Snirtman's Extended Track Frame #466 - 06 SS/SC

[snirtman]

My side markers do not stay on bright, they are dimmer as running lights and then hyper-flash brightly. Since you have an issue at both the side markers and rear lights staying on bright as DRL's I would start with what's common between them. But GTStory is right, we can only give suggestions, the hard work will be with a volt meter. Unfortunately that might involve looking through AllData which is a little funky to find stuff at first.

I just looked at my mirror/side markers. There is two light sections. The outer most section of the turn signal/mirror is the DRL, the inner most section is the signal flasher part of the unit

Sorry, my original post wasn't as clear as it could have been. I'm using the DF supplied mirrors that have the running light and turn signal in them and both work correctly regardless of whether the headlights are on or off. No issues with the mirrors.

My tail lights are the problem. With the headlights on, the tail lights are continuously on bright (like the brakes are on) and they don't blink when the turn signal is activated. With the headlights off, the turn signals and brake lights work correctly.

While my frame was at the powder coater I opened the tail lights to determine which wires were for which function. I confirmed that they have a dim light (running light), a bright light (stop/turn) and reverse, and all three functions worked correctly on my bench.

I connected the running light wire in the tail light to the brown wire in the harness, and the stop turn wire in the tail light to the green/yellow wires in the harness. I just find it odd that the stop/turns work when the headlights are off, but not when they're on, and the running lights are bright instead of dim when the headlights are on. And the turn signals work when the headlights are off, but not when the headlights are on.

 

[Robinjo]

Do you have the red taillight wires swapped? There was an upper and lower red wire which could be switched.

 

[Gtstorey]

The working correctly with another circuit off is often cause by a bad ground. It will backfeed through the other circuit and find another path to ground if the correct ground isn’t available. Not 100% but often causes what you are seeing.

 

[snirtman]

Mystery solved. Naturally, it was a self-inflicted error. When doing my preliminary testing on the tail lights while the frame was at the powder coater I mistakenly labeled the dim circuit "stop/turn" and the bright circuit "park" when they should have been the other way - parking lights are dim and stop/turn are bright. I cut the wires, re-labeled them and connected them to the correct wires in the harness. Now all the lights work correctly! Thanks to all those who made suggestions!

My next wiring mystery is going to be figuring out which wire will activate the horn...

 

[Robinjo]

So you had the two red wires coming out of the back if the taillights swapped?

 

[snirtman]

That's what I first thought, but it turns out one red wire is for bright lamp (stop/turn) and the other red wire is for reverse light. The black wire is for dim lamp (parking). For some reason there are two white ground wires, which I joined together.

 

[Robinjo]

That sounds right. I mated my two whites together to connect to the Goblin harness.

 

[Ross]

Mystery solved. Naturally, it was a self-inflicted error. When doing my preliminary testing on the tail lights while the frame was at the powder coater I mistakenly labeled the dim circuit "stop/turn" and the bright circuit "park" when they should have been the other way - parking lights are dim and stop/turn are bright. I cut the wires, re-labeled them and connected them to the correct wires in the harness. Now all the lights work correctly! Thanks to all those who made suggestions!

My next wiring mystery is going to be figuring out which wire will activate the horn...

The horn is on the clockspring black 10 pin connector. Tan wire for the horn relay control, dark green wire at the horn.

 

[snirtman]

Took the Goblin out to Grattan Raceway this weekend for some shakedown time. Ran only about 10 laps, but enough time to learn what I came to learn. Overall, the car mostly met or exceeded my expectations. Didn't crash, didn't spin out, didn't overheat or blow the engine - all good stuff.

I haven't decided what tires I want to use yet, so the car is currently outfitted with 6 year old Michelin Defenders, a 400 TW all season tire off a 2011 Ford Fusion. I didn't have very high expectations for handling with tires that bad, but they actually did very well. We leaned on them pretty hard, but they never broke loose or even squealed much. If the car handles that well with those crap tires, I can't wait to fit a set of 100 or 200 TW tires!

Probably the most eye-opening thing was just how bad the stock Cobalt seats are in a Goblin. Probably ok for granny driving on residential streets or freeway, but absolute garbage on a race track. No lateral support whatsoever. Easily the worst part of the whole day, but that's what we were there to learn.

As far as I know, my SS/SC donor was all stock. The Goblin starts right up, idles well, crawls in first gear well, revs well, etc. It seems very strong up to about 60 mph, when the wind resistance starts to become a problem. The race track's main straightaway is about 1/3 mile long, with a entry speed of about 40-50 mph. The car accelerates well, but I ran out of power at about 100 mph in 4th gear at WOT and 13 psi of boost. I think shifting to 5th probably would've slowed me down. Is the aero of the Goblin really that bad - it won't break 100 mph even with 200hp?

I don't yet have a wing, splitter, diffuser, side panels or any other ground effects - would that be part of the problem?

I think the car handled very well at speed. My son was riding with me and asked how it handled on the straightaway, so I let go of the wheel at about 80 and it was rock steady. Not bad for a garage alignment with string (1/8" toe in front and rear, 1.2 degrees of camber in front, 0.8 degrees in the rear).

I let my son drive a couple laps and he said it felt squirrely. This might be why :

When I got home I found that the LH rear inner tie rod was backed out almost 1/4 inch. I don't know if it was like that all day, or progressively got worse. When I get it off the trailer I'll recheck the alignment and see if it moved or if its been like that all along.

All in all a pretty good shakedown day. Lots of people coming over to check out the car and lots of positive comments. I imagine its only going to get better.

 

[Rttoys]

Nice.

ya. With the aerodynamics of a brick, you have to beat the air into submission to get up over 100. A smaller pulley, larger injectors and some tuning will work wonders.

 

[Ross]

In 2020, Ian got my stock SC goblin up to 120 when I was riding passenger in @Briann1177 turbo goblin. My car runs out of stability before it runs out of power. It could use some aero downforce, and a better wheel alignment.

 

[Esstover]

So more progress, but it's a slog. Spent about 6 hours yesterday just getting the rear brakes to fit. Not sure if DF sent me the wrong units or what, but the initial fitup was terrible. First had to file off a significant amount of the bracket ears:

View attachment 39890

and shave the knuckles ears a little just to get them to play together:

View attachment 39891

It was like that on both sides. And then the pads DF supplied didn't fit the calipers. The little buttons on the back of both inner and outer pad interfered. I completely removed the the buttons on the outboard pad, but the inboard buttons were needed to fit into the anti-rotation holes in the caliper piston. I had to file about 50% of the buttons away before the pad would fit into the caliper:

View attachment 39892

These springs were included in the brake kit from DF:

View attachment 39893

No idea where these go.

Next issue to tackle is why I can't get a firm pedal after bleeding the brakes. This is probably a carryover from the Cobalt, as it had a soft pedal too. I assumed it was a leaky rear caliper, but it wasn't leaking much, and since the Cobalt was donating only the MC, vac chamber and reservoir, I hoped the problem would stay with the Cobalt. No such luck. The Goblin brakes are acting pretty much the same way. I don't see any leaks anywhere - could the MC be leaking into the vac assist housing?

And on a similar, but unrelated note, I installed the DF Dominator headlights and got stuck at the wiring. The headlights have four wires coming out (high beam/low beam/turn/ground), but the wire harness has only three wires. I went back and re-watched the wire harness videos and it appears that Lonny's harness has only three wires too. Is it just a ground wire that needs to be added? Or did the headlight harness skip the turn feature since the mirrors have the turn signals?

It's crazy how I dig and dig for info and then I just make it work. The next day I run across the perfect post with the exact same issue. I'm referring to your rear brake caliper interferences. I ended up filing some but not on the caliper, then I go the bolt started and just let force do the rest. I was a little concerned about something breaking but I got them snugged up. Thanks for this detailed post. Wish I would have found it two days ago.

 

[snirtman]

Not sure how or why, but during the wire harness videos I had some sort of listening malfunction and cut every wire in my steering connector:

I don't have the wiring diagrams for my car, so I went to my local pick-a-part to see an original uncut harness to find out where these wires go. The dark brown twisted pair goes to a snap-in BCM connector:

The pink wire shares a spot on the back of the BCM with another pink wire

And the tan twisted pair goes to the OBDII connector

So I reconnected the two twisted pairs, but I had cut the pink too close to the connector, so I figured I would just splice it into the other pink wire during the build.

So I got the car done and my EPS pink wire is still not connected to anything. The car runs and drives great. The OBDII connector works and my scanner connects without errors. The car is easy to steer, but I don't think the power steering is working. So I decided to connect the EPS pink wire to the other pink wire it shared in the BCM. No change in the steering (still not working, I assume).

But here's the wierd part - took the car out for a short drive and it is waaaayyyyy down on power. Can't hear the supercharger, boost gage never gets above 0 psi at any speed or throttle position, and maintaining 50 mph requires about half throttle. What the *%^%#*!

Plugged the scan tool in when I got back and had several new codes.
P2122 APP Sensor low voltage
U2105 BCM lost comm with Engine Control System
U2111 BCM lost comm with Steering Control System
U2113 BCM lost comm with Sensing and Diagnostic Module

I disconnected the two pink wires, cleared the codes and now the car runs great again. What gives? Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Ross]

Not sure how or why, but...

I don't have the wiring diagrams for my car, so I went to my local pick-a-part to see an original uncut harness to find out where these wires go. The dark brown twisted pair goes to a snap-in BCM connector:

Here is some info on wiring. Once you log in, choose the vehicle, and on the right is "Diagrams", then choose "Electrical Diagrams"
Those twised wires are part of the GM High Speed LAN wiring.

The pink wire shares a spot on the back of the BCM with another pink wire


And the tan twisted pair goes to the OBDII connector

So I reconnected the two twisted pairs, but I had cut the pink too close to the connector, so I figured I would just splice it into the other pink wire during the build.

So I got the car done and my EPS pink wire is still not connected to anything. The car runs and drives great. The OBDII connector works and my scanner connects without errors. The car is easy to steer, but I don't think the power steering is working. So I decided to connect the EPS pink wire to the other pink wire it shared in the BCM. No change in the steering (still not working, I assume).

But here's the wierd part - took the car out for a short drive and it is waaaayyyyy down on power. Can't hear the supercharger, boost gage never gets above 0 psi at any speed or throttle position, and maintaining 50 mph requires about half throttle. What the *%^%#*!

Plugged the scan tool in when I got back and had several new codes.
P2122 APP Sensor low voltage
U2105 BCM lost comm with Engine Control System
U2111 BCM lost comm with Steering Control System
U2113 BCM lost comm with Sensing and Diagnostic Module

I disconnected the two pink wires, cleared the codes and now the car runs great again. What gives? Anyone have any ideas?

The pink wires are fused power after the ignition relay, so they give 12V+ power when the key is on.
By disconnecting the pink wire from the EPS, you are shutting down the power steering computer module.

With the EPS running, the power steering should work, but you assume it is not... the engine is down on power, and the BCM lost communication.
With the EPS shut down, communication is restored.

Sounds like your EPS module isn't working correctly. Check for the usual issues, blown fuses, bad grounds, etc.
It is somehow stopping communication on the GM High Speed LAN (what became the Can bus). If it was here, I would connect it to my oscilliscope, and see what it is doing on the Can bus. But it is probably cheaper just to buy another EPS from an auto recycler, and see if that fixes it. Every time I rain soak the EPS, I have to replace it... This weekend I towed my goblin thru the rain... I'm ready for my 4th EPS module...

 

[Gtstorey]

Down on power is probably the app sensor code. As a safety, if the ECM thinks something is wrong with accelerator or throttle body, it kicks into reduced power.

There is substantial difference in how the car steers with eps and without. Makes me wonder if some of your pink wires are mixed up.

 

[Robinjo]

The P2122 (P2138) may be the dreaded LSJ throttle wiring issue. It’s hit a couple of us here and a lot of Cobalt owners. Hopefully it doesn’t come back.

P2138 code and intermittent limp mode!

Hey guys my goblin has the 2008 LNF ss doner. recently when I have been driving around, my goblin has been intermittently going into limp mode. It can be a 2 min drive or a 15 min drive when it kicks in. I turn on the car and turn it back on, then it’s fine again for another 2min-15min. It’s...

dfkitcar.com

 

[Joebob]

With my limp mode issues, it turned out to be the on and off again of the BCM plug, some of the female pins in the plug got enlarged and would intermittenly not make contact. I had to depin the connector and re-wire the plug with new junkyard wires to fix the issue. Since you jiggled everything with the repair, you might have messed the pins up. Try more jiggling the wires with all installed and or remove and reinstall the plugs a few times. If that does not work, I would remove the plug and use a small paperclip to see if there is resistance in the pins. Replace any that are loose (pain in the butt).

Joe

 

[snirtman]

Sounds like your EPS module isn't working correctly. Check for the usual issues, blown fuses, bad grounds, etc.

Sure enough, the little 2A fuse to control the EPS module was blown.

Amazing how just a little 2A fuse could cause such a big problem. I replaced the fuse, reconnected the EPS pink wire, fired it up and voila! Power Steering works. And the fuse didn't blow immediately, so that's a good thing. Now I'm wondering what made it blow in the first place... Thoughts?

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Electrical Gremlins chewing on your wires! Seriosly, a power surge caused by disconnecting/reconnecting wires - if you didn't unplug the battery - or maybe power wire touching ground momentarily. Just keep an eye on it and don't just replace it if it blows again, the source of the problem will need to be chased. AND please don't put a larger fuse in its place, typically results in melted wires.