wait and see if anyone has successfully run an LED system on the DRL without flagging the CANbus.
Tried three different "blinker" units for the 3rd brake light to get a "4-flash, then solid" pattern. After Twisted Sisters, I felt like having a more eye-catching brake output would help under bright direct Sun with my visibility to other drivers.
Units that did NOT play nice with the CANbus and set off the "light out" warning and ended up being useless (2015 Abarth, not sure if pre-2015 tied the CANbus to the LED 3rd brake light):
Signal Dynamics Backoff XP
Stop Alert LED Brake Pulse Brake Flasher, 24w
A unit that DID work, and what I'm leaving installed for now:
Mobilistics Safe-T-Stop BBL-5
Blinking the 3rd brake light is in "gray area" legally, but I'd have a hard time imagining a cop ticketing you for a safety mod meant to increase visibility under adverse conditions, as I see these on bikes all the time. If I ever do get ticketed, I'll splice some wires from one of the tailights and figure out if there's a grommet I can punch out to run wires down to the diffuser and install a 4th brake light in the F1-type position behind the diffuser grill (thank goodness FCA molded these as an actual grill and not a solid panel with a raised grill texture).
Nice info! I'll try to remember to come back to this post in the future if I decide to go LED!
Re: What did you do to your Fiat lately ?
Posted: Fri May 03, 2019 2:33 pm
by VisualKei
MadFiat wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2019 5:52 pm
Nice info! I'll try to remember to come back to this post in the future if I decide to go LED!
I actually have an update after more time with the brake blinker setup. The Mobilistics Safe-T-Stop BBL-5 "mostly works". That is, it'll do the 4-blink-then-solid lighting. However, I've discovered that when I use my brake, the initial intermittent blinking sequence will occasionally make the CANbus give me the "stop light" icon on the instrument cluster, thinking my 3rd brake light has burnt out. It always clears up though if I tap the brake or use it again.
Honestly, it's not really a big issue. The other two units I tried beforehand wouldn't even operate the brake light. This one seems to function properly despite occasionally ticking off the CANbus.
I'll probably hunt and peck for a way to run wiring down to a 4th brake light behind the diffuser grill with this type of blinker relay when all these thunderstorms ease off. There's a sub $10 triangular/trapezoid-ish LED unit all over ebay/amazon and I've taken one apart to waterproof it with silicone. If that fails, I might try using a submersible trailer light instead.
Re: What did you do to your Fiat lately ?
Posted: Sat May 04, 2019 1:52 pm
by VisualKei
A lull in a week of thunderstorms means installing the MPx axle-back exhaust raffle prize from last week while the Sun is out today! Not sure of the torque values...I just went with the general specs used on M6/M10 8.8 fasteners (16 and 32ft-lbs) and tossed some anti-tamper paste on the fastener bits to see if they'll shift at all down the road. I was annoyed I couldn't get the flanges to cosmetically line up if I wanted the tips centered on the diffuser opening, but oh well. The welds are beautiful on the product. The slip-on end had to be deburred lightly though on the ID to make it slide onto the midpipe more smoothly and to seat it all the way in.
Doesn't really sound louder from stock, which is what I was hoping for so the neighbors don't hate me. The top of the MPx exhaust over the axle gets close to contacting the underside of the chassis, but I didn't hear it rattle or bang against the car on hard acceleration or turning. If you really coax it to get it to pop or bang, the bang definitely feels more guttural. I do enjoy the much cleaner look of it over the stock tips, which had the silly pipe-in-a-pipe look. That stock rear end suspension looks terribly bland though, but I need to stop modding, or I'll keep breaking nails and never manage to grow them out
Re: What did you do to your Fiat lately ?
Posted: Mon May 06, 2019 1:45 pm
by mr16valve
Not bland - It looks Great!
Huge thumbs up for taking this on yourself (and breaking nails
Re: What did you do to your Fiat lately ?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 2:20 pm
by TruckaPlz
Took it to the drag strip for some testing and it ran a 15.3. I think the driver mod needs some work
, everything else ran great.
Engine is modified with EC Phase 1, v4.1 intake, DV+, 4c coils, and regapped plugs.
Overall, pretty happy with the results. Fairly certain that the car has a 14 in it, just need to work out some kinks.
Re: What did you do to your Fiat lately ?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 8:59 pm
by sportfan
I had my car ( 2013 Sport ) on the scales today. It came in at 2480 pds.. After doing all I could to drop weight off the car ,I wasn't very happy. I was hoping for around 2200 pds..
Re: What did you do to your Fiat lately ?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 11:03 pm
by texanbrit
sportfan wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2019 8:59 pm
I had my car ( 2013 Sport ) on the scales today. It came in at 2480 pds.. After doing all I could to drop weight off the car ,I wasn't very happy. I was hoping for around 2200 pds..
Time to get aggressive? All that interior trim, the dash, etc?
Re: What did you do to your Fiat lately ?
Posted: Fri May 24, 2019 10:53 am
by Mangavideo
texanbrit wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2019 11:03 pm
sportfan wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2019 8:59 pm
I had my car ( 2013 Sport ) on the scales today. It came in at 2480 pds.. After doing all I could to drop weight off the car ,I wasn't very happy. I was hoping for around 2200 pds..
Time to get aggressive? All that interior trim, the dash, etc?
That's my thought process when I get called out of the waiting area to step on the Scale on the way to the examination room during my regular visits to my Doctor. I strip about everything off, yet always disappointed.