Indicators!

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Help!, since I've had my P6 (may this year) I've been having problems with one of my front indicators. It seems to be an earthing problem which recurrs. I soldered on a new earth cable but as the car has stood for about 4 weeks unused it has gone off again. This has happened 3 times so far :shock: I wiggled the wires a bit and had a general fiddle with it but no joy! :oops: yet when I placed the unit on the bumper it earthed through that no problem and 'flashed'. Should i try a 'new' earthing point? or can anyone advise me otherwise? Thanks in advance, Will.
 
Hello Will,
It sounds most likely that the lamp unit is rotten. The mazak type casting is well known for it on these lamp units. If you have a good look around the recessed area around the indicator it will probably look a bit blistered. If you poke it you will almost certainly make a hole. I once changed an indicator bulb in what was a healthy looking and fully functioning lamp, only for the lamp holder to disappear into the wing!
Good luck!
Roly.
 
willmills71 said:
Help!, since I've had my P6 (may this year) I've been having problems with one of my front indicators. It seems to be an earthing problem which recurrs. I soldered on a new earth cable but as the car has stood for about 4 weeks unused it has gone off again. This has happened 3 times so far :shock: I wiggled the wires a bit and had a general fiddle with it but no joy! :oops: yet when I placed the unit on the bumper it earthed through that no problem and 'flashed'. Should i try a 'new' earthing point? or can anyone advise me otherwise? Thanks in advance, Will.
Click to expand...

Does the side light work?
 
Yes, the side light does work. The lamp unit is rotten also but it's had an aluminium plate put in place to hold the indicator housing (with the earth attached to it). I've got some spare units but they're all basically the same with wacking great holes in them!! Do you think it could be aluminium oxidisation stopping the earth from doing its job??
 
If the sidelight works then there is a good earth to that bulb holder. If you put a piggy-back connection from the black wire to the sidelight bulb holder direct to the black wire for the indicator bulb holder that should complete the circuit for the indicator.

Alternatively, if you consider the light unit mazak construction so deteriorated that it will cause problems in the future, it may be time to look for one that is in much better condition, they do come up on e.bay if you have access. There are no individual front side light units presently listed (that I could find), but Item No:280282573378 does include a front light unit along with other P6 bits, ask the seller if its in good usable condition ?.

Good luck
 
I'll have to dig out some pictures, but on mine I cut out the old rotten backing section and holder and replaced it with a new holder mounted to a piece of plastic (not entirely sure it could have been frp circuit board), with earth and feed wires running directly to the holders. Not a dificult repair and if you've got good chrome on the rest of the housing it could save a lot of money !
 
Thanks Fellas, I'll have another go at it this weekend. If it still doesn't work then I'll think about replacing the unit. Will.
 
Hi can i just ask can you buy a new replacement unit as mine are near the end of life. Or do we have to hunt for secondhand if so i will start the search to.
regards
marcus
 
They come up periodically on Ebay and usually go for around £100 - £120 a go. You may find some at one of the specialist suppliers, but I'd expect them to be more expensive.

Chris
 
They sometimes come up on ebay still fitted to the front wing.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ROVER-P6-CAR-WING ... 240%3A1318

This one isn't brilliant, but it is worth searching for 'Rover p6 light' 'rover 3500 light' 'rover 2000 light' and same again with 'rover p6 wing' etc. etc.

You can ever try 'rover V8 light' 'wing', 'indicator' etc. as many things are not on there under the headings you might assume them to be.
 
Yes, searching on Ebay is something of an art form! I have an international search set up for the P6, but even with all the exclusions I can think of for things like "Dinky" you still get a certain amount of dross. Well worth the effort though, you'd be surprised the gems that creep out of the woodwork in the States! One other tip - again US oriented - there are quite a number of sidelamp units around with all orange lenses dating from the Federal / NADA cars. You can easily convert these to UK spec just by changing the sidelamp glass, and they come up new quite frequently.

Chris
 
"They sometimes come up on ebay still fitted to the front wing."

And fall apart when you try to remove them ! There must be some way of fixing a plastic bulb holder into the backplate
 
DaveHerns said:
"They sometimes come up on ebay still fitted to the front wing."

And fall apart when you try to remove them ! There must be some way of fixing a plastic bulb holder into the backplate
Click to expand...

Araldite (with or without brass filings mixed in) - my land rover rear fog light bulb holder was repaired thus and it has lasted at least 5 years (I even have a complete new light ready to fit in event of failure but last time I checked inside it was fine :D - if it ain`t broke dont fix it !)
 
I managed to get it working today by making a 'washer' to connect the outer casing of the bulb holder to the earth cable on the unit. Basically it's just a piece of plate with a hole drilled in and filed to fit snugly around the bulb holder, but it did the job (for now!)..I was pleased that it was working so decided to take the car for a run tonight, but :shock: as soon as I reached around 50 mph the car started 'lurching' as if being rocked backwards and forwards! this has never happened before does anyone know the cause?? As soon as I slowed down and dropped gears it stopped..I've tried to talk to my Dad about it (as it was his car) but according to him he never had any problems with it! :roll:
 
I have had a P6 rocking from corner to corner.

This was down to the rear shock mounting rusting through and the shock absorber becoming detached.

Might be worth taking a look, although it isn't obvious without getting close up and wiggling the shock around.
 
Ok, I'll have the car up on ramps tomorrow to replace a blown exhaust section, so I will definately have a look at those shocks..I also wondered about fuel starvation Chris. Are there any little tricks to check if it is that? The in-line fuel filter always seems to be well filled with fuel although there are a few chunks of 'something or other' floating around the bottom of it! could it be the fuel pump? I have a decent spare I could try..sorry if some of my questions seem obvious but I'm useless with car mechanics :oops: (I am learning tho :) )
 
Well I guess the first thing to do is to try to pin down whether you are looking for something that is generated by the engine/transmission or by the chassis/suspension. So is the effect the same with power on as on the overun? Is it solely speed dependent and constant once that speed is achieved? Do particular road irregularities set it off? Is it accompanied by any particular noises? Basically you are simply collecting data and then you try to filter the data based on various theories as to what the problem might be. So far we have not a lot of observational data and two theories. If fuel starvation you'd expect the effect to dissapear when you backed off the throttle (cos the engine isn't using fuel any more!) and you'd expect the engine to run very rough while it's surging (all 8 getting fuel, then random ones not). If a damper problem, then a particular road surface might set it off, say a wallow or a particularely big pothole. Or perhaps it might feel like one corner of the car wanted to bounce all the time when the other three didn't (the Tigger effect!).

Hope that helps you to get the grey matter to work!

Chris
 
as soon as I reached around 50 mph the car started 'lurching' as if being rocked backwards and forwards! this has never happened before does anyone know the cause?? As soon as I slowed down and dropped gears it stopped..I've tried to talk to my Dad about it (as it was his car) but according to him he never had any problems with it! :roll:[/quote]

Still sounds to me like fuel problem to me. Had similar surging effect which proved to be down to worn valves in fuel pump, cruising no problem enough fuel reaching carbs, on accelleration initially it would respond with power then the surging would start and not cease until one lifted off (allowing the fuel levels to "catch up with demand")
 
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