Rover 400DotMatrix |
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 Expert Posts: 4458    Location: Jelling, Denmark | I bought a non working rover 400 1.6 in order to use its engine to make a new one for my metro. The 400 had a cracked wind-shield because some one had thrown a brick through it as you might see in the first picture. The engine didn't work though, but I knew that. The guy had driven the car dry for water with out noticing until it was seized solid. I took the engine apart and noticed that it was only seized in brown sticky cooked oil and that it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed with new piston rings, head gasket etc... so since the car was in really good shape body wise and had little to none rust I decided to keep it instead of robbing its engine. any way, here are some pics        Edited by DotMatrix 4/12/2012 8:52 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | So today I changed the windscreen to a new one. damn what a job cutting the old one out and vacuuming all the glass pieces up.    Edited by DotMatrix 4/12/2012 8:55 PM | ||
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 Metro Mad Posts: 7653   Location: Tamworth, Staffs | Not bad for an old bath tub  I scrapped my old 400 back in 2006 as the rust was starting to show on the roof and rear 1/4's and I found it more cost effective top replace it with my ZS than to fix it up | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | R119GTA - 23/9/2012 9:45 PM Not bad for an old bath tub I scrapped my old 400 back in 2006 as the rust was starting to show on the roof and rear 1/4's and I found it more cost effective top replace it with my ZS than to fix it up the zs i also a nice looking car cleaned the two top corners prior to fitting the new windshield, gave them a lick of rust removing stuff and rust primer, so hopefully it will be some time before the water gets in do have to do up one of the rear arches aswell though. | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | did some more work on the 400 this weekend, cleaned and painted the block and the crank frame and put the block and crank back together with new waterpump and gaskets. also stripped the head for cleaning all the old brown dirty slime out and got the head ready to have it pressure tested.       Edited by DotMatrix 4/12/2012 8:58 PM | ||
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 Expert Posts: 2029 Location: sittingbourne, kent | |||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | |||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | got a lot done on the engine this weekend, so now I'm waiting for among other thing an oil pump gasket, but they should arrive before next weekend so I can continue with it and hopefully get it back into the car soon.         Edited by DotMatrix 4/12/2012 9:02 PM | ||
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 purple_metty Posts: 2165 Location: leicsestershire | Looks brand new! Its going to look funny bolted to that dirty gearbox  | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | redgrave66 - 30/10/2012 7:21 PM Looks brand new! Its going to look funny bolted to that dirty gearbox you are right. I will have to clean the gearbox a bit but still, have to start somewhere with the tidying up. | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | did some work this weekend again and got the engine into the engine bay with almost everything fitted. something isn't right though as it wont start, but I will figure this out next weekend hopefully.     Edited by DotMatrix 4/12/2012 9:06 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | No pictures today, but it is now alive! had it started and drove it. All it needed to start was fob syncing and having the clutch held down while starting. I dont knop which of the two that did the trick but it drives realy well. It only ran on 2-3 cylinders at first but a bit of running cleaned the injectors and it now runs well. Sounds nice to. Not tapping at all. All i need now is bit of rurt work in the corner of one arch. Fitting the last plastic bits in the engine bay, fixing a snapped anti rollbar bolt, fixing a hole in the exhaust and having the brakes checked and it should be ready for an mot | ||
| 111Sli |
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 Transport Guru MP Moderator Posts: 4947 Location: Bromley, Kent | good news! Get some alloys on it, will look so much better! I always have liked the Rover hair pin type wheels personally.  | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | Yeah i know. And there is also a very cheap set of the standard alloys for sale in denmark now. It is just that i have already spend a lot of money on this car lately and i think the wheels will have to wait. But i was looking at a set of those 15 spoke 17" wheels and think they would look great on it Edited by DotMatrix 12/11/2012 7:40 AM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | did some work today. changed a broken anti rollbar bolt, started clearing off rust flakes for rust proofing, removed the side skirts underneath which I found some rust that need to be repaired. also cleaned and greased up the front brakes. I will continue this work next weekend with the rear brakes, rust proofing and painting the welded places and the places that is rusted on the visible parts of the car. by the way. what a stupid design, there was no end to the amount of dirt collected behind the front inner wing, side skirt and in the bottom of the wing          Edited by DotMatrix 4/12/2012 9:12 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | this weekend I cleaned the interior as it was a bit dirty and smelly after being sat for some time getting damp inside, bit it turned out looking very nice I think after doing this I removed the rear bumper to see what kind of rust was behind there and to fix the two bumper mounting brackets in the rear inner wings, painted a few spots where I sanded down some surface rust, cleaned the underneath and started applying undersealant. also found this plug in the drivers foot-well. anybody know what its for?   Edited by DotMatrix 4/12/2012 9:18 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | Had a couple of rust holes behind the plastic side skirts that needed to be patched up. One of the two sides were done in this weekend, so now the other side needs to be done which is much nicer, no wing-work needed, and only half as many holes in the sill. Other than that the two rear bumper mounts in the rear wings need to be welded on as they have rusted away and a small hole in on of the jacking points, but its very near MOT ready now Also took a picture of a spare wheel and jack I managed to find used for £30 here in denmark     | ||
| Metromartin |
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 MP Admin Posts: 17870 Location: Gloucester | |||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | Metromartin - 11/12/2012 8:09 PM That engine cleaned up like new! Nice work, glad your saving it! thanks I hope it turns out to be a very reliable and long-lasting car that I can keep while fixing the gti engine. The plan is that my girl friend gets it when my gti is fixed again. | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | here you have some pictures of the progress since last. I sanded down the filler and painted a couple of places. the result turned out to be ok although I'm not that good at making the transition from the freshly painted to the original paint. neither am I that good at applying just the right amount of paint to match the darkness of the existing color, but imo the sanding down and edge between the old and new turned out quite good anyway. this is as far as I got this weekend         | ||
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 Admin Posts: 1576  Location: Burnley, Lancs | Nice work! Think I want your workshop  | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | Pietaster - 23/12/2012 2:55 AM Nice work! Think I want your workshop yes it is nice surroundings to work in but its not mine, my dad has a garage where I come and work on cars. | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | finished painting the welded bits, but didn't take any pictures, will take some later. I gave the car a cavity wax and waxing of spots needing in various places and also changed the exhaust from the cat and back as it had several holes in it. As car is now very close to complete I took the car for an MOT unfortunately the mot guy said that one of the headlamps was foggy (which I managed to polish away using some turtle product) and that some of the brake pipes were corroded so I changed them, so the car is now ready for an other MOT check of the fixed things and a new set of number plates as soon as a MOT place is open    | ||
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 drive it like its hired | |||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | petrol_head - 29/12/2012 7:40 PM its hard to believe someone would do so much work to a 400! so far it drives nicely and is very comfortable, in good condition, the newest car I have ever had, looks nice and it was cheap Edited by DotMatrix 29/12/2012 8:34 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | so did a few small things on the rover 400 today, removed the speedo sensor to find out why my speedo isn't working, and it seems the inside of the sensor has disappeared. the two remaining pictures is of the exhaust I removed. it was due for a change. I tried to remove the top gearbox oil plug, but couldn't, no matter how big a lever I used it didn't move, so looks like I will have to refill it through the top venting hole.    | ||
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MP Admin Posts: 17870 Location: Gloucester | |||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | It has probably been taken appart in the wrong place at some time when the broken engine was investigated by the previous owner and the inside fell out unnoticed. I have a new one comming | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | found a set of rover 400 wheels in very good condition and quite near where I live, so bought those this evening for £60.  Edited by DotMatrix 10/1/2013 10:35 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | bought and fitted a starter and a speedo sensor from itsonlyme. the old starter was very sluggish and drew a lot of power when starting the car, so if it didn't start the first time it wouldn't start, but this new one is much better    also got a used car radio that I fitted, and dammit it was a hard job to fit all those wires inside the dash and route the wires from the radio to the AV box and bluetooth module. left the phone module out as the radio has bluetooth, so figured I didn't need that, but time will tell once I get round to reading the manual this pile of wires is what I didn't fit.  fitting the radio. had to cut a bit of plastic out inside the dash to fit it as it was much deeper than the old blaupunkt one   sandblasted, primed and painted the two radiator brackets as the were quite rusty and the first thing you saw when opening the bonnet.  everything fitted and bluetooth and AV box hidden under the drivers seat with wires behind the centre console  and all though driving more than 1500 miles since rebuilding the engine still no water or oil consumption to report. hoping very much that it will stay this way for very long  Edited by DotMatrix 21/1/2013 9:33 PM | ||
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Transport Guru MP Moderator Posts: 4947 Location: Bromley, Kent | Have you installed the radio controls on the side of the steering wheel? They are really handy. | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | 111Sli - 21/1/2013 11:11 PM Have you installed the radio controls on the side of the steering wheel? They are really handy. nope don't have those. have been looking on the back side of the steering wheel for the place to mount them, but haven't really looked into it yet or if they do a cable that works with my radio. | ||
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MP Admin Posts: 17870 Location: Gloucester | |||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | Metromartin - 22/1/2013 1:23 PM good work! Those wheels are a bargin! They are 2004/5 year Rover 45 alloys, the last design before them company went bust. Your 400 might have the standard radio remote wires already in the ISO. Check the how to guide to see which 2 wires they are on the ISO connector. http://www.metropower.org.uk/Portal/default.asp?id=279&mnu=279 thanks. yeah the wheels are in very good condition but a bit small for the car only being 15" but then that will be ok as this car will eventually be passed on to the girl friend when I fix the gti thanks I will check for that wire in the weekend. thanks for the link | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | decided to clean the injectors using a bottle of this stuff. hope it will take my mileage up from 31 to the specified 33 and possibly make it idle better when cold, anyway they probably needed cleaning  | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | 14.76km/l (34.72mpg) on the last tank of fuel which is not bad hoping its the injector cleaner that made a big difference and not just because I refuelled using a different pump. boring update I know | ||
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 Expert Posts: 2623 Location: Auckland, New Zealand | Almost worth buying a ZS180, ours will do 35-36 pretty easily on a motorway run . Not so good around town though... | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | MG mad - 12/2/2013 3:27 PM Almost worth buying a ZS180, ours will do 35-36 pretty easily on a motorway run . Not so good around town though...uh sorry. I think my phone km/l -> mpg calculator is set to us galons (3.78 liters). recalculating using uk galon (4,546 liters) and uk mile (1,609344 km) it equals 41,69 mpg edit: but a zs180 would be a lot more fun than a slow 1.6 liter Edited by DotMatrix 12/2/2013 3:21 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 2623 Location: Auckland, New Zealand | That does make more sense. Yeah the 180 is pretty fun to drive | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | so I had a problem with the dashboard light flickering and the relays inside the obviously later fitted relay box (hanging out on one of the pictures) was clicking away like a mad. Later it stopped coming on completely, so I fixed that this weekend. First I thought the problem was the red relay box behind the fuse box that was the problem, so I changed that. which didn't fix the problem. so then I changed the light/indicator stalk which did fix the problem. Both the new red box and the stalk came out of my spare-parts MGF so good thing I still have that standing around By the way. check out the birds-nest of wires! Also, the tightening bolt on my alternator was missing so I rethreaded the alternator and tightened my belt. surprisingly easy without removing anything.     Edited by DotMatrix 18/2/2013 6:03 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | everything running spotless with this car so far. uses half a liter of oil approximately every 6000 miles which is understandable since I didn't remember to change the valve caps, other than that its really good. anyway I decided to try and pull out the polen filter to check how old it was and I don't think the previous owner was aware that this filter was there because it was really filthy so I washed and cleaned the whole car inside out, trunk and under bonnet    | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | fitted new wheels this weekend. makes the car look newer I think 195/50-15 continental tyres  | ||
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Transport Guru MP Moderator Posts: 4947 Location: Bromley, Kent | (Y) Try sourcing a mk2 R45 lip spoiler for the bootlid, it would really suit this! | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | 111Sli - 18/6/2013 11:21 PM (Y) Try sourcing a mk2 R45 lip spoiler for the bootlid, it would really suit this! Yeah i know. I saw the pictures of that one which is the same color as mine with a black boot lip and black grille on mg-rover. Looked very very good 40mm lowering would also help a lot What does (Y) mean? | ||
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Transport Guru MP Moderator Posts: 4947 Location: Bromley, Kent | (Y) means Thumbs up | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | just thought i would update this from my holiday in sweeden in this car the car is still driving nicely although i have now done 18000 km in it. I changed the batteri in my key-fob yesterday because the range was limited to just above the windscreen, this improved the range wastly up to several meters away from the car so this is very good but a bid nerverecking since i have never changed battery in a fob before and didn't know if it could make the car not want to start. Anyway the procedure was take the battery out, push both buttons at the same time to drain power, insert new battery, push lock button 4-8 times until the car locks. Then today i hit a medium sized pot hole and this turned my srs light on in the same way it had previously been on with it flashing breefely then having a pause of 4-5 seconds then flashing again abd so on. This has been wrong before but the problem disaphered so looks like i have something to do when i get home. Stupid srs system! Anyway, nice holiday to you all | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | changed the petrol filter on the rover 400 on my vacation which I wanted to due as I hadn't changed it before in the time I have owned it  changed the heater air filter, but unfortunately I bought the wrong one. the width was right, but it was 3 cm to short, but I made it work anyway by filling the void with foam I cut off.   I had a puncture the first week (also punctured last summer holiday in sweeden, I suppose you are supposed to have punctures in sweeden). had the first puncture fixed and then ran over a massive road-colored rock with my one rear wheel and that gave the tyre a bubble on the side which doesn't look very good. I will take it to a tyre place at some point to see if it can be fixed or if a new tyre is required.  Edited by DotMatrix 13/7/2013 8:56 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | So I did a bit of work on the car this weekend. Emptied the cooling system, flushed it, cleaned the expansion tank and put it all together again. A while ago I installed some new speakers in the parcel shelf, but didn't ever fit the speaker covers as they didn't fit, but made them fit with a saw, a file and some glue I read in a very good book about the k-series engine that the heat and radiation-heat from the manifold warms up the water in the block on the exhaust side and also helps to warm the cylinder head on the exhaust side, so I heat wrapped the top part to keep the temperature down. no idea if it helped though      | ||
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Transport Guru MP Moderator Posts: 4947 Location: Bromley, Kent | |||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | thanks this weekend I changed the oil in the engine as it was due and I started changing the two bug bushes in the rear suspension. what an awful job to do!        | ||
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MP Admin Posts: 17870 Location: Gloucester | |||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | Metromartin - 6/11/2013 8:56 PM Excellent work! Looks a very tidy car now weldone! Thanks it is a very nice car i think but it does have the usual 400 problems with driver side airbag and a little moisture in the passenger footwell from a sligthly leaky heater probably. | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | as you can see the sealing on the old plastic cover for the heater inlet was non existing and I have been experiencing a bit of water in the footwell so I am hoping that a new seel would fix this. I also bend the flap supposed to avoid water dripping down into the heater inlet back in hope this would also help. Lets see if it helped during the winter      Edited by DotMatrix 25/11/2013 6:47 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | Changed my downpipe today in my new garage. damn those nuts was a pain to get off without snapping the bolts or damaging the thread. good thing I purchased new bolts.   | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | as you can see the front brake pads was well worn down so fitted a new set and also changed to my summer alloys which both drive and look very much nicer      | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | changed oil and filter today and changed the left hand side rear suspension bush as it was worn out. it has helped to make the car more directionally stabil but I can see that a couple of the bushes in the lower rear suspension arm also needs changing.       | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | so we got back from vacation and the trip to the UK was great. 2700 miles and no major problems. only slight trouble I had was the abs acting up but a bit of airing out the front brakes cured that, and the catalyst has started rattling from a heat shield  | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | my experiences with painting my own cars are not that good. usually it starts to bubble and rust come through after 1-2 years and it doesn't matter how I do it, normal base coat, rust proofing base, base and paint. So this time I sandblasted one of the places that have had rust repair work done to it when I god the car 1.5 years ago, painted it twice with rust proofing base paint three or for times with a thin layer of color and finally two times with some 1 component lacquer. it was allowed to surface dry in-between sprays and I know I didn't flatten the base coat so it isn't that pretty, but that doesn't matter for now decided to see if this lasts more that 1-2 years. but at least the blend in is pretty good   Edited by DotMatrix 29/7/2014 2:51 PM | ||
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| Member Posts: 28 Location: UK | |||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | Hamster12 - 14/8/2014 2:13 PM Fair play for doing all of this to a Rover 400 you've made a massive improvement. thanks I have done about 40k miles in it in the 1,5 years since I got it, so it has to be maintained somewhat. | ||
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drive it like its hired | DotMatrix - 14/8/2014 9:34 PM Hamster12 - 14/8/2014 2:13 PM Fair play for doing all of this to a Rover 400 you've made a massive improvement. thanks I have done about 40k miles in it in the 1,5 years since I got it, so it has to be maintained somewhat.What sort of MPG do you get? No one over here would do those miles in a petrol. | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | petrol_head - 15/8/2014 12:44 PM DotMatrix - 14/8/2014 9:34 PM Hamster12 - 14/8/2014 2:13 PM Fair play for doing all of this to a Rover 400 you've made a massive improvement. thanks I have done about 40k miles in it in the 1,5 years since I got it, so it has to be maintained somewhat.What sort of MPG do you get? No one over here would do those miles in a petrol. driving normally I get 45mpg depending on what sort of road it is. I think its quite good for a relative big car. | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | today I started painting the rear wing on the right side of the car. It had started to bubble from almost two years ago when we welded the wing and I painted it using normal spray can primer and spray can color and nothing else. now I sandblasted it, and gave it two thick layers of rust proofing primer. next I am going to sand the primer down a bit to flatten it and then give it 2-3 layers of spray can color and then give it 2-3 layer of spray-can 1k lacquer in the hope that it will not rust within the next two years again but last a bit longer.     Edited by DotMatrix 27/9/2014 8:42 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | so I continued with the wing painting. I am not a very good car painter. it often cracks for me when I apply the paint layers as you can see. in the last picture.    | ||
| petrol_head |
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drive it like its hired | |||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | |||
| 111Sli |
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Transport Guru MP Moderator Posts: 4947 Location: Bromley, Kent | |||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | |||
| petrol_head |
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drive it like its hired | |||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | I sanded down the wrinkly paint gave it a layer of paint or two and a couple of layers of lacquer and it helped a bit but on the look. I know it isn't super pretty but it is much better than what it was    Edited by DotMatrix 10/11/2014 10:49 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | I did a few small things on the car this weekend, balanced a wheel and touched up a bit of under-sealant. next year I have to give it a thorough going over (or rather under) with the waxoil as it worn off many places, but touching up will have to do for this winter as it is to late in the year for waxoil (the wax is too thick because its cold and its to wet underneath the car)  | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | changed the gearbox and engine oil. used Castrol Magnatec 5w-40 C3 oil for the engine and Total BV75W-80 for the gearbox as it was one of the recommended oils from rover for this car. Managed to get the top gearbox filling plug out by welding a large nut on the plug. Didn't have an other plug so fitted this one with the newly welded nut. I changed two of the rubber bushes for the front anti-roll bar as they were going bad. The car has its MOT comming up in 1.5 month so need to get all these small things fixed.      | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | today I changed to winter wheels, changed the spark plugs as the old ones had done 19k miles, measured the plug-leads and changed two of them to some used ones that were better, changed the rotor and dizzy-cap to some used ones I had that were better as the old ones had done 44k miles and were quite worn, but the next time I order something from Rimmer I will order leads, cap and rotor also. When I purchased the plugs I'm sure the text said Champion so I thought they would be the RC9YCC ones which I like, but instead these funny pointy-elektrode ones arrived. I wonder what make they are. On my short test run they seemed fine.   | ||
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drive it like its hired | |||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | petrol_head - 25/11/2014 11:06 PM It will run way better with those in, but you want ngk r's in really what make are these? I will report back how I think it runs on these, but I dont like the small pointy bit it looks like it will wear quickly. | ||
| 111Sli |
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Transport Guru MP Moderator Posts: 4947 Location: Bromley, Kent | |||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | |||
| Dave 20VTRO |
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| Elite Veteran Posts: 925 Location: Thinking of vvc'ing my Roadster Brabus :-) | |||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | Dave 20VTRO - 28/11/2014 4:35 PM Those plugs are Champion Platinum tipped plugs, they are std MGR fit that will last for at least 90K miles, they were std fit to mems3 engines and were changed at 90k miles along with the cam belt, as the mems3 engine has plugtop coils (50kv) the gaps were 1mm (040"). nice info on the gaps there, thank I guess they will be ok in my engine even though it don't have the mems3 coils etc? 90k miles?? aren't the cambelt change interval 60k miles? I normally change plugs after 10k miles, perhaps 15k miles but then they are also overdue. Can you link to somewhere that the change interval is stated? I have been unable to find it on champions webpage. | ||
| Dave 20VTRO |
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| Elite Veteran Posts: 925 Location: Thinking of vvc'ing my Roadster Brabus :-) | |||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | thanks for the link. that is usefull | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | this weekend I changed the bushes in the lower rear arms, bit of a job as the bushes didn't just pop out and the bolts were also a bit stuck. but 6 new bushes ended up in the lower arms. I can feel the difference and its much nicer and more predictable going around corners but sadly not going in a straight line, I will try tracking it some time soon and see if that helps with that         Edited by DotMatrix 30/11/2014 9:49 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | I have in a long time had a small water leak in this car, nothing significant, but I thought it might be the inlet gasket, but today I took the cam-belt cover off to have a look and I noticed the pink stains on my waterpump, so now I know it isn't the inlet manifold gasket, luckily I have a spare pump and gasket which I will fit some day. other than that a hole in the exhaust had developed and I welded that with my strange 220volt welder, looks like crap but I think the leak has been filled.    Edited by DotMatrix 6/12/2014 9:59 PM | ||
| Dave 20VTRO |
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| Elite Veteran Posts: 925 Location: Thinking of vvc'ing my Roadster Brabus :-) | |||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | Dave 20VTRO - 10/12/2014 9:47 PM I'd also be worried about the installed position of the cam belt tensioner, its 180 deg out, the hexagon hole should be at the bottom. Google 'Rover K series cam belt picture' and look at the first image. ok thanks for the warning. there seems to be some confusion on what way to position it. I will check with the rave cd when I do the waterpump and position it correctly. having said that it has been positioned like this for the past 72000km (47000miles) | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | just before christmas I changed one of the upper suspension arms on the rover 400 as the old one had play in it and it soon needs its MOT. very easy to change and relatively inexpensive, a shame the ball join alone cant be changed but you need to to change the whole arm. I also fixed two rust holes in the bottom, one in each side in the same place.    | ||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | decided to fix my flashing airbag light and had a hunch that it was flashing due to a bad connection so I took the airbag, steering wheel, rotary coupler and cowling off, and removed the fuse box cover. disconnected all the plugs measured that the rotary coupler was luckily fine I put it all together and it worked. no more flashing airbag lamp!   Edited by DotMatrix 23/1/2015 8:17 PM | ||
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | The car has had its MOT so now its road legal for two more years had to change a headlamp, brake disks, brake pads and two brake pipes for it to go through.    | ||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | as some of you might have noticed with my threads in the tech section I am changing the gearbox in my rover 400 but have also found that it needed a new clutch. this is still in progress but I have come so far as to be putting things back together now. Please notice my amazing clutch together-holder device    | ||
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drive it like its hired | Looks like rover special tool for the slave cylinder haha | ||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | petrol_head - 17/5/2015 9:28 PM Looks like rover special tool for the slave cylinder haha Yeah. And its the same color (almost) and everything By the way. I have the gearbox on again now. I hope everything works, especially the used clutch i put in! | ||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | old gearbox and clutch is out of the car, the clutch arm and brackets have been swapped over to a 57k miles box I removed from a rover 25 and that new box has gone in the car together with some new oil and its working perfectly!  | ||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | not the most interesting update I know my front tyres were well worn so purchased two new Dunlop Sport BluResponse, which isn't the most sporty sounding name, but they were quite cheap but looks really good with a lot of thread. the new tyres are the right size (185/55-15) where as the old one were 195/50-15) which looks better but makes the speedo incorrect.  Edited by DotMatrix 23/8/2015 10:03 PM | ||
