Project 1994 Rover 414SLi - Fin.

[vulgalour]

Chap on the club that knows his stuff thinks it's wheel bearing, as did Mike and I when we first inspected.  A pair are about £50, less probably because of our ECP trade account.  Comes with new hub nuts which I could do with up front anyway.  More than I really want to pay but it wouldn't hurt to do if it is that.

[scaryoldcortina]

Bottom ball joint would be my first guess based on the up down moves whole hub but side to side is fine symptom. Look from behind the wheel while someone else wobbles it for you. /tester

[vulgalour]

Bottom ball joint - brand new, fitted not very long ago, remember the fix-it-with-hammers thing? - seemed okay when we inspected it with someone wiggling and someone looking.  I hope it isn't that bottom ball joint, that'll mean another new lower arm, particularly annoying because Mike bought them and can't remember where from or where the receipt for them is.

[scaryoldcortina]

Can't remember if the 400 is mac strut or double arm, but if it's got a top ball joint check that too. Bottom one could be loose rather than knackered if it's recently been changed.

[vulgalour]

Mac strut on the 400.  Upper ball joints haven't been done and I did have that mystery clonk that disappeared but we thought was exhaust related.  Could it be possible the upper ball joint was the mystery clonk (which went away when the new springs were fitted) and it's now failed?

[scaryoldcortina]

Suddenly confused as hell so I asked google. Double arm and coilover, not mac strut! Yeah, check the top balljoint.

[vulgalour]

My bad!  It's been a long day.  I'll check all the ball joints when I can next be arsed.  Which might be tomorrow.

[Lacquer Peel]

It's double wishbones on the later 400 but 100% front MacPherson struts on the R8 of any style.

Are the wishbone bushes knackered?

[andy18s]

Chap on the club that knows his stuff thinks it's wheel bearing, as did Mike and I when we first inspected.  A pair are about £50, less probably because of our ECP trade account.  Comes with new hub nuts which I could do with up front anyway.  More than I really want to pay but it wouldn't hurt to do if it is that.

GSF have another 40% offer on this weekend,

APRIL40

[vulgalour]

Was parts hunting online and as LP says with this being an R8 there is no upper ball joint to replace.

 

I have some pictures of the suspension set up.  Track rod not attached in the first one.  You can just see the short anti-roll bar links here too.

 

This is the lower arm before it was replaced and after we'd tried to remove it and failed because of rust.

 

At the front it had TREs just before I got it and brand new complete lower arms with the relevant bushes and ball joints because getting the bits separate was either not possible or too expensive at the time.  I'm hoping it's just that the ball joint nut is loose and we missed it today - we were all frazzled - and a recheck will resolve that.  I haven't replaced the ARB links, I imagine that's another possible point of failure.  I'm not entirely sure there is a wishbone on the front looking back through photos and checking online for diagrams, parts and photos of other cars.

 

That means we're still looking at possible bearing failure, a loose nut/failed ball joint and failed ARB bushes.  I think.

[Lacquer Peel]

Track control arm, I meant.

 

 

Cheap!

[vulgalour]

It's already had two brand new ones of those, I shall not be happy if they've failed.

[twosmoke300]

You haven't left the thick washer off behind the driveshaft nut have you ? The nut could be bottoming out but not pulling the shaft in to clamp the bearing together . The reason you can't feel play in the 9 and 3 position can be because the caliper makes it feel tighter

[Bren]

A mobile mechanic I had to replace a broken spring on a 2001 mondeo I owned never put the driveshaft back properly - symptoms like yours that got worse with speed.

[vulgalour]

Driveshaft washer present and correct, everything was put back together so it looked like it did when it came apart, no bits left over.  It is throwing it down presently and I'm in no mood to work in the rain, when there's space at unit I'll get over there and give things a check again with a clear head and the corner in the air, see if I can see it better that way.

 

EDIT:  inspecting this is going to happen today.  I'll report back when I've actually managed to find some space to work in that the car fits in and isn't covered in rain.

[vulgalour]

Relief was had today when the source of the wobbly wheel problem was identified and cured.  Mike and I inspected the various components to try and find out what was amiss, everything was as tight as it would reasonably go, nothing look damaged.  There was no visible play in the new ball joint, the track rod ends or really anywhere else.  After some scrutiny we noticed the strut leg was moving in the hub carrier bracket. We know that part is held on with a single bolt and we know that bolt is as tight as it will go.   Here's a video of how wobbly that was, click on the picture.  Mike is holding the camera, I'm doing the wheel wobbling.

 

http://vid845.photobucket.com/albums/ab16/volksangyl/Rover%20414%20SLi/2016/20150403-01.mp4

 

On removing the bolt it was clear that the head-end of the thread was blocked up with stuff which was probably why it wouldn't tighten any further.

 

Cleaned up the bolt to see how good it might go and it actually came up pretty well.  This is good because it's Sunday and I haven't got a new bolt to hand to replace this with.

 

A tiny bit of copper grease to help things along and the bolt was tightened back up further than it would go before without fear of shearing it or breaking anything.  Well, apart from hitting the wing and knocking some paint off when I swung the long bar out of the way.

 

With that back together the play was gone.  You can see in this video that there's flex in the tyre wall and the car is moving as I wobble the wheel.  The strut leg is now secure, nothing is loose and wobbly and as I found on the drive home, the dudududu noise is gone at 60mph+ as is the handling that starts to wander at those speeds.  Happy days.

 

http://vid845.photobucket.com/albums/ab16/volksangyl/Rover%20414%20SLi/2016/20160403-05.mp4

 

 

Happy with that I trial fitted the roof bars that garycox was kind enough to collect for me.  I knew they should fit the car, looking at the stamp on the end bracket I was certain of it.

 

Quite easy to fit.  They won't be a permanent fixture.  Opening the sunroof (to tilt position) with the bars on makes the most horrendous wind noise so I shan't be doing that either!  Adds some very useful practicality to the Rover and they stow away tidily in the boot when I'm not using them.

 

 

Today has been a good day for Rover fettling.  I also feel very relieved to have taken the decision to turn around and go home rather than pressing on to my destination when I became aware of the problem on the motorway.  I suspect that at some point on the 600 mile round trip I was planning that bolt could have worked dangerously loose and then I would have been in trouble.  Next thing to do is getting the tracking checked now that the new springs have settled just to make sure everything is as it should be, I suspect it's toeing in a little on the front.

[vulgalour]

Keyfob is now deader than a dead thing.  Tried resoldering the same joints as before and no joy at all.  It could be a component on the keyfob that's failed, but you can no longer disable the immobiliser or alarm, just as before.  Given that the easy solution is to obtain the EKA code for about £20 to bypass the immobiliser that's what I'll be doing.  How annoying.

[beko1987]

I feel your pain! The fob on the ZX doesn't work in it's casing. If I have the main battery out, the remains of the alarm activate, and whenever a door is opened it flashes the main beams. Still starts and drives...

 

I have to get the circuit board from the fob, hold the + side of an AA battery against the board, hold a bit of wire to the - bits, then point the whole thing at the IR receiver, lock, unlock and alarm disabled, and I can carry on with just not locking it. I keep it all in the glove box now, must remember to tell the next owner when I pass it on!

[vulgalour]

Mine doesn't work in or out of the casing or any way you press or wiggle the board.  I reckon something else has died on the fob circuit board and needs repairing, which can be done I'm told but I've not had a definitive on cost or time scale of repair.  Looking more and more likely that PoL isn't going to happen tbh which will make 4 consecutive years that a broken car has prevented me attending.  Fitting, really.

[vulgalour]

You know what's most galling about it all?  The only reliable trouble-free car out of the 7 that you, me and Mike own is a frigging VAUXHALL.

[egg]

Love the detail on the thread, particularly dealing with 90s cars kind of problems which l'm coming familiar with myself. Not much to add but keep up the good work.

[vulgalour]

I am paying someone else to sort out the immobiliser.  I am now officially fed up of trying out different key wiggling, button pressing, shamanic dances to no avail.  The only thing I've changed through all these methods is that now the horn goes BEEP when the second digit of my EKA code is entered instead of the fourth number.  What a fucking chore.

[MikeKnight]

£20 to get it transported to Rovertec.

 

Alternatively I help you push it a mile away and you get the AA to "recover" it to "a place of repair". 

[michael1703]

On the plus side... You got it back for its retest, so it could have cost you another mot

[vulgalour]

True.  And it saved me from attending the washout that was Pride of Longbridge.  It's probably doing me a favour.

[vulgalour]

The first thing to report in this update is that my first experience of booking a car into a garage has not enamoured me of them.  Rover was booked in with Rovetec to get the fob and immobiliser sorted out, booked on the Thursday, delivered to them on the Monday.  I couldn't get a reasonable price on transporting the car 5 miles from home to Rovetec so splashed out £25 on a towing pole and my brother dragged us over there in his Picasso.  Dropped the car off and toddled off home, expecting a call in about an hour to tell me the job was done.

 

As soon as we get out of the car the phone rings to say they can't do my car would I come and pick it up?  Trundled back over and got the car picked up.  Rovetec thought I had a newer system on it than it does, three pin rather than twelve pin.  They could do the car in a week when the kit would be repaired/replaced but they couldn't store the car for me in the meantime.

 

My brother found another garage around the corner, North Eastern 4x4, so we took it there last thing on Monday.  Late on Friday it was done, new fob, reprogrammed, lovely job.  The bill was considerably more than I wanted to pay but I can't deny they did a good job as the car now works fine, half the bill was the labour which is always very expensive with garages.  That said, NE4x4 had to get someone else in as though they had a fob in stock they didn't have the kit old enough to talk to the car which, as it happens, is the same as early Freelanders and them being a Land Rover specialist meant they knew what they were dealing with.

 

What is annoying is that one I got the car home and put some stuff in the boot I noticed the outer shell of the spoiler bouncing freely, which it wasn't doing when it went in to be fixed.  One or the other of the two garages must have pushed against it to move the car and that means I have to reglue it.  Not thrilled, but I'm not going to kick up a fuss about it because it's something I can fix for nothing.

 

Today, with it being glorious weather, I gave the car a thorough wash and wax.  Looked great.

 

Just as I was finishing off, fellow Rover enthusiast Lord Sterling appeared, stopping off for a brew on his way up further North delivering  Peugeot.  He was dropping off a full set of OEM Rover floor mats, something that I got on eBay for 99p.

 

 

 

 

Very nice to have a full set of proper mats in the car.  I've never seen a set in another R8.  The last thing to tell you all is my little light-up bat keyring fell off so it now hangs from the rear view mirror.  A fitting counterpoint the spider on the parcel shelf.  Oh, and you can see the glorious day turned into rain and hail just as I was taking these pictures.

[Lord Sterling]

Good to meet you Angyl. The mats look great, really giving the car that touch of OEM/ordered from new. Peugeot now dropped off to ecstatic new owner and I'm now on the train heading home.

[purplebargeken]

The mats do indeed look very fabulous. Shame about the bat death. 

[vulgalour]

I've been thinking lately about another love of mine; pop-up headlights.  I know the 400 is effectively a Concerto and that got me wondering about similar vintage Hondas.  The Prelude nose is quite a lot different but the Accord isn't.  I did a rough overlay of an Accord and the 400 and they line up very well digitally.  I don't know how close they are in the real world.

 

 

I wouldn't mind having the Concerto rear lights instead of the Rover ones too.

 

It's just a pipe dream, I'm unlikely to manage it.  Where on earth would I even find Concerto and Accord parts to do all this if they do fit?

[Ghosty]

Concerto lights look like they might fit, but the keyhole for the boot is in the wrong place. Could fit a Concerto saloon bootlid - but I had no idea saloon Concertos even existed, and they're rare to start, so good luck finding one...

 

Accord parts would be interesting to find. Consider looking for a UK market Integra - they have pop up lights too, and are sort of Rover sized.