Diablo Refresh

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

 

For some reason, this looks it came as standard for UK cars [at least to a certain age] I have no idea why either as there is no law, that I'm aware of, for it to work that way.

 

It is however quite simple to bypass as I have done.

 

On another note, I was also wondering if the little light control module, that sits behind the AMP panel, was swapped out for a U.S one, would the lights work as you mentioned without doing any mods?

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

 

 

Thank you kindly Shamile!

 

I've read through some of your Lambo work and its great to read too, very helpful for all us owners. I've just bought some of the redline oil you mentioned in one of your threads, and will be doing diff and transmission oil change soon, and will document the process here.

 

Great thread!

Still waiting for parts from Lamborghini so I can crack on with the work, howevet this evening to keep me busy, I decided to remove the door sill plates to get them ready to create CF molds, but my CF guy thinks the plates are not in good enough shape to do this, and in order to get the molds perfect, allot of time and work would need to be put into getting the old sill plates perfect. So I might just have to look into buying a brand new pair to do the CF project, or at least find a perfect set of used sill plates, which could prove difficult over here.

 

So on that note I decided to re-vamp the sill plates for now, mine had quite a few scratches, indents and so forth, I guess most people lean on these, and the odd foot catches them getting in and out. To lift the look of them I decided to try the Matt black vinyl wrap again, plus I had my friend mke the "bull/Lamborghini/Diablo" logo for me too.

 

The result is very nice! I didn't expect it to look as good myself and will do nicely until I get the CF sorted.

 

Sorry I forgot to take the before pics, so only have the after shots below.

 

 

While I was under the car previously I noticed that the het shields over the inner drive shaft boots were both missing, broken off possibly as the bracket was there with just the rivets.

 

 

After a quick price check, these simple little pieces cost £158 for one side and £124 for the other, plus 20% vat, so roughly $515 in the country.

 

So I opted to go a different route, I purchased some heat shield material from a company online, £10.00 for a decent size square that was more than enough to do my job.

 

 

I removed the brackets and the old rivets.

 

 

I did a bit of measuring to get a rough idea on the size I wanted the shield to be, as I don't have the OEM shields or another Diablo to compare to, I decided to make these a little larger as I wanted good coverage of the drive shaft boot. So with the metal snips I made the size

 

 

Bracket on and make the holes for the new rivets

 

 

So one side done, the bracket on the right side was slightly different, straight line rather than the curve, most likely due to the lack of room on that side.

 

 

Same scenario as before although this time I mounted the heat shield on top of the bracket rather than below, this is because of limited room which you will see from the install pics.

 

 

So both sides done and now installed, all for around $15 dollars. The heat shield can be easily altered or cut to different sizes if needed, and moulded to what ever shape needed.

 

 

 

When doing the rear diff oil change, its always good to get the car as level as possible, so like earlier in my thread, I have put the car up on the 4 ramps.

 

It's very important to knw that there are 3 bolts on the diff that you will be looking at, all very close to being inline with each other.

 

Lower one here, the drain bolt

 

Next, one up, and sitting in a small recess is the fill hole/bolt

 

And up one more time, is what I believe, an inspection hole/bolt possibly, this one does NOT need to be opened and please remember this is NOT the fill hole, and the diff does not get filled up to ths point.

 

 

 

First thing I like to do, when there is a fill and drain hole involved is, alway remove the fill hole bolt FIRST; This way if the drain bolt is ceased/damaged or just won't open for some other reason, and you don't have the required tools or skill to open it, you won't leave yourself stuck and the car can still be moved to someone/workshop that can assist.

 

So remove the fill bolt

 

 

Now the drain bolt, make sure your oil catch pan is underneath.

 

 

Quick look inside the bolt holes reveals some of the Teflon tape on the threads, so ill be cleaning that out in the morning. Im leaving the car to drain over nite, so it gets a proper drip dry clear out.

 

 

Ill use this suction device with the little wand to clear out the threads and the rest of the old oil in the diff, it runs off a compressor and a very handy tool, also good for 1 man brake and clutch bleeding.

 

Great thread!

 

Thank you sir.

AMAZING THREAD!!! Very inspiring being a backyard gear head myself. I hope one day I can be wrenching up on an early Diablo.

 

Keep on doing what your doing.

Returning to the car today, I was amazed to see it was still dripping diff oil, very very slowly, but still dripping. So with the little extactor I got to work removing the rest of the oil, you can see here, oil in the hose and container, I pored some out to show the condition. With the extractor I was able to take out quite a bit more oil; the stuff laying at the bottom was very dirty.

 

 

Next I decided to give the diff a bit of a flush out with some cheap 75-90 gear oil, I wanted to get as much of the old black oil/sludge out as possible.

 

Ill show how to do this using a relatively cheap method first, as some wont have the other device I use for filling diff's and transmissions.

 

So autotomotve syringe and 2 liters of cheap oil, less that $10 for the syringe.

 

I'm also removing the very top inspection plug this time, as this plug and the drain plug are magnetic, it's good to check the ends for any metal shards, this can give you an idea on whats going on in there, you don't want to be seeing and large chips of metal stuck to the magnetic ends lol

 

 

So all nice and clean here

 

Take the syringe, and suck oil out of the new diff oil container, then insert the pipe into the fill hole off the diff and press the plunger to start filling, obviously make sure you have the drain plug in, there is no need to add Teflon tape or torque the bolt this time, as it will be removed again anyway.

 

Pipe in the fill hole

 

Keeping filling the diff until fluid starts running out of the fill hole, when it starts running out, leave it be until it stops and levels out with the edge of the fill hole

 

Fluid running out

 

Fluid settled at fill hole

 

With the fluid settled at the fill hole, I'm going to put the plug on there too, and then fill the diff up some more, please be aware that this step is not necessary, I'm just doing it to give the diff a good flush out and use up the cheap oil.

 

Again put the syringe pipe into the top hole and repeat the process above,

 

With all the new cheap oil in the diff, I'm going to leave it there for a bit of a soaking session. Ill drain it all out later tonite again.

 

More to come.................

 

 

 

 

Decided to drain the cheap/flush oil out this morning, as you can see, its looking much better that the oil I removed above, ran nice and clean/clear, I used a clear container to show you guys.

 

 

Next up, I use the little wand/extractor to remove all the oil inside the casing, same as I did a few posts above and again, amazing how much oil is left trapped inside. So a good cleaning in progress at the moment, want to get all out before I do the final fill with the redline oil.

 

 

 

 

Lamborghinisti,

 

 

Very good suggestion on the sludge removal. I never would have though there would be crud like that sitting at the bottom. I have a fluid extractor from Griots Garage. I'll have to do this extra step next time.

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

Shamile

Lamborghinisti,

 

 

Very good suggestion on the sludge removal. I never would have though there would be crud like that sitting at the bottom. I have a fluid extractor from Griots Garage. I'll have to do this extra step next time.

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

Shamile

 

Hi Shamile,

 

I was able to remove a further 0.4 liters with the extractor, was a long process as I really did let all the internals drip to the bottom of the casing.

Finishing up on the diff oil change, I installed all new plugs, as these are very cheap, I prefer to use brand new rather than reuse the old.

 

 

Teflon tape on as per OEM spec, installing the tape anti-clockwise.

 

 

 

Back in place

 

 

Now using the redline oil that I see a good few mention on here, I'm using the other more expensive device this time, I use this pretty much all the time over the syringe type, but wanted to show the syringe as its allot cheaper, but this device is allot cleaner and get into the angles better, roughly £90gbp for this device, but well worth it.

 

Basically you fill the container, then pump until the pressure rises on the gauge, then set the wand on the edge of the fill hole and open the handle, the system will fill from there. Ill use this later to do the transmission oil too.

 

 

comes with a selections of tips and some are specific to transmission [mercedes etc]

 

So diff now filled and new plug installed

 

 

 

Some nice new parts arriving eventually, and more to come

 

Under the gear gate, there is a little sponge type washer, this deteriorates over time and mine was really bad, so bad that it fell apart when I tried to slide it off then just crumpled away, thankfully it done this while I got it off and not fell into the gear stalk unit.

 

New washer

 

Remove the gear knob, Im sure all know how to do this, mine is aftermarket but same applies to the OEM, remove the ring first, it just unscrews,

 

You can then see 3 allen key bolts, juat loosen these and the knob just lifts off.

 

Remove 2 allem key bolts on the gear gate and then lift this out

 

Install the new washer, carefully lifting it over the edge of the reverse lock out.

 

Hey presto! another simple little job done, all for a a few pence.

 

 

 

Today I changed the brake light switch, located behind the amp panel under the front hood, for LHD car its probably on the opposite side

 

 

New switch received from lamborghini, most likely it can be cross reference with other makes, but not too expensive to buy from Lambo anyway.

 

 

The new switch has a copper washer installed and Im pretty sure is an updated part as the nut size is larger than the old one,

 

 

The old switch has teflon tape on it, so I decided to add a little to the new switch too, even though it has the copper seal. Keep the new switch close to hand when removing the old one, because once the old one is removed, some brake fluid will start to drip out, it comes out quite slow so dont worry about it gushing out, also hand to put an old shop towel down to catch the drips.

 

Spanner in and loosen the old switch, once loose remove by hand

 

Then install the new one and tighten up

 

While I was at it, I cleaned out the 2 electrical pins as then had a little corrosion on them.

 

The result: Brake light sensitivity is definitely better, but not as good as the plunger type found right behind the brake pedal. I might look into doing this too.

Back to the steering boot I posted pics off earlier.

 

As you can see, mine was well passed its sell by date lol

 

 

 

So from inside the car I removed the steering shaft, quite simple, one bolt and nut just under the steering column lower cover, no need to remove the cover either.

 

 

Nut off and then push bolt as far out as you can, the bolt wont come all the way out and doesnt need too.

 

 

With the bolt out as far as possible, just pull the steering shaft back towards the pedals and its free

 

 

 

Next remove the 4 bolts from the old boot and then pull the boot free,

 

 

at this point I just cut the rubber to get it off quicker

 

 

Boot removed

 

 

The brand new OEM boot

 

 

 

Ive covered it in silicone grease and coverd the the steering head of the steering shaft in silicone grease too, helps on sliding the new boot on.

 

 

Almost in position

 

 

Back in the same position as the old one, it really only goes on correctly in one position anyway.

 

 

 

Now bolt everything back together!! and thats it, job done. took me around 20mins to do this.

I now have all 4 of my front lights installed, looks much better than the projector type that was installed

 

 

 

and a side shot seeing as its a nice day

 

Excellent thread, and amazing work! Have you considered white lenses for the fog light and front indicators?? Really freshens up the look IMO

Lamborghinisti,

 

I really like the new driving lights. It suits the car much better.

 

 

You might as well go to the electrical brake light switch set up. You can find all the parts from the 2001 Diablo 6.0 parts sheet.

 

 

 

Shamile

Excellent thread, and amazing work! Have you considered white lenses for the fog light and front indicators?? Really freshens up the look IMO

 

Hi,

 

Over here, by law, we have to have a red rear fog light, on right side of the car. For me to add the white lense, I would need to put a red bulb in there, and this would probably show through the white lense?

 

Does your front clear lense flash orange? I assume you have an orange bulb in there?

Lamborghinisti,

 

I really like the new driving lights. It suits the car much better.

 

 

You might as well go to the electrical brake light switch set up. You can find all the parts from the 2001 Diablo 6.0 parts sheet.

 

 

 

Shamile

 

Yeah the new lights certainly help the overall look, and much brighter than the old projector type.

 

Ill definitely look into the electrical stop switch at some point.

 

Hi,

 

Over here, by law, we have to have a red rear fog light, on right side of the car. For me to add the white lense, I would need to put a red bulb in there, and this would probably show through the white lense?

 

Does your front clear lense flash orange? I assume you have an orange bulb in there?

Yes, same laws here. So the bulb is red in the fog light, and orange in the indicators. And they flash the correct colors. Unless you have some law saying the lenses has to be colored too, you should be fine.

Nothing overly complicated here,

 

just peel off and replace with new, My black wrap on accelerator pedal is still perfect!

 

Old pedal rubbers, clutch for obvious reasons is very bad

 

 

Just start pulling the edge back, until it slips off

 

 

 

Nice new ones from Lamborghini

 

 

Old vs NEW

 

 

New installed