Finally, Evie is back on the road with working brakes. 2 months after beginning, it’s done, front brakes are on and working a treat. Still in the wearing-in phase, but I’ve already noticed that there’s a lot less pedal pressing for stopping the car, what used to be a firm press on the pedal is now a gentle touch. Yet to do an emergency stop to really see how they handle.
So, going back in time a little, this is how my heads up display looked prior to this weekend;
Ever been Southend sea front at Christmas? Reminds me of that. Loaded up the boot with the rear R32 brakes in preparation for my tow to AmD;
Thursday rolls round, time to put her on the back of a flat bed. Feels like admitting defeat, or that hung-over walk of shame the morning after…
Early start on the Friday, get to AmD for about 10am, spend a lot of time waiting to get a phone call saying the rear brakes didn’t fit correctly. Was a little bemused, but transpired they meant my rear dust shields didn’t fit as they’re for a mk6 Golf R which has a different axle shape so they're not backwards compatible. Not the end of the world running without them but still slightly annoyed.
Many, many hours later, the guys pop up to the waiting room and tell me there’s another problem with the rear brakes. The passenger side caliper was just losing all the fluid in a rather bad manor where the brake hose meets the caliper, looks like I’d cross-threaded the bolt as I screwed it in so fluid was just flowing out, even at normal pressure. Result: new caliper needed, along with new hose mountings (solid lines that then attach to stainless steel lines). So they didn’t end up going on and I had to get my stock rears re-fitted. Devastated.
Also found the reason my brake pedal was just sinking to the floor even though there was no apparent air in the system after several bleeding cycles. I’d somehow managed to fit the front calipers upside down (effectively swapped the sides over). So because the bleed nipple was at the bottom, all the air was trapped in the top of the caliper. Felt like a massive c*** in AmD, decided there and then to give my tools away and give up doing things myself for the sake of further embarrassment! Credit to the guys there, they were really good about it and told me of some worse case situations they’ve had to fix to cheer me up.
But anyway, enough stupidity, I shall bring a small update and some better pictures in a few weeks when my new camera tripod arrives (it is a small one mind so no high up pictures!).
