First E30 - 316i Touring Rescue - (Update: Now MOT'd!)

[iDemonix]

Got a bit of dry time today...

First off, does anyone know where I can get some more of the clips that hold the fog blanks + brake air scoops on? I need 8 but only have 5...





And a second question to start, I have this in the boot but no idea why, where's it from?



A third question (which I don't have a pic for) is how do the bloody mudflaps mount? They've got that weird metal bracket with a kind of hook at the bottom, all I can guess is that the bracket used to hook on to/around the factory jacking point (which is now gone)? Does anyone have some pics as I can't see a nice way of mounting these...

On to the valance, unfortunately on the new one the brackets for mounting the splash guard at each side are either mullered, or gone:





Just going to ignore that for now and sort later if required, running out of time/daylight!

Not surprised the valance has some issues, as judging by the following picture, the previous owner was a fecking muppet:



Why are people the way they are!?!!? Morons...

Anyway, for some reason the previous owner also removed all the bumper lip clips, so a new bag of those was bought for a fiver and fit perfect



Tip for putting the lip on: start at one side, rather than the middle, or you end up with this and have to redo it:



One of the longest jobs at the moment is scouring the garage for all the fiddly parts, and trying to remember what was lost/broken. After much searching, finally found these:



Meaning the car now looks like this



Annoyingly when I went to put the last screw in (it's always the last one) for the N/S wing, the spire clip on one of the two L shaped brackets snapped, so I'm going to have to do undo all the other bolts and see if I can get a new spire clip on, or will have to take the bumper + wing back off this week to sort.

Some small jobs, the new badge arrived, was a touch dirty under the old one:





Instagram styleeee:



Another small job, I noticed some of the fuses weren't looking the best, so they got replaced with new ones. Annoyingly I didn't have any of the brown 7.5 ones, so will get those later.







One of the next small jobs will be sorting the vents.

The left vent doesn't move at all, the right vent just flops about. According to the E30 Zone FB group (and some YT videos) this can sometimes be sorted by removing them and putting some paper or rubber washers in, but not sure about the stuck one. Going to remove this week and see.



Last update for today is some welding, been putting this off for a while as it's visible (unlike the rest which is under 1" of seam sealer), but needs must.

Decided to start with the upper one, as working around that jacking bracket and the stupid bulge it has in the sill is a nightmare, or at least it was on the other side.









Thought about doing it as a thin separate piece along the top, to make it easier to recreate that lip it has. Decided instead to just stack some sheet metal on the bench, put the patch over it, then hammer the daylights out of it.

"That'll do"





Unfortunately I ran out of light before I got chance to finish tidying it up, there's 1-2 tiny pinholes to fill too.

One thing I will say is why did I take this long to revert back to 0.6mm wire! I've been using 0.8 as the machine had a load of it already inside, but in the interest of less holes I picked up a 5KG reel of 0.6mm, and haven't blown a hole yet. Not only that but I've put the power setting from 1 to 2, so there's now less holes and better penetration - kicking myself for not doing this earlier, oh well.

Need to finish smoothing that first job, then it's time to tackle the 2nd dreaded bit of that sill around the bracket, once that's done though, that should be all the front end welding done, I can finish faffing getting the splash guards, mud guards, and inner arches on, then drop the car at the front, lift the back and start that. The back of the car won't get nearly as much love as the front as I want this on the road before it's too cold to work on it on a driveway - so the rear will probably just get a brake refresh, new springs/dampers, and maybe new hubs/bearings.

Some bits I don't have pics of are the seats being bolted in, the new horns are in and wired up, the blower works etc, and all the indicators are now functioning - so I think there's no electrical issues anymore (for now).

[Foe]

And a second question to start, I have this in the boot but no idea why, where's it from?



I'll try and explain as best I can and think it may be; it's the bit that fits inside the panel, under the steering wheel, and holds the light adjustment dial in place. It screws to the light adjustment dial and not to the actual panel.
If it doesn't make sense, happy to post a picture.

Really like reading progress of your car, gives me the get up go to do mine. I've done all the welding, just the millions of fiddly bits! Which I should have done, but always will do it later.

[iDemonix]

Ahh thanks, so it's for the headlight adjust bit? That's fine as that bit is on a shelf and won't be going back in the car, as the headlights are manual adjust for now. I might try and convert it to an electric one next year, but for now there's just gonna be a rectangular hole there.

[Be30]

Mudflaps!!!
The amount of time i spent agonising about these things to just give up and make my own mounts from pictures i found from a group buy on revlimited forums..... i was desperate lol

Ill get some pics of the mounts i knocked up. I only wanted flaps on the rear.
What i did was cut some rectangular strips of metal out and bend two 90 degree corners into them with a hole in the centre part so the metal can hook back onto the lip of the arch and a bolt can hold the flap/ mount in place.

Poor explanation..... ill take pictures of it when its light!

[iDemonix]

Been a while since the last update. Work, shit weather, xmas, and my brain deciding to have a month of migraines constantly meant I've not done that much.

Rather than a big detailed update, here's the overview of what's been done:



First this was snapped off, which has left an irremovable metal stud in the drivers door. Great.



The valance looks shit. but the rest will do for now.



New Kumho Ecstas have arrived and are now on the rims.



New springs are in, as are dampers, top mounts and so on.

As with 90% of this car, the previous owner(s) was an absolute muppet and nothing matches both sides, and every bolt is seized, cross threaded, and there must have been a prohibition on copper slip.









As you may have noticed from the above 'done' pic, the callipers have been replaced. I took the old ones off, started refurbing them and then got fed up with it. The pistons were both ready for replacement and I decided to just bin them and buy some refurbed models from Pagid:



Much easier.



Had to get the above bits from BMW, the crappy orange shock had a metal tube so £25 was pissed up the wall on a tube of plastic from BMW, along with the washers and bits to hold it in place.



Just part of the scrap pile.

Started putting the interior back in the rear of the car:



Still lots of annoying fiddly bits to do.



The old battery had been sat there 3 years not doing a fat lot, so that got chucked too and a new one has been sourced from ECP on one of their weekly deals.

Which brings us up to THE PRESENT DAY!

I've got new shocks, springs, callipers, lines, pads, and discs (brembo too) for the back. Unfortunately whilst swapping discs, it turns out the handbrake mechanism on the O/S isn't working. This is because the retaining pins for the shoes were completely bent in half, and the springs just dust. The holes in the backplates have turned from small slits to gaping holes. I did think about just bodging this by welding them up and redoing the holes, but seeing as I've done 80% of the rear bits, I might as well swap the backplates out (already got them on the shelf waiting anyway) and do the bearings whilst I'm at it.



I bought: New handbrake shoes/springs, FAG bearings, bearing puller tool, bearing splitter tool, and finally got some decent circlip pliers.

The first bit went well, with the new tool which is paying for itself in dividends:



As with LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE THING ON THIS FUDGING CAR THOUGH it was a case of 1 step forwards and about 58 back, despite 48h of pre-removal soaking in Plus Gas:



Four of the bolts came out without much fuss, two of them already looked like someone had 'had a go' at removing them and given up. I hammered on the correct size (E12 from memory) socket and proceeded to finish off turning them from bolt heads in to perfectly rounded cylinders.

I spent about 2 hours messing about before I gave up and went and bought a proper bolt head tool:



This worked great, as I thought the bolt heads were round before, but this tool ensured they were now rounder than a pole and absolutely irremovable.

In total I've spent about 4 hours trying to get these two pissing diff bolts out, and I'm ready to set fire to the car. I've started running a dremel around one, the plan was to try and cut away the little 'bridge' brackets that go between two bolts, that would take some tension off and let me undo it somehow, but this hasn't worked so far and I've given up. I don't want to just cut the heads off the bolts as the thread will still be too long to let me pull the drive shaft off, so I'm stuck.

I'm probably going to keep messing about with the dremel until I accidentally cut the heads off. I'm not welding a nut on as that never works for me, it's a proper awkward angle (on a driveway too) and near too many fuel related items.

If I get to Sunday and the bolts are still in place, I'm going to just absolutely destroy the bolts and drop the diff to deal with the flanges (which will need re-tapping or replacing), or if I really run out of patience (which is looking likely), I'm going to put an angle grinder through the drive shafts and launch them in to a skip, or off a cliff, along with the diff.

If anyone has any other suggestions, do let me know. I've not even attempted the other side yet.

[Brianmoooore]

Put some blobs of weld on the sides of the bolt head. This will provide something for the socket to grip on and the thermal shock from the welding will help free them.
Try not to pass the welder earth current through any bearings.

[iDemonix]

Put some blobs of weld on the sides of the bolt head. This will provide something for the socket to grip on and the thermal shock from the welding will help free them.

Not a bad shout, not that there's much of a head left on one of them! Might try that, sounds better than welding a nut on which is fiddly at the best of times, let alone under the car on the driveway.

[Brianmoooore]

Note the edit to my last post!

[iDemonix]

Noted, why is that out of interest? Where would you recommend earthing it to in that area?

Thanks again Brianmoooore

[Brianmoooore]

Because the welding current will arc and damage any ball bearings in its path, or destroy the smooth surface of any plain bearings. I'd connect the clamp to the opposite side of the drive flange.

[iDemonix]

Cookie goes to Brianmooore for the tack-on-the-head idea, which worked for bolt one!



Unfortunately, after 2 hours of trying to get the last one off, this method wouldn't work. Part of this may have been because my bolt extractor sockets I was using were starting to wear a bit.

Grabbed some large-ish nuts from the garage and decided to simply try and weld them on. This didn't work, and they snapped off. Scoured the garage for a while and finally found a larger nut in my spares bin, and had a go with that, after some of the usual fun when I leaned on the welding hose, sigh:





Swapped out the cordless rattle gun for the 450 Nm corded version



F I N A L L Y ! ! !





What a relief.

Next step is hub removal, the hub splitter was too small, but managed to hold it in place and get the job done





Bearing race stayed on the hub, so will need to carefully dremel and then give it a whack with a chisel to remove it without damaging the hubs, as I'm not replacing them (how much £!?)

This cheap eBay jobby had already paid for itself:







New FAG bearings:



And back plates:



Annoying/funny that all of this bloody process started because of these holes:



Onwards...



and upwards...



Just need to cut the old bearing race off and refit the hub, job for another time as daylight ran out.

I have all the parts to do the N/S, but after the absolute ball ache this side has been, I think I'll MOT it first and then do the N/S when it's Spring. There's no play in that side, and I can adjust the handbrake shoes for now to be equal each side.

[iDemonix]

Quick note to say if anyone knows of some replacement bolts that would fit, please let me know. Rang BMW and although most parts are fairly reasonable, the bolts for the drive shaft are £8.25 + VAT each, and the brackets are £3.05 + VAT each, meaning just for 12x new bolts (I'd like to replace them all on both sides) it'd be £118.80 which is a bit eye watering for what you get.

[Brianmoooore]

Earlier E30s used cap bolts instead of the later male torx. that you've battled with. The only thing special about them is that they are ribbed under the bolt head as a locking feature.
I think I'd be happy with ordinary M10 x 43 cap bolts, which will be 10.9 grade, and a dab of Loctite.

[iDemonix]

I think I'd be happy with ordinary M10 x 43 cap bolts, which will be 10.9 grade, and a dab of Loctite.

Proving harder to source than I anticipated! Might just have to buy some 2nd hand originals...

[Brianmoooore]

M10 x 45 is readily available. Don't use full thread ones.

[iDemonix]

M10 x 45 is readily available. Don't use full thread ones.

Will these do?

https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/prod ... elf-colour

[T_Dub]

I'd go zinc plated, the black oxide will rust very quickly.

https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/prod ... nc-plated-

Also, hello. I like your thread.

[iDemonix]

I'd go zinc plated, the black oxide will rust very quickly.

https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/prod ... nc-plated-

Also, hello. I like your thread.

Cheers T_Dub!

I was going to go with Zinc plated as it's what I usually buy bolts and bits for my bike in, thanks for the heads up!

I'd like the thread too, if it was finished

Crap update to say that I'm a muppet. I carefully cut the bearing race on the hub with a dremel, then tapped it off with a chisel. I then proceeded to turn around and knock it off the bench, which has put a nice big dint in it.... new hub on order >.<

[iDemonix]

New drive shaft bolts + brackets are in, and I spent some time messing with brakes which is in a different thread (ABS Purge in the Tech Help section).

The engine hasn't ran in a fair old time now, so I put a couple of litres of fresh fuel in and fired it up, only for 5 minutes though as there's only half the amount of coolant in it currently. Drove it forwards/backwards a few meters, the brake pedal still has too much play, so I'm going to double check a few bits and then maybe try and adjust the pedal + re-try it.

One thing I did notice, and decided to film, is the exhaust is smoking a bit. I'm not sure if this is just water/condensation in the exhaust system as it's been stood for so long (and the last time I started it up, it completely covered my garage door + wall in a big orange stain of rusty water), or a head gasket on the way out. Hopefully not the HG, although I have always wanted to learn how to change one - just not in Jan/Feb on a driveway.

Need to let it run for a bit (need more fuel + coolant first) and then see if there's any mayo in the oil, or if I'm losing coolant.



Feel like I'm getting closer to an MOT cert but also still absolutely miles away...

[iDemonix]

Why am I not even surprised....



Looks like I'm changing a head gasket. Mind you it was getting through so much coolant I wouldn't be shocked if I found out the block was cracked.

Once this car is finished the first thing I'm doing is driving to the previous owner's house and killing him with a spanner...

Looks like I need to start a shopping list for...

- New head gasket
- New timing belt + tensioners?
- New water pump
- New oil + filter

If anyone has any recommendations on where to source head gaskets and brands to avoid/use etc, appreciated.

[iDemonix]

Rough shopping list so far..

Head gasket
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/312866102380

Pump
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/372858824956

Do I need a full kit with rollers etc like this one?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283342819246

Or can I get away with doing just the belt for a bit cheaper...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/173877890687

Reluctant to spend too much on this crap 316i engine.

[Brianmoooore]

Are you actually losing coolant? A bit of mayo on the underside of the filler cap isn't proof of a problem.

P.S. Have a look at Autodoc if you want to save money on parts. The same pump as in your ebay link is £26 list on there, and usually cheaper with variable discounts.

[iDemonix]

Yeah it's losing coolant, and even after running for 10-15 minutes on the drive way, any revving gives big old white clouds out the back!

Will check autodoc, although the bits on eBay above aren't too bad price wise - just wondering if it's necessary to change the rollers/tensioners etc, or can I reuse what I have?

Will probably try and get the head off before I order parts, just in case it has a cracked block or something sinister.

[Brianmoooore]

Burning a litre of petrol produces around two gallons of water, so there's no shortage of water in an internal combustion engine, other than the coolant, but if you are sure that you're using coolant, and not leaking it, then you clearly have a problem.
M40s aren't noted for head gasket problems, but, as with any engine with an alloy head sitting on a iron block, there is movement every time the engine warms up or cools down so eventually failure will occur.
Not 100% sure on this, but IIRC, M40 heads occasionally crack between the water jacket and an exhaust port.
Before you start taking things seriously apart, have a look at the spark plug ends. Any cylinder that is getting coolant into it will have a 'steam cleaned' appearance.

[iDemonix]

Cheers for the advice, was in a bad mood as the rear passenger door has jammed locked, and I can't open it for love nor money, so that's annoyed me as I'll probably have to start trying to strip that with the door closed...

I cleared the mayo off the filler cap, and topped it up again and left it for 15 minutes. There wasn't as much mayo on the cap this time, and there's not really anything noticeable on the dipstick, so I'm wondering if I jumped the gun and am being paranoid. The exhaust still seems to launch white smoke out, but I'm not sure how smokey these cars/engines are having never owned and ran one before.

The first few 10-15 minute runs, after each run I had to add almost 1L of water each time, but after the last 15 minute run I did tonight, the coolant level only dropped by about 1-2cm. Not sure if there were pockets of air around the coolant system which have now burped the air out, all a bit confusing... I'm going to check the spark plugs and possibly do a compression test, although there's still welding and other bits to do.

Another bit I noticed whilst punching the rear door internally, was the headlining has gone from slightly sagging, to almost entirely hanging off now. Job for the future.

[Brianmoooore]

Smoke is what you see coming from diesels and clapped out Fords. The white stuff you are seeing is condensed water vapour, and it's perfectly normal for it to come from the tail pipe of any car with an internal combustion engine.
As the exhaust system heats up the less vapour condenses inside it, and eventually the whole system is hot enough for water vapour to be expelled from the end and disperse before condensing, at which point it becomes invisible. BMWs tend to produce white 'smoke' for longer than lesser makes because of the large amount of metal in the OE exhaust, which makes them slower to heat up to the critical temperature.
Don't get too paranoid about keeping the coolant level exactly at the correct level - a cm or two lower than it should be won't cause any problems.

[iDemonix]

Well, head gasket problems aside, I'm either about to completely destroy a door card, or get an angle grinder and be the first person to ever remove a closed door from an E30 using power tools.



The rear passenger door has decided to lock and never unlock again. The central locking makes the lock pin twitch a tiny bit, but it can't be pulled up to unlock the door - even with locking pliers. If you wiggle it, you can hear something inside near the lock mechanism moving, but not enough to unlock the door. Was working fine last week.

If anyone has an identical door card, please let me know as mine will be in about 40 pieces shortly. Soon I'll be able to finally MOT it which will be great, as I can sell this car and never have to look at it again Should have bought another mini...

[Brianmoooore]

Get the rear seat cushion, surround for the door release and door arm rest/pull out of the way, and prise off the door card from the bottom corner, along the bottom and up the rear edge. About half way up, near the rear edge, but behind the plastic sealing sheet, there should be the heads of two small self tapping screws, one about 50mm directly below the other. Unscrew these screws completely and you should be able to open the door.

[iDemonix]

Hallelujah. What a PITA that was. It seems the actuator no longer wants to do its job, so I had to figure out how to get that off the internal mechanism. I managed to fit my hand through the oval hole, locate the two screws that hold the actuator in place, and then using a socket and almost breaking my thumbs, unscrew the actuator and release it. A few swift belts from a hammer + screwdriver and the white plastic bit on the end of the actuator finally freed out of the lock mechanism, and I could lift the pin and unlock - hurrah!

I have to say I've found many clever bits on these cars, but an actuator that screws to the door from the inside is one of the most stupid bits so far, why couldn't it screw from the outside! I.e. have the screw heads behind the door card!

Anyway, the actuator rubber boot looks a bit worse for wear:



What's the little bit that hangs off it for? I couldn't really see a reason for it or figure it out.



Here's a video of me unlocking/locking the drivers door pin:



I'm guessing rather than open this and repair it (if even possible), the best procedure is simply to bin/replace?

[iDemonix]

Butchered it apart as the plastic halves are properly stuck together, took a few bits out and applied power with a 9v battery to see how it worked. Bodged it all back in, breaking a little plastic tab in the process, put the spring where I thought it should go and roughly cable tied it together for a test. Amazingly it now works.

Can't decide whether to trust it, fill it with WD40, as there were a few rust spots inside, leave it overnight and then glue it together + refit.... or do I not trust it and just leave the door as manual in case it seizes again. Hmm.

Can't see any of these for sale, and can't see an exact copy of it on the parts fiches. Looks to be specific to that door as it's offset, but the nearest looking thing on the diagrams and on eBay are the trunk actuator...

[Brianmoooore]

All you had to do to unlock the door was to ease out the rear of the door card and the plastic trim, then unscrew the two hex. headed screws with an open ended or ratchet spanner. As for removing the lock motor once the door is open and the card fully removed there's adequate access for anyone that doesn't have shovels for hands. If you do, it's easy enough to remove the window winder and glass for better access.
If you had the later lock mechanism in your car (introduced around '90), then your complaints would be justified - that really is a pig to get at.
Front passenger door, driver's door, rear hatch and fuel filler lock motors are all unique. Both rear door motors are the same.
Don't go by the diagrams in the ETK - sometimes they look exactly like the part, and in other cases, look completely different.
There shouldn't be any problem getting one of one of the trusted traders on here

[iDemonix]

I did see those two hex heads but wasn't sure what was on the back of them, and didn't want any brackets or things to fall down inside the door.

I've had worse things to remove on other projects, but I wouldn't call the access adequate How come this car doesn't have the "later lock mechanism"? I would have assumed it has the later version of everything as it's a '94.

Now I know how to remove it I think I might just stick with this one (albeit with some gluing back together) as it seems to be working now, failing that though I'll try and source a replacement.

[iDemonix]

Well, back when I last posted, barely anyone had even heard the words 'corona' and 'virus' in the same sentence! Who saw this coming....

I got furloughed and decided to completely rip out my VW Transporter and start turning it in to a day van/half-camper for track days. The E30 took a bit of a back seat as all the MOT places were closed, but then last week we booked an MOT for my other half's car. I didn't realise the government give you the 6 month extension 3 days before the due date, so I realised the error and rather than mess the garage about or pay a cancellation fee, I asked if they'd do the tracking + headlight aim on my E30 for me and just push it through an MOT to give me a todo list.

Want to know how it did?

You'll be surprised!



No you won't - it failed. Completely expected as it wasn't really ready, but both me (and the garage owner) were surprised at how little there is to do considering it's last MOT was over a decade ago, and it hasn't turned a wheel on the road in that time - before today.



From top to bottom...

I think the hazards/indicator issue is the new relay - going to put the old one back in as the issue turned out to be something else, some others on the FB E30 Zone group have had a similar issue which was the relay - it works, then I finish a roundabout and realise it's not working anymore, but turn it off/on and it works again. Will swap tomorrow. Strange as I tested it 100 times on the drive and it never seemed to have an issue.

Rear fog lamp, I'm an idiot, I nicked the bulb to test a different socket and forgot to put it back, didn't get time to get someone behind the car and check all the bulbs for me.

Sub-frame bushes (the two big ones) I didn't realise were that bad, but yeah, they need replacing! I haven't done any research on how to do this for a touring, but a quick glance on my phone at E30 zone says that the subframe stays in the car at least, but I might need some special tooling.

Battery insecure - The battery was out of the car on a trickle charger, and I do have the clamp, but I can't seem to locate it right now, it'll show up in the next week.

The reverse light turned out to be a combination of dead bulbs that looked fine filament wise, and a dodgy reverse switch. It only activates the lights if you really lean on the gear stick in a particular direction. Ordered a new switch but not in time for the MOT, only a minor though.

The other minor stuff I was all aware of - the brake hoses it mentions are the rubber hoses at the centre of the back of the car - I think I have the replacements on the shelf so might try and get round to finally doing those. The other smaller rear bushes I was aware of and apologised before the test about, but apparently the play was minimal - I'll get some of those ordered too...

Hopefully once the suspension bushes are done, hazard/indis are behaving, and I find my missing battery clamp, then the bloke seemed confident she should be fine for an MOT pass. Me and the tester were both quite surprised by how good the emissions results were, was expecting some trouble there, I'm still pretty certain the exhaust is blowing...

Was nice to finally take the car more than 5 metres from my garage!


Disclaimer: This photo was taken holding a GoPro in my mouth no phones were used or harmed.

Initial thoughts are: that I need to sort the brakes - they're quite nice brakes, but you have to go through a mammoth amount of pedal travel to get to the good stuff; the steering actually made me laugh, it's like a bus, can't believe how many turns it takes to get out my car park compared to the van; and last of all, my word there is no power she is very slow, but when I picked it up it wouldn't even run because the injectors were so clogged, and all I did was force some carb cleaner through them with a bike battery, so I'm suspecting once I get them properly cleaned (or replaced) it might be a bit more feisty.

The tester did say that my steering rack had a fair bit of play, and I definitely felt that within 60 seconds of leaving my house, feels a bit wallowy on the road - and the rear bushes won't be helping that. Funnily the steering rack isn't mentioned on the MOT, but on the garage's invoice they have got a note saying they'd advise replacing ASAP. Given that I already don't like how much I have to turn the wheel, I'm going to do some reading tonight about the purple tag swap or something similar, I really want to reduce the lock-to-lock as it makes it a bit unenjoyable on roundabouts etc.

If I can get the major bits done within 10 days then the re-test is half price or something, so that's the current goal!

Thanks to those still following, and hope all you zoners are keeping well during the strange times we find ourselves in!

[iDemonix]

Sourced the indicator issue, broken plastic tab for the self-cancelling bit inside the stalk unit:

[iDemonix]

New unit off an E30 Zone FB member arrived and fitted





Located the rather awkwardly positioned reverse switch and wished that I had a creeper...



Some delightful craftsmanship from a previous owner:



The new switch I had didn't have that type of connector and just used spades, so a new bit of cabling was fashioned:



Coated afterwards to help prevent corrosion as I didn't have any waterproof spades left, if it fails in future I'll use better terminals - only took 15 mins to make + replace the cable.

Tested in the car:



All was working, so ran it to through the boot and cable tied it out the way. Decided to just hacksaw the connector off the old switch as that made getting a socket on a doddle:



New bulbs arrived so all the electrical MOT issues (reverse light, indis, hazard, fog lamp) are fixed, just waiting on the suspension bushings arriving mid-week (hopefully) now!