Slapped the new nearside caliper on. Quality is definitely not as good but it fits and seems to work fine. Drag feels the same on both sides.
Bled the rear brakes on both sides for good luck. Fluid seemed pretty clean - I think because the rear lines have been replaced at some point recently. Fluid in the brake fluid chamber is a bit manky so I might bleed the front brakes in time.
Noticed someone attempted to stop a heat shield rattling with hot melt glue. Nice choice of glue on an area that gets hot
Air con panel arrived too, so fitted that to see if that sorted the fan issue. Reasonably easy to get to.
Stereo doesn't fit properly, looks like someone broke the screw holder that goes into the plastic. Crazy thing this plastic considering its supposed to be holding the radio in. I think someone forced this plastic piece in the wrong way around and broke it. I can't say the design of this car doesn't have the feel of durability as a priority.
Discovered that someone has fitted a Aux port for the stereo which is neat.
Also a whole load of extra wires and connectors hidden behind there. I think it might have had an ancient car phone mount at some point in it's past. The mic looks like a 2000-era Nokia hands free mic.
Test fitted the new panel. Fan still doesn't work properly. Damn, parts darts fail.
So dug into the glove box to see if I could find the hedgehog resistor pack.
Connector wiring doesn't look very promising. Screw was loose so someone has been in here before.
Single screw and connector it was out. 2014 date code suggests it's been replaced. These are NLA new and don't seem to have any aftermarket options available either.
Connectors definitely had too much heat through them.
So what caused that?
I think two things.
Firstly, despite being a genuine part, that terminal doesn't look like it was soldered properly. I don't think overheating has melted it as the solder hasn't flown elsewhere.
Compounding the issue is the pollen filter is filthy and full of leaves. This will cause resistance to the airflow and make the fan work harder. (I don't know what that random yellow wire goes to yet!)
So what next?
Second hand units can be had for £80 or so. More than I want to pay really. Plus I need to sort that connector. There is one with a loom snipped at the resistor which could be an option.
First thing I'll try is cleaning all the contacts up. However cleaning crimp terminals isn't easy and often doesn't really work as you can't get any mechanical cleansing tool in there. As this is a high current connection, if it's not clean then it'll just happen again.
Another option could be to drill a hole through the case and put a fly lead from that terminal directly into that dodgy melted terminal. Either soldered directly or with a bullet terminal/similar. However that said the other terminals aren't in great shape either.
So the next thing could be snipping the connector and soldering directly to the terminals. While bodge tastic, it'll work. Given that if this every needs replacing again will need a new loom connection anyway, perhaps isn't so bad thing to do? Plus lets face it, this isn't a low mileage minter. It's a scruffy high miler that is unlikely to be around for another decade.
Or of course pay out for a second hand resistor pack and a loom connection. But that's something that could be done if the above doesn't work.