Davie's french attraction.

[daviemck2006]

Here’s the rover in all its glory. Pics do flatter it a bit, the paint is poor, lots of fading and lacquer peel. And a couple of minor dents! What do you expect it’s a 25 year old rover. It drives ok with a typical xud rumble at idle when cold, but ok on the move. It’s for banger duties at the moment, so deliveries for the meantime. I now need a bit of a clear out. Shauns 107 is here, out of mot, he has the Vw bora now which he is intending buying outright. I’m going to keep the hilux, I love driving it, I have a Hyundai Getz here, it belonged to a friend who has left the country and I’ve been left to sell it for her, the Leon I should keep but it is so boring I have no real impulse to drive it so it’s due mot and going to be sold on soon. The rover, too new an arrival yet to decide on its future.

[Gibbo2286]

My daughter had a silver 216, she loved it but wasn't happy at being called Mrs Bucket.

[white exec]

Do slippers and pipe come with these, Davie, or was that just the 75 ?

[daviemck2006]

Do slippers and pipe come with these, Davie, or was that just the 75 ?

That was the 75, the V8 one that clarksons drove everywhere sideways

[CitroJim]

That Rover looks a perfect workhorse for you Davie... It is true bangeromics and running costs should be next to naff all Pleased it's arrived safe and well

I like it's patina...

As it's an XUD, if you don't know when for sure, I'd change the cambelt, water pump and tensioners ASAP for peace of mind and also give the cooling system a good check. With regular cambelt swaps and a well maintained cooling system it'll go on for ever and a day

What gearbox has it got?

[daviemck2006]

I think it has the MT gearbox Jim. The speedometer doesn't work, the previous owner had fitted a digital one which he has left. The car has been lowered, but not stupidly low, and has a sports back box on it. Its riding on a genuine set of rover alloys with what looks like recent tyres, although an unknown brand. I havent consulted the handbook/service book yet, the wallet with the books are there. Also 2 Haynes books of lies, one for the rover 200/400 petrols and one psa diesel engine.

[CitroJim]

I think it has the MT gearbox Jim.

Makes sense as it easily matches the bellhousing... I asked as I knew that with the Maestro and Montego they used a VAG 'box and I did wonder idly if on the 200/400 they used a Honda-sourced 'box given the petrol 200/400 had a lot of Honda about them...

The speedo problem, if an electronic one, could well be the sender in the gearbox... If the speedo is cable driven it could be just a duff cable or stripped gears in the gearbox sender...

In either case the sender/gear drive will be easily replaceable with spares from any PSA 'box and new speedo cables can be remanufactured if not available as a service part...

I'm looking to get Daffodil's remanufactured as her speedo, like so may PSA mechanical speedos, is very flickery now...

[Hell Razor5543]

I had an issue with the speedo on my BX being erratic (bouncing anything up to 5MPH either way), and a friend suggested I dribbled a little 3 in 1 oil down the cable, which I did. A couple of days after I did this the speedo settled down to a stable reading.

[white exec]

I need to try exactly that on the BX here, James. Oddly, better in cold weather (down to 5°C early morning), but waggly between 40 and 60km/h. Will try some lube.

I do remember a very odd Leyland/A-R speedo cable fault, where the cable could "wind up" gearbox oil, and bring it up into the instrument cluster. I think a one-off.

[mickthemaverick]

Don't use WD40 Chris, works initially but once it evaporates it makes it worse I found. I used sewing machine oil on my BX and as James said 3in1 is good too.

[white exec]

Thanks - will try a light oil. WD is OK for freeing things up, but no great shakes as a lasting lubricant.

3-in-1 used to have a grizzly reputation for going gummy, and leaving a stiff varnish-like residue behind - good for protecting your lawn-mower, but not so good on light machinery, and certainly not clocks or sewing macines! The giveaway was the yellowy stuff which accumulated on the top of the 3-in-1 cans after months of use. Sun Oil did rather well out of this, by marketing their light machine oil as "non-gumming". Hopefully the 3-in-1 stuff was long ago reformulated.

[daviemck2006]

Well a vagcom refused to connect with my leon yesterday, so although the lights are illuminating and pointing in near the right direction they are still not going up and down and side to side. The sideways movement doesn't matter, but for a MOT xenon lights must have self levelling. I'm in for MOT next Tuesday. However I asked Graham, my MOT man of many years and he says hes not going to fail it if the headlights illuminate and point in the correct direction on the beam tester. So hopefully it will be fine. The car had a full service at a garage a few weeks ago and the only issues were the headlight out and a pointing out that the front tyres reaching the end. Two uniroyal rainexpert fitted now and the light kind of ok so will be hoping for a clean pass for it for the third MOT I've done on it. 3 MOTs on one car in my ownership? That's unheard of before this one lol

[daviemck2006]

And the Leon duly failed its MOT today. Switched headlights on and the left one flickered and went off, no dip or main. Everything else on the car is perfect. Even the brake balance, front, rear and handbrake was perfect scores of 0% imbalance and smoke emissions perfect too. So after it failed I borrowed the other side of his garage, took the bumper off to investigate. Removed the ballasts and swapped them. No headlights at all. Swapped them back, no headlights. So I checked the fuses. They are good. So the headlights in with one bolt, bumper on with 4 bolts instead of 16 and drove home on the side lights and fog lamps. I need to get the car on vagcom diagnostics to see what it says. There is still water getting into the left headlight somewhere, it needs drying out again and sealer around the joint between glass and plastic. That's the third time I have put this car in for test, third time its failed on headlight issues. I hate xenon lights. Why are they needed? The 1994 rover has as good lights as the Leon's xenons. Simple halogen bulbs, a few quid for a new bulb if it fails instead of seat wanting £375 or whatever it is for a ballast, £70 odd for a bulb and near £600 for a light then £140 to fit them. The car has pissed me off once too often, so it is get lights going, get mot and up for sale.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Headlights are heading for even more expense should you ever break one, or the software and hardware behind them goes kaput...one thing is for sure no-one will be able to fix them!

The digital matrix LED headlights. Soon you will be able to project a movie on your garage wall with the things!
Article and vid in the spoiler about such lights on an Audi E-tron.

Spoiler: show

https://electrek.co/2020/10/14/audi-hea ... tric-suvs/

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

This fiasco just about takes the biscuit for me. We have been driving for years on perfectly adequate headlights, since the advent of the sealed beam really, which has of course improved to halogen etc over the years. If one blew it was a new bulb for a fiver, if one got smashed it was a new unit for fifty quid or so or a tenner from the breakers! Now we are going down another ludicrous engineering development for no real need which results in the best part of a grand to replace when the youngster's bike falls against the headlight by accident and breaks it, see Elaine's troubles here. Pure lunacy and a waste of very talented people's time and effort IMO. They could be much better employed trying to kill Covid or see all the kids in the world get clean water and we all get non polluting energy. But no, they are pratting about developing unnecessary stuff because they can!! and the reason??? MONEY!!!