I have had a can of E10 go from "fine" to "totally non flammable" in the space of a few months. It only took me about an hour and a half of faffing around before I realised the fuel was to blame.
I've never noticed any real tank to tank variation with V-Power, which is what I generally use as it's convenient for me. Tesco I refuse to use unless I absolutely can't avoid if after a contaminated tank costing my folks north of £500 in repairs (along with about half the regulars in what was our local pub back up north - well beyond the realms of random coincidence).
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First job today was to try to reattach the fuel pump to the Renault. Who knew the hose I was trying to replace is a different size at one end to the other. Decided to walk away from that before I wound up setting fire to it.
Back to the Rover.
We needed to do something about the indicators/sidelights.
They were the wrong way around (indicator should be at the top) and the sidelights are the wrong type (they're from a P5B I think), and looked particularly goofy viewed from the side.
This is how that corner *should* look.
You can see from the side that everything sits at the same distance from the face of the car now.
I know it was a small thing but it really was bugging my OCD. I wouldn't have minded keeping the chrome backing plate, but the diameter is too small to allow the indicator lens to fit, its own surround fouls on the backing plate.
This is the other reason I wanted to change things: The state of most of the lamp holders.
While that was working it clearly wasn't going to continue doing so for all that much longer.
I confess that the sidelights aren't actually connected yet - I realised halfway through the job that I didn't actually have any bullet connectors in stock. Oops. The indicators I didn't need to worry about that as they came with the looms already attached so just plugged into the connector blocks straight out of the box. I did reuse the indicator lenses as there's nothing wrong with them and the moulding is better quality than the reproduction ones.
Electrical issues are pretty widespread on this car, so I've decided to tackle some of those.
The over reading gauges should be a simple one - just replace the voltage stabiliser. It's the obviously shiny new thing attached to the back of the instrument panel, roughly centre frame below.
Undo the nut holding the old one on, put the new one on and connect the B and I terminals back up as they were before. Five minute job. It looks to have worked too.
The fuel gauge is now showing just a touch below full - it was pegged off scale high before. It probably is still a touch on the high side but far more reasonable.
While I was in there I took a look at the non working dash illumination. Unsurprisingly this was just because the rheostat was dirty. A bit of contact cleaner sorted that out.
A new bulb and some cleaning of the fuse holders got the front courtesy light working.
Similar story with the number plate lights - cleaned the bulb holders and they sprung back to life.
The reversing light was actually working but it got the same treatment.
I have figured out where this black gunk is coming from.
It's the electrical tape that's dotted all over this car which has turned to goo. It's horrible stuff which is like sticky black paint. Rear ones don't work because nobody reconnected the wires to the switches, so they're floating around behind the panel somewhere. That's a job for another day, have removed the bulbs for now so that can't ground itself out and drain the battery (assuming there's anything attached to the lights themselves).
The clock has now been reconnected - and still doesn't work.
Not really surprised, had fully expected it to need servicing.
The main beam indicator has been resurrected. The bulb had escaped from its holder and was rattling around inside the speedometer.
There is definitely something amiss with the headlight wiring. Which given it's running to a random extra switch on the dash doesn't surprise me. Main beam is fine, but on dip both dip and main filaments are lit, which isn't right and is asking to overheat wiring. The wiring in that area we've already established is a mess, so entirely likely could just be connected up wrong on the inner wing junctions. That's where we've left it today. Was nice to actually get an hour to do something when it wasn't ten million degrees and actually managed to achieve something.
It could have at least waited until it got its new owner home...
