Nice shiny new MoT yesterday

[motco]

Because of family crises my 2.2i Sport had hardly turned a wheel since last year and is in my garage on SORN until the spring. But I like to maintain a continuous sequence of certificates so off it went to the most even handed testing station in my area. Pass; but with the hardy annual advisories about both rear brake pipes "corroded but covered in grease or other material..." I suppose I'm going to have to replace the pipes at some point but it's not a job I feel like trying to do myself any more. He did verbally say something about the discs but didn't specify so I expect the corrosion that helped me get a decent price drop off the car when I bought it sixteen years ago is what he's referring to. The brakes work very well and even the notoriously weak BMW handbrake of that era passed unmentioned.

I did take it on a track day some while ago when my Westfield was unavailable and the brakes didn't like repeated heavy use, but that's to be expected. A rest to cool was all that was needed.

An interesting point to note is that the manager of the testing station for most of the many years I've been going there has now retired, always tested the brakes with the Tapley in-car device on a short road test in the yard, but the new chap, made up from the ranks as it were, is reassuringly certain that Torsen LSDs as fitted to many BMW models, are compatible with roller brake testing. By the time I'd remembered to mention the LSD to him, he'd done the roller test and the diff remains unharmed.

 

[shera25]

Because of family crises my 2.2i Sport had hardly turned a wheel since last year and is in my garage on SORN until the spring. But I like to maintain a continuous sequence of certificates so off it went to the most even handed testing station in my area. Pass; but with the hardy annual advisories about both rear brake pipes "corroded but covered in grease or other material..." I suppose I'm going to have to replace the pipes at some point but it's not a job I feel like trying to do myself any more. He did verbally say something about the discs but didn't specify so I expect the corrosion that helped me get a decent price drop off the car when I bought it sixteen years ago is what he's referring to. The brakes work very well and even the notoriously weak BMW handbrake of that era passed unmentioned.

I did take it on a track day some while ago when my Westfield was unavailable and the brakes didn't like repeated heavy use, but that's to be expected. A rest to cool was all that was needed.

An interesting point to note is that the manager of the testing station for most of the many years I've been going there has now retired, always tested the brakes with the Tapley in-car device on a short road test in the yard, but the new chap, made up from the ranks as it were, is reassuringly certain that Torsen LSDs as fitted to many BMW models, are compatible with roller brake testing. By the time I'd remembered to mention the LSD to him, he'd done the roller test and the diff remains unharmed.

Sounds like a decent result overall, especially after the car sitting for so long. The brake pipe advisories seem pretty common, but getting them replaced professionally is probably the easiest route now. Good to hear the brakes and handbrake are still performing well, and reassuring that the LSD handled the roller test without any issues.

 

[Stevo7682]

As long as its a twin start roller system it will be fine with the lsd i test stuff with lsd fitted quite frequently.

Stephen.

 

[motco]

As long as its a twin start roller system it will be fine with the lsd i test stuff with lsd fitted quite frequently.

Stephen.

I cannot say whether it's twin start or not, but the tester said he uses the Tapley on 'hard' LSDs (and on my Outlander PHEV last week), but that the mechanism of the Torsen is tolerant of rollers especially at the low speed that the test uses. I've studied the design of the common Torsen (there's more than one design I gather) and I cannot put my hand on my heart and swear to understanding it from animations, I need to get my hands on a model or a real life item on a bench to be sure. It's obvious, though, that any damage would be immediately clear as it would result in the diff chewing itself to pieces, unlike a clutch based hard LSD which could suffer hidden damage that wouldn't become immediately obvious.
Good to know, Stephen, that your first hand experience is positive. Thanks for the input.