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The Fine Art of Owning: A Rover 25

34K views 436 replies 22 participants last post by  Spudgun! 
#1 ·
This is day 7 of Rover 25 ownership for me. For the past 6 days, I've been going over the car with a fine tooth come, looking for all of those little faults that shouldn't really be there. I've found a fair few!

There are days when I wake up and say to myself: Some people shouldn't be allowed to own cars. Just how can someone allow a vehicle to deteriorate in such a fashion? The faults I found aren't major. Hell. The Rover would still pass an MOT. It's those little details that let the car down. They also annoy the hell out of me!

The head gasket had been changed, along with the water pump and the cam belt. I didn't mind the old cam belt being left in it's box in the boot, but they never filled the cooling system with antifreeze. They just used water. I've got several litres of 'dirty dishwater' cooling the engine. That'll have to go.

The 4 pin Trafficmaster clock had missing segments. OK, the Trafficmaster system has been switched off, but that's no excuse for not replacing the clock with an ordinary 4 pin (Job completed).

The car had a cheap and nasty CD player in it. ISO connectors everywhere! I thought the head unit was a 2 speaker only job. I replaced the CD player with an original fitment cassette player (CD autochanger to follow). It turns out that both front speakers were dead (Now replaced)! The wiring is a lot neater as well now.

The light in the glove box didn't work. It only needed a new bulb (Job done). What's wrong with people? I can understand not replacing the broken bulbs in the switches and behind the heater panel (On my to do list) as they're awkward to do.

Considering that I bought my 25 via Ebay. I'm surprised that other broken parts haven't been replaced. The centre dashboard air vents were broken. £10 from Ebay. Job done! Then there the stupid plastic fuel filler cap that I found on the washer bottle! GRRRRRR! I'm on the case with a replacement!

The air conditioning doesn't work! 'Well, the light comes on' Said the previous owner. 'The revs don't drop when you switch it on though' I reply. 'Oh, I didn't know that' He says. RAAAANNNTTT!!! That's another thing I'll have to get fixed.

There are things where I can't point a finger at previous owners. I can't even write a letter to Rover for the things that annoy me.

I don't like the really tacky printed wood effect on the heater controls. That's being replaced with the plastic moulding from an earlier model (I'll replace the broken bulbs while I'm at it).

When I fitted the front fog lights. I found that the screw retaining clips were present. What's the point of fitting the retaining clips, if you're not going to fit the lamps? OK, there is an explanation here. The clips were fitted before the front bumper was sprayed up.

Another thing that puzzles me is: Why is a complete cigarette lighter cheaper from Rimmer Bros than just the element itself? Suffice to say. I bought a complete lighter.

I'm slowly getting the 25 back up to spec. There's still a lot of work to do.
 
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#2 ·
I suppose previous owner did lot care at all about that lovely R25. He just wanted get rid of. That is the reason why he did lot bother when things got broken. At least I think so.

Nevertheless take your time and put TLC as needed. You will not get anywhere with being angry when you find new little things needs replacing. Be lucky that these are little things as you will get it to your pride soon. Just look for the enjoying side and life will be much easier.

:broon:
 
#3 ·
I can't really blame the person that I bought the Rover from. He had it for such a short time (He bought it for his wife, who didn't want it). At least he did get the head gasket fixed.

I'm pretty old school. With every 'new' car I buy, I give it a good going over. All of my previous cars only needed a service. Thus far, the 25 has had faults that would've been fixed during normal ownership. Just how hard is it to replace a bulb?

In truth, the days of the attentive owner are long gone (Unless you have vintage car). People are happy to live with a few faults. When those faults impact the School run or the shopping trip, it's time to get another car. People aren't mechanically minded any more. Thank God for this Forum. I've found more useful stuff here than I can in a Haynes Manual (They've gone down the tubes).

The Rover is getting all of the TLC that I can give it. I'm still looking for a Rover 75 'Connie' though.
 
#4 ·
Well you can say I am also "old school" guy. I am not buying car for short period of time. I am buying car for keeping.

I can understand todays people, or generaly all people to whoom car is just transportation from A to B and nothing else.

I am not that kind of person. I buy cars that I like for keeping and I will provide all the TLC I can.

In the same time I will try to get knowilg all I can get on my cars.

I am glad there are still such people around and on this forum as well.
 
#5 ·
The list when I bought mine:

Clock replaced

Head unit replaced & steering wheel control which wasn't working wired up.

Rubber gaiter round washer pipe to the boot was missing where someone had changed the pipe so that was replaced, fixing the leak into the boot.

Rear passenger door made water tight

At that point I only intended to keep it a few months but I just couldn't leave things broken. You're right though, most people just ignore little faults.

And of course several hours of clay bar, polish etc
 
#9 ·
The motor works just fine. I am assuming that the water comes from the bottle that's under the bonnet (I've had other cars where there was another bottle in the boot). If it was a broken pipe, wouldn't there be a pool of water somewhere? As of yet, I haven't found one. At this time, I'm thinking that the nozzles are blocked. I have one blocked nozzle on the front jets, so I'm swopping them out for a pair of jets from a Citroen Xsara. The rear jet appears to be moulded into some sort of cover. How that comes apart, I've no idea.

It's strange really. As the years have rolled by. Cars have become more complex and owner input has declined. Owner input has declined simply because the cars have become more complex. The easiest car to work on I've ever had, was a Triumph Herald. I even managed to change the pistons without taking the block out of the car, or removing the cylinder head (Sump plate off, unbolt, swing crank aside and pull on the con rod). Everything was in plain sight and easy to get at. Today, it's pipes and plastic bits everywhere! Electronic gizmos don't help either. I went looking for the distributor, only to find I didn't have one! Is it any wonder then that owner input has declined? Having said that. The life span of modern cars has been extended for a considerable amount of time.

In days of yore. People who bought a 2nd car looked at the mileage first. Back then. A car that could go 'around the clock' was almost unheard of. Now it's an every day occurrence. My 25 has done 94000. It's solid enough to do that again. If I compared the Rover to a car that was built in the 1970's. The condition would suggest that it was about 5 years old. Not the 13 years it actually is. Such is the improvement in materials and build quality. But that's the rub isn't it? It's almost as if the owners input has been designed out of the equation. Once the little faults begin to stack up. The car gets sold off. Sad really. These little faults are so easy to fix.

I only bought the 25 as a stop gap until the right 75 'Connie' comes along. Having said that. the 25 isn't going anywhere until it's right!
 
#8 · (Edited)
I know what you mean, why do people let things like bulbs just go untouched? It's a two second job.

My 25 didn't even have a bulb in the boot light. I've got spares of these things in my garage. Literally two seconds and it was working again.

I've replaced all of the faded centre caps on the wheels. New Union Jacks on the rear quarters, new '25' door strip decals, new wiper blades, a couple of new bolts. It soon transforms an ordinary car into a really tidy car!

My front passenger door card appears to be rattling, tonight I've noticed one of the clips is missing, I have a stock of those too so that'll be an easy fix.

It can take a little time to get a used car up to scratch, I still need to strip my arches out and properly clean it out under there. A full clay, polish and wax etc for the paintwork. Just got to be patient and do bits as you can.

We are in the minority buying old cars with the intentions of keeping them for a long time and taking some pride in them. Most people with these cars now just run them until they break then get rid.
 
#11 ·
One more thing I wanted to add: DESIGN.

I find MG Rovers with timeless design. Just few days back I had one guy admiring how good design of my R600 is.

From my point of view R200/25 MG ZR has so well targeted design that these cars are so beautiful today as they were when they are first produced.
 
#12 ·
One more thing I wanted to add: DESIGN.
There's one big thing I like about Rovers. They have a proper radiator grille! The cars are instantly recognisable as being a Rover. For me. That says everything about them. Yes, the radiator grille hails back to the days when all car makers had them. The radiator grille was the cars crowning glory. My old Rover was nothing more than a re-upholstered Honda Civic. However, would I buy one? Nope. It doesn't have that distinctive grille! Moving swiftly along......

Changed the 3 wiper blades and the air filter this morning. Not that they needed doing. I do it so I know that they're done. Whilst poking about under the bonnet, I dealt with the aftermath of the head gasket change. Nothing serious. Just clipping assorted hoses back into place. Then I noticed a bracket with a bolt hole in it, by the exhaust manifold. I'm sure something is missing. Is there supposed to be some sort of heat shield there?
 
#15 ·
#16 ·
The new V5c arrived today. I'm the 4th owner of the Rover. The previous owner only had the car for less than 10 weeks.

I've done some digging for the MOT history for the 25. Due to the age of the car. I've got a complete MOT history. It makes for some interesting reading.

It failed its first MOT for having bald front tyres (18506 miles).

It failed its third MOT for having bald front tyres again! Also the rear exhaust was shot (31667 miles)

Things went well until MOT No8. Then it failed for having a knackered velocity joint gaiter (76154 miles).

MOT No10 it all went pear shaped again. It failed on the other velocity joint gaiter (83557 miles)

It failed again on MOT No11. The first velocity joint gaiter packed up again (91151 miles).

That brings us up to the present day.

I've had a quick look at the washer nozzles on the rear wiper arm. They're not blocked. I even pulled off the cover and tried the pump. Nothing. I now suspect a knackered one way valve.
 
#17 ·
My rear window washer gets blocked regularly (I don't use it much) - it is almost always blocked in the elbow where the flexible tube fits to the pipe on the washer motor (in the tailgate). The blockage is never visible, but much broggling about with a length of stiffish wire seems to get things going again.

I would have thought wearing out a set of factory fit front tyres in under 19 thousand miles, was quite an achievement ?
 
#19 ·
I've done some more poking about as regards the rear washer. It looks like I've got a broken pipe. I gave the rear washer a good burst. As I walked around the car. I saw a puddle under the passenger side door. I gave the washer pump anther good go. The water appears to be coming out from between the vent holes at the bottom of the sill.

Does anyone know exactly where the pipe runs and how to get to it?
 
#20 ·
Flap on, flap off folks. I've found it.

The pipe was indeed broken. It had broken inside the rubber pipe that's connects to the tailgate to the body. Happily, it had broken at the connector. As a test I cut of the piece of broken pip and connected everything together. Full function was restored!

I will be effecting a proper repair. I have a piece of fresh pipe that'll sit inside that rubber thingy (The old pipe had gotten hard). Then I'll use another connector to splice the other end of the new pipe.

Ta-dah!
 
#21 ·
#22 ·
Thanks for the links. Pictures tell a 1000 words. I've pretty much got the repair covered now. The remaining pipe may be old, but it's in good order. Only the piece that goes through the rubber thingy needs to be renewed (Easy job). The upshot being. It'll be easy to replace if it breaks again.

I've a number of repairs in hand. Fingers crossed, most will be done by the end of the weekend. Then I'll have to concentrate on the remaining servicing. Remaining issues include: Non functioning air conditioning. Coolant change. Brake shoes and pad changes.

For the next MOT, it'll need a new exhaust pipe (I found some repair gum on the middle box). I'll get the cat tested when it goes for an air con recharge. It only just passed it's last MOT and it's still the original (The one on my old Rover 400 lasted 90000 miles before it was changed and the 25 has done 94000).
 
#24 ·
Well. I've fixed a couple of faults and I've acquired another.

All of my washers work fine now. Xsara washer jets were fitted to the front and a new piece of pipe was spliced into the rear. The broken bulb behind the heater controls has been replaced. The hideous wood effect panel has also been replaced with a panel from an earlier model. It looks more like my old 400 now.

The fault I've acquired is: The dashboard warning lamp tells me that the boot is open! It's quite firmly shut. There has to be a switch somewhere, but I've no idea where. Does anyone know?
 
#25 ·
#26 ·
The light in the boot operates correctly. I did check that guide and that's how I know. So that eliminates the actual switch on the latch. It's good to know that the latch switch operates both the boot light and the dash light.

By my reckoning, there's a snapped wire around the rubber tube on the right hand side of the tailgate. This snapped wire (Purple/red) is grounding out on the body.

Ah well. Another fix for tomorrow.
 
#27 ·
Well. The light is now fixed. It was a bit of a sod to find the fault.

The first thing I did was to remove the rear parcel shelf, so I could see the operation of the boot light. When the tailgate was up and the latch closed with a screwdriver, the boot light went out (as did the warning lamp on the dashboard). I pushed the lock button (so the light came on) and closed the tailgate. The boot light stayed on. Then I closed the latch and moved the tailgate up and down. Light goes off. Light comes on. Light goes off (You get the picture).

After pulling down the rubber tube thingy that connects the tailgate to the body, I find that some of the wires were scuffed. There had also been a previous repair (Not badly done though). With the damage fixed, I tried again. Good, but not perfect. The boot light went out 8 times out of 10. I did use the guide on this Forum to check out the latch switch. With a little bending and some cleaning, the switch works perfect! That's another job done!

Fitting a new exhaust manifold heat shield is going to be a swine. The Forum guide says it's a quick and easy job. One small thing though. The Rover used in the guide doesn't have air conditioning. I do. I've got this pipe that runs between the exhaust manifold and the radiator. This is going to be interesting......
 
#28 ·
Well, the heatshield is on. It wasn't easy, but it's done.

Unlike the guide: MG Rover Service Guides: Exhaust Manifold Heatshield - Removal and Refitting my Rover has air-con. The spacer that the guide refers too is where the alternator sits. Fitting the heatshield would require the removal of the radiator, in order to maneuver the left hand end behind the alternator. I certainly wasn't doing that. The only solution was to remove the shield left of the bracket. Once done, I could jiggle the heatshield into place. Still needed to be a contortionist to get the bottom bolt into place though.

The list of things to fix is getting smaller. I'm waiting for the CD Changer lead to arrive, so I can button up the head unit (I gave the removal tool to my friend, so it's in loosely). Another bulb is needed for the facia switches. Once that's done, I can move onto getting the coolant and air-con sorted. The 25 still won't be finished though. I've no idea what the state the brakes are, so I'll be changing the shoes and pads to be on the safe side. I'm pretty sure that the centre section of the exhaust is shot, so that'll have to be changed. Then it's a case of a good clean!
 
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