Lord Sterling's fleet of failure - Goodbye Micra 😢

[Lord Sterling]

Er...yeah.....

 

I thought about putting this in the 'News 24' section but decided to put in here instead for my own records.

 

Anyway, today I planned to just go up to my garages, open them up, take a quick look and see everything was Ok, accept... I had a few parts getting in the way in the shared garden entrance, so decided to take them with me, but, I also had a load of stuff under a tarpaulin in my garden, there were a METRIC LOAD of wheel trims, a set of Ford Pepperpot Alloys and some Rover wheels. I decided it was high time much of this stuff was to go. What started up as getting rid of some stuff from the side entrance, turned into getting rid of most of the wheel trims under the tarpaulin and a couple of Rover wheels.

 

The KV6 Sterling was pretty full bar the front passenger seat. Upon arriving at the garages I offloaded the lot and sorted a few other things out. As the twat, who is renting the garages to me through the council has left a load of his stuff in one of my garages, the garage is basically full to bursting point which is a bit shit to be honest, but until I can sort somewhere else out, this is how things are looking:

 

 

Then, for some unknown reason, I decided to see if I could get the mk2 827 Sterling started, this was the first time I'd brought the KV6 with me so if I could get it out I could get them side by side and compare, I didnt think it would work though.

 

The 827 didnt have a battery as I think I left it in the 825 next door, I couldnt get be bothered to get the inside to open the bonnet as the pic above illustrates. I remembered that one of Brad's cars ran without a battery as it had a strong alternator so I decided to try this thinking it would end in failure, I hooked up the jump leads, and after a few cranks, the 827 burst into life! I unhooked the leads thinking it would go out but the 827 kept on running, through my excutement I accidently had the leads touch sending sparks flying.

 

Despite unhooking the jumps leads, the 827 still ran! Half of the cover was still on the 827 as were a couple of boxes, so after backing up the KV6 out of the way, I decided to jump into the 827 and try and get it out, it was now or never....

 

I slid the autobox into '2' but the accelerator was stuck, seized from lack of use no doubt, it would go down, so I slid it back to 'N' and pressed the accelerator harder eventually managing to get it unstuck and slowly drove the 827 outside for the first time in about 3-odd years.....

 

KV6 says: Lad, ye didnae teel mee ye haad anoothar Sterling.

 

 

I left the 827 Sterling to run for about 15/20mins whilst I set about brushing the garage out and taking pics of the cars together. The engine was sounding horribly rattly and the slight 'bumping' sound coming from the engine was getting worse, there was a load of smoke like stuff coming from the walls of the engine block and it was also started to piss something out from under the car which at first I thought was coolant, but upon parking it back in the garage it looked more like engine oil:

 

 

All the electrics worked Ok apart from the boot/fuel flap release, I should imagine some fettling will sort this out, the radio, surprisingly didn't need a code! What it needs now is a new cambelt, water pump (I suspect this is whats making the "bumping noise") exhaust, 4 tyres and a good service. This will probably set me back about £500 or so.

 

I felt quite downhearted that its condition basically got worse, it feels like a dying car but I'm not going to give up on it, its a nice car that needs a few quid and some elbow grease to get sorted, I know others on this site have taken on alot worse.

[Split_Pin]

Given that the block appeared to be smoking I'll bet its a leaking rocker cover gasket, perished with lack if use.

 

Good on you for not giving up in it, its that sort of faith and sheer bloody-mindedness that keeps our cars from the scrappy.

 

It's a cracking looking car with what looks like a great paint finish.

 

EDIT: With the worsening sound, ill bet its PAS fluid leaking out and the pump running dry. Wouldn't explain the smoking block right enough. Didn't you say one of your other Rovers had a PAS leak at one time?

[ruffgeezer]

Are these any use to you? Local to me if so:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rover-820-pair-of-front-wings-/151035904929?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item232a7103a1

[Lord Sterling]

Thanks ruff, I did message the chap about those wings, he said they were dark Blue as I assumed they were Grey. I shant take them as I've got too much stuff and I reckon the wings I've got are Ok. I bet though, I'll end up up buying a Blue Rover Sterling as some point that will need some Blue wings and I'll look back on this thread and think, why?

 

IanL - Cheers man, I shall get it seen to as soon as I have enough money to sort it out. The paintwork isn't bad, before it was parked up it was involved in a minor bump which saw the drivers side wing being changed, the passenger wing has a fair amount of rust bubbles on the lip, but I have the passenger side wing from the breaker so that can go on later.

 

After I wrote my last post I got a bit bored and went outside to see what the Orange rear light, like what my 827 has, looks like on the KV6:

 

 

I only fitted the rear wing light to see how it looks, it looks Ok but then it doesnt look right without the white reverse light on the bootlid which is a little more fiddly to change.

 

I also stuck the spare alloy in the boot to replace the steele wheel. These later 800s never came with a spare alloy.

[Angrydicky]

I do love seeing photos of your collection Lord Sterling, it really is fantastic to see you keeping these cars and persevering with them even though circumstances keep prevailing against you.

 

I really like the new 820E, that is almost identical to the one my dad used to own. Being a D reg must make it one of the very first as well? Also OE is a Brum reg, could it be an ex Longbridge company car/press car?

 

I can sympathise with the accumulation of tat, I have two garages, summerhouse, bedroom and landing full of old car parts and general tat that I find hard to get rid of in case it would come in handy one day.

[RoadworkUK]

L.S: I have to say it's a real shame you don't live on my manor, or vice versa; it's good to have an 800 ally on hand to deal with the fortnightly crisis...

 

It doesn't look like mine will be coming out of hibernation this year, but I'm determined that it'll be back on the front line for 2014. Keep it up.

[Angrydicky]

Just seen this on the Autoshite Facebook group.

 

 

 

It's in a scrapyard near Sible Hedingham, and looks like it would yield plenty of spares.

[Lord Sterling]

Wow AD! G149 OFD comes up as an 827 SLi auto. The wings look pretty good on it as do the bumpers, the boot lid would be something interesting too and i certainly wouldnt mind the numberplates, I've not seen those old style plates on a G-reg for amlong time. Sadly, its a little too far for me at the moment (despite Ma_Sterling working in Essex) thanks though AD, I have stuck it up on the R800 site though I don't think that'll be very useful as most people have mk2 820 TurdboZ/Coupes with big wheelz.

 

RWUK - T'is a shame, its good to have someone nearby who can help. At the moment, the only friend and fellow enthusiast I know who is willing to help is VeryTallBrad who is in Worcester, there are a few people nearer, but I don't really know them or seem willing to help.

[mercedade]

Ah, I've just enjoyed reading this.

 

Mo, although I'm up in Manchester, if you're ever passing and fancy a Festival* of 800 Reminiscence, by all means drop in.

 

My first 800 was being driven by my dad as he test drove an L reg 820 Vitesse (in Nightfire - it's crazy how clearly I can remember that!) from some secondhand dealer in Basingstoke when I was about 14. I loved it and properly sulked when he bought a 405 GRi instead.

 

I like to think I've served my time, keeping an 825 diesel going long past it's natural lifespan (including roadside water pump changes in an attempt to keep The World's Most Temperamental Cooling System happy), playing with a hilariously Hooliganised Mk1 827 (ex-Super Duper Brad's, as you know) and now having an equally nice play with my utterly standard and utterly lovely Vitesse.

 

Right now I'm afraid I do fall into the big wheels and turbo brigade, but in my defence that's how Rover built them. However, previous form includes a number of XJ40s, W124 and the like, as well as silly things like 220 GTi and Mk1 MR2.

 

I'm more than capable of driveway fettling and fault-fixing, so if you need a hand with anything mechanical and you're around this way, pop on round. Bodywork, however, is not my thing.

 

800s are definitely conversations starters - I don't think I've ever had so many "we used to have one of them!" chats with people in supermarket car parks as with these.

 

*I could put up a gazebo. And possibly serve nuts.

[warren t claim]

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/breaking-for-spares-rover-800-20-petrol-5-door-manual-1998-s-reg/1023402385

 

Any use to you?

[Brent_Crude]

Great read LS. I've got a few days off coming up so will try and find time to rifle through the family albums and put some pics up of the old man's succession of late 80s/early 90s 800s. He basically had a company car deal with Rover that saw him get a new one every year, so there was all sorts of specs and colour combos, which kept things interesting. I'll never forget the smell of fresh Rover leather, wonderful stuff.

Keep up the commendable efforts in keeping yours going and in top (original) order

[Lord Sterling]

Mercedade - Cheers fella and welcome to Autoshite, where we love the depressingly awful and unloved cars.

 

Warren - Cheers, that car is near me but I can never find the time or the spare cash to go down there and rob some bits from it. Besides, the geezer at the site charges higher prices than I am used to.

 

Brent - Cheers fella, and YES PLEASE for getting the pictures up! As you can see I am an absolute Rover 800 freak. Beware of me rambling about what engines/specs these cars had as if anyone else is actually interested.

[DVee8]

You need one of these in your life.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201301315137032/sort/default/usedcars/model/800/make/rover/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/postcode/dh23hx/radius/1501/quicksearch/true/page/1?logcode=p

[Brent_Crude]

I'd be in interested to know your thoughts on the 800 coupe, LS? I used to walk past some offices on the way to school in the early 90's and the boss had a gleaming one of these outside that I always thought looked the absolute business. Never seemed to really take off though and I haven't seen one in ages

[RichardMoss]

The coupes are great - they can suffer from window mechanism problems, water leaks in the boot (poor panel sealing on the rear deck) and rusty sills (easy enough repair).  Other than that, and the lack of availabilty of glass, they are just straight 800 fare - in a sexy body.

[Lord Sterling]

As RM said, they are brilliant cars and they still look stylish but do suffer from age-related problems, these can be overcome but it requires (a lot of) patience, time and a bit of money. It can be done though.

 

Personally I'd go for the V6 825 or 827, they feel like the right engine and power delivery for them. I reckon the Coupe should have only ever came with a V6. Ifyou have ever wanted to know what a Bentley Continental feels like powered by a 2.0 Montego engine, then look no further than the 820 Coupe (not Turbo) very strange thing to drive, an excellent looking car with a very strange engine set up. Wheezy power delivery and to top it all, it even sounds like a Montego, so whilst people will admire its looks, they'll be chuckling at ya' as you drive past in a beautiful car that sounds like a Montego.

 

The interiors of the Coupe are wonderful. From the off, all Coupes came with "fluted" leather seats (like the ones in my KV6) they are nice and comfy to sit on. All Coupes have leather seats, V6s, Turbos and the wheezy 2.0 820. Most V6s are autos, all Turbos are manuals and there seems to be a mixture of manuals and autos in the normal 2.0 form.

 

Coupes are just about cheapish now, but they are starting to climb in price as people are beggining (rather reluctantly) to just about accept them into the classic fold.

[warren t claim]

Any updates on you 800 collection? I'm feeling the need for some 800 love.

[Lord Sterling]

Absolutely nowt I'm afraid Warren. The KV6 is starting to look a little sorry for itself, the front bumper is drooping, the wheels are dirty and one is flaking its paintwork, the passenger side seat has stopped working and I've still not changed the rear bootlid.

 

I am trying to start a half-arsed tidy up at some point, I need to borrow some shelter to change the bootlid and straighten the front bumper. I have secured some identical, but better-conditioned wheels which I need to pick up from London the week after-next. The cambelts on the KV6 are worrying me slightly, I am awaiting some prices for belts change.

 

Due to the general tattyness of the bodywork and car in general, half of me thinks to just simply drive it until it expires, but I can't resist trying to improve it either. There are far better and much tidier Sterlings out there that I could easily spend a few hundred quid reparing head gasket and belts on. We'll just have to see what happens.

 

The other cars are still in thier storage places, I've not seen them for months unfortunately. I am awaiting some storage from a friend of mine who has a barn, but I need to wait until he is ready to rent said barn.

 

My old G-reg Mk1 has imploded its own engine, its fucked, and getting a new engine might prove a little more difficult ue to minor changes in these engines during thier run. But for now, I neither have the time or money to get it sorted, so for now its stored away at a friends barn until further notice.

 

The White E-reg one might become a form of bargaining in order to obtain a very clean D-reg example. The N-reg one, despite slowly dying might be put back onto the road if the KV6 expires.

[Lord Sterling]

Ok, Just sticking these here to keep things in perspective. I've done pretty much nowt to this car fore a while now, but there have been a couple of things of note.

 

The front bumper was starting to sag quite a bit and some of the alloy wheels were starting to let the overall visual state of the the car down.

 

I did have some pics somewhere but the Samsung phone decided to corrupt them as I was trying to move them to a memory card 

 

Firstly, I picked up some 15' Prestige alloys for £nowt from a mate in London.

 

This was one of the worst alloys on the car:

 

Next I headed down to my mate at the garage to use some of the tools he had and space (and to get away from the foul mouthed little twats who insist on playing football right near my car)

 

The alloys were changed over, after they'd been done I took off the bumper to be confronted by these:

 

These front brackets, mounted on the bottom of the front wings age and open therefore letting the side of the sides of the bumper down and making it look like its just hanging from the front. I managed to close one bracket, but the other fell off due to rust, so I got a bolt and bolted back onto the wing:

 

 

Its not right but it'll do for now.

 

I tried to align the bumper and although its straighter, its not tight up against the wing:

 

 

However, it'll do for now. I reckon the KV6 looks tidier for now:

 

 

One of the battery terminals had a huge amount of white powdery substance which indicates its been leaking. I got rid of the powder and copper-greased the terminals, later on I added a battery jacket/coat that are usually found on later VW/Vauxhall/BMWs etc.....

 

Next on the list will be to change the bootlid. Then, if I do manage to get myself back into full-time regular paid work, I reckon the cambelts will need to be changed too.

[HMC]

Just scrolled back to the early shots of the KV6- looks so much better now! Are the cambelts on these awkward? either someone told me or its just an impression i had when I looked at the engine bay once

[Lord Sterling]

There are 3 cambelts in these things, which I guess contribute to its smoothness, but they are a PITA of a job to do, even finding someone with the right tooling (the correct cam locking tools are needed) its a difficult and very expensive job, around £600/£800+ easily.

[rml2345]

I think they are pretty awkward on these. At least that's the impression I got when "RoadworkUK" did his. Are they just as bad on the 75?

[Lord Sterling]

I think so, they are basically the same principle. I do know that the 75 is slightly different ergonomically and fitting-wise to the 800s KV6 despite being the same engine so its not really a matter of chucking in a 75s KV6 engine into an 800 or vice-versa.

[mercedade]

I think there are actually only 3 cambelts on the KV6 - two smaller belts (one on on each bank) linking the cams, and one monster belt doing the normal crank/cam link.

 

I appreciate this is a bit like saying you've only been stung by 999 wasps rather than 1000, but you know, small reliefs and all that.

[Lord Sterling]

Right, its taken me a while to post this due to 1) My computer throwing a hissy fit 2) Memory card reader having a hissy fit, now binned. But, I've fought through it to bring you this update....

 

Some months back, VeryTallBrad offered me the opportunity to rent some space in one of his barns. I jumped at the chance, my cars were getting worse and worse where they were currently stored in Sutton Coldfield. Anyhow, its been a while, not least due to not having a job which can lead to spending money you cant replace.

 

Got myself back into a job which lets face it, doesn't pay that well and isn't enjoyable. Seeing as I now had spending power returned (sort of) I decided once and for all to get my cars out of their hell hole and into somewhere warm and safe.

 

VeryTallBrad and my mate Paddy who has a flatbed were called, dates arranged, plans set and today, the plan was finally tried.

 

I wanged my way to my garages in the 'Coldfield to get stuff out, sort it out and wait until Paddy could get his A-frame, he was going to take both cars, one on the flatbed and one on the A-frame

 

Cars awaiting:

 

Crap from the garage:

 

Paddy eventually arrived with Truck and A-frame, cars were started and out they came from their rather poor homes:

 

 

Tyres were pumped up and cars eventually loaded on, My garages were almost clear accept for a couple of wheel and 2 doors which I shall pick up in a few days.

 

A huge hole was discovered in the roof where the Mk2 827 Sterling had been living.

 

Garage cleared:

 

Then it was off to their new homes:

 

Cars were unloaded, washed and put into their new homes whilst I unloaded them of various bits that that I'd accumulated:

 

 

 

Nice, comfy and well protected now:

 

Hopefully this'll prolong the life the cars and enable me to have somewhere where I can work on them if needs be. I am very happy at the moment.

[DVee8]

You have a stunning collection there Lord S

[RoadworkUK]

Nice to see them like that, Mo. Also, I'm liking those Prestige wheels more and more.

[Lord Sterling]

Thanks guys, much appreciated. It was hard-ish work getting stuff out of the dusty garage, putting them down, picking them up again etc....

 

RoadworkUK - You might notice from the pictures of the 2 Grey Mk2s together that the Mk2 827 Sterling has 16" prestige wheels and lower profile tyres whereas my daily KV6 has 15" Prestige wheels and more tyre. The 16"s look ace as there is more face on them. I have another set of 4 16" Prestige (bought for £28!) but I plan to stick them on the Mk2 827 as its current tyres are ruined. If I see another set, I'll let you know, they'll look ace on your car I reckon.

[Lankytim]

[pedant] That's not an A frame, it's a towing dolly! [/pedant]

[seacow]

Thats some place Brad has - very impressive!