Dan's 1.6 repairs

[Grapes]

Been a while since I posted.
So far my headlamps still work.
I had the switch for the interior fan burn through earlier this year or at the end of the last. Fixed it recently for the MOT with a flip switch. I can now turn it off and on which is really all I did with it anyway but I plan to do a more elegant fix in the future at some point.
I also fixed the leaking sunroof. Only took me a few years to accomplish that 🫣.
Everyone kept telling me that they thought it wasn't possible to fix it and that I should just kit it shut or replace the whole sunroof. In the end what worked for me was actually really simple. I bought 20 meters of closed cell EPDM tape something like 10mm wide and 5mm thick and taped that to the glass pane instead of the frame and glued the ends together with a glue that stays flexible and that so far seems to hold up very well, even with frequent opening and closing. I installed some new second hand 80s door speakers. It's a bit of a shame that the previous owner fitted speakers there. Also there appears to be crosstalk so it's essentially giving me mono output. I also picked up a working 7 band graphic equaliser/booster that I'm hoping to pair up with a hidden Bluetooth receiver to get old school looks with modern features.
Oh and the rear reflectors didn't pass MOT so they stuck extra reflectors on the rear 🙁 safety first though 😕

[Anders Dinsen]

Great to read your update.

I like your idea about the equalizer-amp and a bluetooth module. I have modified a Blaupaunkt radio with a built-in module that allows a signal pass through when not playing. Getting decent sound quality in the Murena is a bit challenging, one issue being that even with bigger speakers, the rear is essentially open which means that the low end "short circuits" back to the rear of the speaker. I think the door speakers will work much better in this respect, but I don't have them, and like you, I prefer not to. I've worked on making a very compact "subwoofer" that fits above the glove compartment...

Rear reflectors are available from Simon, but could you post a picture of exactly what did not pass?

[Grapes]

Oh wow a small subwoofer sounds genius. I probably will have to do an overhaul of most of the looms at some point. There's several weird electrical issues and the grounds seem fine for as far as I can see. So for the moment I reckon I'll just lay down a new set of speaker cables to at least solve the crosstalk.

I attached a picture of how the place that did the mot solved the reflectors for the moment. I can't visually see anything wrong with the original ones but the problem is that they don't bounce back enough light anymore according to the measurement tool. Well there's a clear difference between the new reflector and the original ones.. Also, it's not that he's making any significant profit from selling me those so I didn't question his judgement on that ground. When you say that Simon sells reflectors. Do you mean that that square under the reverse lights can be replaced?

[Anders Dinsen]

Sorry, I thought you meant the housings.... These are available https://www.simon-auto-shop.de/epages/Simon-Auto-Anlasser-Lichtmaschinen.sf/de_DE/?ObjectID=76689101
I have no idea if the built in reflectors can be changed, it looks like they could be removed but with the risk of damage to the rest of the part, the solution you've taken seems sound.

I have mislaid my drawings of the subwoofer I built, and I must also admit that I have not really tested it yet since I turned my attention to other jobs in my ongoing restoration of my car, but the basic idea I had was to make something that could be so flat and small that it could be stowed away somewhere. The issue with the standard speaker mounting on the Murena is that the panel is not air tight so the bass essentially shortcuts between the front and the back of the speaker. Modern cars have bass reflex ports built into the panels. I went for an enclosed box and tiny woofers that does not require much space behind them. It will surely be better. I think your door fitted speakers may also provide decent bass, actually.

Edit: Found the attached picture of the woofer during build. I think you can get the idea from this.

[Grapes]

After a closer look at the test report and the rear of my car it appears to have been specifically the left one that's not in the picture which was not reflecting enough light. Looking at it I do see something that appears to be mould inside the reflector square. I reckon he stuck a sticker on both sides to balance it out. In theory he could also have stuck it on top of the old one though... 😅 They do look like they can be changed separately but I wouldn't be surprised if it's just part of the production process.

Thanks for the woofer picture. I must admit that I lack the knowledge of how speakers work to understand what reflex ports and airtight panels mean in this context. It looks like the speakers in mine were originally mounted near the feet and I don't see an air escape hole. If anything I suspect that the doors leak much more. But then again I don't know if that's where the speakers were originally supposed to be fitted either. I do know that I need to create a backplate for the new ones to attach to as the muppet who put the door speakers in has cut the holes so large even the originals barely had material for the screws to go in and my current ones hang on by two screws 😢.
They sound like they lack bass as well. Maybe it's because they aren't attached well though so a backplate might fix that. I mostly bought them for the looks.