Hello faithful readers and welcome to another week of adventures from the KAM team. We have been very busy this week as you continue to heed the call and more and more of your cars are being restored to perfect health. You can leave your comments, questions and queries here or on our twitter at www.twitter.com/dr_kev.
This week’s story comes courtesy of Mr G who visited our Heanor depot in his Ford Fiesta. ‘Kev help my car is losing major fluid, I don’t know where it’s going. You have to fix it’. It turned out that on weekly inspections of his car’s levels the hydraulic fluid level had continued to decrease. This had lead to Mr G having to top up once a week and going through a lot of hydraulic fluid along the way. He continued ‘the problem has persisted for over 6 months now; I thought it would go away but its still happening’. Mr G was losing money from all the hydraulic fluid he had bought over the last 6 months and now needed a solution to this costly problem.
Strong Arm Steve was elected to take on the mammoth mystery and got straight to work. The first task was to check the brake performance to see if they were affected by the loss of fluids. This involves checking the test metres and general use of the brakes. The tests were done and Freddy passed with flying colours, the brakes were working fine. So what was the cause of the leakage? We would need to investigate further. We then removed the wheels to visually inspect the breaks at the front and rear. Again we were surprised as the breaks looked brand new, so where to look now? It seemed as though we were never going to find the problem, the brake fluid was leaking but there was no problem with the brakes. This was a conundrum and the team were running out of ideas. We have never let a mystery go unsolved and this would not be a first. So it was time to bring in the big guns our very own ‘Ghostbusters’, the elite motor team- myself, Super Shaun and Diagnostic Dan. Dan who has been consistently unravelling mysteries since his arrival here at KAM was ready to take on the car gremlin. He attached the car to one of our state of the art machines and proceeded to do a pressure test on the breaking system. After half an hour he came back looking deflated and relayed the results ‘nothing, not so much as drip. There is no leaking’. ‘Oh no Dan have you failed to find the problem. That is a surprise’ said Shaun jokingly.
So another dead end and we were no nearer to finding out the actual problem. Now here at KAM we do refrain from doing a road test if the brakes are faulty. This is for the safety of us and others on the road in case of possible accidents. However the brakes were in good working condition and so a road test could be done. Dan, still eager to find the problem was first behind the wheel and off he went. He returned in 10 minutes hoisted the car up on the ramp and proclaimed ‘I’ve found it Kev, I know what the problem is’. We were slightly sceptical after hours of inconclusive testing had he really found the problem in 10 minutes? ‘It turned out that the brake problem was actually a clutch problem’ said Dan. Just to get technical for a moment the break and clutch share the same hydraulic fluid reservoir. This means that there was a leak but it was not due to the brake, but the clutch. The leak was coming between the gear box and the engine and the fluid was being lost through the clutch. We removed the gear box and we found the clutch slave cylinder to be leaking. So all along the problem had been the clutch which Dan had recognised as not being in good working order on the road test. The clutch was replaced and then after a wash from Dynamo Dhillan, Freddy was ready for collection. Yet it was till a mystery how Mr G had not noticed the clutch to be awkward when driving. ‘I suppose I had just gotten used it. I don’t drive very much. I’m so glad you’ve fixed it and saved me so much money. Thanks Dr Kev’
Remember faithful reader, our team of dedicated and hard working staff at the branches in Sutton and Long Eaton, along with our bodywork shop are open ever day of the week, EXCLUDING Sunday’s, while the lads at our Sawley and Heanor workshops and Sutton car sales are at your service seven days a week, keeping your car where it belongs. ON THE ROAD.
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