Landy Mann's Fleet - MOT Passed!

[Landy Mann]

Hello,

The 214 FTP'd this evening. The starter has power but nothing happens manually energising the solenoid, it pulls current but won't turn and mostly won't click. Anyway a bump start got it home thanks AutoAid!

Now the MOT is up in May and it needed some welding last year, I've just been for a gentle tap around the sills and rear arches, the sills are remarkably solid but where they meet the arches is getting crusty. Do the look like a fall? If so any ideas on how much for weldage, last year's patch (also in the photos was about £80)

So new starter or bridge? Alternatively does anyone have a kettle series starter lying around?

Many thanks
David





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[Mr_Bo11ox]

I got a QH recon starter off the bay for mine for about £20 delivered!

[EssDeeWon]

Bear in mind James Brown is going to offer you about £1.50, would it be worth giving it away to the scrap man?

 

If its a decent enough motor then chuck a used starter on it, sure it will be ok come MOT time, probably still cheaper than buying another car.

[hairnet]

not sure about the rust but the starter shouldnt be too hard..........

 

got brand new one off bay for 20 quid (hed bought for 90 then noticed it wa wrong)

[MarvinsMom]

the scrappers around here all have plenty of rover 214/35's in with kippered engines, so i imagine* that a second hand starter will be £10 or there abouts, and if Mr B got a recon one for £20 then i would be inclined to push the boat on one of those and continue to run the car.

 

surely there are a couple more years life left in it, and can another car be bought for £20?

[Cavcraft]

That rust doesn't look too bad, the sort of thing ten years ago would have people nipping to an autofactor for a tin of filler, plus primer and top coat rattle cans.

[D Spares & Tyres]

Starter motor £20

 

Tub of fibreglass £10

 

Mot fee £35

 

Price on bridge £35

 

New car £?

 

Its a no brainer

[Landy Mann]

I think I may have got the message:...

 

 

 

 

.... To be continued

[KruJoe]

You've done the right thing. What answer did you expect to get? You know us well enough by now

[Landy Mann]

So the postman brought a present today in the form of a nice rusty starter:

Twenty minutes later the old one was off, thank you to Rover group for making all the fittings 13mm.

Side by side - crotch shot...

Hmmm where does this go?

Sod it must be a project drive deletion, let's clean up the contacts

All fitted note the now empty holes in the gear box thanks to the project drive bracket removal.

 

 

And it starts, grand total £12.99 and two days off the road. That's the bridge avoided for another two months.

 

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[smellypoo]

Weight-saving measure for more speeds?

Just curious as to why you deleted the bracket, looks like only 3 bolts, was it meant to keep the starter steady/from ripping itself off or something?

(Not pedant or beard btw, genuinely curious)

[Landy Mann]

I deleted it because it doesn't fit the new one... There were no holes to fit it to

.

The two studs on the back of the motor hold it together and are off set to the studs that hold the bracket.

 

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[Landy Mann]

So rather than start a new thread I thought I'd continue this with some Land rover shenanigans as well.

 

As mentioned in the do you bother servicing your car this has been needed for a while.

 

First we have some parts

One engine

Sump plug out

Time to move to the air filter

No tools required to get here. Although I think it must have been working 2012 or 13 when I last bought such high quality filters

Looks like it's been used, complete with dry grass.

This shot proves it was worth changing,

Fitted

In place

Now time to do the oil filter, nice and shiny!

Fresh oil in

 

And that's it! The evenings are getting lighter so expect more work over the next couple of months.

 

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[Landy Mann]

Hit 20k in the 214 this evening.

 

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[vulgalour]

20k, or 120k?

[Landy Mann]

20k on the speedo but I've got an invoice for our being changed around 135k or so.

 

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[Landy Mann]

No photos unfortunately my phone screen is now in many little pieces.

 

Two main updates:

The 214's MOT has been booked for Tuesday, so I spent this afternoon doing the annual number plate light and high level brake light fettle. To fix the high level brake light I took it to pieces and put a self adhesive strip of LED's in the lens, it may not be a type approved method but it will work for more than a week! So all bets are on for the MOT, I’m 50:50 on the previously mentioned corrosion and 50:50 on a knocking ball joint or something, time will tell!

 

I've also started starting up the land rover so sanding painting and cleaning mostly, photos to follow on completion.

 

David

[Landy Mann]

No Advisories!!! They're for wimps....

 

19/04/2016 Fail

Mileage

20650 miles

Mileage Notes

• The mileage recorded at this MOT is below average for a vehicle of this age. (Average mileage of 141400)

Refusal Notices

• Nearside rear outer suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded sill (2.4.a.3)
• Offside rear outer suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded sill (2.4.a.3)
• Offside front front constant velocity joint gaiter damaged to the extent that it no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc (2.5.c.1a)
• Nearside rear shock absorber has a serious fluid leak (2.7.3)
• Offside front seat belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded middle sill (5.2.6)
• Offside front outer seat belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded front sill (5.2.6)
• Parking brake lever has no reserve travel (3.1.6b

 

Have some rust pictures, the MOT man clearly put more effort into hole finding than I did.

 

 

Alas I can't weld and don't have a welder so it's an economic write off, Not bad for £400 18months ago, although it did need a tickle with the welder last year, so anyone want a free Rover 214? Collection from Milton Keynes.

 

Oh and it's not that low millage

[Landy Mann]

Collection of the 214's replacement commences tomorrow, unfortunately it's not live due to time traveling back to 2004 thanks to a broken phone screen. Fortunately time is traveling quickly and I'll be arriving in 2005 by lunchtime tomorrow.

 

 

Ready for the first leg in the morning - bicycle!

 

 

The observant among you may know what I'm collecting from another thread. But for those who don't here is a clue...

 

Picture the scene, it's April 2005 and as a giffer driving a now 8 year old Rover 214, being distraught at the news that the once venerable Rover company is no more. You decide to take maters into your own hands to ensure that you spend the rest of your driving life in a fine British motor vehicle.

 

Now picture the seen 11 years later when the 214 is going to meet it's maker, it isn't owned by a giffer and everyone knows that the Rover company will never return, what do you buy?

 

To be continued...

[Landy Mann]

The answer to my previous post the obvious choice of vehicle for any self respecting giffer in 2005 was a facelift Rover 25 Gsi. So this is why this morning I found my self up and ready to face the first leg of the journey to visit chez wuvvum, on my trusty bicycle.

 

 

Arriving early at the station I found that the only cash machine had a £30 limit, not not much use. Here I'm ready for the 2nd train of the day, underground from Euston to Kings Cross. Fortunately Euston would let me take most of the required cash out but not all.

 

 

Fourth train of the day, having obtained the remainder of the cash from Liverpool street.

 

The rest of the journey was smooth enough, 5 trains in total and all on time.

 

I met Dave (wuvvum) at the station in the post project drive 25, Dave mentioned yesterday that the heater had started making strange noises when set to the lowest setting. Further investigation at chez wuvvum found lots of air bubbling around in the expansion tank. The joys of K series ownership...

 

Anyway I met the cat, did the money and paperwork, then had a spin in the 200vi and the CX estate, very weird and Citroeny but great fun.

 

It was now time to leave, unfortunately the low coolant level light came on. Dave got a larger water carrier and filled it up while  I squoze the top hose.

 

Time for some pez

 

Next it was time for lunch on the way back. Looks like I should invest in a lunch box.

 

So far so good, no hot kettle action to report.

 

 

I stopped off at friends about an hour into the journey home had a prod at the rover laughed at the high* quality facelift interior trim and fittings, not a patch on the soon to be departed 214.

 

Stopped for a snack on the way back all going well, with no coolant used.

 

Time for Pez stop number two.

 

Arrived back at base.

 

The job list currently stands at:

- Swap the wheels and tires from the 214 on to it

- Try and swap a rear light cluster for one from the 214

- Change the oil

- See if the front disks and pads from the 214 will fit it as they're well worn

 

And then run it for a month or two and work out where to go from there.

 

It was a pretty good day out and got to see some interesting cars, thanks wuvvum for you hospitality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HH-R]

Nice. How does a facelift compare to an earlier model to drive? I've only ever driven a project drive spesh but thought it was a great steer.

 

Also I think I said it in Wuv's for sale thread, but air con and rear electric windows, that's one SRSLY rare 25.

[Landy Mann]

That's what you get with the ultra desperate GSI model, almost all the toys. although I think the parking sensors are disconnected or completely knackered. If you want a fun* 5 minutes take a look at this. http://www.hydragas.co.uk/rover_GB_en/static/rover_25.html .

 

So today I set to work changing swapping all the wheels and swapped the front disks and pads over from the 214, my excuse for 2nd hand brake parts is that I bought them new 10 months ago...

 

Also swapped the damaged rear light cluster, clutch pedal rubber, rear windscreen wiper and the genuine rover wheel trims. I've fixed the boot light by bending contacts in the lock.

 

I did get the cooling system bubbling again while testing the ICE COLD air con, that needs more looking into, first step is a proper bleed of the system.

 

So far OK still to do:

- Investigate cooling system

- Fix high level brakelight

- Drain the 214 pez tank and fill the 214

- Move floor mats.

 

To drive it's very different to the 214,

- Heavier steering

- 'Sportier' handling

- The ford gearbox is notchier but better possibly has higher gearing than the 214

- General fit and finish is far lower quality than the 214 but may be better than a fully project drived vehicle.

- In summary it's less relaxing than the 214 but quite fun and slightly more powerful.

[andrew e]

I bought one of these in the great fire sale of 2005 at Motorpoint for 6 large. With 10 miles on the clock! It was terrible but luckily I got a truck to drive over it at in 2008 (after a 72k belt service and first MOT). But I digress. The single most impressive mod you can make is dynamatting the tailgate where the release solenoid is, and the drivers door and floor pan. Not for noise, but for resonance reduction. They do handle really rather well mind. And you can get 200 bricks in the boot and footwells with careful yet unnoticable* ease:

 

[montytom]

I much prefer the facelift dash but I have heard that they are like egg boxes quality wise.

 

My 04 plate zr had the old style dash but was different from my 51 zr.

 

Love these cars the 25s and ZRs and would definitely have another R3 

[Landy Mann]

The dash is very much tesco value egg box standard. I've swapped over the heater motor resistors so I now have all the fan speeds. Floor mats moved, I've still got till Thursday morning to move stuff between the vehicles.

 

Does any body have a quick way of working out if the facelift dash has an air bag fitted? If its not got one I'll turn it into a cubby hole.

[robinmasters]

Does any body have a quick way of working out if the facelift dash has an air bag fitted? If its not got one I'll turn it into a cubby hole.

Crash.

[HH-R]

They all had passenger air bags at that point I think.

[HH-R]

Sadly our facelift ended up in a worse state than Andrew's, when the tailgate ended up just about touching the back seats. The reason I get rather antsy about tailgaters....

[Cleon-Fonte]

Great buyage, I've always had a respect for the Rover R3 and I'm now spending more time than is healthy looking at them on eBay. Hope somebody saves the old 214.

 

I must be one of the few people who finds the facelifted MGRs aesthetically pleasing externally, but that interior would shame most Korean cars of the era for cheapness. To think this was the company that 10 years before was trying to position itself as a British BMW rival.

[andrew e]

I think only the GXI got the airbag on facelift - but anything is possible.... Mine had streetwise springs from new!