Rover SD1, Rear speakers, LED brakes and water ingress

I’m slowly getting there, I finally finished installing the rear speakers into the Rover.

The boot has been a complete mess since I did the RH speaker and mangled my knee, and it’s been bugging me since.

Having already done one speaker I knew what I was getting into. Using the same template I drilled another hole, whacked some screws in and away it went. This time I also used some foam edging to insulate/seal the speaker against the panel. When I can be bothered I’ll seal the other speaker the same way. It should help the sound quality, and stop any rattles.

I also purchased some new conditioning cream to try to get some much-needed moisture into the leather. I like my old leather conditioner but it just isn’t powerful enough to work on these seats. This new one is made with lanolin, beeswax and emu oil (whatever that is!). Natural ingredients are good, chemicals are not.

Another change from my usual conditioning was the fact this isn’t a liquid, more of a thick cream. I decided because of this that I would get in there and massage it into the leather by hand. It left my hands very soft 😄

It’s also made a noticeable difference in the feel of the leather. It’s a little softer, but mainly it’s more flexible and less like dried out old jerky. Smells nice too.

I have only done the rear seat so far, as it was the worst, and the weather decided I had overstayed my welcome outside and started to rain again. I will do the front seats in the near future.

Whilst poking around the rest of the car like I do (I just can’t leave anything alone) I decided to put in one of my LED brake light “bulbs” to see if they are any good. Unfortunately whilst doing this I also noticed where my boot leak is coming from; the tail light gasket is stuffed. I tried this type of LED that kind of replicates the shape of a bulb, so it uses the reflector and doesn’t just have one solid bright spot. It’s also a series of red LEDs instead of white, so it won’t wash the lens out.

Clear signs of liquid, and sadly also rust. These lights wont be easy to get out…. and that’s before I even get to the sealant someone has used to try to stop them leaking.

Unfortunately testing wasn’t great. The LED was only as bright as the other light, with the standard bulb, or maybe even slightly dimmer. It also tripped the blown bulb warning (although you can bypass that by turning the wiring to the check unit around). I swapped back to a standard bulb, and will be fitting an LED strip high stop lamp to the top of tailgate glass.

Bulb left, LED right

I also checked out the super lackluster tail light setup on the SD1. Two tiny little bulbs, lighting up the smallest parts of the light cluster. I really want to get dual filament bulb holders and upgrade the brake light bulbs to tail/stop bulbs which would make a huge difference.

This was a good laugh. This is in the rear panel, behind the number plate. It looks like someone has filled a small hole in the panel with a spot of weld…. a very bad spot of weld, with chunks of welding wire stuck in it! Quality Rover construction right there.

I still have a lot to do to the Rover. It’s in dire need of a machine polish and wax, but I just haven’t had the time or motivation to do it. I also noticed there appears to be a leak coming from my thermostat housing, so that’s something I will need to check now (and may go some way to explaining why it didnt come to temperature like it should have after replacement). It’s never ending.