Index to Rolls Royce and Bentley tech tips

Bentley Arnage - (c) J E Robison Service

A rare Rolls Royce Corniche S - (c) J E Robison Service

I've written quite a few articles on Rolls Royce and Bentley, and I have begun gathering them together here.  One day I'll probably turn them into a book.  Till then . . . Feel free to comment or offer corrections.


Thoughts on buying a used Rolls Royce or Bentley - applies to Silver Cloud and newer series cars

More thoughts on Spur - Spirit - Turbo era car buying

Thoughts on restoration - applies to all cars

Evolution of the RR/B models - Silver Shadow through Arnage/Seraph - original article from the Robison Service website

Inspecting a Rolls Royce or Bentley - Applies to Corniche, Continental, Azure, Turbo R, Mulsanne, Eight, Turbo R, Silver Spur, Silver Dawn, Silver Spirit

More Things to Look For in a 1981-2000 Rolls Royce or Bentley - this is the original article from the Robison Service website

The last Crewe built Rolls Royce convertibles - applies to 2000-2002 final Series Corniche

Repairing convertible top hydraulics - Applies to 1996-2004 Rolls Royce and Bentley Corniche and Azure cars

Head gasket failures in Bentley Turbo cars - applies to Turbo R, Continental R and T, Azure, Arnage

Checking engines after head gasket failure - Applies to all cars

Checking and inspecting Rolls Royce hydraulic systems - all cars after Silver Cloud and print to Silver Seraph. Applies to all Shadow/Spur era vehicles

Case Study - brake failure in a Shadow - Silver Shadow era cars with RR363

Rear suspension gas springs - Applies to all 1981 - 1999 cars prior to Silver Seraph

Changing batteries in seat and ECUs, Applies to 1980s-1990s Silver Spirit / Silver Spur / Mulsanne /Eight / Turbo R

Changing alarm ECU batteries,  Applies to 1980s-1990s Silver Spirit / Silver Spur / Mulsanne /Eight / Turbo R

Servicing Shadow and Spur series brakes - applies to 1966 - 1999 cars after Silver Cloud and prior to Silver Seraph

Alcon racing brakes for Continental and Azure - Applies to all 1990s cars but most particularly to the final series Azure, which had these brakes fitted at the factory - a unique variant

Fixing Power Steering Leaks - applies to 90s cars with the reservoir above the alternator

Questions and answers on collector car storage - Applies to all cars

Evaluating paint - Applies to all cars

I hope you find these suggestions useful, and I wish you luck and success, keeping your Rolls Royce or Bentley motorcar on the road!

Best wishes

John Elder Robison

John Elder Robison is the general manager of J E Robison Service Company, independent restoration and repair specialists in Springfield, Massachusetts.  John is a longtime technical consultant to the RROC and other car clubs, and he’s owned and restored many fine vehicles.  Find him online at www.robisonservice.com or in the real world at 413-785-1665

Franchisee Spotlight: Tom Watson, Prior Lake, MN

Tom Watson grew up In Brooklyn Center, Minn. and has lived in the Metro area his entire life. He has been working for Jim Henkel, the Honest-1 Auto Care Area Developer, since 2010 — when Henkel only had one store in Minnesota. Watson began his Honest-1 career focusing primarily on outside sales and providing back-up support in stores as needed. Over time, through extensive training and education, he assumed the role of Operations Manager of the Minnesota market.

Watson first met Fred Haynes, remote franchisee of Honest-1 Prior Lake, when he accepted the position of general manager at Haynes’s Burnsville, Minn. store. Haynes is based in Chicago and is a remote owner, leaving most responsibilities to Watson, who will continue to manage the day-to-day operations for the Burnsville store while overseeing the new Prior Lake location.

Watson made his debut in the automotive industry as a general service technician changing oil, tires and performing light duty repairs. Eventually, Watson realized that he would be better suited in sales and took up the opportunity when a position became available in the company that he was working for at the time.

How did you learn about Honest-1?

I found Honest-1 through an ad posted online, and after one interview, I knew it was where I wanted to spend my career. The very philosophy of how business is conducted, combined with the unique service offerings, makes Honest-1 stand out far ahead of its competitors.

What do you hope to achieve as the general manager of this store?

As manager I hope to provide 15-20 new jobs to the Prior Lake area, set a new standard in customer service and earn a fair profit to generate humble growth for the company.

Do you have any plans to broaden your managerial responsibilities?

My goal is help to educate and inspire teams of automotive professionals all over the Twin Cities and eventually own my own Honest-1 Auto Care stores.

Are you involved in any charities or community groups?

I am active in the Girl Scout Troop that my seven-year-old daughter belongs to. 

Technician tenacity

Today’s technicians today have to be patient, tenacious and smart in order to diagnose many problems on today’s cars ….

This one is a good example. A client brought us her 2006 Audi A6 Quattro. She said the check engine light was on and car seemed to run a little sluggish.

Master technician Bob Toti began by attaching our VAG tester (the special Audi test tool) to the vehicle’s diagnostic port to read any stored faults. The tester showed two current faults: a cam sensor bank on 2 fault and a small evaporative leak. He also found an intermittent or old low pressure fuel sensor fault.

Whenever you find “current” faults you can verify them by clearing them and seeing how they reset themselves. That’s what we did in this case. Bob found the cam sensor fault came back immediately so he focused on that problem first. After verifying that the voltages at the sensor were okay and wiring from engine module was okay too, he swapped with the identical sensor from bank 1. The result? The same fault occurred. At this point the tech verified that the engine module was reading information from that sensor, but was this information correct?

Master technician Danny Ferrari now took over solving the Audi cam sensor fault mystery while Bob concentrated on other work in the shop.

Using actual values in the VAG, the tech found the intake cam in bank 2 was out of position by almost 10 degrees, when the spec was less than half a degree.

Careful and thoughtful technicians found that this little
bit of screen stuck in the valve was giving the customer
big headaches.  

This car’s cam advance system is able to advance or retard all the 4 cams by letting oil in and out of four solenoid valves. For some reason one of these cams was working at the wrong advance angle, or at least that’s what the sensor was telling us. The next step was checking the actual cam advance valve by opening up the engine and comparing the observed position of the cam with the position reported by the sensor. That check showed the sensor to be telling the truth – the cam was really out of position. But the question of why that might be remained unanswered. So we removed the adjusting solenoid. When we took it apart we found debris tucked into the valve, between the sleeve and the moving part of the valve. The debris looked like really small bits of metal screen. The debris was causing the position problem by not letting the valve close all the way.

Replacing the valve fixed the problem. A long road test after repair did not reveal any other faults. The other codes – the ones we’d read on first examination – never returned. We changed the oil and sent the car down the road with a very happy owner.

Why would this valve go bad on a 28,000 mile car? I wish I knew. There was no evidence of neglect or abuse inside the motor, though some of the stresses that might have led to this failure would not leave a visible trace. It’s also possible the car was filled with the wrong oil earlier in its life. Perhaps the valve was defective from new. It’s a one-of-a-kind problem in this shop. And more and more, that’s what we see. One-off problems other people can’t fix are becoming our stock in trade.