Karl's 1979 Volkswagen Cabriolet at Sonoma Raceway (16 September 2021)Karl's 1979 Volkswagen Cabriolet at Sonoma Raceway (16 September 2021)
 Ready for the racetrack! |
I had signed up for a track day at Sonoma Raceway with Mr. Toad, my Mazdaspeed 3, but tire problems at Laguna Seca two weeks earlier had me worried about using those tires on a track that I hadn't driven in over 30 years (when it was called Sears Point). After I discovered a cracked brake rotor, then found that a replacement might arrive the day before the day at Sonoma (at best), I threw in the towel and let someone else take my spot.
Several friends were going to be there, however, so I decided to drive up for the afternoon and maybe go for a ride or two. It was a nice day and not a really long drive so I decided to drive my Volkswagen Cabriolet, which probably wouldn't have another chance to visit a racetrack. It's far from a track car and would not pass tech inspection (due to the lack of roll protection) nor would it pass anything on the track faster than a flag station. For a laugh, I affixed the magnetic number "meatballs" that are usually worn by Mr. Toad. The red numbers were even a good match for the car's Mars Red paint!
With the tire holding air, I decided to slowly limp to an exit that was just ahead, where I could more safely swap on the spare. Before reaching the exit, I found a wide spot in the shoulder that provided a safe place to work.
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After putting away the spare and tools, I checked to make sure the hood was fully latched. It wasn't. The primary latch, released by a lever in the glove box, wasn't catching. I cycled the lever several times to no avail, and tried to see if I could move the latch with a screwdriver, but could not get the latch to work. Early in my ownership of the car I had the hood blow open at speed so I knew the secondary latch was not sufficient. I walked along the shoulder a few car lengths, looking at the copious amount of trash for anything that might be useful, and found a long piece of nylon strap which did the trick.
I wasn't sure how much air was in the spare but it didn't look flat and once I started driving it seemed to be ok. The remaining 30 miles of the drive to Sonoma Raceway was uneventful. We had rented a couple of garages for the day, each with room for two cars, and my friends were on the track so I parked in the back of one of the garages. (A borrowed tire pressure gauge showed that the spare's pressure was pretty low so I pumped it up to what it should be.)
Thinking the tire failure might have damaged a brake line along with the light, we inspected the area but found no damage.
A slow-speed test drive in the paddock, with my hand on the emergency brake, revealed that normal braking was nearly non-existent. Back at the garage, I checked the brake-fluid reservoir and found that it was full. A friend suggested pumping the brakes to see if that helped and as I did so another friends said "something is leaking." We quickly confirmed that it was brake fluid, which appeared to be coming from the master cylinder.
Amazingly, the brakes had worked fine all the way to the racetrack, and there was no sign of leaked fluid in the garage where the car had been parked. This failure appeared to be independent of the tire failure.
Grif Rosser had offered to take me home, but after 2.5 hours we were getting tired of waiting, plus it was dark and getting cold. Another call to AAA revealed that it would be at least another two hours so I cancelled the request for towing. Greg Epstein lives about 30 minutes from the track and offered to come back the next day (when another friend would be on the track with a different group) and take care of the towing so I left the keys with him.
Someone at Sonoma Raceway told me that AAA often doesn't like towing from the track and gave me a business card for A&T Towing in Napa, noting that they had helped people at the track on numerous occasions. On Friday, I called them and confirmed that they worked for AAA even though they don't have a contract with AAA, and that they would be willing to take my car to Mountain View. I then opened a new case with AAA and called AAA to point them to A&T Towing. It took about 45 minutes to get confirmation, probably because AAA's dispatchers were looking for a cheaper option, but Frank from A&T Towing met Greg and several hours later gave me an ETA at Helming's Auto Repair so I could meet him there.
 Loading at Sonoma Raceway |
 Unloading at Helming's Auto Repair (note matching truck) |
After replacing the master cylinder, my mechanic found that only the front brakes worked. Further investigation revealed a leak in the brake line that runs to the rear brakes. Fixing that entailed ripping out the seats because Volkswagen ran the brake line inside the cabin rather than underneath the floor as with most cars.
It wouldn't be a day at the racetrack for me without brake problems!
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| Let's roll! | |
 Jelly beans |
 Toad and towed |
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Copyright © 2021-2022 Karl L. Swartz. All rights reserved. |
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