Piwoslaw's Peugeot 307sw modding thread

[Piwoslaw]

I doubt that the FE gains, or the warm-up time difference, are measurable, but I probably could test the difference it gives when using my coolant heater. Normally, after at least an hour of usage, I feel warm air when opening the hood, but with the engine cover that warm air comes out comes out around the edges. Getting better, more permanent insultation is on my to-do list.

Testing how much slower the engine cools down after turning it off would be much harder, if even possible. I'm sure the cover helps, but there are just too many variables to come up with a good testing procedure.

[Piwoslaw]

Those dragging brakes were really causing havoc! Yesterday and today I did a total of over 130km of city driving, and the car's computer showed 4.3 l/100km on both trips. That's the first time in 2 months I've seen less than 4.8 l/100km, and the ride is noticeably quieter So brake dragging reduced my FE by 10%.

[Piwoslaw]

The oil pan heating pad from our group buy came yesterday Today I was able get some time on my brother-in-law's canal. I installed per instructions and it hasn't fallen off yet, but I won't be driving (so no preheating) until the weekend. Here are the main installation steps:

1. Find your oil pan. Find a flat spot, large enough for the heating pad.
   
   
2. Grind/sand the paint from the surface, then clean the area. Acetone/detergent are OK, gasoline/solvents are not.
   
   
3. Remove the protective cover from the pad's sticky side, but do not touch the adhesive. Plug the heater in for 3-5 seconds. (But not more, the pad gets very hot, very fast! Ask me how I found out) Carefully place the pad on the oil pan, starting from the edge opposite the power cord, apply maximum pressure as you smooth it along until the edge with the cord is set. Avoid creases, wrinkles and air pockets. The supplied squeegee is quite helpful. Plug the heater in for 10 seconds, unplug, and smooth again. Repeat once more.
   
   
4. Weatherproof the whole perimeter with the supplied high temperature silicone. (Thank you for not commenting on my artistic talent)
   
   

Before refitting the engine cover I plugged it in for 2-3 minutes. It still gets hot when mated to the oil pan, but not too hot. It crossed my mind to put insulation over the pad to increase its efficiency, but this may cause temperatures high enough to damage it and/or the oil pan. Plus the oil pan still needs to be able to lose some heat when the engine gets hot. Anyway, even if half the energy from the pad is just going to the air in the engine bay, then that air will warm other parts of the engine, as long as I don't keep the hood (bonnet) wide open.

I'll be monitoring warm-up times and comparing them to when I had only the coolant heater. No more cold oil hitting prewarmed engine parts, yeah!

[vtec-e]

That sure looks the part. Can't wait to get mine!

[Piwoslaw]

Bad news: Having too much electronic stuff in control of everything sucks. I used my engine kill button after the car's computer became disoriented and the Wife and I got locked out of the car (with the key in the ignition!), before midnight, in freezing wind, up to our ankles in snow, with everything (except us) inside the car: money, documents, food, warm clothes. Thankfully we were in good hands and got the car open the next morning
Engine Kill Switch - Use with Caution!!

Good news: On that trip I got 4.2 l/100km on the way out - at night and in strong wind and snow, and 3.6 l/100km on the return - nice weather and taking it extra slow

On the way back I picked up a set of aluminum wheels. Read more here:
Ultralight 15" wheels for Citroën/Peugeot owners

I used the pad heater in tandem with the coolant heater on Friday and after 1h45m the coolant temperature was about 2°C more than usual (23°C instead of 21°C), but this was at start up. Once the engine got going it warmed up a little faster since the oil was already prewarmed. If only I knew if I had an oil temperature sensor (very likely) and how to hack into it...

[Piwoslaw]

I wish!

I propped the skirt from the other side against the front wheel, just to see what it would look like.

Got you droolin', huh? Well, it took me 15 minutes to finally get back to work, I just couldn't stop staring. It does look very Basjoos-esque from a distance, dangerously so. Imagine driving out with those - the accidents would be piling up all around me

Anywhooo, back to real life: I installed the rear skirts with less mods than I thought would be necessary to accommodate the wider Citroën wheels. I drilled new holes for the screws on the bottom bracket, so bottom stands about 10-15mm farther out than before (so do the wheels - looks like my next project will have to be spats):

Bending the bottom of the skirts out made a gap in the rear. Hopefully it won't hurt aero.

[groar]

These front wheel skirts are so great...
I hope you'll find a way to keep them while the car is moving.

The additional frontal area added by your rear wheel skirts seams so small

Why not adding some flat hubcaps ?

Denis.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by groar

These front wheel skirts are so great...
I hope you'll find a way to keep them while the car is moving.

With front skirts flush against the wheel wells, and new wheels sticking 1 cm farther out, I don't know how I'd handle gentle curves, let alone get out of our yard (which requires gymnastic elasticity)!?! The thought of front skirts has crossed my mind, but I can't imagine how it could be done on this car without a big frontal area penalty.

Originally Posted by groar

Why not adding some flat hubcaps ?

I have a piece of ABS plastic in the garage that's been waiting almost two years to become smooth hubcaps. I'll get around to it, I promise. I have so much more motivation now since my OEM Peugeot hubcaps don't fit the new wheels, and both the Wife and I agree that Svietlana looks much better with her wheels covered. So I might as well do it right.

[Angmaar]

The front wheel skirts look nice. Now you just need to find a way to let the move with the wheels.

[Piwoslaw]

Last weekend I was driving in a terrible head/crosswind (50-80 km/h average with gusts above 120 km/h). While passing a truck I noticed something flying over my hood - it was my upper grille block. It wasn't screwed on, just slipped behind the license plate and under the hood. Thankfully it didn't cause any harm (it was among the smaller and lighter things flying around that day), but I didn't want to go back and look for it in the dark and rain. Plus it was temporary version 1.0, which was never expected to be on for more than 1-2 months.

One thing that helped me guess what had happened was coolant temperature: within a minute it was 12-15°C lower, back to what I was seeing with only the lower block. Also, warm-up times were slightly longer the next morning (slept at a friend's with no way to plug in the engine heater).

The lighter wheels do make driving on Polish landmine fields (which the gov't keeps calling "roads" for some reason) easier - less bumpy and quieter - but that's not 100% objective since the rear seats were installed for this trip, which deadens sound from the rear.

The brakes (or something else) up front keeps squeeling at all sorts of random speeds, I think I have to figure out how to get springs on the brake pads.
Or drive more often than every 2-3 weeks to keep the brakes "fresh".
Or devise wheel covers to keep the dog from peeing on them.