Midsomer Murders car BX04 WMC

[STUBIE]

Recent rerun episode called "Ghost of Christmas Past" had the AHA in it and it looked great, there is a great bit when their going over a muddy field to get to a shooting and it is well muddy but still looks spot on.

Loved these car on Midsummer and the directors/producers must have also as they were always exquisitely shot and framed.

Stubs

[bendrick]

Must confess that I've binge watched all the detective series during lockdown including Midsomer which I'd never seen before and was pleasantly surprised to see the 75s featured.

Currently polishing off the Lewis series and last night saw some plot about an election to some bishops post or something and one of the candidates cars was found empty in the woods Mk1 75 ( he was found slightly afterwards murdered obviously)

The car looked fantastic in the woods, not sure of the colour but a light greenish ... moonstone? springs immediately to mind, looked as if it had been polished and waxed just before the shoot and was immaculate.

[edwardmk]

If I ever see a sign for Midsomer I shall point my MG in the exact opposite direction.

[AndrewJames]

Not sure how many Elvis fans there are on the forum but this is now the car I picture when he sings "Long Black Limousine"! Beautiful car and a tad menacing in black.

[Yorkshirerider]

Absolutely love thisBeen a rover fan, owner of a 75, & a huge midsomer fan, I absolutely love that this car survives and been cared for


I love tv cars, shame mine never was but well done on looking after this, I will be following it with very keen interest & be great to see it at shows


Well done

[david75]

Well, it’s just a year since I created this thread to introduce my ownership of BX04 WMC, the last Rover 75 to appear in Midsomer Murders, driven by John Nettles aka DCI Tom Barnaby in Series 8 (2004/05).

Here is an update covering January to December 2021.

At the start of the year we had hoped that the restrictions due to the pandemic would ease and I had intended to bring the car to some meet-ups, but that was not to be. The car covered only about 2000 miles during the year. A lot of this was occasional short journeys to keep the wheels going round in between long periods of not going anywhere, but also a 600-mile round trip to Liverpool in September in which the car performed flawlessly.

The following items were attended to:

April:
Oil and filter change.
Water leak in the boot cured by replacing the rear light seals
Old undertray was badly cracked across its middle and around the fixing holes which meant that it was only held on by a few fixings. So I replaced it with a new one. This was from Rimmers, flimsier than the original, but seems sturdy enough once fitted with all the fixings in place. We’ll see how it stands up to a few remove/replace cycles when doing future repairs and servicing.

May:
When I bought the car, the sun roof (factory-fitted) didn’t work due to broken clips/guides on the inner blind. After some searching, I obtained replacement clips (BMW parts) and fitted them (found a useful how-to video on youtube), as well as cleaning and lubricating the whole mechanism, so now the sun roof works fine.

July:
When I bought the car the aircon didn’t work at all, and a recharge and some seals replaced in 2020 did not fix it. The leak has now been traced and the whole aircon condenser radiator replaced, so the aircon was fine just in time for the summer.
MOT passed, with a couple of advisories including some rusty suspension parts. See below, “November”

August:
Developed a bad misfire, mainly under hard acceleration. Investigation showed that it was the coil pack on Cylinder 4, but I went ahead a replaced all 6 plugs and coils.

September:
One day when I came to restart the car at a petrol station, the starter motor just gave a clunk and then nothing happened. So it was an RAC call-out, and they managed to get me going (by hitting the starter motor casing with a lump of wood), which got me home ok. New starter motor fitted, so it is all ok now.

November:
Following the MOT advisories in July, the front suspension really needed attention, and so the lower arms and drop links (all from DMGRS) and track rod ends have now been replaced.

December:
All 4 doors were suffering very badly from the usual saggy fabric. I took quite a while searching for some fabric with a good match and eventually settled on some faux suede which is a slightly paler grey than the original, but looks fine. To start with, I bought a second-hand door car to practice on, which was quite successful (with some useful guides on this Forum about removing and dismantling the door card, re-covering, reassembling and refitting), and so now I have done the actual job on the rear left passenger door. See photo. I plan to get around to doing the other 3 doors when the weather warms up a bit.



Next:
Finish the door cards.
Air Bag light. I had already replaced the passenger side under-seat connections with more robust plugs and sockets, but in July I had to do more wiggling and cleaning of the driver-side connectors to get it through the MOT. The problem has now recurred, so I need to do the proper connector replacements on the driver side soon.

So that’s about it for 2021 report. I am still very keen to keep the car well looked-after because of its interesting provenance, and hopefully to get to some shows and meets in 2022!

[BRG75]

Hi David, very interesting to see the update.

Just for the record, your earlier (white Gold) 2.5 V6 Connoisseur; which you sold to me to make room for the midsummer car, is still going strong.

It's used mainly for 20+ mile journeys, with fairly regular 100+ mile return journeys.

However, the annual mileage is kept as "quite low, but enough"

Regards

Mike

[hogweed]

Thanks for all this... as a retired man with way too much time on his hands, I'm getting pretty familiar with the Midsomer Rovers, so I just thought I'd mention that the first appearance by a 75 was T277 MOA in Season 2, Episode 2

[Twisterboy]

As a fan of Midsomer Murders this please me very much, was more of the Jag and Rover fan than the volvos.

Davy

[david75]

Update for January to December 2022

2900 miles covered. Mileage at end of December 2022: 181563
Mostly fairly local, plus longer trips to Liverpool (x2), south Wales and Coventry. No problems.

Jan – May:
Nothing particular to report, apart from the trips to Liverpool (x2) and Wales.

June:
Back in 2001 I had started with re-covering the door cards because of the usual saggy fabric, but only managed to do the rear left.
It took me until June 2022 to get round to doing the other three doors, which are now done.
The foam-backed faux suede fabric is a slightly paler grey than the original, but looks fine.
For the bit that covers the front door speakers I was able to get the same fabric but without the foam backing.



I had been seeing the airbag failure light intermittently, so ahead of the MOT I replaced the connectors under the driver’s seat, which cured the problem. (The passenger seat connectors had been done a couple of years ago).

July-August 2022:
Back in November 2021 when some front suspension work was being done, the garage noted that the front subframe was badly rusted, and although deemed safe to drive, would not pass the next MOT. So with the next MOT imminent, this had to be attended to.
My friendly garage agreed to take this on, including sourcing a replacement subframe that was in reasonable condition, and organising for it to be shot-blasted, a bit of welding, and powder-coated.
So the car now has a shiny new front subframe with all new bushes, which will hardly ever be seen, but I know that it is there!



At the same time, replaced the aircon compressor (which was leaking) so I was all nice and cool during the 40-degree summer heat; and finally, oil service done, and MOT passed

So July/August turned out to be rather expensive! but all for good reasons. Thanks to Mark at Whittinghams Garage, Rochford, Essex for doing the work.



Sept 2022:
Earlier in the year, a slight accident when moving some furniture while the car was in the driveway resulted in a dent in the bonnet, so September saw a visit to the paint shop.
I had the rear bumper done at the same time to address a poor previous repair (from before my ownership). All nice and shiny now.

Headlamps polished (Meguires polishing kit)

October:
Windscreen chip repaired by AutoGlass, and new wiper blades

November:
Left rear puncture, due to picking up a large wood screw from somewhere, but fortunately the location of the damage meant it was easily repairable

December:
Intermittent failure of left rear indicator traced to corroded contacts on the loom plug/bulb holder assembly. Replaced with a good second-hand one, so all working again.

And finally…
The dreaded airbag light is on again! … so I will be investigating this when the weather gets a bit better.
And I am looking for a proper sized (meteor - see pic) alloy wheel to use instead of the space-saver spare.



So that’s it for the 2022 report, which I hope readers have found interesting.
Don’t forget to look out for the car if you happen to be watching the repeats of Midsomer Murders, Series 8