1.3 Clubman - clock bulb?

[JoelC]

Hi guys, another strange one, been through my Haynes manual with no joy.

Two days ago, I noticed that the digital clock was not illuminating when I started the ignition. Yesterday, hopefully unrelated, I found I had no power to the dash at all - no speedo, no fuel guage, no warning lights and no indicators :eek: but that was resolved by changing the HEATER?? fuse... strange!

Anyway, as of 2 days ago, the clock functions but does not illuminate as it should. Haynes manual gives no indication of there being a bulb for it (unless I'm being a bit thick). Before I rip the fascia apart, do I need to replace a bulb, or the whole clock unit??

Thanks,

Joel


Note: I've just found a post from 2004 here (http://www.maestro.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1835) that talks of there being a bulb, so I'm guessing I have blown a bulb. I know what I'm doing this evening!!

[SimonR]

...do I need to replace a bulb, or the whole clock unit??


Hi Joel,

There's a bulb that pushes into the back of the clock. Just take the instrument surround off and the clock will come with it - you'll then see the bulb.

Cheers.

SR.

[JoelC]

Thanks Simon,

Appreciate that! I'll have a crack at that later on, see if I can't sort it!

[E_T_V]

The early style dashes don't have a clock bulb, (upto about D reg). The later style dashes have a twistlock bulb I think. Most motorfactors will have them in stock.

Undo the screws into the top of the facia panel then pull the black facia out to get to the clock behind. (It is often easier if you remove the steering wheel but it is not essential).

[JoelC]

Lovely, thanks for the advice, hope to report success tomorrow!! yay

[JoelC]

Thanks guys, took a look and saw there were two screws above the lens that covers the speedo/warning lights etc, but wondered if I could approach it another way. A few moments of lateral thinking, and I took out the ashtray, prised out the ashtray surround and was then able to reach up to the back of the clock. Found a twisty bit next to the multiplug, twisted and... hey presto! one blown bulb in a little plastic twistlock bulb carrier.

Thought I'd drop this in as it might save somebody with a similar configuration from removing the dashboard... :)

Thanks again for all your help, I'll get that replaced today!

[Simon]

How inventive! I normally remove the whole black plastic instrument surround, easy off but a pain in the bum to get back on properly. Up to 1988 model year the clock was a self illuminating vacuum flourescent display, after that, it was a back lit reverse LCD display which is why you saw the clock functioning but it wouldn't light up. I changed the bit of tinted plastic in my clock that acts as a colour filter fron green to, you guessed it, orange!

[JoelC]

Orange sounds very cool... I've wondered about what a combination of orange and blue would look like... definitely one for a future date, I've been messing around with my rear wiper all afternoon, figured I'd make that a priority what with all the wonderful summer weather we're having, ROFL

[Simon]

Yes, wipers are an essential for the British summer! Red and blue illumination would look nice a la VW Golf etc but all orange gives an updated "Rover" feel and is easy to do by replacing the green gel caps on the illumination bulbs (they look a little like contraceptives for action men...) for later model Montego orange ones, or where green tinted bulbs were fitted, swap them out for orange tinted ones. I used red bulbs in the HRW and RR fog lamp switches to indicate their on status (used to be orange tell-tales when used with the green illumination).

I haven't twisted your arm have I? My 1988 F-reg Maestro has the all-orange illumination with the original issue instruments. I think it works well and a similar set up was used in LDV 2/400 ("Sherpa") vans from around 1989 which is where I got my inspiration from! Even my VDO/Rover/Philips MP3 CD radio has matching illumination. Honestly, I really ought to get out more

[JoelC]

Problem is that all these ideas sound great... esp keen on the Orange/red a la LDV, consider my arm twisted...

Oh, one visit to Hellfrauds and got the new bulb, all ok. Tried putting it in same way it came out, required finger skills between Mr Spock and a ninja. Wasn't too bad really once I worked out the right way to grip it.

Next trip to breakers - tomorrow - will look out for orange Action Man condoms. Nice imagery...

[Simon]

Back of later Montego instruments or I expect any Rover 214/6, Rover Metro/100 or Rover 800. All this applies if your existing instruments have the round speedo trip reset. If it is oblong then you will be scuppered unless you change the instrument pack for a round trip reset version. This is easy to do and you can "clock" the mileage recorder very easily to match your cars mileage. I'd go one better and find a set of clocks that have a rev counter as an additional bonus. A 1600 later model Montego pack would therefore be ideal and would already be orange illuminated. I'll dig out the picture I took of my instruments glowing, and post it up.

[JoelC]

Sounds excellent! I wouldn't mind a rev counter, I admit :)

Assuming by speedo trip reset you mean the odometer reset, yes, mine is round, not oblong. I'm also wondering if my dash is the Montego one, as I read somewhere that the later Clubmans may have it - the trim colour bit of the dash is all one section, and the black instrument pack section is also one piece, with the clock/ashtray moulded in, and appears to be held in by two screws above and in front of the instrument pack lens.

Look forward to seeing a pic of your instruments!

I've been to the breakers and managed to grab some orange bulbs along with everything else I was picking up, and now have orange illumination for my rear wash and wipe switches. Baby steps! They had an almost complete car there (no dash unfortunately) - H reg automatic, beautiful mulberry-coloured (metallic?) body which looked to be in good nick. Something else I saw was that the car had central locking - I'm not too bothered about that, but I took the tailgate trim panel out to check how the rear wiper motor was wired, and saw that there's a motor attached to the tailgate lock too!

I know there're a couple of posts about this elsewhere in the forum, but I'd love to rig up a motor on my tailgate so I can open the boot from within the car... now that would be useful!

Unfortunately there was no fibre optic illuminator, but that's another post!

[E_T_V]

Central locking and a boot popper is easy enough. Buy a kit from Maplin and adapt it to fit your needs. Its pretty easy, the hardest part is routing the cables.

[Simon]

The heater slider graphic panel will require a bit of a mod too, but nothing too drastic!

[JoelC]

@ETV - Thanks, I've had a look at the Central Locking kit from Maplins. Problem with me is, so many ideas, so little time ;) I think I'll have to put this off til later in the year - the main thing is I've adjusted the striker bolt in the boot and now it closes first time, so I'm happy for the mo...!

@Simon - nice pic! I'll need to look at a Montego 1.6 instrument pack - my speedo goes up to 110mph I think, so I'll be needing an instrument pack that matches! Would like a rev counter tho....

Cheers again!