I knew the aerial was knackered when I bought the car, I had hoped to fix it but my efforts proved inadequate. Perhaps not too surprising that something that has been outside for much of it's life should pack up after 28 years, the mast sections were rusted solid. I kind of got it working but it was never going to be reliable so a replacement was sought. The nice thing about the original Bentley item is that it sits nearly flush with the body, it's very neat, a proper quality item. Trouble is finding one in working order is not at all easy. I found one but it was £350, which I thought was fairly hefty, I couldn't find one off anything else that looked similar so in the end I bought a cheap universal one as a stop gap solution. It was a wee bit cheaper than the Bentley one at a mere £26 including delivery. To be fair it doesn't look too bad, it works perfectly, gives a decent signal and means I can have radio, which is nice.
It is wired different to the original but it's only 3 wires so it didn't take 2 seconds to work out what was what - the red is positive,which goes to the car's green/grey wire, the black is earth and goes to black and the blue wire from the aerial goes to the orange striped wire from the car. I used a 3 pin water proof connector left over from my hot rod build to make it look like a factory fitment, I had to cut the original connector off to do that. I was surprised at how quiet it runs, given it was so cheap I expected it to sound horrible, so that's a bonus. I will still try to find an original but I don't hold out much hope. I can make it look more original by turning up a collar on my lathe, I might do that.
Now, the subject of keys, I only got one with my car I didn't realise at the time what a huge problem that was. Bentley and Rolls Royce used a unique profile for the keys, Bentley sold the last key blank they had back in 2022. For some reason they decided not to get any more made and if you enquire about a new key they will tell you sorry, can't help. Same as any other key cutter will tell you, as it turns out. The only person selling blanks is some Russian bloke who recently put up his price from $1000 to $1500. that's just for the key blank, not the transponder that operates the immobiliser - just one tiny piece of chrome plated brass. This is a massive problem, if I ever lose the key the car would be a very expensive ornament. At the time pf writing this I don't have a solution, my idea is to get the profile 3d scanned and see if a local engineering company can cnc machine some blanks from it. It will be expensive but I figure I will get 20 or 30 made and sell them to cover my costs. It is a major pain that such a small thing can cause so much grief, I find it shocking that Bentley don't maintain a supply, I really would expect better from them.
I am still struggling with the interior lighting, there is a relay somewhere in the car that controls it, if you open a door t turns on the lights for 15 seconds or until you turn the ignition on. It turns on the two roof lights, all four door puddle lights and the lights under the rear seats. I know at least most of my bulbs are ok and I know at least the driver's door switch is ok as if I put the ignition key in and open the door the buzzer sounds to warn me. Weirdly instead of having push buttons in the door jambs, there are switches in the door locks that go closed circuit when the door is shut. I suppose it's more reliable like that, less prone to water ingress. I have looked everywhere for the controller and can't find it, which may actually be the problem. I really want to fix it before Winter.
The speedo packed up again, I'm convinced it's either a connector problem or a mechanical issue with the speedo itself. Cruise control still works, as does the odometer so it's clearly not a pickup problem. I spoke to a bloke I know that repairs bike speedos, he says it's more than likely a connector problem. I will have a look once I have worked out how to remove the dash. While I am in the dash I will reseat the connector for the central locking controller, the locks are all working but the passenger front one locks every time but makes no attempt at unlocking. It doesn't stop me using the car and Mrs has only been in it once so far so it's not a big deal but I do like to have everything working.
I had a better look around the underside of it now it's on my own drive, it really is in excellent condition. I believe the previous owner replaced some brake pipes as the mot tester had said some looked a bit worse for wear. He had noted some minr corrosion on the rear sub frame, blimey that seemed a bit harsh, it's all been Lanoguarded and looks to be in really good nick. Maybe he saw something with the car on the lift that I can't see with it on it's wheels but it really looks good and solid under there.
I will move the car tomorrow and have a better look up under the dash, I suspect the light delay module is up there somewhere, it's parked close to a hedge at the moment and I can't contort far enough to look in there. I would be rather chuffed to get that fixed.
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