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After a few short drives, I already notice that the exhaust is dying
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There are two holes in line with the main pipes…
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… and a smaller hole before the muffler. I have only one week before the Saratoga meeting so I order a muffler with its outlet pipe and ask for express shipping, hello express shipping cost from Europe !
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Fortunately I receive both parts on time. I ordered the outlet pipe as a precaution and to be sure that it will be compatible with the muffler
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However, I’m disappointed with the manufacturing quality of these parts… as often!
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Look at this curved fitting, it looks like a plumbing fitting, that’s impressive!
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Connection to the main pipes is ok, that’s not too bad! I fixed the hole on one pipe with special exhaust paste, I hope it will last a tittle bit
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The muffler is not exactly horizontal. I believe this is because the end of the main pipes has been cut and welded back, probably to try to fit regular 15 pipes, which are different from 15H pipes at this point
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The outlet pipe does not look very nice so I add a Robri trimming piece
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I was not sure about installing this trimming piece but I now love how it looks
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As soon as I did significant drives, I noticed a fuel pump leak, so I removed it to replace the membrane…
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… but I eventually notice that the pump body is badly waved. I try again the pump with a new membrane…
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… but, as expected, it does not work better
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So I find another pump, in good shape…
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… I just replace the cover and associated gasket
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This pump worked fine for a few weeks but eventually leaked also the same way, so I have to check that
If the hydraulic liquid was still the red-type, it would have been catastrophic, as the paint would be dead. However, I didn’t took the time to take any picture, I lowered the rear of the car and noticed that the leak stopped. I then quickly wiped all traces of liquid and cleaned the body to avoid any permanent damage.
I understood that the membrane of one of the rear spheres died and the Nitrogen gas inside it reached the hydraulic tank to then go out by the air vent located on the cap. It happened inside my garage, fortunately, I didn’t get stuck somewhere with that, but I planned a trip two days after so I had to repair quickly.
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I have some new SM spheres in stock, so here they are installed on the 15…
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… while waiting to get the membrane replaced on the original spheres
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I have to do something on the height corrector also because it started to leak, so I removed it…
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… to notice that of its membranes didn’t survive to the pressure return coming from the sphere. Unfortunately I believe that this kind of membrane cannot be found anymore
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So I have to install a SM corrector but it’s equipped with only one outlet instead of two, so I also have to install a T-shape fitting with a small pipe to connect the two outlet pipes to the single available outlet
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Here is the result, this is a common modification on 15H cars, it works very well and it allows using a corrector for which parts are still available. I took the opportunity to install new membranes on this corrector
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With this new corrector, the car maintains its height a lot longer than before when engine is stopped
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A hydraulic issue remains, I believe the pump is leaking, it shows with traces of hydraulic liquid a bit everywhere in the engine compartment, you can see that here on the left part of the body, after a trip of a few hundreds of kilometres