Bits and Bobs (1)

All the excitement from spraying the offside wing quickly evaporated and left me feeling down about all the work still to do.

I guess this is just the joys of LR ownership. A little bite of the cookie and then back to the chores and try to figure out what to do about that water leak from the blower motor.

The days weather was ideal for spraying. It was warm and close, overcast all day, and less wind then even yesterday. I swear it was taunting me!!

I did not go out to HX to study the respray in the cold light of day. Maybe I was scared to find a glaring error?

In the late afternoon, I started to replace the headlight unit and the grill. I decided to do a couple of jobs on the lamp unit before re-mounting it.

1 -  LED Front Sidelight Swap.

Soon after ownership began, Hx was fitted with LED bulbs in the front sidelight positions. 

The factory fitted bulb is those quirky '501' type bare wire 5watt tungsten bulbs. The photo above shows two LED 'bulbs' in 501 mounts. The red mark on their side is my way of identifying the positive terminal, because LEDs are sensitive that way. 

The tungsten offside bulb was u/s on arrival so I guess the first job was to replace it and fit a '501'LED.

There are real advantages to switching to LED bulbs, principally minimal power consumption and heat output. I remember my old 300tdi had the same 501 bulbs in its Automatic Selecter dial and I was shocked at how hot they ran.

When it came to removing the blown 501 on Hx, that very same heat output proved to be problematic. The blown bulb had 'fused' itself through contact into the plastic body of the sidelight bulb holder. I had to break the bulb to free it from the lamp body and it had heat-damaged the locating seat, causing a restriction in the opening for any replacement.

At the time I had bought cheaply from China a set of single LED 501 'lens' bulbs as shown on the right of the photo. I also bought some more powerful 10 piece LED bulbs as on the left of the picture.

Due to the heat damage (but I did not realise it at the time), the only bulb that would fit properly was the single LED and so that type has been in service ever since. I do recall one failed at some point and it was replaced with same.

Well today I finally got around to fitting the 10 LED bulb. I had to carefully file away the heat damaged plastic inside the mounting tube of the sidelight body and then clean out the debris from inside the reflector with a Q-tip. 

I replaced the nearside sidelight with no hassle at all.

I will need to assess the performance as I fear they might well be a bit overpowering. ..

2 - Headlight Unit  Black Trim Respray.

This is the headlight unit masked up and given a coating of Matt black onto the faded edge trim. I intend to spray all the black trim on Hx and this particular paint seems up to the job as I have used it outdoors before and it appears to be hard wearing. It was sourced from Toolstation.  'Pro-Cote Industrial Paint'. A big 500 ml can for £5.18...

The black spray can ran out doing this, but that was to be expected really as it seemed to be lasting for ages. Luckily, there was not much area to cover and it got three coats. 

3 - SLAM  PANEL  BRACE  REFURB.

With the grill removed from Hx (that will need a re-spraying as well), attention is drawn to the two diagonal rusty slam panel braces that lie behind the grill. One of them was loose the other day and was torqued up. I quickly decided to remove both of the braces and re-furb them.

A quick rub and scrape soon got all the loose flaky black factory paint off. Then a rub down with meths followed by a thick coat of smooth black Hammerite paint. I ingeniously used a piece of wire to hang the braces up from whilst the painting was finished. 

That piece of wire has history. It was what I used to detach the internal door lock control rod and also route cabling through the 'B' post.. hence the hooked ends... Indeed, it has now become the 'go-to' piece of wire!

At this point, it started to rain, just as I was enjoying the outdoor life.

This put back the drying time and I will have to replace them tomorrow. Maybe I'll get inspired and spray the grill before fitting it back, afterall there is a full can of black waiting ..

Took these photos the next morning. I hung the braces up in the early morning sun and the light worked it's magic... That slight green reflection is from the nearby lawn.

4 - HEATER INTAKE COVER

Been thinking the past few days about getting closure with the blower motor water ingress. It simply has gone on to long and must be finally resolved.

Had a good feel around under the plenum cover at the blower intake to get a feel of its shape. I want to make some sort of cover that will deflect any run off water yet not restrict the airflow into the blower inlet. 

Was going to get the endoscope going to get a close view of the inlet, maybe even inside the inlet, but the rain stopped that. I kind of felt the shape that the cover will need to be with my hands. Need to visualise this and make a quick sketch and a card template for the shape. Figure to attach front end to the plenum cover and the other to the rear of the inlet, but the shape is still fluid.

Did some research on Web and grabbed the following.

Microcat image of the plenum cover and associated parts. No3 is the foam filter, No2 is the windscreen seal 

Front view of nearside. 

Two views of the reverse of the cover, roughly of the area above the intake. Was keen to see this surface and whether there was any ridges or moulding lines that could possibly be directing the water flow into the intake.

Two more views of the front of the cover. Judging by the open wiper mounts, I would say this cover is from a left hand drive vehicle, but either way, the plenum cover is the same.

This 'Plenum Chamber Cover' is still available new, but the price is in the hundreds! It seems it is crucial when replacing the windscreen.

Read online about someone's home made cover cure of using a cut down plastic oil tub and some gaffer tape, presumably the moulded corners on the plastic tub would be of use in deflecting any water flow.?

A new theory emerged to explain what's going on. In a downpour situation, the run off water from the screen pools in the 'trough' of the cover, it can't drain away quick enough and runs over and into the pollen filter holes and finds it way underneath to trickle under gravity down into the blower inlet.. 

I checked this out visually on Hx. Storm water could indeed back-flow through the filter 'winfows' but there is a vertical plastic lip after that and the water would have to flow vertically up the other side to get near the inlet.

However, storm water surges kind of makes sense as it is only after strong rain that the leak appears. I also feel that the stationary lifestyle Hx enjoys also contributes. I mean, if it was driving through a downpour,  the natural turning mobile motion would cause any pooled water to slosh about and drain properly via the side channels.

Made a valiant effort today to learn the 'geography' of the inlet. Even used the borro-scope with mixed results. It was difficult to orientate the head of the scope, but the bright Sun just made watching the laptop screen difficult. And then the battery in the laptop died! !!

I tried to get the scope to go down inside the inlet. I thought I would be able to see the 'hamster wheel' of the blower motor but not today. I got the impression that there was some kind of closed flap in there blocking my progress.

On a positive note, I managed to look around the back of the inlet and in general could not detect any water run stains, but I could have easily missed something. 

I ended up taking a 'rubbing' of the inlet by positioning a sheet of A4 over the opening and running my fingers around its perimeter and moulding the paper to shape. This was done solely by touch and the impression on the paper looks a bit like a 'vac-form' model kit.

I now have something credible to fashion a cover for...

.. the shape of things to come..