Kenneth_Mc_Testes' ROVER 45 V6 JATCO JUS KICKED IN Y0

[Lacquer Peel]

CLASS

[KruJoe]

 

1974

 

It's Noddy Holder AICM£5.

[warren t claim]

Agreed, I had a 45 saloon Diesel, handsome car:

 

 

Wish I'd bought it at the time.

I used a 400 dizzler as a taxi and it wasn't bad at all. The old ladies loved it.

[carlo]

Very interested to know what this is like Mr B, it's one I've had my eye on but there's never any write up on them, especially the autos.

 

Does it actually have cruise control?  Ebay vendors put it in the listing but I couldn't see a button on the pictures for it.  

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Right so I drove this back to base yesterday and today.

 

I found 'Carswithnoreserve' faultless to deal with, they let me test drive it and do whatever despite them having to come back to their premises at 7.30 in the evening just for me. They didnt mess me about in any way and the car is a WINNER!!!!!!

 

 

For £295 I just can't fault this car. First off the engine is FLIPPIN SWEET. No rattly camshafts or VIS gubbins, no bubbles in the expansion bottles and nice clean oil in the sump. It sounds glorious and totally out of place coming from a crummy Rover 45, whic appeals greatly. The gearbox works perfectly and is buttery-smooth when you put it in 'D'. Its a 5-speed auto with a ludicrous 'manual option' that serves no pupose whatsoever. The body is dead tidy with no rot and no shitty repairs and the interior is lovely too!!!

 

 

In terms of faults I have found the following:

• cracked rear bumper & small dent in bootlid
• 
  
• Heater blower only works on top setting (surprise surprise)
• 
  
• passenger external door handle broken
• 
  
• drivers window regulator has got problems
• 
  
• blow from exhaust under the middle of the car somewhere
• 
  
• pulsing from brake pedal when you stop (No ABS light though).
• 
  

None of those are a big deal I don't think, its certainly not another brain damage rebuild anyway.

 

 

Whats it like to drive? GREAT. The box is super smooth and it pulls away very sharply, it will wheelspin fairly easily if its wet. The suspension is quite firm as advised by the AA or whatever, its not all fluid and cosseting like a 75, but its not a total bone shaker either thankfully. I would say its fairly middle of the road for a modern, its not absurdly hard like an Audi with 'S-line' suspension on it but its sportier than it looks. The seats (which I think are straight out of the 75) are excellent with good lumbar support which I appreciate as my back is killing me at th moment. The front seats are heated too and they still work!!! Well the drivers one does anyway.

Out on the road its a strange mix. The smooth engine and autobox suggest a lazy luxury car, but its very willing and quite a sharp handler so its easy to drive it like a right twat dodging through traffic and whatnot. The driving position and visibility are excellent which also helps that. Its got a very distinctive V6 howl which I think might be slightly louder than its meant to be due to the exhaust blow. at 70mph its doing a gnats below 3000rpm which sounds like it ought to be fairly relaxed but the 'howl' is quite pronounced and a few times I kept thinking I needed to go up a gear!!!! Its pretty quick and loves overtaking stuff on the motorway, you can boot it at 70 and its off, zoomz up to 90 in no time and sounds amazing while its doing it.

Concerning the gearbox set-up, I think theres nowt wrong with it. The power delivery of the engine is pretty linear with no slugs of low down torque and no VTEC-style top end bursts of energy. Because of that, the gear change points seem a bit 'arbitrary'. In my Volvo, the short-lived burst of acceleration when the turbo is working marks a specific point after which you know a gearchange is required, and the autobox has been set up to change then so you're not thrashing it needlessly. The changes come at what feels like the right point. In this Rover however, the engine is so smooth that you are not sure if its changed up too early, or too late or what. Its a bit unusual but i would say its more a characteristic of the engine than the gearbox - you could say the power delivery was actually a bit 'flat'. Its not a slow car by any means but the enigne just pulls steadily and strongly until you reach high speed. Its difficult to describe. The Primera was also a 2.0 of 150bhp and it was equally rev-happy if not more so but there was something about the way it accelerated that was a bit more characterful than the way this pulls, which is entirely fuss-free.

Its very smooth though and is an unusual combinaton of car size and mechanical layout. Its got shite credentials coming out of its ears and I love it!!!! Its really weird to hear the V6 rumble coming from a Rover 45

 

For the fuel economy, I put £20 in in Reading and by the time I got to Derby (130 miles) it was all gone, which I think equates to about 30mpg, which isnt brilliant cos they were all motorway miles but I was driving it pretty quickly.

 

 

 

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I'm glad it's a good'un!

[Cheggers]

I bought my old 159 off that mob in Reading and also found them really easy & friendly to deal with.

[Noel Tidybeard]

Is the higher number plate positioning on these V6 45s because of cooling issues or something (very slightly less restricted airflow) or just a cheap as chips "that'll do" way of making it slightly distiguishable from a 4 cylinder?

i dont think cheap as chips cos they got a plinth to sit on that the cooking versions dont

[KruJoe]

Happy days! Sounds like you've found your new R8 220.

[r.welfare]

Not having encountered a KV6 at close quarters before I concur that the noise is very appealing, although Bo11ox did take it easy on the test drive due to the fact I couldn't get the passenger seatbelt to withdraw enough for me to put it on without it locking every 0.5mm.

 

That engine ain't half crammed in the bay though, there seems to be literally no space around it for the fabled cambelt change.

 

Finally, despite the fact that 'carswithnoreserve' have loads of eBay auctions on the go the yard was fairly empty with about six cars in it (inc. a mouldy looking X reg 75 V6 with flattish tyres, we popped the bonnet and looked at the engine for a bit while we waited in subzero temps for the proprietor to arrive) so the fact that lots of their pictures seem to be taken at BCA Blackbushe indicates most stuff stays up there. Must say it's an interesting business model as most stuff they auction seems mechanically or bodily damaged in some way but this one was apparently a part ex and Bo11ox scored it for a fiver less than the trade in allowance IIRC.

[garethj]

Nice to see a modern car that feels a bit different to drive, I get the feeling that the media demand the following criteria when reviewing:

 

1. Firm dampers

2. Massive alloys

3. A huge turbo rush at some point

4. Soft plastics

5. Bluetooth

 

If you can make a car with all these and throw in the word "focussed" somewhere you'll have the magazines on their knees in front of you, unzipping your trousers.  Anything that isn't like this is a failure, no matter how good it actually turns out to be.

[Rocket88]

Your experience of the KV6 and the Jatco box are pretty much identical to mine, [although mine was in a 75] I found

 the set up far more suited to an Alfa than a Rover...............Somehow the engine and box didn't marry up with personality of the rest of the car.....................

[fatharris]

That is a properly pretty motor, glad to hear its gone well so far!

 

What are the plans for it?

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[406V6]

Nice to see a modern car that feels a bit different to drive, I get the feeling that the media demand the following criteria when reviewing:

 

1. Firm dampers

2. Massive alloys

3. A huge turbo rush at some point

4. Soft plastics

5. Bluetooth

They also want to see:

6. wafer-thin profile tyres

7. VAG badge

8. Leather seats. The more like vinyl they are the better.

9. Seat heaters for their over-protected a****s

10. Fictitiously official* low CO2 emissions figure despite it returning 30mpg on test

 

Back to the Rover. Glad to see you're enjoying it Mr Boll. You'll have those little faults fixed in no time but even your skills might be taxed by that cambelt change.

 

I always thought the 45 V6 was a near clone of the ZS 180  (hatchback available, 2.5V6) but I mucked up on that as the cars are quite different. Corrected now with thanks to the experts

[carlo]

Your experience of the KV6 and the Jatco box are pretty much identical to mine, [although mine was in a 75] I found

 the set up far more suited to an Alfa than a Rover...............Somehow the engine and box didn't marry up with personality of the rest of the car.....................

 

Yes I agree with that, and I also found the V6 on the 75 I had (2.5) rather too vocal for cruising, although in its defense that one also had a slight exhaust blow. It was experience of that which made me think I prefer a torquey 4 cylinder on an auto to a V6.

[dollywobbler]

This sounds ace and is just astonishing value. I almost feel hard done by now!

[Alan_Green]

Good to know those carswithnoreserve people are straight. Ta. The 2 reviews on here see worth more than the 2,000 on eBay.

[cort16]

What do you expect from a gearbox built by a company who's main source of business is selling clothes to big boned gentleman/fat lads?

[dieselnutjob]

boll, please be aware (I'm sure that you already are) that you cannot put ordinary transmission fluid in the Jatco.  Also it must be warm with engine running to check fluid level.  Do not put Dexron in it, only the real proper stuff.

[LC Torana]

Do not put Dexron into any auto transmission under any circumstances whatsover.

 

FTFY.

[Guest Lord Sward]

The pulsing pedal is a cracked ABS reluctor ring.  Did I mention my old work has them in stock?

[dugong]

Nice to see a modern car that feels a bit different to drive, I get the feeling that the media demand the following criteria when reviewing:

 

1. Firm dampers

2. Massive alloys

3. A huge turbo rush at some point

4. Soft plastics

5. Bluetooth

 

If you can make a car with all these and throw in the word "focussed" somewhere you'll have the magazines on their knees in front of you, unzipping your trousers.  Anything that isn't like this is a failure, no matter how good it actually turns out to be.

 

*fills notepad furiously*

 

boll, please be aware (I'm sure that you already are) that you cannot put ordinary transmission fluid in the Jatco.  Also it must be warm with engine running to check fluid level.  Do not put Dexron in it, only the real proper stuff.

Amen, blud.

 

Some hard of thinking PO filled the 605's box with Dexron III when it should have had Mobil LT 71141 from the word go.

PSA did that because it was cheaper and ZF claimed it was compatible.

[sloth]

FTFY.

unless dextron is specified.

[R9UKE]

Very well done, thanks for reporting on what they're like engine and gearbox wise - they're firmly on my list, a V6 in a Rover 45 just shouldn't have happened and I'm glad to hear they're as curious as I thought.

 

Precisely zero exist in NI so it'll have to be a mainland trip to get one. I'll be watching for the roffle. Not jealous at all....

[dieselnutjob]

 

*fills notepad furiously*

 

 

Amen, blud.

 

Some hard of thinking PO filled the 605's box with Dexron III when it should have had Mobil LT 71141 from the word go.

PSA did that because it was cheaper and ZF claimed it was compatible.

 

Concerning Peugeots.

 

You can buy another oil that says "compatible with LT71141" on it (I forget which make it is), which is particularly nasty as ZF are very clear that it must be the real thing.  It has to be actual LT71141 from Esso or Mobil on it not something else that says that it is nearly the right thing.

 

On the Rovers I'm not so sure but I know that they are fussy.

[dieselnutjob]

On the Rovers I'm not so sure but I know that they are fussy.

 

Texaco N402. Rover part No. VYK00040 or Land Rover part No. LNR402.  There is no alternative for the Jatco.

 

Also read this http://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/automatic-gearboxes/jatco-jf506e.html

if you remove the wrong bolt you are screwed, the above is essential reading if you have a Jatco.

[Stanky]

I hope all Jatco boxes have 'DO NOT REMOVE' scrawled on the side in Sharpie psycho-writing with loads of arrows just like in the picture

[Rusty_Rocket]

I hope all Jatco boxes have 'DO NOT REMOVE' scrawled on the side in Sharpie psycho-writing with loads of arrows just like in the picture

 

Holy moly that is a masterpiece of design isn't it?!

I wonder how many unlucky bastards have undone that bolt thinking it's a level checker/ filler, only to discover they now have no reverse gear and a ruined car 

[dave21478]

Its a regular topic on the Freelander section of the Landrover forum I read.

Most recently some garage undid it on a guys car while doing a fluid change and he lost reverse. Apparently they managed to fix it without removing the gearbox, but the poster never came back to explain how its done.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

This car is my daily now!!!! I am going to drive it something like 400 miles tomorrow, fingers crossed