Project Bentley Turbo R

Rob Hawkins is handed the keys to our Bentley Turbo R and sets to work servicing it, before turning his attention to a growing list of problems. Thankfully he has a local specialist to help, and access to a two-post lift.

Rob Hawkins picks up the keys to our Bentley and gets stuck into a full service under the watchful eyes of the experts.

When I willingly volunteered to take on the Bentley Turbo R project and tackle the servicing and any problems it may have, I realised that my single garage at home wasn’t quite large enough to work around the car and that I needed expert help to tackle the jobs properly. Thankfully, local specialist Prestige Services came to the rescue and were happy to not only allocate me a ramp, but also to let me loose inside their workshop.

We had a little over three weeks to complete all the planned work on the Bentley, which ranged from routine servicing to tackling the numerous problems that had been identified by Nigel Sandell. Such a tight deadline meant that we wouldn’t be able to address the bodywork corrosion and paint issues, but instead had to concentrate on ensuring the car was mechanically sound and the windows wound up and down. There is often not a single clear course of action dictated by this aim, because making it mechanically sound doesn’t just mean fixing what’s broke, but can often mean fixing something that’s perhaps deteriorated, but not yet failed.

As you’ll discover over the next few issues, there are a few examples of this dilemma that range from rusty fuel, power steering and brake pipes that are not yet leaking, to perished dust covers around the brake caliper pistons. My first job though was to tackle some seemingly straightforward servicing – and to my surprise it was indeed remarkably easy. The engine oil had me a little stumped when it came to slackening the old spin- on oil filter, but the mechanics at Prestige correctly advised me to use a pair of water pump pliers fitted around the base of the filter to avoid crushing it. I struggled for a few minutes, but eventually the filter gave up and loosened.

I wasn’t looking forward to tackling the gearbox oil service because it required the sump pan to be removed and a filter inside to be replaced. This was a messy job, but with lots of space and nothing seized, it too was easy. The only challenge was dodging the drips of ATF onto my head.

An even easier job involved draining and refilling the diff oil. I’d already removed the spare wheel and the carrier from underneath the rear of the Bentley because

the carrier was corroded and had to be sent away for repair (this will be covered in the next issue), so the space around the drain and refill plugs was cavernous. I could even shine a torch through the refill hole to check the oil level inside the diff. Refilling with a squeezy bottle was a little more timeconsuming than using a pump, but it was still all over in a matter of minutes.

The one job I found harder than expected was the spark plugs, but only because the HT leads put up a fight. Eventually they lost out and all eight of them were released. Thankfully, the plugs are only tightened to 25-30Nm into the aluminium cylinder heads, and none of them had been overtightened.

The coolant was also straightforward to change – it was simply a matter of releasing the drain plug on the bottom of the radiator, allowing the coolant to escape, then refitting it and pouring new coolant in via the expansion tank whilst undoing a bleed screw on the top of the radiator. Once this was full, the engine was run and the expansion tank topped up. Prestige also recommends detaching the small hose from the expansion tank and blowing through it

to help force any air locks out through the bleed screw.

Looking at the old, pink- coloured coolant in the expansion tank, I realised that we could have tested its cooling and freezing capacity to see if it could be reused, but we didn’t know how long it had been in there, so really it needed replacing. Even if the coolant was still up to the job of maintaining the engine’s temperature, this doesn’t mean to say it would still be effective at preventing corrosion, so I ordered new coolant from Flying Spares. They sent through a couple of five-litre containers of official Bentley greencoloured concentrated coolant, which needs diluting with water to a ratio of 50:50.

I seem to have made a promising start with the Bentley, but I realise it won’t be quite so easy at times. Prestige’s Mark Ainger has recommended that the fuel lines should be replaced and I’ve already volunteered to do this. I did this knowing that fastenings will probably be seized and that I’d put £20 worth of petrol in the tank before driving to the workshop. In the next issue, I’ll be finding out just how hard it is to replace the lines.