rattlecan Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 So much wider (particularly) modern cars seem to be lesapandre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2flags Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 When these were new, they were considered a large car. Now they seem so small when compared to moderns. egg, bunglebus, lesapandre and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 I've had to drive the Princess in the dark. Now, when I first got it the car was equipped with sealed beam headlights which I initially considered adequate until it got to the point where I found I could drive around with main beam on and nobody noticed. A few burnt out lights later and the hassle of trying to find replacements meant I upgraded to H4s which is what it's on now, mostly because it was cheap and easy to do. Now, of course, I'm behind on the lighting wars by a good margin and they're more like marker lights so other people can see me than any real assistance in seeing where I'm going. They'll do, I'll figure out an update one day, maybe stick some Nightbreakers in or something. On the plus side, I don't seem to have the issue with my photochromatic specs that I did with the Maestro and haven't noticed any triggering of the lenses from oncoming traffic. I do sit a lot further back from the windscreen in the Princess and don't suffer from dazzling and glare from oncoming traffic as much, nor do my mirrors seem to catch as much headlight glare from cars behind me. So that's nice. The last thing I did was to raise the idle about a half a turn on the idle screw. This has actually helped with the flat spot issue a bit and with the wiper speed quite a bit. The belt dressing seems to be doing the trick as I didn't get horrendous squeal after going through a rather large puddle a lot of supposedly more capable SUVs were avoiding so that's a good thing too. Heater is still freakishly hot and I have no idea why. Done about 100 miles urban on about a quarter of a tank of fuel, this is an improvement on the last quarter when I had the fuel issues with carb and fuel line where I was getting 60-80 miles. Reversing light is still being intermittent and I reckon it's the switch itself being sticky since I did have that problem before. I just need to take it out, clean it, and reinstall and it'll be fine. I use my hazards when reversing for now which seems to be working just fine. LightBulbFun, Vantman, JeeExEll and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMachine Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 i was wondering if bmw e30 headlights may be any improvement? if there easy to find? im assuming there the correct size but they may not be, my only other thoughts that may have similar sized units would be golfs of a certain age. i know theres aftermarket stuff for mini's but im certain mini lamps are larger. probably not really a priority atm, did any of the spares princesses have the fish tank lamps? i always wondered if they were a improvement? heater being freakishly hot is a concern, but maybe you managed to flush all the sludge out of it? so long as theres still flow thru the rad it should be okay, but you could always change the thermostat for one that opens a bit cooler? give the rad a clean with the jet wash too will have shmoo all over it off them puddles... is it possible to chuck some grease in the rev switch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 I did try some BMW lights a few years ago and quickly learned I'd have to move the battery (the headlights were a projector type, not sure which model they were off), and the lights were staggered for a more curved front end than the Princess has. Doable, but a lot more work than I fancied at the time. LED bulbs are an option too but I'm yet to see one that's a convincing improvement over the H4s in the original bowls. Minis (of the classic variety) use 7", the Princess is on 5 3/4". The fishbowl headlights have problems of their own, many of them have leaking seals and corroded silvering these days and I believe you need an additional bracket to mount them that I don't have. Apparently the fishbowls aren't much of an improvement over fitting better bulbs in twin lights anyway. As for the heater, I'd be more concerned if the car was showing any signs of overheating, but it's not. Even in traffic, the gauge isn't going above 3/4 and on the move it sits at around 1/2 which is healthy. I think the system is just working properly in all honesty and until recently for whatever reason it hasn't been. If I turn the heater off, the engine isn't running too hot and I'm not getting heat soak into the cabin so I think it's just working as intended and hasn't been for a very long time, which is why it feels decidedly eastern european in its heat output. It could also be partly that I'm comparing it to the Maestro whose heater was definitely not as potent and far more toward the adequate side of things. Don't think the reversing switch can be greased, from memory it's a mostly sealed thing. It could also be a slightly iffy connection since it hangs off the side of the gear selector box right under the car. It's exactly the same as a classic Mini selector box usefully, so getting service bits for it is actually pretty easy. GrumpiusMaximus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junkyarddog Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Wire in a couple of 4 pin relays into the headlamp wiring circuit. Old wiring builds up resistance,means the bulb isn't getting the full current it needs. I had the same problem on my Golf, I used two relays per side,Main/dip circuit and it made a huge difference. Alternatively you could purchase something like this,which is more or less plug and play. Just found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out! €7.67 78%OFF | Vehicle H4 Headlight Wiring Harness Replace Parts Durable Ceramic Socket Plug Halogen Lamp Brightening Professional 12V https://a.aliexpress.com/_ExZwFCV twosmoke300 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 I want more of a light output boost than that really, I don't think even the healthiest wiring and H4s are going to actually compete with modern lighting. I could fit LED spotlights, some are effective and not too ugly, just tricky actually fitting them to the front of the car now it has no bumper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandeth Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 45 minutes ago, vulgalour said: ... just tricky actually fitting them to the front of the car now it has no bumper. Any chance you could conceal them behind the grill like I did with TPA's high level brake light? Know you'd lose some output, but as it's an assist you're going for rather than primary light source might still be enough. Curious to be seeing LED H4 retrofits from reputable names like Philips and Osram now which are conspicuously lacking the usual "For off road use only" label on the boxes in the likes of Halfords. The lighting geek in me kind of wants to pick up a pair for some comparative testing - albeit probably not from Halfords given I'm sure they'll be a heck of a lot cheaper elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 Possibly. At the moment the grille space is taken up with a pair of indicators I've not plugged in yet. Been holding off until I can blank off the MG B units which requires welding and faff. Sidelights were going to move up into the headlight bowls too, there is provision for that because that's the kit I bought and I have the parts, just didn't do it that way when I changed the front end. There might just be space for some very small LED spotlights, but even without the indicators it would definitely be tight if I wanted to keep them hidden. Let's not even get into the fact I want to do hideaway headlights on the Princess to give it that budget Charger front end we all know it should have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asimo Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 The Princess headlight problem was solved years ago. These were very impressive back then. 500tops 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 Today marks 12 years of owning this car. We've been through a lot together. Other cars have come and gone, relationships the same, house moves, all the patchwork of life. The Princess has endured. Mechanically and electrically in far better shape than it was when I got it, structurally more sound too. Cosmetically... we're getting there. There's considerably less filler and rust in it now at least. Landy Mann, MorrisItalSLX, RayMK and 23 others 26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMachine Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 12 years, she is in better shape now than 12 years ago, and dare i say she will keep you busy for another 12 years at least! you have some remarkable devotion, determination and patience, after reading this in its entirety i can see its often been a rollercoaster! maybe she will behave enough to let a certain 2cv driving member drive her for his very popular youtube channel (while plugging your own)! @dollywobbler one thing i seem to have missed though is whatever happened with the rover? did it stay with miketheknight? i thought that was in reasonable shape? or did it want to be a kettle? NigeT 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 Dollywobbler has actually driven this Princess, the reason it never made it to video was the car was being a tart and it was dark. On the drive home that day the tensioner pulley began screeching and the headlights randomly stopped working... it was one of those days. As for the Rover, that was sold to my brother who needed a car and so I could buy the 1.7 BX from Dean. Unfortunately the Rover lunched its gearbox and my brother opted to scrap it. A shame, since it was a very solid car with more good points than bad but it wasn't my car at that point so it wasn't my call to make. Had the BX not come up for sale I might still have the Rover and it might have got the gearbox it needed. Big problem for me with the Rover is that it was just a bit too good at being An Car, it didn't really hold my attention like other cars I've had. The Rover's downfall with me was that it was too good I suppose, I like a car with a bit of... character. SilverMachine and NigeT 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMachine Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 that is a shame, oh well, she may now behave enough if you give him a call? although hes probably to busy dealing with rust event related activities! which i was considering attending but without staying in a b+b and sorting out animal feeders it would be a long long day! got on to thinking about headlights again and was remembering there was hid conversion kits for h4 fitment lights, i think ed china on an old wheeler dealers may have fitted some to a lexus ? i could be imagining that though or could be someone else? also thought about clubman fronted minis but they probably use the same units you have! unless any other upgrades were available for them? hopefully the rover donated parts to save others! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 Generally speaking, if it's single round headlights then it's 7", if it's twin rounds (like the Princess) it's 5 3/4". American market has a lot more options since they used standard sealed beam sizes like this for ages, unfortunately we modernised too soon. Doubt Ian would be interested in driving the Princess now, he's already done a test on a Princess and an Ambassador. Besides, I want to get it painted and properly sorted before anyone tests it. There's always other folks out there like JayEmm, I Drive a Classic, Morsels and Motors... and so many more. Something for the future. Don't you need to make sure you've got a levelling system in place for HIDs? I was actually thinking of a variation on Zel's suggestion and maybe fitting a small LED light bar under the front number plate since there's brackets I can use there. It'd be subtle and give me just a driving light assist which might be enough for some better spread and distance. SilverMachine 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMachine Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 im not entirely sure the led bars are legal? although i have seen a fair few being used on the roads! possibly make sure you have what you need to remove it with you in case a law enforcement person decides to pick on you, was also wondering if any modern bikes were using uprated round lamps, but thats probably limited to bikes without fairing and then they would most likely be 6v. could always ask in a motorcycle shop! Another silly suggestion, i remember seeing an anime poster a while ago which featured a renault a310 with extra headlights (so it sort of looked SM esq) which i quite liked, could another pair aid your night vision? or would it take too much from the front. i didnt realise you had more paint plans but if there top secret then i will wait for the suprise! i also didnt think there was much left to do, she seems to be keeping you occupied enough already! edit found a link! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2flags Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 What you can do with your LED light bar, I might have done this on my Landrover, is to put a 3-way switch on it. One way the LED lights are off, One way they come on with the main beam headlights, 😁 and in the other position they are on all the time. I just turn them off for the MoT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 Bike headlights are no good for car application, they don't have the correct kick up to the beam pattern as I understand it (not that it stops people using them anyway) and most bike headlights are the wrong size anyway. If I fit auxilliary lights, LED bar or otherwise, I was just going to wire a separate switch in so I could manually turn them on and off. That just feels like the most sensible solution rather than having anything complicated. Paint plans are nothing secret, been talking to a friend who is keen to help me get the paint actually nice, it's all a case of finding time and resources for materials etc. I am not wealthy and now I'm going back into rented accomodation after a few years of being in an owned house, I'm going to be even less wealthy. Not really looking forward to having a lot less fun money, this year is going to be all about circling the financial wagons. It's also a big part of the reason I didn't buy a replacement to the Maestro, I literally can't afford to, Maestro sale money has all already been spend on house move expenses. SilverMachine 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMachine Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 cool i look forward to seeing the next incarnation of paint! house moves are a pain in the posterior. after moving myself to a temporary flat then my mother after she sold her place, i decided to pay people to move me into my less temporary place, which took about half a day with two runs in a luton and the distance only being 20 ish miles... but i still think 300 was a bargain. would have took me a week at least on my own never mind stuff that dont fit in cars! and i didnt need to do any heavy lifting, so yes spent a few quid but saved my back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noel Tidybeard Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 i do believe you prinny is old enough for you to be able to put led bulbs into the std lights see furious diving vid about mx5 SilverMachine 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 It might be old enough to do that. I just want to be sure the light output is actually properly shaped and spread so I'm not just having ultra bright LEDs that don't actually help with driving. Was on MoT ferrying duty today. Bad news, Pat's van failed its MoT on emissions (bad injectors) and a cracked front antiroll bar which even the garage thought was a very peculiar failure. He's now got to figure out what to do next, repairs are about the same as replacing the van and while he's had it ten years, he's not sure where to go next. He'll figure it out. Princess on the other hand behaved itself, even though Maidstone and surroundings is traffic hell thanks to a new housing development that's going in. Stop-start traffic has highlighted that the Princess can get quite hot, not overheating, but certainly hotter than I'd like. Cools down quickly once on the move again, it's just that thing where you're driving a couple of feet, idling, driving a couple of feet... heater on full and watch the gauge and it was fine. Never actually got to the top of the gauge, a second/better radiator fan might solve it. Speaking of solving things, the ridiculously hot heater issue was solved. I'd had the output set to windscreen and turning the dial wasn't really altering that very much which meant I was getting the full heat right to my face. Over the last few trips I've been wiggling the dial and now it actually operates the blender doors properly, I can direct the heat where it should go and it feels far more normal now I have it on face and feet, which is good! I guess things just got a bit stuck from lack of use. Another problem solved was Pat lent me a hand with the alternator tensioner since the auxilliary belt was particularly obnoxious sounding on the trek to the MoT garage. With both of us on the job we could get enough tension to stop it squealing while still having about a 1/3 twist available on the belt so it shouldn't have so much tension it's causing issues with alternator bearings or whatever. Dyslexic Viking, RayMK, CaptainBoom and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westbay Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 Some older BMW headlights are 5 3/4 if that helps ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 They need to be pretty short, there's not a lot of space behind the driver's side lights because the battery lives there and I don't want to relocate it. If there's a BMW unit that drops in that isn't too long and an improvement over H4s that would be great, I just don't know which one that would be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinkwheel Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 1 hour ago, vulgalour said: They need to be pretty short, there's not a lot of space behind the driver's side lights because the battery lives there and I don't want to relocate it. If there's a BMW unit that drops in that isn't too long and an improvement over H4s that would be great, I just don't know which one that would be. BMW e28 5 series definitely used a 5 3/4" sealed beam unit - Only problem is most of them were 2 lamp units per side, so possibly used one for main and other for dip, so could be unsuitable for what you need Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 That's exactly how the Princess is. Outers are dipped, outers and inners together is main. Pretty standard practice for all twin headlight set ups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noel Tidybeard Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 i would imagine whatever fits a princess will be similar/same as crapi/rs2000 etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 And absolutely no improvement since the Capri et al is the same tech and age as what's in the Princess already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasticvandan Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 I've certainly used car 7" headlamp units on bikes and had no issues with the beam,it's still a rhd headlamp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulgalour Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 Okay so next headlamp question then, on the assumption the generic LED units being sold as for classic cars and bikes are actually good. All the ones I'm finding online have fancy patterns to the LED bits for sidelight and indicator (I'm okay with that bit) and ugly black 'bowls' for want of a better description. Is anyone doing these aftermarket LED headlamp units with a silver or chrome bowl instead? The black bowls might look okay since the headlights do sit in a strip of black plastic on the front of the Princess, I'd just far rather retain the current look with traditional silver headlight bowls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noel Tidybeard Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 get some decent led bulbs- matt furious checked the beam pattern and found it beter than the std bulbs but eleventy times brighter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now