An happy 75 owner's blog

[Dorchester2]

HELP! Bonnet stuck once more...
Some days are good days, some others...

Two bad news on the morning, one lighter (following my steering wheel change, horns are no longer working), one seriously dreadful!

Regarding the horn, I don't understand: I put back both plugs behind the airbag and the radio controls are fully working (speed regulator not tested).

Then the worst.

After my dismantling the front part of the car (bumper, bar & platform), I swapped the bonnet catch and took back the whole following Haynes & Rave instructions, that is doing the reverse of the first half of the job.

I tested the new catch: it worked and it still works because I can test it even with the bonnet close with a flat bit of wood. I can push it forward without any problem.

Job done I had tested as well that the catch effectively released the bonnet. It worked.

But now when I try to pull the bonnet release handle it's no longer loose like when the intermediate box had popped off the car body (it's now tightly attached), it looks stuck and it's resisting when I try to pull it, I may say it seems blocked.

What could be the problem and what could I do to get out of that awful trap?

I can no longer take off the bumper now for the upper bolts are not accessible...

Thanks a lot for your kind suggestions.

EDIT: Would it help to spray WD40 or something of the like since I can see both holes even with the bonnet close?

[Dorchester2]

"With regard to the bonnet, can you push down on the lip of the bonnet and get someone to release the bonnet release lever inside the car?"

In the morning my wife pushed the bonnet down & I tried to release the lever inside. No luck.
Maybe a good idea to swap both those apprentices?

So in the afternoon, being alone, I opened the arch.

Just one reminder for all: on LHD 75, no bottle but the end of the shannon.

At the moment I've done nothing (too much scared & gutted today! ) but I can grasp & see the box still in place as I've leaved it last time the problem happened, I can see both cables going from it and the first cable going to it still in place as well.
the box is tightly fitted to the car body with the usual plastic tie.

It was exactly like I've guessed it.
The big issue is apparently with the lugs and the final opening mechanism on both sides I tried to grease thanks to the little gap between the bonnet & the bumper with WD40. No progress with that lubrification.

I hope I'll be able tomorrow to pull hard on both cables and at last release the bonnet without damaging anything.

If I succeed, what to do next to avoid a third time disaster?
If not, how could I get a happy end?

Thanks a lot.

[Dorchester2]

"I imagine a good greasing of moving parts is needed not with WD40 as this is not real geasing, but with proper grease, but I also wonder one thing. In order to get to the locking mechanizm you changed you needed to remove locking platform. Is it possible that locking platform is tightened in position which make this problem of locking worse then it should be?
Maybe retightening of locking platform is needed?
At this point I am just guessing, as I would need to examine the mechanism and possibly see where problem might be."

I think that I've done not so badly in taking back all the stuff.
The locking platform was reassembled in the exact reverse order and the cable going to the left was free and not blocked.

But somebody suggested that I may have done a mistake because I'm used to screw or bolt as tight as possible to avoid loosing anything.

But it seems that in that context the bonnet locking system - which is a total mechanical & engineering failure when I see the whole lot of those poor chaps stuck yesterday, today & probably tomorrow - need to be bolted a bit loose (I mean the 4 bolts, 2 on each side) to avoid such a misfortune.

Of course I am willing to do anything but the first and only move now will be to reopen the bonnet!
OK for the grease. WD40 might be a bit too liquid but useful nonetheless.

Crossing all for tomorrow...
I need all your best prayers...
Thanks.

[Dorchester2]

Some days are better days...
Just a short reminder of yesterday bad news:

- bonnet stuck.
- One big item (Mind you P5 / P5b history!) missing in the Amazon parcel (opened by misfortune or wrongdoing, then sealed once more by French mail) and no button in the order page how to signify the problem
- One item I had ordered sent by the seller despite I had asked to cancel it.

Bad night obsessed with all my nasty misfortunes.

But today despite a damp & disastrous morning beginning good news were shining lights on my day:

- The seller hadn't looked at his mails and the parcel being on the departure but still at home, he cancelled the sale.
- At last after I don't remember how many clicks I tried to join Amazon & without any evidence from me they apologized, sent me at once another book & made a refund of £4.
- So given that fantastic beginning I had high hopes for the bonnet.

Hence I removed the front part of the arch cover to have a better look, put aside the shannon tube (and not the water bottle - mine is a LHD car) and I did the trick.
Thanks to God I succeeded!

So here is the situation:

The black box is in place, neither of both cables has popped off, and now, once bonnet opened and me pulling on the inside lever, my wife saw that all the cables are freely moving in their sheath and that the mechanism is fully functioning in both locking holes. Several times I pulled the inside lever that went to & fro to be sure. No longer any blocking.

But I think I've found out the culprit of that dreadful misadventure: me!
I realized that when finishing the swapping locks job I'd totally forgotten to screw the whole bunch of 9 screws (2 on each side & 5 in the middle) that are on the front edge of the upper bonnet!
I remember now that the last time I closed the bonnet it wasn't so easy to shut it. I had to do it twice or three times to succeed.
I guess that all those big black screws just put on the top of their thread and pushing up the bonnet were preventing it to shut easily and that when it had been done the locking mechanism was jammed by two opposite forces.

I'm stupid!

Now the last big question I have to ask is: where exactly should I put the grease to lubricate & ease the mechanism as much as possible?
I do not want that scary disaster to happen once more!

Thank you.

[Dorchester2]

"I see you got answered on other club forum..."

Quite so.
In case of emergency only I duplicate the message within 2 or 3 forums.
That is quicker and eventually may avoid a long waiting.
My left wheel arch protection kept twisted to make room and the front left of the car on support all the night and part of the morning, and gathering as many opinions as possible was necessary to avoid any possible dreadful mistake.
That's why.

[Dorchester2]

So my last former question is still pending:
why on earth my horns are no longer working?

Brief summary:

- I've first swapped the steering wheel but unfortunately I didn't test the horns (why should I do that?) just after.
Every other bit of the steering wheel is working: airbag light disappearing after a few seconds, radio controls OK. I haven't had so far enough time to test the cruise control.

- Then later in the week I swapped the bonnet catches and to do so dismantled the front of the car as I told you previously.

So far the fuse is working fine, because it's the same one for the clock (and some others) & the clock is working.

I've just taken off once more the bumper on the morning, to be sure that all the plugs behind were connected. They are! And mind you that I'd just unplugged the bumper one going to the 4 lamps attached to it, while I'd untouched the other ones. Even the left horn I'd unbolted wasn't unplugged.

What could be tested to get hold of the culprit?

Regarding that no other solution is remaining (for me at least) now I'm beginning to suspect something behind the horn buttons on the steering wheel, even it looks unlikely because you have 2 bunch of wires and hence two plugs only: one to the airbag (OK) and the other a multiplug going to both controls (radio OK + cruise control not tested) and horn buttons.

Thanks if you can get me out of that last misery that is upsetting & irritating!

[Dorchester2]

"There are quite a few threads about “horn not working” for the Rover 75. A couple have mentioned listening for the clicking of the horn relay from behind the glove box, when the horn buttons are depressed. Hearing nothing could indicate a bad horn relay.

However, you have disassembled the front of the car and replaced the steering wheel, so it’s probably more possible the fault is somewhere there.

I googled this and it came up with these threads which are worth looking at.
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=r...obile&ie=UTF-8
Good luck"

Thanks.

I've had a close look on all those threads about the problem but I'm still at a loss...

I can tell you 2 things:

- when I put the contact on the 2nd position, the ECU says 'Bonnet open'.
- I can't hear anything at all, no clicking when I push the horn buttons on the steering wheel.

I've verified the plugs behind the bumper: all seem connected!

I've swapped the inside wiring behind the airbag, putting back the genuine one, when that was working.
Radio controls are working fine but no horn!

It's the devil!

[Dorchester2]

Never ever put all your trust in any book even specialized...
I'm pleased to let you know here before anybody else what happened next in that dreadful horn case.

After having dismantled twice my bumper (well if someone doesn't know how to, now I can teach anybody!) and twice the driver airbag (same remark!), even I was thinking it was a waste of time (but after all that I've done... it may be put in perspective...) and even I'd learned from the highly respectable Haynes guide that cruise control, horn, clock & diagnostic connector were all connected to fuse 28 - given that my clock & diagnostic connector were working fine, nonetheless I opened the Pandora box and examined the fuse 28.
Not bad at a first glance, the thin upper wire looking sane even the little bottom one was surrounded by a very slight grey shadow on the plastic.
So I swapped with the 15A blue spare one at the bottom of the box, I closed the fuse box and

tadaaa! Pushing on the horn button I was literally over the moon to hear at last that my horns were back in service!

Moreover I saw that the F28 wasn't exactly of the same fabric as the others (amp value translucent and not written in white letters), so it should have been already changed.

Last moral: some apparently tricky problems may have a very straightforward solution except for some unfortunate too brainy people who are utterly mistaken relying too much on their reasoning capacity and not enough on experiments very easy to do. I'm ashamed to confess it's not the first time...

[Dorchester2]

"Congratulations! I bet you feel relieved."

You cannot imagine how much despite this week had begun like a nightmare!

And I bet you're going to laugh: as a forum mate will very soon send me dual tone twin horns for free but postage, I gonna take off the bumper for the third time in a row!

[Dorchester2]

Crazy story...
I think I was utterly stupid!

In my early 1999 I do have both high & low horns.
But I was mistaken because pushing on any of both steering wheel buttons it delivers exactly the same sound.

In the first place I thought that each button was connected to one horn only, for example the left one on the 510 & the right one on the 410.

In fact I've just tried in the garage and I assume now that pushing one or the other doesn't matter, both horns seem working together. So I can hear the higher pitched one even the lower pitched one is less audible.

Hence I do not need any mocked retrofit that had already been fitted!
And I cancelled the fair offer.