[1989agoodvintage]

Recently the cars been losing speed really easily, that is, when in gear and coasting. If I drop the clutch the car coasts freely. Also, when trying to make sharp exits from exit roads (especially left hand turns) I'm having trouble keeping the car "composed", it's embarassing as other road users must think I'm a hooligan.

At first I thought I may have a rear caliper on the way out, but the car will roll very easily with the handbrake off. I'm thinking possibly resistance in the wheel bearings or drive shaft/CV joints, any ideas?

 

[MikeH]

I doubt it being cv joints or wheel bearings,as these will have the same resistance driven or not,I would have suspected the final drive but I am not sure where the handling problem would fit in with that.The only thing I have experienced with anything like these symptoms was a broken sub-frame on a little Suzuki.
mike

 

[chrisjshaw]

Brake caliper seized on one corner ? Could account for both loss of speed and pull on one side when cornering ?


Chris

 

[MikeH]

On rereading my last post I realised that the final drive can be discounted as this too will continue to turn,in gear or out,so we are now back to your gearbox.
mike

 

[sgould]

If the car is OK with the clutch depressed, the problem must lie on the engine side. If the handling is affected as well, but the engine runs OK I would suspect the engine mounting system, including subframes and the bits of rusty bodywork attached to them. I'm not too familiar with the 9000, but is there a bit of body that supports the engine and (say) a front wishbone?

 

[1989agoodvintage]

Mmm, gear changes are becoming clunky as well, now I think about it. It could well be a mount or broken mount point. I will have to jack it up and have a good look around.

 

[1989agoodvintage]

Found...

<ul type="square">
[*]Handbrake not operating on passenger side caliper, but caliper works fine on foot pedal.
[*]Gearbox mount looks shot, the rubber is OK-ish but the surrounding steel bits are corroded to hell.
[*]Lots of oil on the gearbox casing, but the level is OK
[/list]
Also while I was checking out the calipers I noticed a screw in one of the rear tyres. Luckily I still had the spare wheels ready that I'd sorted out for Anglesey last year but not yet used. Unfortunately this means I have Carlsson Aero's on the front and super Aeros on the back, but I have another two super Aero's waiting for tyres. So I'll get some more Proxes on order for this week, and book the car in for a 12K service ASAP.