First there was an 02 MCS on Ebay at a Maserati dealership in Ft Lauderdale, Fla. I decided to buy it, what the heck...11K for mileage.....got a great deal....checked out ok with car facts etc. The dealership was well respected and my salesman Vlademire (sp?) was very nice and thorough. I drove the car back to Atlanta and really fell in love. I took the car to the dealer for something small like a regular service and learned about RSpeed from Thomas Freeman of Global Imports. Met Joseph and Hector and got introduced to mods. Joe let me drive his car which had a 15% pulley, intake and exhaust. I signed up for the Randy Webb pulley party and went 15%, Dinan CAI and a Borla street. Wow, I was hooked. I started to read everything I could about Minis and wanted to get more power, brakes, suspension....speed etc. I could not get enough. I wanted everything. Then,......I took the car into Global for some minor interior issue while it was there they did me a favor and "upgraded" my software. The....rest....of....the...story. I have tried my damndest to to fix my car ever since then. I have had yo-yo, stumbles, flat spots, jerkyness ever since then. I have continued to mod my car to get more power and to hopefully improve driveability (stupid). Things helped but nothing cured it. My frustration led to more erroneous solutions devised by some one with no experience....me. While I don't have the most mods I have a healthy list and indeed I am about done. Somewhere along the way I developed a intermitent fault code and because it did not change the performance perceptibly I did not think much of it. I also kept seeing really good reports about GIAC software and how it has smoothed out several cars. I put it in my car along with the 380 injectors and the 19% pulley. I did something out of ignorance in doing this while having fault code issues. Of course it will not work right. I was advised to take the car back to the dealer to get the fault code (1237) "fixed". The dealer says the ECU is putting out 5 volts continuous but I have not talked to the tech to get details yet....he is supposed to call me. The current state is the car is at R Speed getting some mods removed in reverse order to try to isolate the fault code producer. I find it hard to believe it is the ECU. Randy is at a pulley party in SF and hopefully I will talk to him tomorrow. There is so much more detail to this story but it would take up too much time and pages. I have posted much of this saga and many of you have PMd me with your ideas and support, thanks. I thought that Eric at Helix was particularly sensitive when he refered to my car as a "Frankenstien car" a thought that at first put me off but it is hard to disagree. I have done nothing but follow the advice of those who know, those who don't but honestly think they do and some who frankly , don't have a clue. I have about 40K in a car that runs like crap .

There is hope. It's only a car and there has to be a solution. Eventually....hopefully by Dragon time it will all be worked out. What is the lesson? I don't know. I guess out of ignorance I expected more of this to be plug and play rather than taking into account that engine parts are pieces of a system that have to be integrated to function together seamlessly. I have a pretty good knowledge of fundamental internal combustion engines but my automotive education during the hay day of the muscle cars did not prepare me for this.

Have a nice day

 

Sorry to hear about the condition of your car, I hope your baby is better for the dragon. Best of luck to you.

Hope to see you at the Dragon!

 

SpiderX,

I'm an old man now, I went thru the mod thing more then twenty yr's ago the one thing I learned is sometimes LESS IS MORE!!!!!! Today I have a 04 MCS with only a few moddest mod's. The biggest investment I plan on making in the future will be to me!!!! learning how to be a better driver.

I wish you the best in sorting everything out I know Joseph at RSPEED he is truley a great guy.

 

I'm 54 with tendencies toward OCD. I feel like I'm 18 inside an old guys body. I agree with you about Joseph...one of the best.

 

... now I know what you meant by your post in the thread I started on my JCW install.

I am sorry this has happened to you and I hope that it gets sorted out quickly and painlessly.

I know exactly what you mean by "being 18" in an older person's body because I am the same way.... and curiously enough, I also share the OCD issue with you... I cannot stand to have anything out of place, especially with respect to my MCS.

Best of luck with this and please post when all is well again...

 

Thanks

 

I was curious about it also, when I read it in that thread. I really hope you get it all sorted out, the dragon isn't something you can miss, it's too much fun for that :smile:

If it's not fixed, you could always go pickup an '05, right?