They checked the relay I bought and it looks fine, hasn't burned out.
Car is at the shop now, will provide more info once they figure out what is wrong with it.
Timely post. I'm working through charging issues on my older SR3 and found the same things. I replaced the stator and rectifier and noticed the harness plug on the rectifier is burned. I tested the nearby relay (87 4 pin, 70A) and it was also broken. The inline fuse holder was partially melted as well.
What's the purpose of the relay? Does it switch on when the rectifier is providing DC output voltage? What value should I replace the in-line fuse with? (It's wired from the relay to the battery)
traced down today. the relay is the alternator (stator) isolation relay. the online fuse holder on my car was the coil side of the relay. replaced with a relatively small current fuse
Ok, it's confirmed. The relay I got was burned out after few minutes of operation and they ordered the right relay. Ran the car and now AIM is displaying solid 14.7v. So it looks like the last issue was the relay wasn't the right one.
@bbong718, Great news! I am glad to hear you got it working.
@charleyhradicalsportscarregistry-com wish the relay I bought would have survived longer to confirm that it was in fact charging again before it burned out. This would save me a trip to the shop, but at least the car is ready and first track day booked for mid April. I bet I'll get shivers closer to the D-Day and this car still scares me compared to what I drove last.
Any suggestions for first-timers would be good to hear.
...
Any suggestions for first-timers would be good to hear.
The SR3 begs you to drive it fast, but like any car you need to start slow and build a relationship with it before you begin to explore its limits. If you make mistakes such as try to turn when you are on the brakes hard, it will spin. It will oversteer spin if you are turning hard and feed in too much throttle, and you can get yourself into trouble if you upset the car. If you are on very cold tires, or sticker tires that have not been scrubbed, wet conditions, or old hardened tires, take it very slow for a couple of laps until your tires and brakes are hot and you feel how much/little traction you have.
Shifting is pretty straightforward but when you are learning to drive the car you will naturally be a little nervous. Make sure you are always on the throttle when upshifting and always completely off the throttle when downshifting. When to downshift comes pretty natural and after several laps you will have it. When you begin to left-foot brake remember to get your right foot fully off the throttle when downshifting.
Other than that have fun with it! It is a well balanced car, handles incredibly, is very predictable, and I think easy to learn to drive. Your first couple of sessions may feel like it has a lot of power and torque, but you will quickly gain confidence in it and will be shifting at 10k rpm. To get around the track fast, just like any car, you must not over-slow and you need to get on the throttle as soon as possible to get fast corner exit speeds and speed in straights.
I would second everything @davidf said. I did one track day in an Audi with full nannies and then bought a Radical so I had plenty to learn. At my home track my first weekend I ran 2:00 laps. The second weekend I ran 1:50 laps. Now 5 weekends in I'm running sub 1:40 laps and nearing the track record for the organization I run with. Not because I'm good, but because the SR3 is that good.
Other points I would mention that I have seen other places - get the clutch in if you spin. Going backwards can run the starter. Both feet in during a spin is a must, and if you are left foot braking it takes more awareness to shift both feet.
I've also found that my car is likes to snap under heavy braking because of rear lock. With some setup changes I have gotten rid of some of that tendency, but even with full front bias I get rear lock before the fronts and it really wants to turn around. This is compounded by the aero of the car - at high speeds you can really get a lot of force in the brake pedal but as you slow and lose downforce you must trail brake or you will lock the rears and spin.
Very good points made by @gwt561324 @davidf above...
I'd add if you're going to start progressively and slowly add a little more tyre pressure than recommended cold start pressure to get the tyres up to temp faster, then come into pits often and check pressures again making sure they do not exceed 29 psi once warm.
You might want to dial in more aero until you're more comfortable with the car. Depending on the corner and setup you can have a gap in a corner where mechanical grip isn't enough and aero doesn't add enough until you go faster. If you dial in more aero it'll decrease or eliminate the gap. I added my second canard up front and dialed in more rear wing when I started. One of the dealers can give you advice on what you should be running for wing and canards.
Once you're comfortable start pulling aero out. I've found once your comfortable, you never run more than one canard up front on an RS. Big fast tracks like Road America or Brainherd I've dropped to no canards and very little wing in the rear.
Start slow and make small incremental changes. The key is small changes. As long as your making small changes, if you push a little to hard it should still be savable.
Had similar issue recently with battery not being charged. Stator was kicking out decent AC and it appeared all wires through to rectifier were ok. Was only getting 0.7v DC out of rectifier so assumed that needed replacing.
I had noted the connector from stator to harness was corroded and had cleaned connectors. Still had issue. So today I decided to chop the connectors from stator to harness to rectifier and hard solder the wires. Issue resolved 🙂
I just changed mine yesterday. Burned rectifier .
just bought a new one and hardwired it directly to the stator, and the black/red wiring direcrly to the battery.
didnt use any relay for that.
what is it for anyway?
I just changed mine yesterday. Burned rectifier .
just bought a new one and hardwired it directly to the stator, and the black/red wiring direcrly to the battery.
didnt use any relay for that.
what is it for anyway?
@lunatic Seems no one can explain role of the relay as missing from my early SR3 too
@djw donno man.. you reallyjust need the red wire from rectifier to your + on battery and black to -
charging does the rest! REALLY IMPORTAT do not ever start up your engine without having your rectifier connected to a batery! thats how you burn them, experienced this 2 times hehehe
Wow, sorry for dropping ball on replys, but there are some good ones.
David,
Yes, I found hard way that letting it roll back in gear will shred the starter and these suckers are expensive! Lesson learned.
Also, warming up tyres, that helps immensely. Too many spin-outs with cold tyres.
