Ferret
11-13-2009, 12:00 PM
So, the 8's off the road again :(
This is rapidly turning out to be a problem car, I knew they were expensive to keep on the road but this is getting silly.
I knew the cars brake hydraulics were on the fritz, but it'd not been playing up for a while so I'd wrongly assumed whatever was causing the issue was a blockage in the hydraulic regulator and had cleared. (These cars are fitted with hydraulic rather than vaccuum servos.)
Not so, last week coming down to the bottom of the M/A329, someone screws up really badly in front of me in the wet and I discover the problem's actually with emergency stops. Due to the nature of the servo system, the pump alone cannot provide hydraulic pressure/flow enough for when you slam your foot on the brakes, there's energy stored in an accumulator in the system. One "the brakes are not working and I'm going into the back of a truck at 60" brown trousers moment later and we know what the fault is :/
Easy job, right? Not so...
Firstly, you have to get to the bugger. This is the first time I've looked under the bonnet and thought to myself "where the **** is the ABS pump?"
Our survey says: bolted to the floor pan of the engine bay, under the passenger side headlight just behind the bumper. *sigh*
One stripdown later:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/IMG_0043.jpg
There should be a pop up headlight there, a la the other side:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/IMG_0046.jpg
The accumulator (round ball thing) can just be seen here:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/IMG_0042.jpg
So far so good... a closer look reveals:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/IMG_0050.jpg
Stripped heads :/
I've had to order new pipes as someones had a go at these and they're mangled, no way in hell they're coming out - I'm going to have to cut the old ones off. This 90 quid job just doubled in cost.
Oh well, at least the new pipes arrived in a reasonable time!
This is rapidly turning out to be a problem car, I knew they were expensive to keep on the road but this is getting silly.
I knew the cars brake hydraulics were on the fritz, but it'd not been playing up for a while so I'd wrongly assumed whatever was causing the issue was a blockage in the hydraulic regulator and had cleared. (These cars are fitted with hydraulic rather than vaccuum servos.)
Not so, last week coming down to the bottom of the M/A329, someone screws up really badly in front of me in the wet and I discover the problem's actually with emergency stops. Due to the nature of the servo system, the pump alone cannot provide hydraulic pressure/flow enough for when you slam your foot on the brakes, there's energy stored in an accumulator in the system. One "the brakes are not working and I'm going into the back of a truck at 60" brown trousers moment later and we know what the fault is :/
Easy job, right? Not so...
Firstly, you have to get to the bugger. This is the first time I've looked under the bonnet and thought to myself "where the **** is the ABS pump?"
Our survey says: bolted to the floor pan of the engine bay, under the passenger side headlight just behind the bumper. *sigh*
One stripdown later:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/IMG_0043.jpg
There should be a pop up headlight there, a la the other side:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/IMG_0046.jpg
The accumulator (round ball thing) can just be seen here:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/IMG_0042.jpg
So far so good... a closer look reveals:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/IMG_0050.jpg
Stripped heads :/
I've had to order new pipes as someones had a go at these and they're mangled, no way in hell they're coming out - I'm going to have to cut the old ones off. This 90 quid job just doubled in cost.
Oh well, at least the new pipes arrived in a reasonable time!