I think I've made some progress on the brake locking issue. For those unaware, on heavy braking the left rear wheel is locking, which either results in a best case scenario of a black line and a cloud of white smoke:
Or a worst case scenario of the back end coming round under braking:
First up was to get the car plugged into a proper diagnostic machine, so I've invested in a VXDIAG VCX NANO diagnostic tool that works with Clip v2.19.
LINK here.
I originally tried running Clip on a Virtual Windows 11 machine inside Parallels on a MacBook Pro (see thread
HERE) but that doesn't seem to play nice and didn't recognise the OBD2 device.
I've bought an old refurbished Dell 12.5" laptop and I'm pleased to say I got it all installed and running last night, and I could connect to the car and begin a bit of a deep dive into what might be wrong. I've never used Clip before so that was also a bit of a learning curve.
What I did find from rooting around in Clip is the following, a fault logged on the 1094 CAN network which relates to the ABS:
I couldn't quite work out how to get to the actual stored error code, I could only get as far as there being one error code stored:
After poking around a bit in the software, I found the menu where I could perform some test routines. I started with AC016 which tested the ABS pump. That all sounded pretty normal with the sound(s) coming from the engine bay. I then went through each of the solenoid test routines starting with left front (AC003), right front (AC004), right rear (AC006). You have to have a foot on the brake pedal to peform these test routintes.
All of these felt and sounded the same, the ABS pump would activate, the solenoid would open, you could feel the pressure in the brake pedal, you could hear the pump working and you could feel the vibration in the brake pedal. That was until I got to test AC005 (left rear).
Running test AC005 (left rear) sounded completely different, is sounded strained, it sounded like it was struggling, there was a noticeable difference to the sound of the other three, and the pedal felt different (no ABS pressure). I did the same tests again, AC003, AC004, AC006 all consistent, AC005 the odd ball.
So I think what we have here is a faulty left rear solenoid inside the ABS module. I'm actually quite relieved the diagnostics showed something not right, it validates that it's not suspension related, geometry related, or something to do with my driving style.
I've got a brand new OEM ABS module to fit (part number 8201154658). It wasn't as expensive as I thought. There were second hand ones on ebay for £30-£60 of unknown origin, or a brand new one for £117 delivered. I took the plunge and bought new.
Just need to find the time and motivation to get it swapped out and bled, plus a few other bits and bobs I've been acquiring.