Rover R8 - repair, not spares

[Insideimsmiling]

The Rover R8' one of the high points in the recent history of Rover. Prior to this Rover had gone from the transport choice of the respectable middle class professional to a Japanese based motor nailed together by Communist Brummies in between strikes. The R8 however was despite being Honda based ( no bad thing ) a real Rover thanks to British engineers input, tasteful interiors with wood glued to drab plastics and chromed plastic grill added to the front. At a time when most cars were bland faced blobs without a traditional grill, this was a smart move as it added an upmarket appeal to what was already a good package. So the Rover 214 & 216 were a touch above Vauxhalls, Fords & Renaults etc and the Rover went from strength to strength to rule the compact premium market.

 

Well not quite but when my now ex- wife was given a red 214 hatch it was a car to be proud of and over the years amongst the hundreds of cars I have owned most of this range have darkened my driveway, from cabriolets and a coupe with glass targa roof, to a now rare 3 door Sprint version which I should have kept.

 

Anyway browsing Autoshite EBay thread a red hatch appears and so I have a bid and forget about it until I win the car! The seller delivered it to my door and included some history and a Rover key ring, with promises to post a spare key, that appeared some days later along with a second key ring. I drove my bargain around locally and all was well, in fact it drove just as I remembered from twenty odd years ago and all for £165. However like most of you I have a few cars and am an expert at on drive car juggling, despite this the Rover sat at the back and the end result was a flat battery which refused to be coaxed into life. No problem a new battery was bought from the local scrapyard, well it's new to me and we are in times of austerity. Bolted it on and ......nothing. Except a red light, that's right the immobiliser was on. Now when I got the car there was no blipper and the immobiliser was, well, immobile. But a new battery and it's alive! I got the village garage to take the car and confirm my diagnosis and yep it is the immobiliser and no they have no idea what to do next either. Next step is to call on an expert, a guy who sorts these things out professionally, it's gonna cost but it was a cheap car and so the total still gives me a bargain compared to the costs of most moderns, in fact a tyre for the average car costs as much, as do batteries if you go for Halfords rather than Steptoes to get em.Anyway today said expert drives 20 miles to my car and then tells me there is nowhere to plug in his magic machine so he cannot sorry the immobiliser for me,he instead said I should Google it. At least the advice was free and he didn't make a charge as he enjoyed the drive out. Well he had come from Scunthorpe so this seems pretty believable.

Now I have an old Rover sitting outside my village garage and unable to move, with only 6 weeks MOT left. Most

Sane people would decide its not worth the hassle and either strip it for sparesor scrap it. But theses were once everywhere and now they have become a rare beast, even just a few years ago elderly owners seemed to take pride in driving these to Sainsburys on a regular basis. And so as I cannot abandon a R8 in need and also feel guilty for killing it by changing a battery I turn to the Autoshite massive for help rather than to Google. Surely here lies the knowledge needed to save an old Rover. not being a cabriolet or coupe, not even a 214sei it is one of those destined to be rare bread and butter mid range models. How can I sort out this immobiliser issue and get the old thing running again if there is no plug in or at least no obvious one for reprogramming and being a factory fit item there are no wires that can simply be pulled out or snipped to bypass the system. Autoshitters over to you.

[Ghosty]

R8s don't have OBD - in fact the 214 doesn't have any form of diagnostics at all IIRC. My 216 only has a blinking light on the ECU to output fault codes.

 

If it's tidy, an R8 is a car well worth saving - there's a whole swathe of people in their early twenties with fond memories of a grandparent having one, that enjoy the retro (!) styling and comfort of those plush seats.

[Ghosty]

Also, if it's relevant, there's no chip in the key. There can't be, as I don't have any of the original keys for my 216, only replacement JMA ones.

[Isaac Hunt]

What year is your R8?

 

Have you got any codes in with the handbook ?.   IIRC there is a sequence where you insert the key in the drivers lock and thurn left x right y, left z and right a.  Where xyza and numbers from the code.

 

If you have 'blipper' then there are a number of presses to activate it - but it needs to be the correct blipper.

 

Our local yard has a couple of 25's and the blippers are just chucked in the footwell.  I might be able to rescue one for you, but you will need someone with rover Testbook to code it to the imobiliser.  Didn't Vulgalour get one done recently at a landrover specialist ?

[vulgalour]

I had mine done at a LandRover specialist for £some.  Curiously, they did ask I don't recommend other R8 owners go their way because they had to get someone to come out and sort me out.  The R8 uses an obsolete system, shared with early Freelanders, that hardly anyone seems to have the tools to deal with.  Down the side of the battery/MEMS box area are two little plugs with rubber nipple things over them, that's where you need to plug in the relevant system.

 

You may be able to bypass it with the EKA code, I couldn't with mine as it wouldn't accept it for some reason.  If you haven't got this in your paperwork then you can get it online: http://www.mgrovercodes.com/eka-codes

 

Failing that, it's usually around the £100-150 mark to get a garage with the equipment to reprogram it and provide you with a new fob.  Someone else may know for definite but I think the R8 is on a system called T4 rather than OBD, and hardly anyone has the gear to sort it.

[Ghosty]

One of my keyfobs doesn't work.

 

I'm starting to think it never will...

[Insideimsmiling]

Wow that's a really great response there and I now have some clues about how to go forward with this. It's interesting that Ghostly says there are no diagnostics and no magic goblin in the key or fob, as this is how the car came. It is a late R8 as it is on an N plate if this helps to narrow things down. I will follow the path of Vulgalour as the Zen master of Autoshite but as my mechanical knowledge is more limited than my meagre financial resources please explain everything in fluent idiot. Another £100 key fob is not my preferred fix as this happened to one of my Mgf's recently and I am going through one of those periods where much of my disposable income is going to the mechanics benefit fund and not being frittered away by my teenage offspring as is usually the case.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

You can take the alarm box off, post it off to Technozen electronics and he will code in a new fob or two for you and send it all back for £30-40.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Dieselnutjobs rover diagnostic doofer can fix this as well.

[Insideimsmiling]

Mr Bo11ox you have saved an elderly Rover and also a my poor thin starving wallet from cruel punishment. Much gratitude and I will update this thread with the results. I am hoping that this car will be transporting me to the planned meet at the bubble car museum in the wilds of Lincolnshire and believe me the flat fields are not somewhere you want to breakdown. No one can hear your screams from those deserted farmhouses and I am too pretty to be left in the company of a lonely frustrated farmer. It's hard to fight off those Fenland farmers as having six fingers gives them a mighty strong grasp!

 

Sorry, this reply seems to have taken a rather surreal turn, but if Autoshite have solved my problem and got me motoring once again in eighties retro style I am one very happy hombre.