My i20N

[YNWaN]

Yet more about my gear knob (shift knob) experiments and everything you might want to know about changing your own!

when I started on this ‘knobby‘ journey I knew nothing about how Hyundai tackled this issue. Now it turns out they have used a number of clever (in my opinion) design solutions but also ones that are uncommon across the industry and so a bit limiting when it comes to aftermarket gear knobs. one issue is the use of a reverse lock out - you pull up on the collar and it allows the gearbox to go into reverse. The reason this is clever is that it prevents you from accidentally selecting reverse when at speed (believe it or not people do make this mistake). The problem as far as aftermarket knobs is that you need a recess in the bottom of the knob for the collar of the reverse lock out to move in to. The other problem is that the Hyundai i20N (and i30 and Kona I think) does not have a knob that is threaded onto a shaft but instead it has an unthreaded square shaft and the gear knob pushes on and clips into place. The clever bit is that this means the gear knob cannot move or become loose/unscrew. The awkward bit is that this is quite a unique solution and massively limits choice of aftermarket knobs because the majority assume you have a round threaded gear shift!

So what’s wrong with the standard knob? Well, in short, nothing - it’s actually a very high quality design that is nicely made. Unfortunately it somehow manages to look a bit cheap and I find the satin silver flashes a bit with the rest of the interior (this is in my opinion).

Now, these days, I have a load of carbon fibre (CF) trim in my car so I thought it would be cool if I had a CF gear knob and if I could get rid of the satin silver that would be an added benefit. I also didn’t want a purely metal (aluminium or stainless steel) knob as, although they look cool, they are freezing cold in the winter and insanely hot in the summer. I know you can put a little hood on them to prevent this temperature problem but I couldn't be bothered with that. I also wanted to keep the gearshift short so didn’t want a longer gear knob.

Now, with a few honourable exceptions, the majority of aftermarket gear knobs are actually made in China and so the place you want to go for them is AliExpress as that’s the most direct source. Often the identical component is on eBay and Amazon for twice, three times, four times the price. Unfortunately the i20N was a very niche car, made in low numbers and not even available in some key markets (like America). As a result, the aftermarket manufacturers have not really locked into it and searching for ‘Hyundai i20N gear knob’ does not result in a great many hits. Well, it does point you to a ton of gear knobs but most won’t fit - which isn’t much use! To make matters worse the item descriptions on AliExpress tend to be very minimal.

So I bought a gear knob with a ‘universal adaptor‘ and awaited its delivery. As expected it turned up fine and was of terrific quality - genuine carbon fibre over aluminium and very nicely finished. This is the adaptor:



But then I found out this is the wrong adaptor because it is closed at the threaded end. The problem with it being closed is that you can’t get the gear knob low enough. I tried drilling it out but to no avail, it still didn’t work.

In the end I had to buy another adaptor and that also meant getting another knob as it required a larger internal thread. The new adaptor looks like this:



Thankfully this adaptor worked great. But The gear knob didn’t have a gear shift pattern so I designed and cut my own. Once I was happy with it I covered the knob in UV cure resin, then sanded that down and sprayed it with 2K clear coat - now finished it looks like this:

 

[YNWaN]

I’m not sure how much info people would like on these DIY mods but I guess it’s easy enough to ignore if you find it boring.

So, to the CF gear knob is great but comes without any gate pattern or logo. That’s fine but it does look a bit plain. I’ve done loads of graphic design so drew up something that I thought looked ok and I used my sticker cutter (yep, I‘ve got one of my own) to cut the design. Then I used 1000 grit to rub down the surface and applied the sticker design.Unfortunately this proved a lot more difficult than I expected because of the dome of the knob and how it distorts the flat sticker. One of my other hobbies is watches so I have lots of fine tweezers and after much fiddling I got (mostly) the placement I wanted.

Then I was concerned that my had moving on the knob would cause the sticker bits to come off so I covered everything in UV curing resin (which I happened to have already). The result was OK but not smooth enough for me - so I sanded the whole thing down with multiple grades of wet and dry. Finally I used a spray of 2K clear coat (three coats).

Anyway, never satisfied, I’ve just made another! This time I’ve not bothered with the UV resin. The resin does create a very deep layer that allows a completely smooth finish but it introduces visual imperfections of its own. I’ll post some pictures once the 2K clear coat has cured.

 

[YNWaN]

Twice as expensive as the next most expensive - a rather silly purchase in retrospect. Anyway, it hasn’t arrived yet as they are made to order - it’s this one:

2019 – 2022 Veloster/Veloster Turbo & Veloster N Carbon Fiber Shift Knob – SoCal Garage Works

View attachment 25420View attachment 25421

I’ve just hear from PayPal that they have found in my favour and have completely refunded me for this gear knob from SoCal Garage Works. The lesson is ‘always check the Truspilot reviews’ as 35% are 1 star and the complaints are exactly my experience. Initially I emailed for a projected delivery date and was told the end of the month (that would have made it six weeks), then I was told another couple of weeks…. Still no shipping details. Then I contacted PayPal and instigated a claim. No response from SoCal and now (three months later) PayPal have refunded me. So my advice is to steer well clear of this company (I suspect it’s just a one man outfit reselling components made by others).

 

[YNWaN]

I’ve ordered a Wagner Intercooler in preparation for a stage 2 remap at Courtney Motor Sport. Nobody in the U.K. has these in stock (not surprised given the cost) so let’s see how long it takes to arrive….

 

[YNWaN]

As I have had two batteries go dead on me -the standard lead acid and a fancy lithium one, I’ve become a bit paranoid about the health and charge level of the battery. So today I fitted a ANCEL BM200 which is a battery monitor gadget. It fits to the battery terminals and connects to the app on your phone and tells you pretty much everything you might want to know about the battery status - including the rate of charge and when it is being charged. It can also be configured for lithium batteries…. like the other battery I have. it looks small in pictures but it’s really tiny and very light weight. Easy to fit and the app is easy to use. So far I e confirmed that the battery does charge pretty quickly but also that the short journeys I often make are not good for maintaining battery charge.

 

[Spilner]

Got a pic of that fitted? Ive been curious about one of those

 

[YNWaN]

Got a pic of that fitted? Ive been curious about one of those

I’ll take a picture tomorrow - there’s not a great deal to see though.

 

[YNWaN]

Got a pic of that fitted? Ive been curious about one of those

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture and now it’s dark. I promise I’ll do it tomorrow

 

[YNWaN]

Got a pic of that fitted? Ive been curious about one of those

Today I actually remembered to take some pictures for you. Now just to confuse matters there are some wires you need to ignore as I also have attached a quick connect for my battery charger. T(e only relevant wires in these pictures are the blue ones. The BM200 comes with a sticky pad to stick it to the side of the battery and that’s how it can tell yo7 the battery temperature.

 

[Spilner]

Thank you, so thsat would be a tight fit in my car with the forge intake housing, ill have a think about. Did you get yours from aliexpress, seen a bunch on there for various prices

 

[YNWaN]

You could stick it to the top of the battery, near the back. I got mine direct from the manufacturer but I have seen them on AliExpress (didn’t want to wait that long) - they are also on eBay.

 

[YNWaN]

There’s been a bit of a glitch in my plans for a stage 2 remap. In preparation I had ordered a Wagner intercooler from ML Performamce (£100.00 cheaper than most suppliers). Unfortunately MLP have emailed me to say it’s on 7 weeks back order so I’ve had to cancel my tuning appointment with Courtenay Sport and will remake it once I’ve received, and fitted, said intercooler. Updates to follow….

 

[YNWaN]

Just as an extra - Courtenay tell me they are achieving 300bhp with the addition of a rebuilt turbo - same basic unit but new turbines and bearings. Cost has not yet been decided but I may be tempted….

My i20N has the best handling of any car I’ve driven - and I include a number of M3s in that. 300bhp would, I expect, be quite electrifying. I feel confident the chassis could cope - but I do wonder about the front end grip!

 

[YNWaN]

Intercooler Update

much to my surprise my Wagner Intercooler was delivered a couple of days ago - so much quicker than anticipated. And, as luck would have it, my long suffering mate Dave was free the next day and, as it refrained from raining, we fitted said intercooler.

There are a couple of notes worth making that are not in the fitting instructions or any videos I’ve seen.
1/ you will need to raise the front of the car or you won’t be able to get under it to remove the tray that is under the engine bay. We just drove the front wheels up on to some broken paving slabs Dave has and that was sufficient to slide under the car.
2/ there are a couple of vertical screws that hold the corners of the bumper and they are a lot easier to access if you do this before raising the car and turn the wheels to the extremes to make room for you and your posidrive screwdriver (a light also helps).
3/ when pulling the bumper free it’s a good idea to use the vents that are in the bumper to put your fingers through and pull on - you need to use a bit of a tug rather than just pull.
4/ the Wagner instructions talk about removing the front crash bar but that’s completely unnecessary and doing so won’t help fitting at all! We left it in place and encountered no issues!
5/ the hose clips! I’ve never seen this before but the hose clips/bands have anti-tamper heads! Neither Dave nor I had ever seen such a thing before so a bit of head scratching followed. I’ve read up on them since and it looks like these are metal caps that are fitted after tightening. This is either to force the clips to be one time use only (not sure why that’s such an issue), or it’s to stop people from tampering with them - that’s even less likely to be an issue.
Anyway, I managed to undo one with a pair of pliers and I cut through the other with a Dremel (as the head was completely unreachable). We left the hoses connected to the old intercooler and then pulled the hoses through when we removed the intercooler.
6/ there is a small sensor (I think it’s the outside temperature sensor) mounted to a small bracket and this is in the way of the new intercooler. It’s suggested that you just bend it 90 degrees forward and that’s fine - but the bracket is a bit of shallow C section and it’s a good idea to cut through the sides to make it easier, and cleaner, to bend.

Once all the above is accounted for then fitting the new intercooler Is easy as the four mounting holes line up exactly.


comes in a massive box!

 

[Zealot]

I did my intercooler last weekend but it was a Forge item.

Those caps on the hose clamp hexes can be easily prised off with a flat blade screwdriver to allow removal of the clamp. You can even tap them back on if you're interested in retaining all your stock part to possibly return the vehicle to stock in future.

Forge supply a bracket to relocate the temp sensor but make no mention of exactly what to do about the stock bracket fouling on the new intercooler. I simply cut it right off and touched up the paint.

 

[YNWaN]

To be honest, the main reason I cut the second clamp was because the adjuster was in such a difficult place.

I did see that Forge do a bracket to move the sensor but, as you say, that doesn’t solve the problem of the existing bracket being in the way. The only thing you can do is either cut it off, as you did, or bend it out of the way - and if you bend it out of the way, as I did, you don’t need to relocate the sensor In the first place!

I have to admit, even having just spent the money, I'm in two minds about the benefit of a bigger Intercooler for fast road driving. In the U.K. it’s all about short bursts of acceleration And one advantage of the stock Intercooler is that it’s very light weight.

 

[i_twenty_N]

And has faster Turbo spool, but if you blast for a longer period especially in the summer the temp build up in the intercooler is big and also restrictive for power. Mapped and tuned it will be necessary, too. How much is the extra weight? 3-5kg? This extra weight is on a low spot, wouldn't bother that you feel that at the front end.

 

[Zealot]

That's where it will come in in my case, being in Australia with long drives and hot weather. It's not even "officially" summer and we're getting days in the mid 30's.

 

[YNWaN]

And has faster Turbo spool, but if you blast for a longer period especially in the summer the temp build up in the intercooler is big and also restrictive for power. Mapped and tuned it will be necessary, too. How much is the extra weight? 3-5kg? This extra weight is on a low spot, wouldn't bother that you feel that at the front end.

As you know, delayed turbo spool was my biggest worry, particularly as the proceeding overall air volume is something like 30 to 40% bigger with the Wagner. But the reality seems to be that any such delay is minimal to zero. Obviously this is a largely subjective issue but that’s my feelings (at least so far). The car does pull strongly and smoothly even up to the red line though.
Time now for the ‘stage 2’ remap…..

 

[gpaaa]

As you know, delayed turbo spool was my biggest worry, particularly as the proceeding overall air volume is something like 30 to 40% bigger with the Wagner. But the reality seems to be that any such delay is minimal to zero. Obviously this is a largely subjective issue but that’s my feelings (at least so far). The car does pull strongly and smoothly even up to the red line though.
Time now for the ‘stage 2’ remap…..

The delayed turbo spool, is minimal when you make long time accelerations. When it is annoying, is on rallying or b roads with many turns, when during turns you want to control the behaviour of the car with small press and lift off accelerator movements. The difference between 2 good fwd cars (i20n, civic type-r ep3) both with lsd at the front is very noticable. At the ep3, there is a very linear behaviour, when you press the accelerator pedal or lift off, and car responds immediatelly. On the contrary in my i20n, you have to forcast and do the press - lift off, a fragment of the second previously, so the car will act a bit later. This is even more obvious with wagner intercooler in this particular way of driving (B-roads, tight turns or very mall circuits like megara in Greece).