I have seen the same issue as your trabant a few times. If the trabant isn't leaking brake fluid, it is probably the seals in the master cylinder. Pretty common amongst pretty much any high mileage or old vehicle. If it is leaking then you just have a leak lol
Yo just so you know, the usual cause for a sinking brake pedal in any vehicle is bad seals in the master cylinder. Idk if there’s any other weirdness the trabant may have but that’s usually the issue But yea the bad seals cause it to leak internally so there’s no visible leak, it’s just the pressure is escaping past the piston Thinking about it also if it doesn’t have a dual circuit brake system you should probably just upgrade it to that for safety
Lol I didn't know you were a Jeffco native until I got my bus art in. Pretty cool man, you're in a different part of Jeffco than I but not by far. Keep up the good work man!
@@antibrevity At this point it doesn't even need to be just an inside jokes. Drive for some odd 30 mins and you probably will see the new one with ridiculously humongous and kinda out-of-place front kidney grille. I'd like to know the thought of whoever look at that in the design QC and goes "Yep, that's not gonna be made fun of, I'm sure".
You'll sacrifice a small bit of top speed but carrying a few pounds of tools in the Trabant everywhere it goes is probably not a bad idea. And some fluids. And emergency food. And a bicycle.
naaa.. not old enough and not enough miles in that car to know better ;) but he got his lessons slowly And dont forget to bring also some spare things with you to swap out.. break shoes, break cylinders, wipers, lightbulbs, fuelhose, wheelbarring
I love the reality of this. No misconceptions, no fantasizing about how efficient it is to have an aging fleet- this was about as realistic as it gets for those of us with rusty dusty vehicles; roadside breakdowns- tons of work that each vehicle needs in the near future, and a to-do list that would frighten most DIYers.... But aside from your Polestar- no car payment. Keep doing what you're doing Robert! I love to see that even Jalopnik has given you two stories so far- I can't wait to see how far you're going with your channel!
Yup theres a misconception of the accessibility of having a running older vehicle. You have to be ready to fix anything... front subframe, this random piece cracked you cant find online anywhere and the autoshop employees look at you weird when you bring it in. Its real and its fun if you have the right attitude
@@austist Might I offer this? Its NOT fun but it is real; any older ICE car is circa 30K parts waiting to fail. I had 05 decades of non fun fixing ICE cars: outside, in a cold New England winter, the impossible VW engine in the VW station wagon and on and on. I was VERY HAPPY to switch to an EV the very moment they became useful, having followed the EV field since the First Coming of the Leaf. But, hey, if you LIKE spending money on this rusting junk, I say' what ever sinks your boat'. For me, I'll take the $ not spent and buy "X' instead, and enjoy life.
I was legitimately reaching for the right arrow key on my keyboard when Robert yelled at me not to skip the ad. It made me laugh enough I actually watched the ad, and actually made me pause like a dog slowly creeping over to steal your food.
@@bobadam7021 "All I know is that every time I get taken captive, it's the Wraith. Just once, I would like to be taken prisoner by the sexy alien." -Rodney 😆
@WirelessNut it depends on the car. If it's a sit box you use for groceries getting and you you live near to the grocery store, low miles. If you live far from work, and it's a daily to and from work it will probably get a lot of miles quickly. If it's a sports car, some people love to drive them, others let them sit in the garage for eternity.
@@jwalster9412 I don't think you understand the situation, Robert works from home and on average he's putting over 100 miles a day on that car (186km a day because I'm Canadian and I couldn't be bothered to work in miles)
The falling Trabant break pedal without external fluid leak or loss is the main Break Cylinder pistons leaking internaly from one to the other compartements. There should be replacements from now old stock or just change the seals. Luckely you can access this Module fairly easy (like everything on the trabant) Brings allways a smile to me seeing the East German Plastebomber still running strong with you. These days you can put nyloc nuts in for the ignition lead problem falling off.. simple few cent fix to never worrie about again.
I might go with threadlock… then again I'm known for the same ideas that would likely end up with me owning a Trabant, Lada, Wartburg, and Fiat Toddler Poland, so… yeah.
@15:00, brake fade like that is generally NONE of the things you listed as causes, it tends to be a bad o-ring in the master cylinder that is leaking past. Probably should rebuild the master cylinder as a first step. My opinion anyway. I've only experienced this type of problem, where no leak is apparent, once, and that solved the problem. Good luck!
and if its bypassing the oring(s), the booster may be .. problematic. its worth at least unbolting it from the booster to see if you have any fluid going into it. if its wet, its days are numbered. if its dry, gtg.
Really good point, and makes sense. Also if the brakes are being goofy, I would definitely opt for the rebuild, hahah. Bad brakes is NOT something you ever want. Ever. Plus I would watch the shit out of that video.
Hi Robert! Just a hint, the reliant engines rev far far higher than you pushed it - they really need to be revved to get any sort of power from them. The 850cc engine is in fact borderline terrifying and I wouldn't be surprised if you could shave almost 5 seconds off that time by really thrashing it!
I'm not a follower of comedy and generally don't like comedians, but I do love to laugh and I've found that the funniest people just can't help being funny. They don't tell jokes-- they are just funny. Well this guy is FUNNY. One of the most naturally funny on UA-cam I've found, as well as a genuine and dear person. His cackles of delight when his cars fail to perform are priceless. A true personality. I salute!👏
Robert thank you for bringing memories. I recall having the same issue with our Trabant while en route home from the seaside in 1976. My dad had reached under the wheel arch to open the breaker can. Then he scratched the contacts with tiny knife, as other tools were buried in the trunk. My mom and I were contemplating the nature for 10 minutes and then back on track. Pretty little car.
2:30 thats very normal for EVs, i have a Model3 Longrange and my fastest time measure with a propper device was 4.05, thats almost 0.4 faster then advertised. And even the Toyota BQRZT4YX did 0.3 faster in CarWOW's test. I have heard that for EVs unles stated otherwise (See Plaid) they are advertised with 0-60 times you can do under any state of charge in optimal conditions
Two things: 1. when your brake pedal sinks to the floor, but there's no fluid leaking out, that means your master cylinder is leaking internally. 2. Check out South Main Auto's video where Eric O. changes plugs in one of those Fords. Have a specialty broken plug extractor handy, as well as a vacuum with a tiny hose to get in your combustion chamber(s) and probably an endoscope ready for the inevitable plug breakage. I think your take on it would be hilarious... for us. For you it will be shear torture.
The trabbie's brake problem is most likely the master-cylinder (the one thing you didn't mention!). they're dead-easy to pull apart and put new seals in, so don't just cheat and buy a whole new one, because that's no fun!
I have my dads old Citroën Mehari, need a new frame and a ton of other stuff. It slightly tuned wit a bigger carburator so it's close to ~32 Bhp, and last time it drove it managed to hit ~110km(68Mhp) but according to the official numbers it goes from 0-100km/t (0-62 Mph) in 2 minutes and 42 seconds, which happens to be the topspeed aswell :) love that car
There's an old Citroen 2CV ad you may have seen. The 2CV has the same number of wheels as a Rolls-Royce. Going flat-out it will pass a Ferrari that's driving 65MPH.
I bought a project 1980 Corvette mid last year and had to redo all of the calipers, lines, and hoses for it. I hope your Trabant was designed with maintenance in mind because this car DEFINITELY was not.😵 It's road legal now though so that's a bonus.👍
Nice to see some real performance cars battling it out XD Honestly surprised of the 0-60 time of the Lada, it wouldn't be slow for a European 80's car. Started watching your channel for all the quirky cars, but we both ended up getting Polestar 2's last year, so it's nice to see that get some screen time too :) (mine is not a Performance pack though)
Lada can't actually do 11s 0-60 unless u r going downhill Average time for stock 2107 are about 14~25s (hehehe mine is around 25) Fastest time ive saw this thing carburetted without turbocharger/supercharger was 8s, but it was tuned like hell and revved to 7k easily
A video of you dealing with the notorous triton 3-valve spark plug job would be entertaining to your audience, if nothing else. However, I understand all the reasons you may not be inclined to take that on.... even once the Escape is off your lift. Also your interview writeup in Jalopnik was great, I think it did great service to Aging Wheels
I was surprised that a British car from that era has oil capacity specified in pints, but then I remembered that the engine design is several decades older and probably from a time when we still used Imperial units.
If you put 35.5k miles on a car in less than a year and work from home, you must have a huge home. (My zeroth guess re Trabant's brakes assuming it has vacuum boost: vacuum leak.)
Glad you double checked the pint thing. Also there are wet and dry versions of each that are different volumes for each. This is why the rest of the world uses the metric system. It's precisely why it was made, hahah (also designed with science in mind)
I think since you are replacing the ICE in the Escape with an electric motor system, you should replace the electric motor system in the Weego with an ICE. Something like an engine from a Hayabusa or something. 🙂
Changing the plugs on your truck, is an event. Having helped to do such with a slightly newer F150, we found it easier to unbolt the entire front clip from the truck to get maximum access. It helped a lot, even though the rear plugs on either side were still difficult. For the effort, we were also rewarded with somehow cracking the bottom hose connector for the radiator, found a leaky water pump, leaking front main seal, leaking rear main seal, two loose torque converter bolts, a very loose starter, heavily abraded connections from the battery to the starter, one split exhaust manifold on the driver side, four broken bolts on the passenger side manifold, a loose transmission cross member, very worn u-joints, nearly rusted through hard brake lines to the rear, and the reason why the driver's side front looked 'sag-y'. It had been hit and repaired just enough to pass a fifty foot look test at night under bad lighting. After all that, it made a fantastic brush buster truck. I think it's still where it died at in the woods two miles past a cousin's house.
I am always amazed with a) your puns and scene splits for them b) the almost transparent way you explain everything you do, almost like you need to justify to us what you did since the last video
I had the brake pedal on my 1986 Fiat Prêmio sink/fade into the floor a couple years ago or so. Brakes worked fine as well, but when holding the brake, it would gradually sink and the brakes would weaken until they'd not hold the car in place anymore. It was a bit of a scary experience when I had that happen at a red light on a steep hill (which is also when I found out about the issue). In my case as it turns out, I had a leak on both brake cylinders in the drums of the rear wheels as well as a leak in the master cylinder, which was causing a loss of pressure and brake fluid. A few hours of maintenance at the repair shop and everything was back in order! Hopefully the Trabant's issue will be just as simple. Could be a fun video, though! I surely would enjoy watching it.
TRABANT most likely the rubbers inside the master cylinder. slow drop to the floor under braking pressure very often points to that being the issue. pop it out, throw in new rubbers, betcha it's happy after that
I love the dichotomy of your vehicles, and I'm kind of in the same boat but with far fewer cars. I have a 1984 Mercedes 300SD that after adjusting the valves, replacing the fuel filters, and tuning the alda valve I get the stock 14.5 seconds to 60 but is so relaxing to drive. Then I have my 1999 Mercedes SL500 that goes 0 to 60 in 6.4 seconds, so less than half the time of my 300SD. My 1987 420SEL I haven't tested because it's still a project and the tires are old enough to consent.
Hi, I am a recent arrival to this channel and I love it. Came here to see the Lada, I learned to drive on that same model but with 5 gears. My grandad had the previous version, my dad had a Jigula, the first ladas, that look like the Fiat, then later he bought two more. My grandma had a trabant, the older more rounded version with blue stripes on the side... So you see why I came here. I am staying though for the great entertainment, laughs and birds. Thanks for the great content, keep it up PS I've already watched like 75% of your videos in just a couple of weeks
I just paid $2400 to have my Ford Ranger's transmission to be rebuilt. It took a while, but was worth the wait to avoid the $4500 rate other shops were charging for a total swap.
The Trabant! I had the same thing happen on my 750 Laverda. Accelerating down a ramp onto the freeway quite vigorously and right as I shifted to 4th it went completely dead! Loose terminal screw, the main power wire fell out of the key switch. At least is was an easy fix! Thanks for the update, it was fun!
Kinda brings me back to the time Car & Driver (?) did a 0 - 60 test on the Yugo and they said it was still accelerating at the time of press release. BTW - the turkeys were not dancing.
I had a 79 Chevy Malibu V6 that was so slow, a Yugo pulled past me going slightly uphill at full throttle. I was full throttle; don't know if he was. Didn't sound like he was even trying, and still walked away from me. Yeah.
Really happy to hear that the Renault 11 (aka Encore) I’m hoping to buy next week is about 50% slower to 60 than the Lada, but still almost twice as fast as the Trabant. That’s what 60ish horsepower and a 3-speed auto will do for you I guess
Hey Robert, I doubt you'll read this but with the spark plugs on that ford, assuming it's a petrol, I have no idea, run it on some two stroke oil for a bit, it would get Into the threads and loosen them up
I had a CRX do the brake-pedal-slowly-sinks thing. It was the master cylinder. Actually, it happened to two different CRXes that I owned. Apparently, the fluid slowly bypasses the seals on the piston in the MC. Doesn't really affect braking, except if you need to hit the brakes right when getting moving from a stop. Happily, replacing the MC was pretty straightforward, and these were California cars so the fasteners were not very rusty.
love your videos! Really looking forward to more on electrifying a car. Its given me an idea to get an old broken down 1950s truck and put some hidden moderness under it
On this, the other side of the pond, there is a growing shed industry for just such a thing in a "You want a Tesla in a thingy we'll make brackets for that" kind of way. I'm sure as more people break Chinese EVs the parts will add to the richness of that community.
Robert I need to talk to you about the Robin. The sluggish 0-60 and jerky launch can be caused by scratched up cylinders which is likely for your Robin to have. My Rialto had this problem for 1 reason: I did a top speed test with a secret oil leak. These engines have a long stroke and have no rev limiter. Not only did you drive on ONE PINT of oil before, but you also rev the car past it's safe range. Please check the compression.
Hey, the Trabant impressed me. Thats the exact 0-60 in my Freightliner. Its $180,000 and has 1700 ft-lbs of torque. You get the same 0-60 in the Trabant, what a deal!
As a European I am always flabbergasted a little bit when a 30 year old car's 0-60 in 12 seconds is taken as "bad" (not really you Robert, but some other car yt channels really overdo it). My daily driver Seat from 2007 does it in around 13 seconds (or did it, well, 15 years ago) and it is not the slowest one out there Cool video though, love the new content, and hoping that you keep that Lada. Always wanted a 2107 but even in Hungary they became extremely pricey
Fun Fact! Reliant Robins had atrociously hard suspension from the factory. That's just how it is on any "standard" Robin. Apparently it's to stop them rolling over? I'm not sure how true that is, but I'll do some digging.
It isn't necessarily. They have anti roll bars so the stiffer or softer suspension doesn't change much. Plus when the suspension is soft the car sits lower to the ground.
Love this! To be fair my own fleet is only 3 cars in various states of operation too. 2 Explorers and an F150. Right now the older Explorer is in pieces in my garage for a deep clean, minor repairs, and a body lift. The other one is out in the parking lot accumulating towing stickers because the battery is dead and it runs like a pig when it works. Looks pretty though. F-150 needs suspension work, ABS work, tires, and a clean, but it ain't getting it any time soon because it's the only thing getting me back and forth to work.
you can probably help with the roughness of the springs by using an oil designed for wire ropes on it (oils which are designed to creep very far) to get the leafs sliding freely.
Hey man Before you go through your entire breaking system on the Trabant Check the inside of your master cylinder for damage, it sounds like break fluid is leaking past the seal inside the cylinder, my VW Golf stood for a long time, and moisture got into the Master Cylinder and rusted the inside, I had a very similar feel on my break pedal. Cheers
You're exactly right - I wanted to see how "fast" a Lada could do 0-60. Believe it or don't, I was not disappointed. 😁 Also, I think I like the Trabant, faults and all. Finally, I am looking forward to more videos on the other electric cars and the bus, but I totally understand the focus on the Escape (look, I put 2 ford products in 1 sentence!). I'm going to assume we will see a 0-60 run when the Escape is ready?
Looking forward to more info on the Escape. While yours will be a rocket ship I'm thinking more practical terms like a rear mounted Tesla SDU and only about 225hp because to use around town we just don't need much. But the build part applies to them all. Great work, thanks.
I lived through the change from Imperial to Metric so I remember that British and American liquid measurements are not the same. Glad you Googled it. When we switched to Metric, the litre (liter to y'all down thurr) was a smaller container than the quart of milk, oil, whisky etc. Now when we get products inteded for the American market measured in quarts they're smaller than the litre! The Canadian quart is a lot larger than the American... by aLmOsT a WhOLe GaLLoN! (American Gallon that is :) )
You have to fix your f150 as it's the vehicle I like the most as well the coda is there is some good reasons for it It holds sentimental value for you importantly The best looking gen though a lot to be desired now They still hold their value for a great maintained one The rust is surprisingly minimal and would be easy to repair or replace into plastic Transmissions for the 11th gens are plentiful And you have parts to keep it alive!
I'll be honest, paying for YT premium makes me feel like royalty and I skip all ads without a second thought. After all I chose YT premium for avoiding ads (and the music of course). But when you yelled at me, I did in fact stop moving and watched your ad, so mission accomplished I guess. Congrats.
I once owned a Reliant and the best advice I can give is buy a spare engine and gearbox and when a fault happens just swap the units over. On my own I got the change over down to under three hours and I never had a lift.
Your brake issue might be the seals in the master cylinder. If there is an obvious leak at a wheel cylinder, then that's more likely the case, but otherwise you should look at the master cylinder seal. When fluid is able to leak onto the other side of the piston it can cause the "brakes need to be pumped up to have pedal feel" issue. Looking forward to seeing the escape all done!
:51 - We literally made that Hello Fresh tostada recipe last night. It was pretty good, but it could have just been tacos and been just as good. All the extra steps toasting the tortillas were unnecessary.
I love your kitchen, because mines identical... same tiles on the backsplash, same cupboards exactly-not sure if you have yellowish brown vinyl flooring though
The F-150, my personal recommendation is: Take out the engine and tranny, replace with an electric motor, and install 1) A small ICE running a generator, and 2) a small battery pack, which is needed only for acceleration. A retro-fit hybrid, with the key features being a small ICE running at maximum efficiency, and a battery pack that's just big enough to aid the ICE/genset get you from 0-60 in a few seconds. You spend most of your time at a steady-state speed, so size the ICE accordingly and use just enough battery power to get you up to speed, at which time the ICE/genset will take over from there. Gawd I'm so jealous, I want a shop where I can play with this stuff myself. But, since I don't, I'll harangue you about it. lol BTW my ideal design is integrated, with a clutch directly engaging the ICE with the driveline at 40+ mph, and so on. I guess I just chafe that the car companies make things unnecessarily complicated and difficult. Most of the time we just need a boost to get to speed, and after that, we're barely above idle. edit: this wasn't really meant for towing purposes, which you just said. I'll go make my dinner now.
I'm British and I've had several classic cars and never used pints to refill the oil. It's been litres here as long as I remember. My favourite was a 1967 Mini with an 850cc engine. I tried to get to 60mph once. It was too painful. 55mph suited us both.
The easiest way to replace valve seals on the truck, is to remove the cab! That way you can get at the engine easily and have room to work. At a Ford dealer that I worked at 20+ years ago, that's how they did it .
Don't really worry about the f150 sure it has the Triton issues but my father has one a 06 with 230k miles and still runs fine on the original motor it has had a trans replacement and diff replacement but he didn't flush those fluid it's whole life so. He dailys it and uses it for towing and pulling stumps
For 60% off with HelloFresh PLUS free shipping, use code AGINGWHEELS60 at bit.ly/3S19N8J!
I have seen the same issue as your trabant a few times. If the trabant isn't leaking brake fluid, it is probably the seals in the master cylinder. Pretty common amongst pretty much any high mileage or old vehicle. If it is leaking then you just have a leak lol
Yo just so you know, the usual cause for a sinking brake pedal in any vehicle is bad seals in the master cylinder. Idk if there’s any other weirdness the trabant may have but that’s usually the issue
But yea the bad seals cause it to leak internally so there’s no visible leak, it’s just the pressure is escaping past the piston
Thinking about it also if it doesn’t have a dual circuit brake system you should probably just upgrade it to that for safety
Hey, maybe reach out to SuperFastMatt for some electrical tips for the Escape project if you haven’t already. Maybe he has some ideas that might help.
Just call it a tostada instead of a taco and you’re fine!
Lol I didn't know you were a Jeffco native until I got my bus art in. Pretty cool man, you're in a different part of Jeffco than I but not by far. Keep up the good work man!
"Look! It's a BMW!" made me laugh harder than it really should've.
@@antibrevity At this point it doesn't even need to be just an inside jokes. Drive for some odd 30 mins and you probably will see the new one with ridiculously humongous and kinda out-of-place front kidney grille. I'd like to know the thought of whoever look at that in the design QC and goes "Yep, that's not gonna be made fun of, I'm sure".
Still gets me every time I see it in the mirrors
That comment made me into an Aging Wheels fan for life!
All I can think of when I see those is SNIFFFFFFFFF
XD saaaammeee
You'll sacrifice a small bit of top speed but carrying a few pounds of tools in the Trabant everywhere it goes is probably not a bad idea. And some fluids. And emergency food. And a bicycle.
It's like playing Jalopy, but real life.
Who drives a Trabant without an emergency toolkit onboard at all times?
Or towing another car that can *then* tow the Trabant. lol
And don't forget a spare fuel line.
And a bus schedule. Or is that printed in the manual?
Road trip in a Trabant without bringing any tools... oh, you are a brave one, aren't you?
naaa.. not old enough and not enough miles in that car to know better ;) but he got his lessons slowly
And dont forget to bring also some spare things with you to swap out.. break shoes, break cylinders, wipers, lightbulbs, fuelhose, wheelbarring
Trabant life is not for the meek.
Fortunately Fingers were the required tooling lol.
Well Robert should take it easy on his Trabant mechanic the guy didn't know what he was doing and he was just doing it for entertainment
@@Total_Egal He knows better. He just ignores his knowledge 😆
I love the reality of this. No misconceptions, no fantasizing about how efficient it is to have an aging fleet- this was about as realistic as it gets for those of us with rusty dusty vehicles; roadside breakdowns- tons of work that each vehicle needs in the near future, and a to-do list that would frighten most DIYers....
But aside from your Polestar- no car payment.
Keep doing what you're doing Robert! I love to see that even Jalopnik has given you two stories so far- I can't wait to see how far you're going with your channel!
Don't worry, the Polster has a small explosive set up in the electric transaxle, it's set to go off five weeks after the warranty expires.
So few misconceptions he even knows some of us didn't care about the pulsar run
Yup theres a misconception of the accessibility of having a running older vehicle. You have to be ready to fix anything... front subframe, this random piece cracked you cant find online anywhere and the autoshop employees look at you weird when you bring it in. Its real and its fun if you have the right attitude
@@austist Might I offer this? Its NOT fun but it is real; any older ICE car is circa 30K parts waiting to fail. I had 05 decades of non fun fixing ICE cars: outside, in a cold New England winter, the impossible VW engine in the VW station wagon and on and on. I was VERY HAPPY to switch to an EV the very moment they became useful, having followed the EV field since the First Coming of the Leaf. But, hey, if you LIKE spending money on this rusting junk, I say' what ever sinks your boat'. For me, I'll take the $ not spent and buy "X' instead, and enjoy life.
@Harriett Anthony its funny i made my comment because not even days later i sold my few shitboxes and bought a new car LOL
Anytime Robert releases a new video it’s a great day!!
@Don't Read My Profile Picture TOO LATE
i even watched the add. i never watch the adds.
Agreed
Aging Wheels, Noriyaro and MCM so far today! :)
11.4 is incredible for the Lada, it has absolutely no business being that fast.
Ladas can be fast for their time, they're a ruggedised Fiat after all.
The first one I took on a drive outside the city had a steering wheel that was trying to jump out of the car when I reached one hundred km/h...
@@pavelandreev4727 Any Fiat of that age had an absolute safe limit of sixty or so. They got fun after that. :)
@@ABrit-bt6ce Kilometers per hour........
Yeah, that's normal 80s-90s US family car speed
Remember to add a lock washer to the ignition wire, that'll prevent it from slipping out again
oo that's a good idea
Cross threaded is better than loctite
just add a second nut to the first one, double nuts never come off
I was legitimately reaching for the right arrow key on my keyboard when Robert yelled at me not to skip the ad. It made me laugh enough I actually watched the ad, and actually made me pause like a dog slowly creeping over to steal your food.
Same, about to skip. Hahaha (didn't)
Same. I’ve never watched a HelloFresh ad all the way through. This is the first time I actually saw what it was used for.
ditto! Robert is a marketing genius.
And one more here. Robert reminds me of Rodney McKay on Stargate Atlantis. It has to do with his cadence.
@@bobadam7021 "All I know is that every time I get taken captive, it's the Wraith. Just once, I would like to be taken prisoner by the sexy alien." -Rodney 😆
I’m absolutely flabbergasted as to how you’ve put that many miles on the polestar
It's probably mostly wheelspin miles.
He said it himself; by working from home.
@WirelessNut it depends on the car. If it's a sit box you use for groceries getting and you you live near to the grocery store, low miles. If you live far from work, and it's a daily to and from work it will probably get a lot of miles quickly. If it's a sports car, some people love to drive them, others let them sit in the garage for eternity.
@@jwalster9412 I don't think you understand the situation, Robert works from home and on average he's putting over 100 miles a day on that car (186km a day because I'm Canadian and I couldn't be bothered to work in miles)
@@the_undead I read 186 kms and thought that's not bad. Than I did a double take and saw A DAY?
That was amazing. The turkey dancing was very natural and you should've brought them with you on the Lada drive!
The falling Trabant break pedal without external fluid leak or loss is the main Break Cylinder pistons leaking internaly from one to the other compartements.
There should be replacements from now old stock or just change the seals. Luckely you can access this Module fairly easy (like everything on the trabant)
Brings allways a smile to me seeing the East German Plastebomber still running strong with you.
These days you can put nyloc nuts in for the ignition lead problem falling off.. simple few cent fix to never worrie about again.
I might go with threadlock… then again I'm known for the same ideas that would likely end up with me owning a Trabant, Lada, Wartburg, and Fiat Toddler Poland, so… yeah.
@15:00, brake fade like that is generally NONE of the things you listed as causes, it tends to be a bad o-ring in the master cylinder that is leaking past. Probably should rebuild the master cylinder as a first step. My opinion anyway. I've only experienced this type of problem, where no leak is apparent, once, and that solved the problem. Good luck!
Agreed! Came to the comments to say just that. :)
and if its bypassing the oring(s), the booster may be .. problematic. its worth at least unbolting it from the booster to see if you have any fluid going into it. if its wet, its days are numbered. if its dry, gtg.
Came here to say master cylinder as well, that's where I'd start if the hoses are good.
Really good point, and makes sense. Also if the brakes are being goofy, I would definitely opt for the rebuild, hahah. Bad brakes is NOT something you ever want. Ever. Plus I would watch the shit out of that video.
Agreed!
You should do a "miscellaneous fixes" video, doing small "boring" repairs on maybe multiple vehicles in one video.
2nd this!!
3rd this
I'd also watch UA-cam Shorts of "boring" fixes. Who wouldn't like 23 seconds of Robert snarking at the Trabant ignition wire nut?
Hi Robert!
Just a hint, the reliant engines rev far far higher than you pushed it - they really need to be revved to get any sort of power from them. The 850cc engine is in fact borderline terrifying and I wouldn't be surprised if you could shave almost 5 seconds off that time by really thrashing it!
The 848cc does have quite a long stroke and no rev limit. Are you sure revving past 6000 isn't reducing the lifespan by a decade?
I'm not a follower of comedy and generally don't like comedians, but I do love to laugh and I've found that the funniest people just can't help being funny. They don't tell jokes-- they are just funny. Well this guy is FUNNY. One of the most naturally funny on UA-cam I've found, as well as a genuine and dear person. His cackles of delight when his cars fail to perform are priceless. A true personality. I salute!👏
You jumped out at me telling me not to skip the sponsorship right as my finger was moving towards the screen. I live in fear now.
Why is he cooking dinner so late XD
IT'S LIKE HE CAN SEE ME. 😂
Well I use sponsorblock so I missed it, but I think I'll whitelist this channel and go back to see it now.
@@LordWartog Daylight savings.
@Don't Read My Profile Picture Ok
Robert thank you for bringing memories. I recall having the same issue with our Trabant while en route home from the seaside in 1976. My dad had reached under the wheel arch to open the breaker can. Then he scratched the contacts with tiny knife, as other tools were buried in the trunk. My mom and I were contemplating the nature for 10 minutes and then back on track. Pretty little car.
Wow, 11,4 is impressive for Lada! Factory 0-100 kmh is 15-17 (1,6-1,5). So your car propably has some chip tuning.
Okay, that chip tuning remark made me chortle.
Or gravity assist. :D
Yeah, i was thinking, i have NEVER heard of any Lada doing that kind of 0-60 time. That hill must have a pretty big downslope :)
Chip? In a lada? LoL! That's an old, carburetor -based engine.
little bit gravity assist and lot better higher octane fuel these days
2:30 thats very normal for EVs, i have a Model3 Longrange and my fastest time measure with a propper device was 4.05, thats almost 0.4 faster then advertised. And even the Toyota BQRZT4YX did 0.3 faster in CarWOW's test.
I have heard that for EVs unles stated otherwise (See Plaid) they are advertised with 0-60 times you can do under any state of charge in optimal conditions
Probably something to do with how charged the batteries are.
You probably with the trabant "REV IT UP AND DROP IT PAST THE REDLINE GOTTA LIVE IT ALL" the fact you actually got it to wheelspin is impressive
I wanted to comment the same. Wheelspin on a Trabant is ridiculous.
Alec from Technology Connections got it to wheelspin as well.
Two things:
1. when your brake pedal sinks to the floor, but there's no fluid leaking out, that means your master cylinder is leaking internally.
2. Check out South Main Auto's video where Eric O. changes plugs in one of those Fords. Have a specialty broken plug extractor handy, as well as a vacuum with a tiny hose to get in your combustion chamber(s) and probably an endoscope ready for the inevitable plug breakage. I think your take on it would be hilarious... for us. For you it will be shear torture.
"Look! It's a BMW!"
That one got me.
The trabbie's brake problem is most likely the master-cylinder (the one thing you didn't mention!). they're dead-easy to pull apart and put new seals in, so don't just cheat and buy a whole new one, because that's no fun!
I have my dads old Citroën Mehari, need a new frame and a ton of other stuff. It slightly tuned wit a bigger carburator so it's close to ~32 Bhp, and last time it drove it managed to hit ~110km(68Mhp) but according to the official numbers it goes from 0-100km/t (0-62 Mph) in 2 minutes and 42 seconds, which happens to be the topspeed aswell :) love that car
There's an old Citroen 2CV ad you may have seen. The 2CV has the same number of wheels as a Rolls-Royce. Going flat-out it will pass a Ferrari that's driving 65MPH.
By the time you get to 100km/h you have already reached your destination lmao
I bought a project 1980 Corvette mid last year and had to redo all of the calipers, lines, and hoses for it. I hope your Trabant was designed with maintenance in mind because this car DEFINITELY was not.😵 It's road legal now though so that's a bonus.👍
Nice to see some real performance cars battling it out XD Honestly surprised of the 0-60 time of the Lada, it wouldn't be slow for a European 80's car. Started watching your channel for all the quirky cars, but we both ended up getting Polestar 2's last year, so it's nice to see that get some screen time too :) (mine is not a Performance pack though)
Lada can't actually do 11s 0-60 unless u r going downhill
Average time for stock 2107 are about 14~25s (hehehe mine is around 25)
Fastest time ive saw this thing carburetted without turbocharger/supercharger was 8s, but it was tuned like hell and revved to 7k easily
I'm pretty sure the 11 second Lada is faster than my '87 Volvo 240 was.
Thank you for the update, always good to hear from you. The zero to sixty was fun to watch, poor Robin, Great Polestar!
A video of you dealing with the notorous triton 3-valve spark plug job would be entertaining to your audience, if nothing else. However, I understand all the reasons you may not be inclined to take that on.... even once the Escape is off your lift. Also your interview writeup in Jalopnik was great, I think it did great service to Aging Wheels
I was surprised that a British car from that era has oil capacity specified in pints, but then I remembered that the engine design is several decades older and probably from a time when we still used Imperial units.
It is old, but very durable.
I actually LOL'd at "Look, a BMW!" 😂
You are hilarious and still one of my favorite UA-camrs!
*Goes to hit the ➡ key, and stops when Robert yells not to*
Same
If you put 35.5k miles on a car in less than a year and work from home, you must have a huge home. (My zeroth guess re Trabant's brakes assuming it has vacuum boost: vacuum leak.)
When he walks into the DMV, all employees suddenly go on lunch break to avoid trying to register his very unique cars
I would like to see when he finally registers his bus :P
@@HesmiyuMChe has to do papers to register it as a motor home, there is a very unique set of criteria required
Glad you double checked the pint thing. Also there are wet and dry versions of each that are different volumes for each. This is why the rest of the world uses the metric system. It's precisely why it was made, hahah (also designed with science in mind)
You're definitely one of my favorite youtubers. Thanks for the entertainment, brother.
Fun fact: The "official top speed" of the Trabant was 100km/h or 62mph. All Trabants could exceed this but would soon overheat
I think since you are replacing the ICE in the Escape with an electric motor system, you should replace the electric motor system in the Weego with an ICE. Something like an engine from a Hayabusa or something. 🙂
Nah, get Kymco's largest motorcycle engine.
Trabant engine or nothing.
Changing the plugs on your truck, is an event. Having helped to do such with a slightly newer F150, we found it easier to unbolt the entire front clip from the truck to get maximum access. It helped a lot, even though the rear plugs on either side were still difficult.
For the effort, we were also rewarded with somehow cracking the bottom hose connector for the radiator, found a leaky water pump, leaking front main seal, leaking rear main seal, two loose torque converter bolts, a very loose starter, heavily abraded connections from the battery to the starter, one split exhaust manifold on the driver side, four broken bolts on the passenger side manifold, a loose transmission cross member, very worn u-joints, nearly rusted through hard brake lines to the rear, and the reason why the driver's side front looked 'sag-y'. It had been hit and repaired just enough to pass a fifty foot look test at night under bad lighting.
After all that, it made a fantastic brush buster truck. I think it's still where it died at in the woods two miles past a cousin's house.
I'm honestly shocked at how quick the Lada was.
I am always amazed with
a) your puns and scene splits for them
b) the almost transparent way you explain everything you do, almost like you need to justify to us what you did since the last video
I was waiting for another fleet update. I’m glad you’ve been uploading more. Your videos are very rewatchable but new is nice
I had the brake pedal on my 1986 Fiat Prêmio sink/fade into the floor a couple years ago or so. Brakes worked fine as well, but when holding the brake, it would gradually sink and the brakes would weaken until they'd not hold the car in place anymore. It was a bit of a scary experience when I had that happen at a red light on a steep hill (which is also when I found out about the issue). In my case as it turns out, I had a leak on both brake cylinders in the drums of the rear wheels as well as a leak in the master cylinder, which was causing a loss of pressure and brake fluid. A few hours of maintenance at the repair shop and everything was back in order! Hopefully the Trabant's issue will be just as simple. Could be a fun video, though! I surely would enjoy watching it.
TRABANT most likely the rubbers inside the master cylinder. slow drop to the floor under braking pressure very often points to that being the issue. pop it out, throw in new rubbers, betcha it's happy after that
I love the dichotomy of your vehicles, and I'm kind of in the same boat but with far fewer cars. I have a 1984 Mercedes 300SD that after adjusting the valves, replacing the fuel filters, and tuning the alda valve I get the stock 14.5 seconds to 60 but is so relaxing to drive. Then I have my 1999 Mercedes SL500 that goes 0 to 60 in 6.4 seconds, so less than half the time of my 300SD. My 1987 420SEL I haven't tested because it's still a project and the tires are old enough to consent.
I always wondered how fast the Trabant was... lol ...its a lot faster than I thought.
Hoping to see diesel Saturn faster than a Trabant soon :)
@@snap_oversteer Gosh that Trabant is pretty quick all things considered. We will do our best to beat its zero to sixty time. lol
The Trabant is like a gokart, it feels like you are doing 60mph when you are only actually doing 40mph. I also own a Trabant!
Hi, I am a recent arrival to this channel and I love it. Came here to see the Lada, I learned to drive on that same model but with 5 gears. My grandad had the previous version, my dad had a Jigula, the first ladas, that look like the Fiat, then later he bought two more. My grandma had a trabant, the older more rounded version with blue stripes on the side... So you see why I came here. I am staying though for the great entertainment, laughs and birds.
Thanks for the great content, keep it up
PS I've already watched like 75% of your videos in just a couple of weeks
That roadside trabant repair was godlike
I just paid $2400 to have my Ford Ranger's transmission to be rebuilt. It took a while, but was worth the wait to avoid the $4500 rate other shops were charging for a total swap.
Happy to see you again robert, you are unmatched
The Trabant! I had the same thing happen on my 750 Laverda. Accelerating down a ramp onto the freeway quite vigorously and right as I shifted to 4th it went completely dead! Loose terminal screw, the main power wire fell out of the key switch. At least is was an easy fix! Thanks for the update, it was fun!
Kinda brings me back to the time Car & Driver (?) did a 0 - 60 test on the Yugo and they said it was still accelerating at the time of press release.
BTW - the turkeys were not dancing.
I had a 79 Chevy Malibu V6 that was so slow, a Yugo pulled past me going slightly uphill at full throttle. I was full throttle; don't know if he was. Didn't sound like he was even trying, and still walked away from me. Yeah.
@@jamesengland7461 lol 😂
Really happy to hear that the Renault 11 (aka Encore) I’m hoping to buy next week is about 50% slower to 60 than the Lada, but still almost twice as fast as the Trabant. That’s what 60ish horsepower and a 3-speed auto will do for you I guess
Trabant: Most likely the thing you did not mention: the main brake cylinder (master pump or whatever you call it).
Hey Robert, I doubt you'll read this but with the spark plugs on that ford, assuming it's a petrol, I have no idea, run it on some two stroke oil for a bit, it would get Into the threads and loosen them up
I was just wondering when we'd get an updated fleet update! Thank you!
Both the intro and outro of this video were amazing, thanks for the amazing videos Bob
A fleet update and unexpected destruction review of the Lada, Trabant, and some tortillas!
I had a CRX do the brake-pedal-slowly-sinks thing. It was the master cylinder. Actually, it happened to two different CRXes that I owned. Apparently, the fluid slowly bypasses the seals on the piston in the MC. Doesn't really affect braking, except if you need to hit the brakes right when getting moving from a stop.
Happily, replacing the MC was pretty straightforward, and these were California cars so the fasteners were not very rusty.
Coming from England, the front plate on the Robin always makes me laugh. 🤣
Love the video Robert! You really know how to lighten up one's day. Thank you!
love your videos! Really looking forward to more on electrifying a car. Its given me an idea to get an old broken down 1950s truck and put some hidden moderness under it
I support this even if it is potentially ruinously expensive
On this, the other side of the pond, there is a growing shed industry for just such a thing in a "You want a Tesla in a thingy we'll make brackets for that" kind of way. I'm sure as more people break Chinese EVs the parts will add to the richness of that community.
That particular Reliant engine may not be racing, but that engine in 750cc guise has a long and glorious history of racing in the UK.
It was. The 848cc is the same engine except it has the piston stroke increased by 1cm.
Keep up the good work. Killer content! Love your style!
Robert I need to talk to you about the Robin. The sluggish 0-60 and jerky launch can be caused by scratched up cylinders which is likely for your Robin to have. My Rialto had this problem for 1 reason: I did a top speed test with a secret oil leak. These engines have a long stroke and have no rev limiter. Not only did you drive on ONE PINT of oil before, but you also rev the car past it's safe range. Please check the compression.
Oh, bugger, I wanted to know what the 0-60 on the bus was! Lol
Soon! Okay, that's a lie. Eventually!
Hey, the Trabant impressed me. Thats the exact 0-60 in my Freightliner. Its $180,000 and has 1700 ft-lbs of torque. You get the same 0-60 in the Trabant, what a deal!
As a European I am always flabbergasted a little bit when a 30 year old car's 0-60 in 12 seconds is taken as "bad" (not really you Robert, but some other car yt channels really overdo it). My daily driver Seat from 2007 does it in around 13 seconds (or did it, well, 15 years ago) and it is not the slowest one out there
Cool video though, love the new content, and hoping that you keep that Lada. Always wanted a 2107 but even in Hungary they became extremely pricey
Very true, I only recently got a Fancy new Cupra Born that does 0-60 in about 6.8 seconds. Which is honestly lightning fast to me for a daily driver
Burning oil on startup is piston / bore wear, burning oil on overrun is valve stem seals
8:45 The low-energy delivery of that line xD Brilliant as always
Fun Fact! Reliant Robins had atrociously hard suspension from the factory. That's just how it is on any "standard" Robin. Apparently it's to stop them rolling over? I'm not sure how true that is, but I'll do some digging.
It isn't necessarily. They have anti roll bars so the stiffer or softer suspension doesn't change much. Plus when the suspension is soft the car sits lower to the ground.
Robert is one of the few people who actually has a reason for using his sponsor which is so heartwarming 😊
Usually the pedal going to the floor really slowly is a leak in the internal seals in the master cylinder.
Love this!
To be fair my own fleet is only 3 cars in various states of operation too. 2 Explorers and an F150. Right now the older Explorer is in pieces in my garage for a deep clean, minor repairs, and a body lift. The other one is out in the parking lot accumulating towing stickers because the battery is dead and it runs like a pig when it works. Looks pretty though.
F-150 needs suspension work, ABS work, tires, and a clean, but it ain't getting it any time soon because it's the only thing getting me back and forth to work.
You're the only UA-camr who I watch your ads every time
you can probably help with the roughness of the springs by using an oil designed for wire ropes on it (oils which are designed to creep very far) to get the leafs sliding freely.
Hey man Before you go through your entire breaking system on the Trabant Check the inside of your master cylinder for damage, it sounds like break fluid is leaking past the seal inside the cylinder, my VW Golf stood for a long time, and moisture got into the Master Cylinder and rusted the inside, I had a very similar feel on my break pedal. Cheers
You're exactly right - I wanted to see how "fast" a Lada could do 0-60. Believe it or don't, I was not disappointed. 😁 Also, I think I like the Trabant, faults and all. Finally, I am looking forward to more videos on the other electric cars and the bus, but I totally understand the focus on the Escape (look, I put 2 ford products in 1 sentence!). I'm going to assume we will see a 0-60 run when the Escape is ready?
Looking forward to more info on the Escape. While yours will be a rocket ship I'm thinking more practical terms like a rear mounted Tesla SDU and only about 225hp because to use around town we just don't need much. But the build part applies to them all. Great work, thanks.
With the brake pedal slowing going to the floor it’s a classic sign of brake master cylinder failure, had the same issue with my jaguar v12
I had to pause the video because I was too busy giggling at the yell jump cut. That's the most ridiculous way to open a video and I love it
20W50 oil in the Reliant Robin... do the pistons wibble and wobble around while the valves just kind of flop about with tolerances that large? :O
I’m fairly certain if you don’t find any fluid leaks, the dropping pedal on the Trabant is the master cylinder.
I lived through the change from Imperial to Metric so I remember that British and American liquid measurements are not the same. Glad you Googled it. When we switched to Metric, the litre (liter to y'all down thurr) was a smaller container than the quart of milk, oil, whisky etc. Now when we get products inteded for the American market measured in quarts they're smaller than the litre! The Canadian quart is a lot larger than the American... by aLmOsT a WhOLe GaLLoN! (American Gallon that is :) )
You have to fix your f150 as it's the vehicle I like the most as well the coda is there is some
good reasons for it
It holds sentimental value for you importantly
The best looking gen though a lot to be desired now
They still hold their value for a great maintained one
The rust is surprisingly minimal and would be easy to repair or replace into plastic
Transmissions for the 11th gens are plentiful
And you have parts to keep it alive!
Liking Bollocks the Robin grinning by your side at 16:03 😃
I'll be honest, paying for YT premium makes me feel like royalty and I skip all ads without a second thought. After all I chose YT premium for avoiding ads (and the music of course). But when you yelled at me, I did in fact stop moving and watched your ad, so mission accomplished I guess. Congrats.
I once owned a Reliant and the best advice I can give is buy a spare engine and gearbox and when a fault happens just swap the units over. On my own I got the change over down to under three hours and I never had a lift.
Your brake issue might be the seals in the master cylinder. If there is an obvious leak at a wheel cylinder, then that's more likely the case, but otherwise you should look at the master cylinder seal. When fluid is able to leak onto the other side of the piston it can cause the "brakes need to be pumped up to have pedal feel" issue. Looking forward to seeing the escape all done!
:51 - We literally made that Hello Fresh tostada recipe last night. It was pretty good, but it could have just been tacos and been just as good. All the extra steps toasting the tortillas were unnecessary.
The joy you get from these cars it a treat to watch
Your production style is getting better and better. Along with showing calamities.
I love your kitchen, because mines identical... same tiles on the backsplash, same cupboards exactly-not sure if you have yellowish brown vinyl flooring though
Always carry two spare wheels with a Trabant. And make sure that there's air in the tyres. Then you can cycle home when it breaks.
Honestly from having seen it in person I wouldn't thought those polestar 2s were under 4 :0 Still thats a small tank acting like a rocketship
The F-150, my personal recommendation is: Take out the engine and tranny, replace with an electric motor, and install 1) A small ICE running a generator, and 2) a small battery pack, which is needed only for acceleration. A retro-fit hybrid, with the key features being a small ICE running at maximum efficiency, and a battery pack that's just big enough to aid the ICE/genset get you from 0-60 in a few seconds. You spend most of your time at a steady-state speed, so size the ICE accordingly and use just enough battery power to get you up to speed, at which time the ICE/genset will take over from there. Gawd I'm so jealous, I want a shop where I can play with this stuff myself. But, since I don't, I'll harangue you about it. lol
BTW my ideal design is integrated, with a clutch directly engaging the ICE with the driveline at 40+ mph, and so on. I guess I just chafe that the car companies make things unnecessarily complicated and difficult. Most of the time we just need a boost to get to speed, and after that, we're barely above idle.
edit: this wasn't really meant for towing purposes, which you just said. I'll go make my dinner now.
Great video
Loving the Grandma Keith going past during the Trabant test ☺️
I'm British and I've had several classic cars and never used pints to refill the oil. It's been litres here as long as I remember. My favourite was a 1967 Mini with an 850cc engine. I tried to get to 60mph once. It was too painful. 55mph suited us both.
The easiest way to replace valve seals on the truck, is to remove the cab! That way you can get at the engine easily and have room to work. At a Ford dealer that I worked at 20+ years ago, that's how they did it .
Don't really worry about the f150 sure it has the Triton issues but my father has one a 06 with 230k miles and still runs fine on the original motor it has had a trans replacement and diff replacement but he didn't flush those fluid it's whole life so. He dailys it and uses it for towing and pulling stumps