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Front Active Aero project

11K views 10 replies 9 participants last post by  aydenmark 
#1 ·
Hey guys. I have a question I haven't been able to find an answer on regarding the front active aero.

The front aero on my son's 1992 VR4 is busted. The undertray is missing completely and it looks like the motor mount is bent. The motor still functions fine though. Because of the bent mount, the arm doesn't rotate in a straight plane. This has caused the active aero to fail as it jams up on the linkage. Sometimes it works, sometimes it jams. I removed the arm to the linkage sol the motor shaft can just spin freely so that at least the rear active aero can work.

I understand how difficult it is to find a proper undertray for this active aero system and, if nothing else, the motor mount needs to be straightened out. It doesn't look like it's off by much, but enough to cause an issue.

My question is, would it be possible to make a different lower tray to replace the non-existent and hard to find OEM tray? I was thinking of a "splitter" with a small overhand (an inch or less) that would attach to the stock linkage and have a "damn" that follows the contours of the bumper to seal off the gap between the splitter and the bumper when it's lowered.

Has anyone tried this and I just missed it or is the weight of something like this too heavy, would overload the system and cause a fault because the system would read it as a "jam"? Just thinking of ways to make this work without my son having to spend a fortune...and maybe do something different.
 
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#2 ·
I played around with a design idea. Maybe something in carbon would work. The only problem is figuring out how to make the vertical portion bend as the oem one is plastic and that's directly mounted to the bumper. I guess rubber would suffice as it's flexible. Here's what I drew up. By no means are any of the measurements accurate.
 
#4 ·
No the vertical part does not bend. At the top of the vertical part is a short horizontal lip. That short lip sort of seals against the bottom edge of the bumper cover or some of the reinforcing brackets when the Active Aero dam is in the down position. The whole dam flexes at the back end where it is mounted to the undercarriage.

Attached is a pic of the plastic dam. It's a view from the bottom and from the back so you can't really see the front vertical part in the pic, but you can see the little lip pieces I described above. In the second pic, a side view, you can see the shape of the front of the dam. It's from a post asking about how to repair damage of hitting something which bent the metal parts.
 

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#6 ·
Okay, from the pictures I had seen that's how I thought that part came down on the bumper. That made sense. I could make soemthing like that no problem. Have some ideas for that. As for the flex at the back, I'm going to have to look more into that to figure it out but some hinges come to mind.

I'm sure how the AA module tells if theres a jam exactly, but you might be able to circumvent that by modifying the module itself. could also make a small module that uses the out put from AA module and "corrects" it to feed whatever actuation you want and still give the oem module the feedback it wants. might even be as simple as a relay and a resistor lel
From what I could tell last night, I'm sure it has to do with the load placed on the motor. When the load exceeds whatever limit it's set to, it shuts down and trips an error. I saw it happen a few times as my son tried to articulate the active aero. Sometimes the motor wouldn't even get a full 180 degree rotation without tripping the error. Funny thing is, it could go 160 degrees, then the next articulation it would go 180 degrees from where it had stuck last time. It was strange. Not sure it knows that it's done a 180 degree sweep but it seems not to use postion switches like the rear does.


what exactly do you mean by vertical portion? are you talking about a shroud to hide the gap between the spoiler and undertray when deployed? you could probably work it into the geometry of the active element to just not have a gap.
I'm thinking of just doing what the stock unit does...having a curved (to match the shape of the bumper) vertical strip that is perpedicular to the splitter plane that has L-shapped brackets at the top to engage the bumper when down to seal off that section. The brackes that hold it will need to be triangular to support it against the air hitting it from the front but it's curve should help to support it in the slipstream as well.

So long as the hinge point is correct it wouldn't be hard to get that calculated correctly.

I've had some very crude CAD of a active combat wing I've been working on for a while so I would definitely be down to help design front AA too.
I think we may need to work on this. Seems straightforward enough. Just need to fix that mangled engine mount and get the two brackets that go from the linkage to the OEM lower deck. the driver's side is missing and the passenger side is pretty mangled but COULD be salvaged.
 
#5 ·
Has anyone tried this and I just missed it or is the weight of something like this too heavy, would overload the system and cause a fault because the system would read it as a "jam"? Just thinking of ways to make this work without my son having to spend a fortune...and maybe do something different.
I'm sure how the AA module tells if theres a jam exactly, but you might be able to circumvent that by modifying the module itself. could also make a small module that uses the out put from AA module and "corrects" it to feed whatever actuation you want and still give the oem module the feedback it wants. might even be as simple as a relay and a resistor lel

I played around with a design idea. Maybe something in carbon would work. The only problem is figuring out how to make the vertical portion bend as the oem one is plastic and that's directly mounted to the bumper. I guess rubber would suffice as it's flexible. Here's what I drew up. By no means are any of the measurements accurate.
what exactly do you mean by vertical portion? are you talking about a shroud to hide the gap between the spoiler and undertray when deployed? you could probably work it into the geometry of the active element to just not have a gap.

I've had some very crude CAD of a active combat wing I've been working on for a while so I would definitely be down to help design front AA too.
 
#7 ·
Currently pursuing getting a custom front skid plate made for my 1993 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4. This thread needs to continue as far as I can find there is no good aftermarket replacement for the easily destroy factory AA system unless you want to toil endlessly to find the proper panels which most are discontinued and or have to mess with possibly rewiring and multiple other headaches if you've been having trouble with the motor that runs the AA. Sorry no great ideas here to continue the design discussion but might have developments in the near future as I am bringing this information as well as the entire panel assembly to an expert metal worker. Wish me luck and hope to see developments or some headway from others.
 
#11 · (Edited)
No, the vertical portion does not budge. There is a short horizontal lip at the top of the vertical part. When the Active Aero dam is in the down position, that short lip seals against the bottom edge of the bumper cover or some of the reinforcing brackets. The dam as a whole flexes at the back end, where it is attached to the undercarriage.


A photo of the plastic dam is attached. It's a bottom and back view, so you can't really see the front vertical part, but you can see the little lip pieces I mentioned above. The shape of the dam's front can be seen in the second image, which is a side view. It came from a question about how to repair damage caused by a collision with something that bent the
 
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