So, the next journey for the car was down to some guys down in Fareham called Southways Automotive.
These guys had been recommended to me and impressed me over the phone with their outlook.
I took the car to them primarily as another opinion on the brakes.
When I turned up they had some nice stuff in the workshop (I'll get some photos when I next go back).
After doing their own testing and research they found the braking situation a bit baffling.
They too said the brakes were poor.
They tested the amount of pressure at the calipers and it was indeed very low. They also checked the servo, and found that it had nowhere near enough vacuum. They're reckoning that was the engine, and more specifically the wild cams that were not generating enough vacuum.
Removing the servo would have no disadvantage at this stage, but it wouldn't help either, so we went another route.
An electric pump from a BMW E43 M3. Upon testing, that brought the vacuum pressure up 3 fold.
That helped, but obviously a servo is more about lessening the pressure needed at the pedal, rather than generating more pressure at the caliper so we still had the same original issue.
All thinking took the guys back to the fact that the original Metro master cylinder size was right.
So, we bought another Metro master cylinder and tried it
Do you know what.......transformed!
The brakes were massively improved. I wasn't in complete fear of needing to brake suddenly.
So, going to a larger master cylinder wasn't the answer. After all that it must have just been a component fault, rather than a component mismatch.
That was an expensive exercise - very, very frustrating, but at least it is fixed.
I was about to set off from Fareham when we noticed coolant dripping from a drain hole. We checked all pipework but the leak was actually coming from the heater matrix. So, I had to leave the car with them and get the train back to London. Mmmm......
Another large bill for labour charges later and the matrix has been fixed.
Sorry for so many words - and no pics. When things are going wrong, photos tend to be last on my mind.
Next instalment - the engine........
