The car is suffering from the trackday.
Brakes first :
As stated in the previous post they faded a bit on the track. From what I remember they were ok on the drive home.
However now they have seriously limited stopping power. I can’t get the wheels to lock, and even gentle stops require plenty of force.
I am not happy driving the car but have had to use it a bit and it isn’t fun.
I am not sure what’s wrong but it could be related to the overheating of the pads on the track. Either way I either need to fix it or change pads.
I am not sure whether I can keep the disks and put my DS2500 pads back on or need to change the disks as well again…
I am sure the last set of front disks I took off were nice and smooth. This time the fronts have noticable grooves that I can feel by running my finger along the disk. The rears are still smooth. This probably isn’t a good thing for the front disks. Hopefully I haven’t damaged the rears – handbrake still seems ok, so maybe I only need to change the fronts.
These trackdays cost me more in brakes than they do in entry fees.
Secondly the battery :
This battery has had a hard life – being pulled down to 1.2V when the alternator failed, and spraying some acid in the battery compartment which coroded vacuum lines.
Well, it did it again. I noticed some battery leakage at the trackday and cleaned it up. However when on a long drive (with dodgy brakes) I noticed the boost gauge wasn’t going as high as usual when I put my foot down. I initially though “not another APC valve” but when looking under the bonnet found the following damage done – near the battery where the vacuum pipes from manifold and dump valve meet at a Y piece to the in-dash gauge.
Removing the pipe at the manifold and blowing down it highlights all the air escaping there. Dump valve still seems to be dumping, but the boost gauge does very little.
So now my shopping list is :
1) Brakes
2) Battery
Luckily I have lots of spare vacuum hose so will change that soon.