Looking back I realise now that I’ve not written about The Tank since 2014. About a year-and-a-half ago now. Which means she’s been with me that period of time too.
Quite a bit has happened since then of course and rather than write a whole bunch about it, here’s a brief recap.
Breaking the brakes
My daily commute is a 15km climb and descent through the hills that ring Balik Pulau. A very picturesque drive in parts, it can also be tough on a 2-tonne car. I must admit to being a little cavalier about braking, relying on the middle pedal rather than calling on engine braking to help slow The Tank. Some stretches can be very fast, with my speedo even nudging 100 (giving a true speed closer to 90 actually) and the demands on the brakes can be severe.
One day, the Brake Failure light came on and I noticed the pedal sinking towards the floor when applied. Braking power was not dimished and a double tap on the pedal kept it high and the pressure consistent. I do hate to ignore warnings, though, especially when a discernible change in behaviour is noticed too. So rather than lose my brakes altogether, leaving the road at a fast bend and ending up airborne over the padi fields of Balik Pulau, I brought The Tank in to Ah Guan.
"Rather than lose my brakes... and leave the road and ending up airborne over the padi fields, I brought The Tank in."
Brake Master Cylinder leaking, he pronounced and after a day in the shop, she was right as rain. I was quite impressed that a 32-year old car would have a monitoring system capable of detecting a brake system leak. I wasn’t the only one surprised, as things would turn out much later.
While in the shop I decided to have the front brake pads changed too. The feel just wasn’t there and trying to stop even coming down my apartment’s carpark ramp required a great deal more pressure on the pedal than I was happy with. Turns out the pads were not worn, as I had thought. A change to Volvo pads gave me much more feel and a bit more stopping power.
6 months or so later, I drove The Tank down to KL to attend some events and very late one night after leaving a pub, I heard a terrible graunching and screeching from the front wheels. Brakes, Discs, Bearings all crossed my mind as possible ailing parts. Many years ago, I had a Lancia Dedra and a similar noise resulted in the some component coming away and the car stranded. I certainly didn’t relish that happening to The Tank. Luckily my friend Debbie, whom I was staying with, knew a mechanic who could look at the car on that weekend so we drove there one morning, the screeching now clearly audible, and let him have a look.
‘Worn brake pads’, he said. Right down to the metal, just about. I guess the weight of The Tank was the only thing preventing complete seizure as metal bonded to metal under the heat of braking. He spent the day working on the car and late that evening I collected her, fixed and ready for the journey back to Penang.
"'Worn brake pads', he said. Right down to the metal, just about."
Some months later I noticed a slight movement form the rear under heavy braking. Not a very serious swing but just a tiny little feeling in the butt when I hit the brakes coming into a corner. I didn’t think too much about it until coming down a very fast section on the way to the cafe one day. I had overtaken a car which was going a tad too slowly for my liking, and towards the end of a long straight, I was going rather rapidly so hit the brakes hard for the tight left. Now this left is just after a slight dip and there’s even a bit of the reverse camber about it so any car entering this corner fast,as I was, would be a little unsettled as The Tank was… I felt the left rear lock up, then the left front and The Tank ploughed straight on. No traffic on the other side, fortunately, and to be honest, I hadn’t gone too far into the next lane so lifting off on the brakes and a twist of the steering and she was back on track.
By this time The Tank was being seen to by the mechanic at the end of the block. Lee was proving to be quite good with diagnosing and fixing the little issues that cropped up every now and then, and he was pleasantly cheaper than Ah Guan in town. I brought The Tank in staright away and they had a look and realised the rear brake pads were also completely worn. I left her overnight at the shop and they skimmed the rear discs as well, for good measure.
No more problems until about 2 months ago when the brake failure light came on again. Same symptoms as before. Lee was not familiar with this warning light and after checking things out and pronouncing the pads fine and the pump and master cylinder seemingly free of leaks, he suggested it might be an electrical fault in the lights. I told him about the previous issue and that puzzled him. He looked all around and could find no sensor that would yield a warnign light. He said he needed a bit more time to check the system out so I continued driving The Tank, double-pumping the brake pedal a little worryingly.
"I continued driving... double-pumping the brake pedal a little worryingly."
Meanwhile, I did a search on the internet and found that this old girl may be over 30 years old, but there was indeed a very clever sensor in the brake system. The lines go through something dubbed the Octopus - simply because all the brake lines connect up to this cigarette packet sized device. The device itself is nothing much more than a box with a ball-bearing in it. When the brakes are applied, if there is equal pressure in the system (front/rear and left-right I guess) the ball bearing is kept in the middle. If there is unequal pressure, say due to a leak, then the bal bearing moves and an electrical sensor is triggered and the warning light comes on. Simple, relatively failure-free and very clever indeed.
I pointed it out to Lee and with the bit of information he found the problem a day later - old brake fluid. Flushing out the system, refilling it with fresh fluid, bleeding the system and The Tank was fault-free once again.
Since then the brakes have been relatively OK and with more judicious use of engine braking, the pads have lasted a bit longer too.
