by Jon Fennell » Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:44 am
Hi All,
I've joined your forum so that I can answer the questions raised.
Firstly, someone’s questioned if the sensor is actually an improvement over the standard sensor. I can only speak for the 1 Celica St205 that I have looked at in the UK. The owner had spotted my product for the RX7 and had bought it to try on his car. He had an Apexi with commander so was able to 'see' in real time the effect (if any). I made the trip to visit him and I could see that the standard sensor was, like the RX7, a thermister buried in a plastic shield. This gives the sensor a large 'time constant', the time it takes to read the environment. With the new sensor the ECU was reading the environment without this lag, and was better able to fuel the car appropriately. I'm not a calibration engineer, I'm mechanical, but I understand that for a car with a MAP (manifold air pressure) sensor type fuel injection management system the ECU uses three main inputs. RPM, Inlet air temperature (IAT) and inlet air pressure (MAP). Its not difficult to imagine that if you improve one of those inputs, the outputs (timing and fueling) will be better. With that in mind, I suggest the sensor is a step forward, this is backed up by my basic calculation that 40degrees is worth half an air ratio. If your sensor has heatsoaked to 80deg and your actually pulling in 20deg air your fueling (and timing - the ECU would retard the timing at those temperatures quite significantly) would be significantly incorrect. And this is only going to get worse if you have water injection.
Boost creep - nothing to do with the sensor, but I had this problem and cured it by removing the turbo and porting the wastegate passages with a die grinder. I increased the aperture size to 1mm undersized to the flap of the wastegate.
This product is specific to the ST205 as this uses a MAP system, not a MAF system (Mass air flow - I belive its a hot wire) so cannot be used on an ST185. Unless the car has been converted to Apexi which is a MAP system and requires the sensor.
Bosch sensor - my sensor is similar in principal to the bosch sensor, its an 'open element' type. My sensor does come with a harness and its more cost effective. Tried and tested in the UK as well and I have one happy customer in NZ now as well.
Airbox sensor vs manifold sensor - on the ST205 model there are two sensors. The airbox sensor is measuring ambient air temperature. I do not know why. I would leave this sensor standard as ambient air remains steady in the context of the issue concerned. (its not the sensor that measures outside air temp for your dash is it?)
As a final note, the standard location of the sensor in the plenum on the ST205 is less than ideal as the sensor sits in a cast recess, I would move the sensor to sit opposite the throttle plate.
Best regards, Jonathan