Newbie RRC owner - saying hi and a few questions!

Hi all!

Just bought my first Rangie, a 1991 RRC Vogue SE with the stock 3.9 V8 and auto box, so thought I would join up and say hi, hopefully meet a few of you in the near future!!

In the meantime, hopefully I can tap the wealth of knowledge a little bit (hope that’s OK!) with a few queries/minor problems – some very easy I’m sure, others not so! If they sound stupid I apologise, but please bear with me – I’ll start with the easy stuff first, getting down to more technical queries at the bottom:

- Headlights - what bulbs do they take? Save me undoing all the screws and grille before I head down to buy some new ones – I might even have a spare lying around somewhere!
- Headlining on the sunroof – surprisingly the roof lining is fine, but mine has a glass sunroof and the cover’s lining has come off at the rear and is pretty filthy too. Can these be easily replaced, or any other neat fixes anyone has come up with?
- Cruise control – I think this is broken due to leaky pipes under the bonnet – I checked the diaphragm ‘in-situ’ and that appears to work, but it feeds into a ‘T’-piece behind the washer bottle, and the pipes have perished here. Not really that bothered about this one, to be honest, but I guess replacing those pipes would likely fix it?
- Radio wiring harness – I want to fit an aftermarket headunit as the car didn’t come with one, but don’t want to have to splice wires and the like. Halfords do an enormous range of aftermarket wiring harnesses but don’t list one for the RRC on their website. Any idea if there is one that will fit? I did read that mkIII VW/Audi might work (from a Golf/Jetta, etc) but not sure if that was just for softdash RRC’s or not. Any ideas?
- Fuel gauge – doesn’t work! Apparently it did for the MOT a fortnight ago, but I stuck £50 of unleaded in when I bought it and still reads empty – a common problem with an easy solution? Hopefully, as I really need to get this one sorted!
- Speedometer – this is an odd one (all the best electrical gremlins are!). The speedo works fine in daily driving, but if you sit at a constant speed for more than a couple of minutes (and this is happened at both 50mph and 70mph) it will fail, so the speedo just drops to 0 mph and the milometer stops ticking over, and that’s it until you stop and restart the car! Then back to normal! Very odd, but any ideas?

...and finally...
- Gearbox – appears to work fine, but it does ‘thunk’ when manoeuvring, i.e. turning in my drive, and going between ‘D’ and ‘R’ a lot – is this normal or a sign that it’s on its way out?

I think that’s it! Any advice would be great, and if any of you are based in Bucks (Amersham/Chesham/Great Missenden area) it would be great to meet up sometime! Will post pics on the 'newbie' section when I get home tonight.


Cheers,

Mike

hi,
headlamps are sealed units normally
headlining, can be replaced easily enough
cruise control, yes replace the rubber pipes as they will leak
radio, ...pass
fuel gauge, sounds llike float has broken, or wire come off in rear on top of tank
speedo could be the electronic pick up on gearbox, usually found on ebay
gearbox, they do tend to give a nice clunk between D andR

Thanks for the reply 1992lse!

When you say they are sealed units, surely the bulbs have to be changed - the handbook suggests removing the front grille and the front lense, is this correct?

Will check the fuel gauge and speedo sensors at the weekend. How do you replace the sunroof lining?

Good to know they're all a bit clunky between 'D' and 'R'!!

Hello and wlecome:welcome2:
Your headlights are as 1992LSE says - sealed beams. You replace the whole glass assembly. They can be changed for bulb types. Take a look at various suppliers and maybe your local car shop.
Headlining - Mine's exactly the same. I just removed the sunroof lining.
Cruise Control - you're probably right.
Radio wiring - not sure. Would have to check on mine but I'm only home next week.
Fuel gauge - probably the sender.
Speedo - as 1992LSE says
Gearbox - aye - mine thunks quite a bit between drive and reverse, especially if rushed. Take your time and pause in neutral lessens the effect.
Good luck with it. How many times have you ****ted your elbow on the door rest?

the 7 inch headlamps are crap anyway and £45 each new. if you go to the "ring utomotive" website they will sell you a paire of repalcement lamps, new super dooper ones and they are alot brighter and only £22 all in!

the grill unlcips form the top under the bonnet and lifts forwards and outwards to come off.

the lights are just held in with a few screws.

OK, thats really strange about the headlamps - I looked through the owners manual earlier today and I'm sure it suggested just undoing the retaining screws (not the adjustment screws), remove the glass, change the bulb and reassemble - perhaps I read it wrong! Hmm...

Derek, I did think about just removing the lining, but the board underneath looks pretty manky too, som would like to recover it really. Is there a way of removing the sliding cover so I can strip the old cloth and affix some new stuff on?

Sounds like the gearbox clunking is normal, so thats good. I really want to get the radio working though, so if anyone can point me in the right direction for the wiring harness that'd be great!

MikeV8SE said:

- Fuel gauge – doesn’t work! Apparently it did for the MOT a fortnight ago, but I stuck £50 of unleaded in when I bought it and still reads empty – a common problem with an easy solution? Hopefully, as I really need to get this one sorted!

Click to expand...

You do realise you just bought a 3.9litre V8

landroverjack said:

You do realise you just bought a 3.9litre V8

Click to expand...

Thats why I need it sorted - otherwise I'll be running out constantly!!

Roughly speaking, cos I currently have no idea, how much does it cost to fill one up (don't even know how big the tank is!) and and how many miles can I expect to get from a tank? I'm expecting 15mpg...ish.

my disco cost 110quid to fill.

12-17.1mpg

Ouch! What does that equate to - 200 miles? 250?

your driving a 2ton block of flats powered by a v8

my worst is 8.6=25quid a day.........

MikeV8SE said:

Thats why I need it sorted - otherwise I'll be running out constantly!!

Roughly speaking, cos I currently have no idea, how much does it cost to fill one up (don't even know how big the tank is!) and and how many miles can I expect to get from a tank? I'm expecting 15mpg...ish.

Click to expand...

You don't need a fuel gauge, youll have run out by the time you have got to the exit of the petrol station!!!

I thinks it's 17 gal.

Aftermarket head units are a nightmare in rangies. search the forum to see what i mean.
Some people claim to have got everything working with various harnesses and bodge-ups.
What i ended up doing was using the original HK speakers but running a complete new wiring system and power lead from battery to boot where i put in a 3500w 6 channel amp and hooked this up to the head unit and speakers and hey presto enough power to blow the bloody doors off along with USb and ipod connections.

But that's on a P38 discomalc - the op has a Classic which is much, much simpler and only needs an adapter lead for the head unit. Good to know it can be done in a P38 though but it sounds a major undertaking.

discomalc said:

Aftermarket head units are a nightmare in rangies. search the forum to see what i mean.
Some people claim to have got everything working with various harnesses and bodge-ups.
What i ended up doing was using the original HK speakers but running a complete new wiring system and power lead from battery to boot where i put in a 3500w 6 channel amp and hooked this up to the head unit and speakers and hey presto enough power to blow the bloody doors off along with USb and ipod connections.

Click to expand...

Hi Malc,

Thanks for the reply! I don't want a big sound system really - my daily driver is a BMW 330Ci with Harmon Kardon sound system in it, which is plenty good enough when I want to listen to some good music - all I want is to wire up a Pioneer CD h/u I have without chopping into the wiring harness! Surely someone makes a simple 'plug & play' ISO connector/harness for these?

I stand corrected Derek . my bad, as the kids say nowadays

MikeV8SE said:

Hi Malc,

Thanks for the reply! I don't want a big sound system really - my daily driver is a BMW 330Ci with Harmon Kardon sound system in it, which is plenty good enough when I want to listen to some good music - all I want is to wire up a Pioneer CD h/u I have without chopping into the wiring harness! Surely someone makes a simple 'plug & play' ISO connector/harness for these?

Click to expand...

will have a look at work for you tommorow

Thanks juiceyV8!! Where do you work 'in the trade'??

PM sent
most older cars would be cut and paste where as newer onse have the ISO built in so it a case of un-plug..plug-in.


will look and see what our audio supplier do.