Rover diesel advice please

[Rocket88]

Going to need something economical and dull from mid January...........within reasonable distance of Dorset, though will obv travel. Couple of Rovers [25 and 45] 2 litre diesels have popped up locally......are they complete shite?

[Cavcraft]

Wuvvum is your man here I reckon.

[dollywobbler]

Not shite at all. Seems a decent lump that L-Series motor. 

[saucedoctor]

Rover L Series engine is generally very well regarded. 100 & 115 BHP flavours in the 25 and 45.

[KruJoe]

These can be cheaply and easily be tuned, with hilarious results. You do need to read more about Wuv's Rover of Doom.

Not veg friendly though. For that you want to look at 306's etc.

[Rusty_Rocket]

They are good cars with no major foibles. Only slight 'gotcha' can be injection pump failure, or rather the electronic module on top of it.

A pal had this happen to his 45- it wasn't worth fixing and simply cut out with no warning whatsoever 

[Stanky]

If you want something that fulfils neither requirement (Rover, or diesel that is) - I'll be looking to sell my pez almera around that time. It is dull, and it is economical though.

 

And reliable too.

[HH-R]

The L-Series is excellent. When they come up for sale they usually have huge mileages on though.

[sierraman]

As above people sell cars like this now when they are absolutely fucked, given they aren't worth much but do loads mpgs. Round my end lots ended up getting cabbed.

[gadgetgricey]

Going to get shot down in flames here, but if you are after a cheap diesel, I'd go for a Xantia,

TD for Veg oil goodness, or an Hdi for more power but diesel only,

 

Had a 400TD, which was a nice car, but ended up being a beast to start. Changed two of the glow plugs as the first two were hidden behind the pump. (though that's probably just me being a shit home mechanic)

 

The Xantia's are plentiful, cheap as chips and quite reliable.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[skattrd]

Are you sure about this Joe, I thought L series were vegetarian.

 

Not veg friendly though. For that you want to look at 306's etc.

 

Anyway - colc do it ... Apart from the l-series being full of WIN some Rovers of that vintage have swanky double wishbone suspension so handle well

[scruff]

I think they are ace - loved ours. We had a 220Sdi with the intercooler and it had some real grunt. As above, 50mpg and only got rid when it was fucked (car not engine). 

[saucedoctor]

L Series are all Bosch pump. Not being a deiselist, I don't remember if that does or doesn't make then VO friendly.

[Guest AmbulanceChaser]

Had an early 400 saloon L-series diesel.... and it was great! was getting great mpg and im not soft on my cars either. Pretty sure the early prefacelift models were mechanical pumps.... could very well be wrong though....

[KruJoe]

Are you sure about this Joe, I thought L series were vegetarian?

 

L Series are all Bosch pump; I don't remember if that makes then VO friendly.

 

Oh! Probably veg-compatible then! Interesting...

Will, my WVO-mad sibling, had a 220 TD for a short time (v.cheap from a colleague), and he didn't dare put veg in it, so I assumed dino only. Perhaps he didn't know the pump's provenance.

[wuvvum]

As others have already said, I love these things.  I've never owned a car before that will get to 60 in 8.5 seconds and yet return 55mpg average fuel consumption.

 

The 25 is a bit different to the 200 - still an L-series engine, but it has a different injection setup with a higher pressure pump.  That means that the plug-in Roverron tuning boxes don't work - if you want to tune a 25 for silly power the ECU will need to be remapped.  An easy upgrade is to fit 200 injectors - they go straight in, but are designed to work with the lower pressure VP37 pump, so will flow more fuel at the higher pressure than the standard 25 injectors.

 

Generally they're pretty much bulletproof.  They're never going to be the most refined engine, but there's no temperamental common rail bollocks to worry about, and I've never had any starting issues with the 200 (which has 117K on the clock) - down to about -2 or -3 it'll start straight away with no preheat, any colder than that and I have to let the glowplugs do their thing.  They do supposedly manage OK on veg too, although I've never tried it.

 

They're quite comfy for a relatively small car - I'm more fucked than I should be at my age, but I've never had any discomfort on long runs.  The 200 isn't the last word in handling (the L-series is a heavy engine which doesn't help), but it manages OK.  I think the 25s are a bit better as they had a revised front suspension setup.  The 400 / 45 is a Civic underneath so has a more sophisticated suspension setup - I certainly found the steering on the 400 more positive.

[wuvvum]

gadgetgricey, on 14 Nov 2014 - 5:23 PM, said:

Had a 400TD, which was a nice car, but ended up being a beast to start. Changed two of the glow plugs as the first two were hidden behind the pump. (though that's probably just me being a shit home mechanic)

 

My 400 was a bit more of a pain to start in the winter than the 200, but then it did have nearly 200K on the clock (and a crap battery).  All the L serieseses I've owned have only had three glow plugs though - as you say, two are easy to get to and one is a pain in the arse.

[dieselnutjob]

Am I allowed to shamelessly spam my Rover diesel fault code reader on here?

[Rocket88]

Starting to get an itch for a diesel 600..........join the dollywobbler 600 fanboi club.................!

[Pillock]

Am I allowed to shamelessly spam my Rover diesel fault code reader on here?

No, you must pay premium membership fee first.

 

This is currently 20p, payable by inserting it next to your handbrake.