Friday, July 31, 2009

First Rain in the Rover....

Ok, I knew going in to purchasing the Rover that they are not know as the most waterproof car out there. Land Rover even printed and released an official "Water Ingress Manual" for the Defender! The previous owner did say that it leaked a little but did not mention where. Well, I drove the Rover to a tennis match last night and it ended up storming quite hard. Walking back to the truck after the match I was fearing water everywhere inside. I get in and and welcomed by a nice splash when my feet hit the floor mat. Great, inside of the car is swamped. Turn the lights on and grab my flashlight to take stock of the situation. Turns out that the only water that got in the car pooled on top of the rubber floor mat on the drivers side. Pull the floor mat our carefully and dump the water, feel the carpet that was underneath and it is bone dry! Look around and try to find the leak but the dripping has stopped. The ingress manual mentions water leaks around the clutch pedal box, this would explain why there was only water on the floor mat. Figure I'll hit the areas described in the repair manual with some clear RTV and see if that takes care of the problem!

Great news is that the Rover started up and ran great on the way home. The high-beams and the aux lights really light the road up, glad I got those wired up correctly.

This weekend I plan on continuing to try to get the rear work light functioning. Going to try to determine where the rear wiring harness leaves the frame to enter the cab so taht I can continue to trace the power and ground wires. Also hoping to trace the extra wires coming off the spare dash switches.

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