Car DIY Thread.
- Thread starter Suffolk Tony
- Start date
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
Scrub the pads???
wow&flutter
pfm Member
Best brake advice I got was from a local mechanic friend who when I bought a Civic VTI he told me replace the rear pads earlier than normal as they tended to stick and rust when the piston is fully out with very worn pads. Had it for maybe 5 years and never had a rear calliper issue.
-alan-
pfm Member
Suffolk Tony
Aim low, achieve your goals, avoid disappointment.
I think quite a few front-engined, front-wheel drives had seized-up rear brakes, many drivers didn't seem to notice...
cctaylor
pfm Member
For a short time I drove a 1959 MGA 1600. When I started stripping it for restoration I discovered that the front calipers were seized and only one pad was working. At least it was both sides. This went a long way to explaining why the rear wanted to lock under heavy braking!!!
You also had to hold it in third as it would jump out if you lifted off. I could have dealt with the mechanical issues but it needed far more work on the body than I could cope with so sold it on with a most of the required body parts.
You also had to hold it in third as it would jump out if you lifted off. I could have dealt with the mechanical issues but it needed far more work on the body than I could cope with so sold it on with a most of the required body parts.
very true. Driven to and from work, shops et c it often only comes up at the test when the rollers carry on trundling round.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
I’ve met a few people over the years who say they’ve never pushed the accelerator pedal all the way, so I suppose there’ll be many who rarely, if ever, use the brakes in a spirited way.
Use it or lose it, as an ex-gf used to tell me.
Use it or lose it, as an ex-gf used to tell me.
Jumping out of gear is a favourite with worn synchro hubs apparently. It affects 3rd and less so 2nd. I test drove an Alfa with the fault, and happily didn't buy it. Either way it's a gearbox rebuild.
There was a car resto programme featuring an MGA. It's the one where the guy has had it for years but is now unwell or looking after people so he can't do the work, and they squirrel it away and fix it. Anyway this thing a in a terrible state, the body was completely rotten, the chassis not much better. At one point they had 3 guys welding bits on the chassis with others making repair panels fit. The replacement body had to come from California and frankly even that looked well past its best. After what must have been many hundreds of hours of work it was done, but the notion of anyone tackling it at home was nonsense.
Suffolk Tony
Aim low, achieve your goals, avoid disappointment.
My MGA, with a previous Mrs Suffolk. It was a 1955 1500, & had drum brakes all round. From what I can recall, these worked reasonably well once I'd replaced the shoes & adjusted them properly, but then the car wasn't exactly a ball of fire. Bought for £120, sold a couple of years later for £125. It had a plywood floor, held in place with umpteen bolts covered in black gunk that took forever to remove. Loved it though!
Nero
Re: Tired
I've had a bit of fun with launch control on the old RS3, but a contact at Ingolstadt told me that if you do it more than 10 times, you'll need a new clutch
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
I used the launch control on my much missed 911 a handful of times, but it just felt cruel. There’s a video on that tube somewhere of a guy using it in a 911 a hundred times in a row on an old airfield. No problems at all, as Porsche promised. He became so bored with doing it that he was doing it hands-off, looking sideways at the camera after a while. It still tracked straight and true, even on the broken surface.
It’s brutal.
cctaylor
pfm Member
The first time I drove into puddle in mine I got soaked. Water came in the passenger footwell bounced off the roof and onto me. It was dark at the time, a passenger would have been completely soaked. Part of me would still like to have a nicely restored 1600. Such good looking cars.
-alan-
pfm Member
I went with a friend to play the part of the 'knowledgeable mate' (audible sucking of teeth/shaking of head/ lots of frowning - you know the form) when he was buying a lotus Elise with the Toyota 1.8 VVti engine some years back. That particular engine is renowned for being fairly tame until 6250rpm until the variable valve timing / cam lift profile changes, and it goes through a bit of a mad Jekyll and Hyde type transformation - a step change in torque, accompanied by a deepening of the engine note, and proper kick in the back acceleration, a real party piece. Makes up for the relatively humdrum performance at low rpm, and always always makes you smile
Anyways.. was talking to the seller and casually mentioned how the things dont really come to life until the cam-change point, and he says.. What's that now ? I explained about how the VVti didn't kick in until 6250 on the early car, and how some of the cognoscenti believe Lotus replaced the original Toyota map with one which not only made a little more power at higher rpm, but also sneakily dropped the torque fractionally before the change point for maximum dramatic effect. Oh I wouldnt know anything about that really he says - I've never had it above 3000rpm. More than enough for my kind of driving..
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
That poor engine