Paul Narramore
pre-moderated
- Messages
- 840
- Location
- Aylesford, Kent
Another day trip to France yesterday. Lovely sunny day, calm sea, car spinning along nicely what could possibly go wrong? We were going to meet up with some friends from the local Citroen 2CV club at a bistro in Wissant, just a few miles south of Calais, along the beautiful deserted country road. My mate Dave (75yrs) was along for the ride for the first time. It was such a pleasure driving along in the sunshine with so few cars on the road, a road which climbs up to Cap Blanc Nez and twists down through some hairpin bends to Escalles and other coastal villages............and then I found my brake pedal slowly getting closer to the floor. I was running out of brakes! We passed Wissant and intended to drive on to the next large town Wimereux to find a garage but things were getting bad. I pulled over and had a look at the front calipers but could find nothing wrong other than a sorry lack of brake fluid in the master cylinder, so turned around and headed back to Wissant where we parked up and went to seek directions. In the first café the owner an Englishman from Brixton (what are the chances of that?) gave us a sketch map of a garage in Maraise some 6km away. Having to resort to ultra careful driving and the handbrake (gulp) we finally got there in one piece. Brake fluid was found to be leaking from the front O/S flexible hose so within minutes the R4 was up on the hydraulic ramp, the hose tighten, cleaned up, front brakes bled, and we were on our way, 10euros lighter. I overhauled the front calipers a few weeks ago and must have failed to properly tighten the flexible hose. What a bloody fool, and something I am so particular about.
What else went wrong? One of the indicators kept giving up on me and was found just to be a slightly sloppy fit in the light fitting.
And the temp warning light came on (again). Now I know the fan works as I'd tested it, and I had fitted a brand new radiator sensor, yet I hadn't heard the fan actually come on. Rather than buy yet another sensor I think I'll wire in a switch and just manually switch the fan on in future.
Other than that, it was a lovely day.
The mechanic was unwilling to bleed the back drum brakes because of corrosion so the next step is to clean off and paint the back plates, free off the bleed nipples and make sure the back brakes are fine too. Deep joy.
What else went wrong? One of the indicators kept giving up on me and was found just to be a slightly sloppy fit in the light fitting.
And the temp warning light came on (again). Now I know the fan works as I'd tested it, and I had fitted a brand new radiator sensor, yet I hadn't heard the fan actually come on. Rather than buy yet another sensor I think I'll wire in a switch and just manually switch the fan on in future.
Other than that, it was a lovely day.
The mechanic was unwilling to bleed the back drum brakes because of corrosion so the next step is to clean off and paint the back plates, free off the bleed nipples and make sure the back brakes are fine too. Deep joy.