Ex Cavcraft Rover 420 (T series not K series) available (probably)

[dieselnutjob]

Some friends of mine bought the Cavcraft Rover 420, a year ago, and I think are done with it.

 

The latest I heard is that a coolant hose has split.

 

Apart from that it is much as it was, except that it has different alloys on it which are I think what you would call Minilight style from a later 45. Personally I think that they improve it.

 

Anyway I think if someone wanted it they could probably buy it.

 

I will post more as the situation clarifies.

 

The car is currently in Cricklewood.

[phil_lihp]

Listening intently.

[dieselnutjob]

I think that this was the advert last time

http://autoshite.com/topic/25542-rover-420-anyone-long-mot-drive-it-away-%C2%A3200

[Cavcraft]

A lovely car that went to lovely people. Hope it gets taken on/repaired and used, it was a little cracker that thing.

[dieselnutjob]

It doesn't sound great at the moment.

 

The windscreen wipers don't work, and it has suffered a coolant loss.

The exact location of the leak is currently unknown.

Unfortunately it was driven until steam came out it.

 

It is only taxed for six more days, though it has an MOT until June 2018.

 

The lack of tax means that it has to go.

 

I understand that this isn't ebay, but I can only relay on what the owner says which is basically best offer over £50.

 

It does still go but I guess that you would need a near infinite supply of water and time to achieve the journey, and a dry day.

[phil_lihp]

Such a shame. I'd be planning the recovery mission right now except that as of today I'm out of the country for ten days so won't make the deadline.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Urgh, I'd love that it looks ace.

[wuvvum]

It does still go but I guess that you would need a near infinite supply of water and time to achieve the journey, and a dry day.

Or a roll of self-amalgamating tape and half an hour or so to track down the leak. [/optimist]

[phil_lihp]

Plans are afoot

[dieselnutjob]

i went to have a look at the car this evening, and I have some photos to upload later on.

 

The engine oil was still clean and oily.

 

The coolant was still clean and coolanty.

 

There is no sign of the two ever having mixed.

 

I drove the car for about 10 minutes and then then stopped, and opened the bonnet.

 

At first there was nothing to see but then after a minute or two hot water started coming out of the coolant tank cap.  At this point I checked the temperature gauge and it was still showing normal.

 

The owner said that you can drive it for about half an hour and then steam starts coming out of the bonnet, and it would appear this this is the same thing that I saw, i.e. water  / steam coming out from the filler cap.  They said that they had replaced the filler cap but it made no difference.

 

She also said that it has never actually overheated, she always stopped when steam started coming out of it.

 

Also there didn't appear to be steam coming out of the exhaust.

 

The car has four nearly new (but budget) tyres on it, but one has a slow puncture.

 

The only other faults beyond what it had last year are the inoperative wipers, and one rear door handle has pulled out of the door skin.

 

I don't know how easy it would be to remove the thermostat, but I suspect that if you pulled the thermostat and put the heater on full blast it would drive for considerably longer, I don't know.

 

The car is actually on private land (communal parking area) but it needs to be SORNed at the end of this week.  They will have the use of another car from tomorrow though and once they are insured on that they will want their parking permit for the other car.  I think that there is the possibility of moving it onto a relatives drive for a few days though.

 

I don't think that it actually has a split pipe but I don't understand what is causing it to push all of it's coolant passed the expansion tank cap and what caused this to happen in the first place.  I suppose that it possible that the cap went bad and the replacement (which isn't a Rover one) isn't any good either, or it's possible that there is a head gasket problem only between combustion chamber and coolant.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Phil_lips, can you hoover this up so I stop thinking about it, cheers.

[clayts450]

Penny to a pound it's the expansion cap, nothing more sinister - fitting a non-OEM part probably explains the continuation of the problem. Trip to any random scrappy or an ebay hunt should bag a proper one.

[phil_lihp]

Yep I'm happy to save Mr B from any more sleepless nights, doesn't sound like a total disaster area. Wipers must be fuse or relay I'm guessing.

[dieselnutjob]

Smarthphone pics by torchlight......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dieselnutjob]

note that the expansion tank was swapped from their previous 45.  It's from a very late (I think 2005) one as it has a level sensor.

 

The sensor is bodged into the brake level fluid sensor so that if the coolant gets low the brake warning light comes on.

 

It worked perfectly on their old 45 but once transferred to this car it wouldn't work.

 

I don't think that this is the reason for the failure because it was fine from last September to this June.

 

My point is that

1. It needs a cap from a 2005 45

2. It would make sense to fit a new sensor at the same time

[phil_lihp]

As it so happens I have a cap off the 45 I broke.

[cpjitservices]

Smarthphone pics by torchlight......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In regards to the handle falling out with its door, My Honda did exactly the same thing! In the end, I had to replace the handle and the screws that held it in as the screw holes/screws had become loose and wouldn't tighten.

[cpjitservices]

note that the expansion tank was swapped from their previous 45.  It's from a very late (I think 2005) one as it has a level sensor.

 

The sensor is bodged into the brake level fluid sensor so that if the coolant gets low the brake warning light comes on.

 

It worked perfectly on their old 45 but once transferred to this car it wouldn't work.

 

I don't think that this is the reason for the failure because it was fine from last September to this June.

 

My point is that

1. It needs a cap from a 2005 45

2. It would make sense to fit a new sensor at the same time

Can you nip to a nearby scrappie and take it round, hack it on and try it? Will probs cost you 0 pounds.

[Supernaut]

Brilliant!

 

That dashboard binnacle and dials look straight out of that Civic me and 17-Coffees shifted the other week, as do the door handles. I love how closely-related these two cars are.

[cpjitservices]

Brilliant!

 

That dashboard binnacle and dials look straight out of that Civic me and 17-Coffees shifted the other week, as do the door handles. I love how closely-related these two cars are.

Identical to the dash I had in my '98 Civic, Same car by all accounts - though I had a 1.5 Honda engine.

[Lacquer Peel]

T series is great, such a grunty engine.

[Ghosty]

Yep the dash is 100% identical, if not the whole interior, except seat materials. The doors are the same on early ones too. It means you can in theory get decent quality Honda half and full leather interiors for them if you're so inclined.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Honda plastic leather is pretty miserable at the best of times, that sounds like a downgrade to me

[dieselnutjob]

We tried fitting 45 leather seats but they couldn't be bolted down to the floor. I was surprised that they changed the design of the floorpan.

[mk2_craig]

Wasnt possible to swap the runners from one set of seats to the others?

[Lacquer Peel]

We tried fitting 45 leather seats but they couldn't be bolted down to the floor. I was surprised that they changed the design of the floorpan.

If I remember correctly the 45 used 75 seats.

[phil_lihp]

I'm quite excited about this, I learned to drive in my Dad's 416Si company car and always liked the car, the T-series in the ex-Bo11ox/everyone 220 was a stonking motor so the combination should be a winner. Fingers crossed its problems are minor!

 

That aftermarket coolant cap looks weird so I reckon a set of fuses, relays and an OEM cap will be the bulk of my recovery kit for this one, if the wipers wake up and it can keep its coolant in for the trip home I'll be a very happy chap.

 

Any idea why they swapped the expansion tank? I don't think the 45 ever had the 2.0 T-series so perhaps the tanks/lids are incompatible with that engine anyway. I'd be inclined to return it to stock for my own reassurance.

[dieselnutjob]

Any idea why they swapped the expansion tank?

 

The original tank and the 45 tank are exactly the same, except that the 45 tank has a level sensor in it.

 

It's a sensible upgrade as far as I am concerned, or would be if the damn sensor worked.  A failed sensor doesn't take away that it is fundamentally a good idea.

 

they previously had a 2003 K series 45 which used a bit of coolant, so I put a 2005 header tank on with the sensor and wired it into the brake fluid level sensor circuit, and it worked perfectly and probably kept that engine going for a few years longer than it would have otherwise.

 

When the 2003 45 finally died I then swapped it over to ex Cavcraft.

 

when the problems started it was using a factory cap.

 

I hope that you are right and that this is all that's wrong with it but my instincts are that it's more than that.  I am wondering if the water pump has failed or something.

 

When I started the engine from cold with the cap off there were no bubbles coming up, but thinking about it there was nothing going on at all, as in no sign of any water going round the system.  I'm not sure whether you would expect to see some water pumping around from inside the header tank.

[phil_lihp]

Ah, gotcha, makes you wonder why they waited over a decade to start putting a level sensor in it to be honest, seems like such a simple thing to help the K-series' issues! Oh yes, because Rover.

 

You are probably right of course but I like to cling to unwarranted optimism wherever possible. I recall the waterpump (driven off the aux belt if I recall?) being a pain on the 220 as it had been in there so long it resisted my lame efforts and the garage who changed it had to resort to fire to get it out of the housing, although of course by then it was severely incontinent anyway.

 

Could be HGF although I'd guess if it was that, like my 214 it would start spewing water out pretty quickly from startup and produce a lot of bubbles?

 

We shall find out!

[phil_lihp]

As for water circulation, in my limited experience I never see anything going on in the header tank until the thermostat opens so that to me seems normal.