Frustrating week :/

[Ferret]

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:

There should be a pop up headlight there, a la the other side:


The accumulator (round ball thing) can just be seen here:


So far so good... a closer look reveals:


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!

[632 Regal]

Replaced my accumulator also, had to crack the nuts loose with vice grips. Would not have been a big deal but the accumulator is mounted via rubber.

[whiskychaser]

That looks like a PITA. And of course it has to rain as well. What you going to use to tighten the new ones - a brake pipe spanner? Or some pipe grips which is presumably what the PO used

[Ferret]

That looks like a PITA. And of course it has to rain as well. What you going to use to tighten the new ones - a brake pipe spanner? Or some pipe grips which is presumably what the PO used

Yeah, I've got set of oversized brake spanners that'll help me put the new bits in:

[whiskychaser]

The pipes dont look too long so thats something. And you have the kettle on so thats a great start

[Ferret]

Well I got there in the end, worked right through the biggest rain storm we've had in months >.<


Typically, sheared off the aux water pump, as usual :/