Hi All
I'm new but expect I'll be busy here in the next few months.

I'm building a track car from two RX8's one with a cage already installed and one with a good engine.

I've started stripping the track shell and cleaning up and lightening the car.
I know a lot of stuff goes through the CPU and want to remove as much as posible with out upsetting the ECU and going in to run home mode.

Is there a guide to what is removable and what is not, I want to remove the ABS and air bags and their computers.

is there a guide an where of its is a try it and see job.

thanks
Phil

 

Moved to Racing for you. The guys here will likely be far more helpful than the new member subforum.

Good luck!

 

Thank you

Phil

 

I don't know if there is really a good guide. Quite a few people have removed as much wiring as possible and then not had a running car afterward. The factory ECU has a lot of inputs and things get complicated fast. Things you would never expect to affect the ECU sometimes do.

I would highly suggest that if you're building a race vehicle from a completely stripped shell that you also get an aftermarket ECU and start from scratch.

 

Hi
thanks for the advice, I've a bit of experience in Mega squirts but none on rotary yet.
I am worried with removing to much and spooking the ECU it is a bit scary the amount of stuff the ECU controls in this car.

Phil

 

Phil,

Do you have a shop manual for the car? If not, try: Foxed.ca - Mazda RX-7 Manuals

There must be a way to strip the wiring without spooking the ECU. From my understanding, some of the "low budget" Koni Challenge/Continental Tire Series teams were still running the OEM ECU so it should be possible if you don't care to keep any creature comforts (which I assume you're not since its a track car). I will be doing the same over the winter with mine. Not exactly looking forward to it, but the nest of wires & random plugs all over my car has got to weigh a fair bit. Wish I tackled this before the roll cage went in tho

Would I be correct in assuming you are just planning to keep working headlights, tail-lights, ABS, wipers, and engine function?

Steve

 

i think the Rx8 will be pretty forgiving, but for complex cars, like the 8, GTR, BMW's, you should leave all the stock stuff in, and unplug one at a time, and make sure nothing happens.

pretty sure you can ditch the airbag/climate control/stereo stuff in the 8 and it won't car but better safe than sorry!

example, we ran an E46 BMW, and when the ABS is deleted, the ECU doesn't get a speed signal, and limits the engine to 5500rpm...

 

I have removed almost everything that's an accessory BUT I have the factory wiring harness. I'm still surprised the PCM is still happy. Just for kicks, I left the anti-thief receiver in place, so I can still "remote lock" the car.

Removing all airbags/climate control/stereo will not disrupt the PCM.

 

I dont know if you can see from this picture but i've removed the drivers side loom (MINE IS RHD) which has all the wiring for the stereo, just unplug it from under the dash and trace the wires back and remove what it's connected to

the center one which has the wiring for the seats and center controls which you don't need

I've filtered though the passenger side loom and cut all the wires from the fuse box which i don't need.

The only wires i have left which go to the back of the car are; lights, abs, tc, gravity box thing and fuel pump. The car runs fine and has no issues.

 

There is a lot of wires behind the dash you can also take out. I removed the loom behind the dash and removed everythgin that wasn't needed for the dial cluster, and esp switch, and controls behing the steering wheel (although these are unpluged)

 

I ran my car this weekend. car ran fine with all the wiring i removed. only fault code was u1900 that i think was caused by me not running the steering position sensor. I did get a abs light one occasions. but don't think it had much affect.



Posted from Rx8club.com App for Android

 

Hi I've removed all the sensor, air bags and abs leaving only the ignition and pod attached, the car ran well, only hiccup was the key-less entry box had to be reconnected. Everything else in the cabin was disconnected including the steering position sensor. We've now striped out the engine and running gear ready to transplant in to the racing shell (with cage). Will be Christmas before its up and running but I'll let you know how it goes thanks

 

you can remove EVERYTHING safely and the car still run
I would recommend leaving the ABS though

scratch that...I believe anti-theft has to stay...I kept mine
also kept the wheel sensors...the rest can go

 

Made a start behind my dash today. So far so good!

 

Finally done my loom... An the car wont run.

 

did you leave the immobiliser in it? you will most likely need the transponder key and ring around the ignition barrel.


Posted from Rx8club.com App for Android

 

We had to leave the black key-less box in place and use the Key attached tot he reader ring on the ignition barrel. The key-less box was a black box near the middle of the dash. there was also a switch on the ignition barrel to to detect the key in the barrel, I shorted this out. nearly everything else is gone (dash, stalks, peddles and rear lights are all that's left) car starts but we haven't been able to confirm its running 100% yet.

Phil

 

I'm in the process of this same thing now. I am confused as to which box is which as I have found 2 that say "keyless" on them. From my research it seems as though pic 1 is the immobilizer part (found near the centre of the wiring loom, virtually attached to the transmission tunnel), and pic 2 is the receiver device found on the far end of the passenger/right side of the car?

If someone can please confirm that would be great. I have a shop manual for the car but this information isn't exactly clear in there for obvious reasons...

 

you need the large one the small one you dont need.our racecar needed the key and switch zip tied up and the larger box.the car started and ran fine without the smaller one

 

Tried last night and my car won't run either

 

is that the ring witch has the LED light in it, if so. I'm pretty sure i've taken that out

I'll update with a full list of stuff I've left in the car tomorrow

Build a race car they said, it will be fun they said.

 

Its a character builder!! You'll have an incredible sense of accomplishment when it runs again

 

Shoot. We are building three rx8 race cars right now. Two are completely stripped and I have no idea what I have done to the keyless or the immobilizer.

 

i will tell you one thing the key and switch and immob box and ecu have to all match.i had a company try to key code another key and switch to a ecu and immob box we had with no luck it was a waste of 125 bucks.we ended up buying a complete set from same car for 200 bucks used.i had a set i just put on ebay all matching that i did not need in hope to re coupe some funds

 

For those of you who are having starting issues, does the little red light (car icon with key in it) flash when you turn the ignition to the on position? Mine doesn't flash so I'm starting to think my starter is the issue. My car turns over very, very slow then seems to flood so I'm doubting its the immobilizer. Thoughts?