Ka Diary: 31,143 –
13/07/2003 – Post JOGLE
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in case you’ve not been reading my diary entries, or indeed at the rest of the
website, the reason why Kermit’s gained over 2,000 miles since my last report
is because of the John O’Groats to Lands End Charity Road
Trip, and this diary entry was written in the immediate aftermath.
A business trip a couple
of days before JOGLE to Chester saw me using the new Firehawk tyres in the wet for the first time, and I wasn’t happy
with their performance. When I took a
slip road to join the York A64 bypass, at a modest pace I must add, the rear
started to break away. Fortunately,
there was sufficient warning to allow me to stop the skid the easy way (off
the power, rather than nailing it and catching the slide), but it didn’t do
much for my confidence. What really
knocked my confidence on the head was getting into a huge leery
oversteery slide on a roundabout at the humble speed of approximately 20 mph,
that is, the slowest I could take the roundabout in third gear. Whilst it must have been quite a spectacle
to see a Ka emerging from the roundabout sideways, I wasn’t entirely flattering
about the Firehawk F700 “Fuel Savers” under my breath.
After
an emergency “human needs” stop, I came out of the loo to see some brat letting
down my tyre! He got away, but lacking
a foot pump /blush/ I had to change the wheel (in my suit), drive
almost a mile to the nearest petrol station on the space saver, re-inflate the
tyre on the alloy, and swap them back.
Fortunately, I didn’t get too covered in brake dust, but I wasn’t best
pleased! Mind you, it did give me the
opportunity to reduce the rear tyre pressures, and this made a difference to
the tyre performance. They were set to
the same pressure that the Continentals were at, 
but I guess the Firehawks
didn’t like it.
Although
the rear tyre performance dramatically improved on the way home, probably
because the roads started drying up and the “new tyre” coating was finally
wearing off, it did take me several days to get my confidence back in the Ka’s goonability. It is not a nice experience to lose
confidence in the Ka’s handling, especially when it
made the Ka handle like a Golf in the wet - lots of
understeer from low speed, but lift off and the back end swings around quicker
than you can say, “may the Ford be with you.”
I’m
just pleased that by the time we tackled the John O’Groats
to Lands End Charity Road Trip, the tyres were sorted!
The
detail of the JOGLE trip is here (if you’ve somehow
missed the other links in this diary entry!) and I’m not wanting to repeat
this aspect of the website here. But
suffice to report that I had a great time.
Kermit
was the thirstiest Ka of the group, even thirstier than Andy T’s Ka, Trinity, which both surprised
and disappointed me during the trip.
Okay, so Kermit was probably the heaviest, but not by that much, and yes
we did use the air conditioning quite a bit, but
Trinity wears larger wheels and tyres, which should have increased the rolling
resistance. Against this, Trinity sits
significantly lower than Kermit, which will improve the aerodynamics, although
the Morette triple lights won’t be so aerodynamic. Trinity’s engine has been modified with an improved induction system and has been chipped. So the fact that Kermit used the most petrol
was mildly concerning, but I’m coming to this!
Many
engine modifications do improve the efficiency, although we had believed that
the extra rolling resistance of 195/45 tyres on larger wheels would have
counteracted this difference. Trinity was
also significantly quicker on the motorway, so much so that I’m now
investigating and researching ways of stuffing more air into Kermit’s
airbox. More thoughts on this will
appear here in due course.
Following
Kermit’s service, and the problems we encountered in Cornwall with his binding
rear brake drum, I once again got up at five o’clock in the morning to trek
down to Lincolnshire again.
Kermit had to go back to
Bert Eyre & Son for his rear ABS sensor, and the two
planned replacement front tyres. Whilst
Kermit was in their care and attention, they replaced the ABS sensors (both
of the rear sensors are in the one loom, so the whole arrangement had to be
replaced) and then investigated the problem drum.
It
turned out that when Eyres reassembled the drum arrangement a fortnight ago,
they’d misaligned one of the drum shoes, such that it was rubbing the whole
time – and this goes some way to explaining the poorer fuel
consumption and performance. So
Kermit received a new cylinder, new shoes, and of course, the new ABS sensor
loom. Consequently, his brakes now feel
much better (primarily because the rear drivers side one is now working
properly). Also, because Eyres caused
the faults, they’ve done the work free of charge. This is one of the reasons why I drive over a hundred miles each
way to get Kermit serviced: other dealerships would have tried to blame the
car or the owner for the ABS sensor cracking (been there, done that, never
again).