The trouble with buying old cars is that sometimes they throw up problems that you really should have spotted before you handed the cash over. There is no finer example of this than my recently acquired 1998 Bentley arnage. I knew the central locking and driver's door mirror didn't work, I hadn't realised the interior lights didn't work and nor did one of the rear seat adjustment switches. To be fair I hadn't even realised the rear seats were adjustable, I just never really paid much attention to the back, I never go in there. Things got a wee bit worse when I phoned the last people that serviced the car to ask what they had done. The guy I spoke to remembered the car, said they had done a minor service then casually mentioned that there was loads wrong with the car, although he wouldn't tell me what!. It's been recently MoT'd and some issues were raised at that but only as advisories. When I mentioned the door locks he acknowledged that was one of the problems. And it is a very big problem if you go to Bentley because they will want to put 3 new locks in at a price of around 5 grand. I'm well on the way to fixing them now at a cost of half a tin of switch cleaner.
Anyhoo - as I said the interior lights don't work and finding information has so far been tricky. Several Rolls and Bentley models seem to use an internal lighting controller that turns the lights on when you unlock the car and stay on for a preset time or until the engine is started. They call it the Internal Lamps Delay Control Module - part number UD26559. It's another multi hundred pound item if bought from Bentley, one can be had for about 20-40 quid o the second hand market though. Trouble is I haven't been able to confirm if my car uses this part or where the hell it might be. My current understanding is that the unit takes a signal from the door lock - there is a micro switch activated by the lever that controls the pop up button - which triggers the unit to turn the lights on. I know the lights themselves are ok in the front at least as you can turn them on via the over ride switches. I can't say the same for the one in the back. It's another one of those things that doesn't stop me using the car but it does need fixing before the short winter days. It may be more complicated, further research is required, I still don't quite understand how the puddle lights in the bottom of the doors work - the car does not have the normal door switches like every other car ever made seem to have. I tried to buy a manual off ebay but that was a total disaster and wasted nearly half a day of my time trying to get it loaded. Can you sense the frustration? :-)
It was about this time that I discovered the switches for the rear seats, 5 seconds later I found one of them didn't work. Here we have another Bentleyism in the form of a tiny piece of plastic that costs nearly 50 quid to replace. The rather lovely aluminium toggles of the switches activate a plastic lever type thing that presses the actual switch. They are used on the window controls and the rear seat controls. They often break, they are not up to the job and they cost a packet - in my opinion they should be free. Anyway I found a complete switch panel with the switches for the grand sum of 40 quid plus post, plus Reeves' cut of 20 per cent. So that's what I got. I have no idea how the panel is removed, I'm hoping it just pulls out as I can't see how else it could be done. Time will tell. It's yet another thing that makes no real difference to the enjoyability of the car, there will most likely never be anybody in the back, but I do like things to work. I will have to have a look at the roof lighting panel too, there seems to be a broken switch in there and maybe a blown bulb too. The problems are building rather than reducing right now. They are only small though and progress has been made.
The previous owner - Mike - had told me the right hand exhaust had got bent, I had noticed it was what we experts call "on the piss". I had a look underneath and could see what was wrong, nothing was bent but the rear box had been rotated at the joint where it connected to the forward pipe. Easy, I thought, I will just give the clamp a quick tighten while holding the rear box in the right place. It was going so well until a bolt sheared off. I had to angle grind off the bolt, I did the other one too while I was at it as that one didn't look too clever either. I reassembled it with a bit of gun gum exhaust assembly paste. It looks a lot better now and it's good and solid. At least that's one job I can tick off the list. The left rear door lock now works perfectly, I'm well pleased with that, I will do the right rear this morning while it's quite cool, if it gets too hot I will finish it this evening, it's supposed to be in the 30's today, which messes my diabetes up.
I'm going to go get on with it now, it's Friday today and I want to get all the door locks fixed and the car back together so I can take it to an autojumble on Sunday.
Quick ps having reread the above I want to make it absolutely clear that I have no problem with the guy that sold me the car. When you go buy one it is your responsibility to conduct all tests and inspections, if you miss anything, it's down to you. I checked all the things that really matter to me and took the car on a long test drive that took in country lanes and fast dual carriageway. There would be no point in my whingeing or bitching about the little things that I missed. Maybe I could have got some cash off but the price I paid was more than reasonable and commensurate with a car that needs some love. If you read my first article you will note that I said I thought the rear suspension spheres were shot, I don't think they are. If they were the car would have sunk on it's suspension after being left for 3 days and it hasn't. I still think there is something needs investigating though, I think it should be less jumpy at the back.
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