KEY INFORMATION
Klein Hollie Holtzhausen didn’t particularly like his nickname because one of its meanings is unsavoury, but there was little he could do about it short of changing his surname. At least he was better off than his dad. The senior Holtzhausen’s name changed from Hollie to Groot Hollie after his son was born.
A few months ago, Klein Hollie turned 21 and his father bought him an old front-wheel-drive Mazda 323. The car was generally in a good condition but needed a new battery, which we sold to him. Two weeks ago, he brought the car in and asked us to charge the battery because it was at. He suspected that it must be a dud because it drained very quickly. Hennie was asked to investigate and he put the battery on charge and made sure the alternator was charging correctly. When the battery was fully charged, he tested it and found it was in as good a condition as can be expected from a battery that has been allowed to go at a number of times.
Hennie then replaced the battery in the Mazda prior to starting the engine, but discovered that the ignition key was missing. He phoned Klein Hollie and was told that he can use just about any ignition key because the switch is so worn that Groot Hollie’s Mercedes key would start the engine. Hennie then started the engine with another key.
This turn of events prompted Hennie to wonder whether this was the key (pun intended) to the mystery? He turned the key to the accessory position and found that he could still withdraw it and leave enough of a current draw to weaken the battery overnight.
The cure for the problem was to fit a universal ignition switch.
WATER EVERYWHERE
Some cars are DIY-friendly while other manufacturers’ designs discourage people from working on their cars. American and Japanese cars are generally easy to work on, but heaven help you if you try to service a French car. Their engineers are past masters at coming up with designs that require special tools.
Young Herman Pansegrouw of the farm Bosluisfontein discovered this when he tried to restore a Renault 5 from the ‘70s. He bought the car as a non-runner and fought many a battle to get it going. The radiator was in a shocking condition, so he had it recored and, when the car was ready, he set off on his maiden journey. He drove only a short distance when it became clear that the engine was overheating.
Syd towed the car to the workshop and it did not take him long to discover that there was very little water in the radiator. He waited for the engine to cool down, re filled the radiator and started the engine with the radiator cap removed so that he could see if the water was moving briskly enough.
The level soon dropped but there was no leak. Syd cast his mind back to the days when he owned a similar model and, as the happy and unhappy memories returned, he had the answer. He saw that the top of the radiator was lower than the engine. This meant the water had to be forced in under pressure while special bleeding ports in the engine had to be opened to let the air out. Syd searched for the ports and unscrewed their plugs. He then attached a funnel to a hosepipe and held the former high while Japie poured water into it. The extra pressure, and the open ports, ensured that the engine and radiator were lled to the correct level. The ports were closed as soon as a steady stream of clear water owed out and a road test con firmed that overheating was a thing of the past.
HARD LUCK
In the past, the weakest part of any design has often been the gaskets. British cars struggled with the same ineffective cork and paper-like gaskets for most of the time their industry existed. When the Japanese started to mass-produce cars, they showed the rest of the world how to design gaskets that don’t leak. Some of them can even be reused.
Some modern gaskets require a small amount of silicone sealer to persuade them to seal properly, but one of my customers found out the hard way that it does not pay to be generous. After adjusting the valve clearances on his engine, he smeared the gasket with silicone sealer and replaced the tappet cover. A week later, his engine seized and we had to tow in the car.
Syd stripped the engine and found small, hard bits of silicone all over the engine. The main culprit was the hard lumps of silicone that prevented the oil pump from delivering pressure.
