Out and about

Yesterday I went over to a friend’s workshop, so I could use one of the lifts there to clean the underside of the DHC. As mentioned earlier the engine lost around half a litre of oil during the recent 10 Countries Run. Nothing to worry about really considering the cause, but it did make quite a mess underneath the car. Time to get out a few cans of brake cleaner and some rags. Together with some compressed air this got rid of all the oily muck. After which its was time for more coffee and vlaai. And using the workshop’s facilities made life so much easier that I had a few spare hours to enjoy the car. Which I did!

Was a lovely drive. Even managed to collect an acorn on top of the dashboard while driving through an oak-tree-lined country lane. Judging by the sound, the acorn hit the co-driver seat’s headrest and was then catapulted horizontally against the inside of the windscreen. Timing indeed …

Also seems like I have finally found the problem with the brakes. Under specific conditions the brakes would need pretty much force to work properly, as if the brake’s servo wasn’t working properly. Well since I replaced the callipers and servo the problem had become less. But it did re-appear from time to time in what at first seemed like a random fashion. But today I noticed the problem did appear only when the engine wasn’t running properly at idle (and as such not producing enough vacuum for the servo to work properly). And both times the car was idling at low revs, just after starting the engine. Under normal driving conditions the problem so far has disappeared. Time for a little experiment. For which I used  a lonely stretch of road. The experiment consisted of switching off the engine (taking care not to activate the steering lock!) while driving, and see how the brakes felt after they had lost the vacuum assistance. And sure enough the symptoms are exactly the same! Hopefully I have found the core of the problem. Time and mileage will tell!