So last Saturday was the charity day for children with a severe illness, on the small race track in Meppen (picture above). It was a very nice day, completely dry and sunny. The children had a lot of smiles on their faces obviously, some real supercars where available. To begin, my car didn't want to start. As it had sat outside all night and it probably froze a bit, the starter was pulling too much power again and disabling the coil to fire. The well known problem. Luckily, directly some guy stood next to my car to help! They brought a small start booster as their 680+ Nissan GTR also had trouble starting when standing still for more than 2 weeks. It was a small starter pack, but the Golf started directly. I need one of those! In the morning not a lot of kids wanted to drive with me, nor the other hatches. They all opted for the Ferrari's, Lambo's and Porsches in stead of wanting to sit in a REAL race car My wife was present with our son and she was "recruiting" the kids to get in the Golf. So at some point it started going and the kids loved it! After the break I had some more "customers" which was really nice. They only did 2 laps so sometimes I asked if they wanted to go for another run. Ofcourse they wanted too. As the tires and engine were warmer then, I could hit it some more I even got in a Reliant Robin which took me for some laps! Where in the morning we were doing the laps nice and slow, in the afternoon the speed was increased. In the last session I was last in a train of supercars only and really had to push to keep up! I regretted the fitment of my street-brake pads instantly. And then, on the end of a straight, I had NO brakes! Of course I had a large margin driving with children, so a downshift, some pumps on the pedal and a little handbrake made me get through the corner safely. When I got to the pit, nice and slow, my belts didn't want to unbuckle. The lever was already feeling 'loose' and now there was no action. I managed to get the left and 5/6th points loose, then wurmed myself out. TIme for new belts too.... Recap: - Oil cooler blocked with cardboard, temperature not over 110C - Still some light starting issues. I needed the booster only once, but I saw the computer being resetted multiple times (also oil temperature is then multiplied) - Still NOT happy with the Nankang semi's. Low grip, lot's of squeaking. Booo - Still the same brake problem, so it's not the calipers. Time to replace the master brake cylinder too. - Belts defect, so new belts to be installed. And I will look for the new once which are much easier to adjust, but it looks like they are €600+ Videos on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/daNpy2
I've fixed the seatbelt. The buckle is serviceable and the problem was actually that the bolts that holds the buckle together, were loose. I've put some pictures I got in my Gallery: https://www.autofans.nl/gallery/index.php?gallery=20221112+Droomautodag#/0
Don't over tighten through, as that is as bad as under tightening. Too little and it can come undone, too much and it can simply fail, I've seen heads of bolts just fall off at a later date when over tightened. The ideal is always the manufacturers recommended level, hence the use of a good torque wrench.
Thanks for the advice. The bearings will be replaced anyway, and I will tighten them to the correct torque! (230 Nm)
Ah Tony. Don't you know its a case of 6 ugga duggas! With a fully charged battery. You and your fancy "torque wrench". It'll never catch on, I tells thee.
Back to the brakes. As said I had some issues again on Meppen when having to push to keep up. I can't remember -unfortunately- if the pedal went deep or the brake power just lacked. With a young kid in the car I didn't want to try again and find out they were completely gone obviously. So I checked the interwebz on how to see if brakepads have faded. They then have a hard layer which is shiny and hard/smooths/sleek (not sure how to explain in English). This weekend I dismounted the pads and found 3 of four pads indeed are shiny. That being the case, from memory my racing pads don't look too different (but I was too lazy to take them out as well). The surface was smooth and hard. It still suprises me a bit as I have brake cooling installed, on the other hand Meppen is really small and speeds are low. Then it's only 3 out of 4, the surface of the fourth one was rough. Well then, the calipers are not working correctly! You would say, but the pad with the rough surface was on the piston side. The only thing I can imagine is the pad is blocked in the sliding areas (since the revision, maybe some paint drops?), causing the piston to push on a non moving pad but still pulling the other side onto the disc. I will have to investigate further (maybe this weekend), I don't want to find out it's not the pads when I booked a trackday again.
Fwiw, the description "hard, smooth, sleek" explains it perfectly. What make are the pads? Could you have a sticky piston?
The pads are standard Delphi pads. As said, these are my street pads, only to go to MOT or the odd test drive. A sticky piston would be strange, as the calipers are revised in October and they moved smoothly. It would also be very strange that the other side then is clamped to the disc, when the piston is not moving at all.
Good point, but I more or less had that as a reason I cannot get the wheels (with street tires) to lock up on a damp street. And it doesn't explain why one of the pads is still rough.
Actually, no 2 of the pads are wearing the same. Weird. I'd try cleaning the disc with 80 grit emery tape and a different, perhaps better quality set of pads, like Ferodo, Trw, Textar. Not Brembo anyway, I tried their road pads on my mk2, with 280mm discs and they were on the metal after a half track day.
I don't use these pads on a track normally (Meppen was an exception as it was 60kph behind the safety car). My track pads are Hawk HT10s which I m very satisfied about. I will clean the discs before I will go to any track obviously. The discs (Brembo) are newly installed this year, in April before my second trackday. The thing is, there are a lot of variables which have changed regarding the brakes this year, it would even take some time to write them down in chronological order Also making it a bit hard to find a root cause.
Holidays have started, so it's time to work on the car! I dismounted the front RH hub to check the size of the bearing and ordered new ones. I've also decided to stop the search for a radiator in the standard line and just copy what Tony has! A Honda Civic 3 row full alu radiator. I got one for € 95 on Ebay and it's coming my way this week. If this setup fits in Tony's MK2, it should fit in mine too! Next up is the removal of the engine. I always take out the complete subframe with engine, so I can work on it on a trolley
Yes a shield was also in my head, not just add the tape to the brakelines as it will cause issues at some point. I am still struggling a bit understanding what the problem is (are?). I had temperature issues so I added cooling. Then the pedal was deep, but power was there. After overhauling the calipers the pedal is back, but at Meppen I suddenly had almost no brakes again. That was with streetpads, of which three seem glased and one unused. I already filed the caliperbrackets in the area where the pads slide. I found areas where the pads made a 'dent', which is curious after not even going full blast. So I am looking into options to solve possible issues, in temperature and brake pads as next time the Hawks will be back on obviously. Meanwhile I took the gearbox and flywheel off. There is always a bit of oil on the lower part of the gearbox, which is anoying. I already found a piece pf plastic which had to come from the crankshaft seal. At first sight, no real issues as the piece of plastic is from around the nut that hold the gearbox shield. But I also saw a crack in the lower part at the oil pan bolts: However, no oil seems to come from the crankshaft seal. I suspect it would then be the oil pan seal? I didn't apply additional sealant, which I read was a better idea with the steel pan.... I also inspected the spark plugs, which look good and all the same.
