Diablo Refresh

Very cool! I did the clutch master myself too. I think this thread needs to be sticky'd!!

I preparation for the lights to go back in, feed the loom through the rear lamp gaurds

 

 

I take one of the new lamp surrounds and carefully set it in place, you need to be careful this doesnt fall out and get damaged, so you could choose to use a bit of masking tape to hold it there, Im happy enough though

 

 

The lamp housing and feed the cable through, I start with the indicator units first, they are the farthest in when it comes to putting the bolts on

 

 

 

Now the akward part, this could take a few tries, but basically hold the lamp unit in place and with the other hand you need to feed the washers on and then the nut,

 

 

One bolt on so the lamp housing is now safe and wont fall out, So do the same for the other washers and bolts, no point in tightening the bolts up yet

 

 

Repeat process oor the other lamp

 

 

Other side

 

 

 

You are doing a great job on your car. The pictures that you are taking and the details are first class. What part number for the master cylinder or what else does it fit?

With the lamp units in place and safe enough, I wanted to inspect the innards of the units.

 

The silver painted reflectors were a bit weather beaten, not too bad though but decided to give them a refurb.

 

Some marks and discoloration, plus some the camera didnt pick up.

 

 

So remove the metal conductors/bulb contacts,

 

 

the black piece with the bronze colored contacts pulls straight off, its just plug and play style

 

The silver contact plate/ring is just held in by 3 clips, lightly push back and the ring will come free

 

 

 

 

My indicator lamps were not too bad, but wanted to keep the contrast correct so they are being refurbished too.

 

 

Different style of ring/contacts

 

 

The ring is held in place in the same manner as above, just 3 retainers, pull back and pull the ring up and slide out like so

 

 

With that out of the way we need to remove this piece

 

 

This small tab hold it in place, place light pressure on the tab and the pull the metal clip out

 

 

Now the lamp units are ready to paint, I use a bright silver heat temp paint and the results are fantastic!

 

Newely painted

 

 

 

So when all is dry replace the bist in reverse. But before I replaced I cleaned up the corrosion on the indicator rings, just some light sandpaper and a small sharp blade for the awkward bits.

Always worth keeping the contacts free from corrosion as they can cause simple faults, some dielectric grease is good here too.

 

Newly cleaned vs Old

 

 

 

Now time to fit the grill,

 

Simple process and jsut do in reverse from the removal.

 

 

 

I added some washers as Im not overly confident in Lamborghini's choice of a 5.5mm bolts

 

 

 

Just used a small socket and tighten by hand - carefully

 

 

 

So now install the grill in reverse to the the removal process.

 

 

 

 

Fantastic! I might have to do that!

Back to the lamp units and ready to complete

 

 

 

However after setting the lenses in and torquing up all the bolts slightly, I'm very unhappy about the orientation of the overall look. I know the old hand built lambo quality is not always the best, but I'm damned if Im going to have uneven lamps lol

 

None of the lamps looked right or sat correctly, one side in, another out and so on.

 

 

 

I know the fault isnt anything Ive done, so the only way to be happy "FOR ME" was to remove the lamps again and take a closer look.

 

 

Lamp sitting nice

 

 

Lamp incorrect

 

 

Basically the issue is with I guess age and distortion from the serious heat Diablo creates and the not so good build quality, the lamp housing and the lamp surrounds have distorted over the many MANY years.

I can see on the reverse the issue; one side of the lamp housing fits flush with the lamp surround, the other doesnt, so when its all in place on the car, and the the bolts behind are being tightened, one side is being pulled in because of the gap/distance.

 

 

To remedy this and make my lamps even, I just use some washers until Im happy with a look/level I like.

 

 

I played about with all 4 lamps using this method till its nice

 

and the final results

 

The SV inspired rear end, newly painted and new badge

 

Thanks everyone for comments!

 

Allot more to come and waiting for some nice new parts too.

 

Someone asked about the part number for the master cylinder I purchased on eBay, it was this one

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CLUTCH-MASTER-CY...=item2ec5fc4c1b

 

 

Please be aware that there maybe difference between LHD and RHD models, so please check first before doing anything.

 

My car is RHD model.

That new rear end looks great!

 

Also, very nice write up on the clutch master replacement.

Car looks incredible. Any luck locating SE30 wheels or even possibly upgrading to the later diablo 18inch wheels?

Car looks incredible. Any luck locating SE30 wheels or even possibly upgrading to the later diablo 18inch wheels?

 

Hi,

 

Personally, Im not a fan of the later wheels, its either SE30, or leave as is for me. I do know of a set of SE rims, but the gentleman that has them, hasn't contacted back yet about selling.

 

 

Just finished the new mats

 

Looks REALLY good. Nice work.

Something I dont like, is the fact that, no matter what light buttons you press, the pop ups always come up.

 

So I wanted to change this setting so when I have the side light button pressed, just those lights come on and the pop ups stay down.

 

 

 

I removed the fuse box from the passenger floor, I then consulted my workshop manual and drivers handbook, but neither related very well to the actual setup in my car! No fuses were marked the same as in the book and the layout was showing for LHD model, just my luck lol.

 

What I was looking for was the fuse that controlled the dual motorized lifts for the popups, only way to do this safely and quickly was to pull one fuse at a time. Eventually I found it, so once I located this I turned the fuse box upside down to see what wires were running into this fuse block.

 

I discovered that there were 3 green/yellow wires all together in the one block, and these wires controlled the side lights and pop ups. As the three are all joined together, the only way for me to work out what each was doing correctly, was to cut them and add some spade connectors, this allows me to plug/unplug each one separately and see what the system is doing.

 

These are the wires in question

 

 

 

What I discovered by doing this was, one wire did control the pop ups, the other was for the side lights, and the last wire was controlling the rear fog light [some countries wont have this]

I decided to leave the pop up wire disconnected, but connected the other 2 as normal, by doing this when I press the side light button on the console, they would come on ok, and the pop ups will stay down; however, if I then press the main light switch, the popups would still stay down but I could see the main lights were on through wheel well lining.

 

This then lead me to believe that the, pop up green/yellow wire, was also feed into the same relay/fuses as the main headlight on trigger somewhere in the circuit.

 

So a very simple solution popped into my head, with the pop up wire still disconnected, I took a temporary jumper wire, and connected it to one end [loom side] of the pop up wire, with the other end of the jumper cable, I placed that in the back of the fuse that had the signal for the main headlight on switch. This is the grey wire here, you can see then end of my metal pointer on the cable

 

 

Jumper wire in:

 

 

 

This was the result I was looking for!! By doing this the signal from the main lights also triggered the pop ups to rise PERFECT!.

 

So I tested everything first and the result is now.

 

By pressing the console buttons:

 

Side light button: Side lights come on and pop ups stay down:

Main headlight button: Main light come on - pop ups rise

Front fog light button: Side lights come on and front fogs come on, pop ups stay down

 

All systems are working perfect: brake lights fine, indicators fine, full and dip beams fine, rear fog and reverse fine, all the usual lights on the dash fine, so all in all a great result.

 

So to finish off, I removed the jumper line, and hard wired a fused line into the green/yellow pop up wire [loom side] and the other end of the fused line I soldered into the grey main lights cable

 

 

With the other end of the pop up cable now having nothing to do, I just blanked it off

 

 

 

Only think left to do is make sure to add good insulating tape and keep everything nice and tidy, put the fusebox back in and thats it!

 

Now I can drive the car with the side light on without the pop ups coming up and taking the nice stream line looks of the Diablo away. Cant understand why Lamborghini didnt do it like this anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

Cant understand why Lamborghini didnt do it like this anyway.

 

My '98 SV lights work as you describe yours do now - maybe they changed it with the later models?

 

Very cool stuff going on there Sudesh - look forward to seeing what's going to happen next!

My '98 SV lights work as you describe yours do now - maybe they changed it with the later models?

 

Very cool stuff going on there Sudesh - look forward to seeing what's going to happen next!

 

Do they! That's interesting, are you UK based? Is your car RHD model?

 

I assume your console switch panel is the same as earlier models?

 

Have plenty of stuff to do, go through, replace and so forth; might add the SE30 steering wheel or 97 SV steering wheel. Would love some white dial faces too, but can't see any forsale.

Car on running and side lights on only

 

 

Side lights and fogs

 

 

Main lights, side lights and fogs

 

 

Main lights, side lights, fogs and flashers

 

I've been reading some posts with regards to Diablo door struts, lifting rams, suspension or what ever you like to call them lol

 

The Murcielago ones sound ok, but Im a bit weary of using something that's designed for a different door, weight of door mechanisms used and so forth.

 

So after a quick bit of research, I noticed that quite a few Diablo models and years, use different struts, varying hugely in price too [at least in the uk] so Im wondering has anyone ever looked into this before? Anyone ever try the very late model struts? Very possibly by Diablo production end, the Audi built cars used an improved strut. It's certainly listed as "NEW" on the parts system.

 

Please see a few below, and what are people thoughts? For all the value of 2001 Struts, it would be worth a test surely?

 

 

009421303, listed to fit 91, £101.00 each

 

 

009421031, listed to fit 94, 97+98+99 SV and 99 GT, £191.00 each

 

 

009421047, listed to fit SE30, £28.00 Each

 

 

0072007577, Listed to fit 2001 £42.00 this is also highlighted as "NEW" as if to say its updated strut type

 

May I ask who made your mats and what you paid for them? They are stunning.

May I ask who made your mats and what you paid for them? They are stunning.

 

We make them ourselves, my brother owns a rug company, so I design them and get them made. I just use the old set that was in the car as the template, and added the Lambo script/logo.

We make them ourselves, my brother owns a rug company, so I design them and get them made. I just use the old set that was in the car as the template, and added the Lambo script/logo.

 

 

On my quest to find the 4 front OEM fog/flash lights [at reasonable money] I though about trying some other types, I didnt like the projector type that that someone put on my car, not in keeping with the style plus they had seen better days.

 

So I found these universal type on ebay, only purchased a set to try first, but should have another pair coming next week as I quite like the look, they would service as a stop gap solution for now.

 

 

The holes I just blanked off with some plastic and matt black wrapp until I get the other set of lights in

Dear Lamborghinisti,

 

 

Hey Sudesh, I love the work you're doing and your step by step pictures and instructions. It's some great reading.

 

 

Shamile

I wanted to locate the brake pressure switch that activates the tail lights, my car is starting to show the common signs of, lights not activating unless moderate pressure is applied to the pedal, obviously this should not be the case and the any form of pedal pressure should activate the lights.

 

I did see some other great ideas of using an internal switch from other make/models, but as the OEM switch isnt overlay expensive, and simple enough for me to change, Im going to stick to using the OEM one. The switch is located behind the AMP panel in the trunk. On RHD cars it was just below the washer bottle tank.

 

 

I will return to the replacement of this switch when the new one arrives.

 

But while in there, I didnt like the mess of all the wires hanging etc. So just did a quick tidy up of that.

 

BEFORE;

 

AFTER

 

 

 

After removing the washer bottle, I noticed a terrible bodge job, someone in the past tried a DIY repair of one of the washer motors, using a silicone sealant. Not my style so I removed the old washer motor and disconnect the headlight wash setup for now, as its safer to keep windscreen wash system going for obvious reasons.

 

 

 

I put an bung and waterproof clear sealer on the bung for now to make sure it doesnt leak water

 

Im going to order a brand new washer bottle and pumps this week.

Interesting about the lights. I have a 91 and my headlights don't pop up when other lights are depressed.