[Plodder]

It’s about £12 with postage to get then from AS trim. If you private message me I’ll drop them in the post to you for nowt if you promise to return them. I think the titanium one is a lovely match for my car. Almost indistinguishable from the strip surrounding the sunroof.

Thanks for the offer I've sent you a Private Message with a response. Thanks

[Paul_1978_yorks]

Anyone know much about horns? I press the button, there’s a click mouse inside the car (relay i assume), fuse hasn’t blown. Any way of checking horns without taking the bumper off?

I've had horns fail on two R8s. First time I took the bumper off which is not difficult but a bit of a faff. Second time I think I might have just taken a headlight out to gain access. Can't remember. Think the headlight was harder to get out than taking the bumper off , so that might be the easier option.
Not sure how to test the horn, but they are not expensive, so have a replacement to hand and I am sure that will resolve it. There will be two - one at each side.

[MatthewL]

Anyone know much about horns? I press the button, there’s a click mouse inside the car (relay i assume), fuse hasn’t blown. Any way of checking horns without taking the bumper off?

I've had horns fail on two R8s. First time I took the bumper off which is not difficult but a bit of a faff. Second time I think I might have just taken a headlight out to gain access. Can't remember. Think the headlight was harder to get out than taking the bumper off , so that might be the easier option.
Not sure how to test the horn, but they are not expensive, so have a replacement to hand and I am sure that will resolve it. There will be two - one at each side.

Brilliant - I’ll take the bumper off. it’ll also help me see how to attach the grill mesh as it’s loose. Think I may be missing some clips or something.

[MatthewL]

Good call. Of course - not thought of that. Will get it flushed. Thanks for the tip.

Put a hose pipe on it and flush it both ways if you need a matrix I have some and controls .

Hi - I just removed the heater controls. Interesting set of problems which explain a lot. #1 someone has glued the heat knob on about 20 degrees off where it should be so it’ll range between cold and Luke warm but not get to hot. #2 There is a green cable which was stuck solid and must have been bending when the heat knob was turned. It runs through to a mechanism with plunger on a coolant pipe under the engine bay - I’ve released this now as it was stuck but I think a bolt into the bulkhead holding the bracket is missing so I need to replace that. Does this alter the flow of hot through the matrix?

Anyway, not sure if the control unit is salvageable - I’ll have to take the heater knob off without smashing it. If I’m stuck and you have a spare unit I can buy I’m very keen to - none of the ones I’ve seen on eBay seem to match the order of controls on mine: direction of air on left, heat in middle, fan speed right.

Matthew

[961tat]

Hello Matthew pm you

Cheers Chris

[crepello]

Back on Dec 11 I surmised

Maybe you need to fish the whole heater unit out and clean & re-lubricate the moving parts (vanes etc.)!
A lot of it is worked by wire-in-tube (low-cost Bowden cable principle). You'd probably find disintegrated
foam gaskets as well.

Wasn't too far out!
What you see on the engine side of the bulkhead is a simple gate valve controlling flow into the heater matrix.

[MatthewL]

I took the heater control panel out based on your advice. Again I was quite impressed with how easy it was to get the trim out to get to it all. Good quality cars.



The knobs are cracked on the inside and have seen better days. I have sourced one replacement and moved the 2 best ones to the seemingly least hard working positions of fan and heat.



There was no damage and on checking even the bulbs worked. They looked crusty so I chickened out and didn’t swap them in case I damaged the holders.



This was where problems started. The green wire was set solid. As I’d been moving the heat control it was simply bending the wire. Furthermore the heater control pinion wasn’t central on the rack so I wasn’t getting the full range. Cold was at about 10 o’clock and 5 o’clock was not pulling the wires for full heat. I reset the pinion then worked all the cables with oil and then new grease to free them all.

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In the engine bay 2 things were wrong. The green wire which was bending, rather than feeding into the sleeve, was attached to the mechanism which raises and lowers the plunger (to divert water into the heater matrix I assume). The mechanism had parted from the bulkhead so I reattached it. I think it must have been spot welded but fatigue had snapped it off. It’s attached with a machine screw into a tiny hole I drilled. Then on setting it up I worked out the cable sleeve was poking too far out beyond the clip. It was simple to release the little clip (it just pops up by hand), clean the cable so it didn’t slip then reset it so the plunger had a full range of movement. This picture is prior to the re-clamping of the cable sleeve but after reattaching it.

Once this was done setting the cable at the controls end was straightforward with each sleeve after setting poking about 5mm proud of the screw clips in the end. All controls have full motion now, the straightened wire works fine and I can even now get air out if the dash vents for the first time ever.

I will flush it as suggested next.

Thanks for all the advice everyone!

Matthew

[MatthewL]

Heater is titling brilliantly now. Just need to fix the roof rust and then put the headlining back in. Still have a boot leak. Have resealed driver side tail light. Doubt it’ll fix it but I’m running out of ideas.

Driver side seatbelt wouldn’t always engage. I bought a passenger side one to dismantle and investigate. I assumed the white clip which the buckle presses was broken. Not so…. As you’ll see from the pictures it was the spring. Swapped out and working perfectly! 5 minute job.







Car still idling high and exhaust is smelly. I suspect an intake air leak.

Also new sill covers ordered. I pin prick hole became this…



Matthew

[James3990]

Driver side seatbelt wouldn’t always engage. I bought a passenger side one to dismantle and investigate. I assumed the white clip which the buckle presses was broken. Not so…. As you’ll see from the pictures it was the spring. Swapped out and working perfectly! 5 minute job.

Had the exact same problem with my Coupe and did the same fix, great work

[MatthewL]

Hi James - irritating thing was I spent ages looking for a whole replacement pretensioner. Was terrified to dismantle the one on the car, break something and render the whole car unusable!