75 P6 V8 - Bye, this car

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Ignore user button pressing finger hovering...

 

 

Shut up you tart.

 

 

The Triumph was better. Prettier (because Michelotti), proper engine, suspension and brakes that worked well without being a Spencer King (or Stephen King) nightmare.

 

You must draw the same conclusions. Five years later, BMW E3 2500. Case dismissed.

[richardthestag]

Is it being sucked into the engine perhaps?

 

good point, leak through master into servo could suck back into the inlet manifold. White exhaust shmoke and plenty of it too

[SiC]

Is it being sucked into the engine perhaps?

Could be. This is certainly the way it happens with MGBs (the V8 seem especially susceptible). Conrad, when you rebuilt the servo did the kit replace the one-way valve?

 

I can't remember the failure scenario exactly but I believe if the one-way valve fails, air from the manifold is forced into the brake servo. This damages the seals and causes them to leak. Then when they leak it gets sucked into the manifold.

 

Usually the first people are aware of it is when there is no brake fluid left in the master cylinder and thus no brakes. If you have a mild leak I could see that doing it over time and not sitting in the bottom of the servo.

 

Some details of it here on the MGB v8: http://www.v8register.net/subpages/V8NOTE395.htm

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

[SiC]

Also,

 

I'm done. That's enough, I'm done. I'll fix some of the more egregious issues because there's no point trying to sell a super-broken car in the last half of December, but I'm done with it. Done. I don't have the energy, I don't have the money, and worst of all I don't even have the will anymore.

What's left to fix on it? How much would the grand* steed set someone back? Just asking for a friend like.

[Junkman]

Shut up you tart.

 

 

The Triumph was better. Prettier (because Michelotti), proper engine, suspension and brakes that worked well without being a Spencer King (or Stephen King) nightmare.

 

You must draw the same conclusions. Five years later, BMW E3 2500. Case dismissed.

 

Good cars are for bromides.

And before I allow the case to be dismissed, you will have to upgrade our statement to the 3.0 Si.

[Junkman]

rvr-why1.jpg

 

 

I must have botched the servo rebuild. So I poked a stick inside, but it came back dry. Okay... let's try something more technological. Let's give my brand new servo a colonoscopy.

 

rvr-why2.jpg

 

There is no brake fluid in there. It's bone dry, as it should be. Upon finding the servo borders closed, my migratory brake fluid hasn't stopped leaking, it's gone somewhere else instead.

 

 

I'm done. That's enough, I'm done. I'll fix some of the more egregious issues because there's no point trying to sell a super-broken car in the last half of December, but I'm done with it. Done. I don't have the energy, I don't have the money, and worst of all I don't even have the will anymore. 

 

Shit.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Brake fluid can't be sucked into the engine without leaving evidence in the servo. There is no evidence of brake fluid in the servo.

 

What's left to fix on it? How much would the grand* steed set someone back? Just asking for a friend like.

Jeez, big questions for 1am Conrad

[Junkman]

What's left to fix on it?

 

In my experience, the list changes daily but never gets shorter.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

In my experience, the list changes daily but never gets shorter.

 

 

[Heidel_Kakao]

Sad times Brakes are kind of important.....

[Junkman]

Yeah, but a P6 is the only car where the brakes wear you out, not the other way around.

[Clanger]

Noooooo

 

I don't think I could face life if you no longer have a P6.... you give me hope...

 

Can't you just man up and drive without brakes?

[LC Torana]

Well I certainly couldn't face life without a P6.  Wouldn't be worth living - I just couldn't face it.

 

(One place to look is the auto gearbox cable chafing against the brake pipe.)

[Junkman]

That's what I thought, too.

Then I bought a shabby chic R16 and it was like getting out of an abusive relationship.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Are we to deduce from all this that every P6 is haunted?

[Junkman]

Only one of them was genuinely possessed by an evil spirit.

It literally retaliated when you fixed something, like you would sort the brakes and in return it would grenade its gearbox the same day.

Unhaunted P6 ownership is difficult to describe, since all the misery you have to go through is rewarded with a unique driving experience.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Good cars are for bromides.

And before I allow the case to be dismissed, you will have to upgrade our statement to the 3.0 Si.

 

 

I see your SWB 200 bhp injected rocket, but raise you the 3.3Li in Chamonix white with blue leather and black vinyl roof. So there.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I have this AA 'Drive' magazine somewhere, but every year the AA used to give a square wheel award to the most unreliable car an AA member owned. In second place this year (1974) was a Triumph Stag, third place was this Humber Septic and in first place, a 1973 Rover 3500S. In a year it shat out three engines, two gearboxes, a diff and Christ knows what else.

 

Seventies British cars were generally pretty rubbish - the really cheap stuff like Minis were alright with Jaguars being about the worst.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Question.

 

Why do some P6s have spare tyres attached to their boot lid? Did Rover do this as a factory option (or standard?) back in the day, or a aftermarket addition?

 

Finally, why? Fashion or is there nowhere else to practically store a spare tyre?

 

To me it looks a bit out of place, but would happily be enlightened.

 

Boot mounted spare FUN FACT:

 

The vinyl cover was not originally part of the kit (although was available at extra cost). Instead you installed a 5th wheel trim (or "nave plate" as the handbook calls them) on the naked tyre. 

 

 

Now imagine what happens to your paintwork when rain washes all the filth from the filthy exposed wheel. Time for the cover to be included as standard and an addendum to the brochure:

 

[Junkman]

Instead you installed a 5th wheel trim (or "nave plate" as the handbook calls them) on the naked tyre.

I wonder how many minutes it was still present after the car was parked.

 

 

Now imagine what happens to your paintwork when rain washes all the filth from the filthy exposed wheel. Time for the cover to be included as standard and an addendum to the brochure:

 

rvr-knaveplate2.jpg

As if a P6 bootlid requires a spare wheel mounted to it for the paintwork to do all kinds of funny things.

[Squire_Dawson]

I have been thinking about this since that thoroughly enjoyable ride in it. There will be a logical reason for your losing brake fluid (I hope). If it isn't leaking in the servo, it must be leaking somewhere else. I would suggest waiting for a dry weather spell and carefully checking all the brake pipes and unions, for it is probably only weeping, and if nothing is amiss there, how about the calipers themselves?

[Junkman]

I really don't want to jinx things, but P6es have a knack for filling the rear caliper housings with brake fluid,

which prompted me to rebuild them for the first time in my life.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Well, abusive relationship is right. On Sunday I made peace with the idea of replacing it, and even found a suitable new car. Then, on the way home, it drove *so* flawlessly I couldn't believe I'd even considered replacing it. When I got home, I just carried on going and went for a wonderful little pleasure cruise on the misty midnight roads. 

 

Was going to look for the brake fluid today but instead vomited a bunch of times. Not sure how this is the Rover's fault but can't rule it out. 

[Skizzer]

Have you maybe been drinking the brake fluid?

[SiC]

Maybe its been excreting brake fluid into the cabin and hence it's been running well so it has plenty of chances to poison the owner. Cause P6s are possessed.

[Junkman]

Well, abusive relationship is right. On Sunday I made peace with the idea of replacing it, and even found a suitable new car. Then, on the way home, it drove *so* flawlessly I couldn't believe I'd even considered replacing it. When I got home, I just carried on going and went for a wonderful little pleasure cruise on the misty midnight roads. 

 

Was going to look for the brake fluid today but instead vomited a bunch of times. Not sure how this is the Rover's fault but can't rule it out. 

 

Mine always performed impeccably once I had decided to sell them.

[Heidel_Kakao]

Well, abusive relationship is right. On Sunday I made peace with the idea of replacing it, and even found a suitable new car. Then, on the way home, it drove *so* flawlessly I couldn't believe I'd even considered replacing it. When I got home, I just carried on going and went for a wonderful little pleasure cruise on the misty midnight roads. 

 

Was going to look for the brake fluid today but instead vomited a bunch of times. Not sure how this is the Rover's fault but can't rule it out.

 

They love to test the boundaries of your relationship like dog's do really..... Cedric did a few troll moves over the course of my collection mission but we are tight with each other now LOL

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I have this AA 'Drive' magazine somewhere, but every year the AA used to give a square wheel award to the most unreliable car an AA member owned. In second place this year (1974) was a Triumph Stag, third place was this Humber Septic and in first place, a 1973 Rover 3500S. In a year it shat out three engines, two gearboxes, a diff and Christ knows what else.

 

Seventies British cars were generally pretty rubbish - the really cheap stuff like Minis were alright with Jaguars being about the worst.

 

 

The Rover receives the square wheel award in the Summer 1975 issue. 

 

 

Here is the article in its entirety: https://imgur.com/a/hCAwK

 

Honourable mention to the new Hillman Imp delivered to a customer with mould on the seats and evidence of mice! 

[Junkman]

Mexico Brown. Need I say more?