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Rob's thread of complete scrap


moosemansjukebox

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I do like a car progress thread so here's my own.

Currently consisting of 3 scrappers:

1. This Rover 216 GSI. My favourite car i've ever owned, unlikely to ever sell it, probably because it has that Rover R8 smell. Bought blind on eBay for £500 in 2020, spent a few hundred on a mini restoration and that's about it. Drives great, nothing really wrong with it, so it's actually quite boring thread material. 

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2. This Rover Streetwise. Bought as a curiosity/semi-daily driver and it's effectively become my nemesis.

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It's a project drive car so it feels cheap, but that's not my real problem... in 1ish years of ownership i've had the following delights:

- Tensioner AND water pump bearing failure led to the cambelt eating itself, jumping some teeth and mashing my valves. Head off and new gasket/belts etc. Not fun. Picture from last year.

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- A few months later, it started burning lots of oil on startup... head off again and turned out to be dodgy stem seals. 
- The boot wiring had frayed in the boot lid causing the rear lights, heated rear screen to break, that needed soldering back up
- The roof lining is coming loose and there's a water leak in the boot. Not bothered about fixing these just yet.
- Then some absolute scumbags stole the cat (along with the oxygen sensor) and made a pigs ear of it

Now i've got the car back with a new exhaust, the power steering has started to become heavy/juddery. So next job is to swap the belt and fluids and hope to god it's not the pump. I really don't know why I bother with this car. 

3. This cheese demon Fiat Panda. Unexpected roffle win from @Gman88667733, timing was very convenient given the exhaust theft on my streetwise. Wasn't expecting to like it, but it's actually a lot of fun to drive, even ~250 miles of motorway driving was quite fun. Much nicer to drive around the city than the streetwise. 

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Not really sure what my long term plans for the Panda are. Short term, it's going to get a deep clean, some wheel trims, headlight restoring stuff, a service and there's a bit of oil weeping from the rocker gasket.

Update grumbles to follow.

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23 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

I've always like Streetwises and I don't know why. Chris Pollitt is currently recommissioning one on Twitter  - worth a look. Your 216 looks clean! It needs to teach the Streetwise a thing or two about behaviour!

Oh nice - I'll take a look at his Twitter! Same sentiment about the Streetwise, I used to think they looked a bit silly when it came out, but it's really grown on me over the past few years. There's another one for sale at a dealer about a mile away from me and I have to keep telling myself not to buy it...

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I think the thing with the Streetwise is, it was a daft name imo & at the time it seemed a weird concept..

Thing is they were actually ahead of their time & the sort of faux butch look with extra plastic etc  is now fairly common so now it looks acceptable/ fine.

I didn't like them at the time but now do.

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The thing about the streetwise is that Someone at Rover copied off a sticker on the back of my wife's rusty old 850 mini, that said. 'Streetwise and Road Worthy' 

We lived in Rednal, which was closer to the main Entrance at The Austin, than Longbridge 'village', so I reckon one of our neighbours must by have worked in the marketing department and spotted the sticker whilst walking the dog. 

 

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Tried getting to the bottom of the Streetwise's steering judderyness today to no avail. 

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New drive belt fitted (literally a 2 minute job, nice surprise!) and some new fluid, but still seems to judder. I'm at a bit of a loss with it, it only judders at low speeds when the car is moving, but when dry steering or at any reasonable speed it's perfectly smooth. The old belt was a 3PK750, the new one was 3PK755, but both seem to be valid for the K series. I'm tempted to just leave it and see how it goes, it's not even that noticeable and i've hit my knowledge limits here...

Also made a start tarting up the Panda today  - being a cheapskate i'm not paying for official Fiat wheel trims, so bargain bin wheel trims and stickers it is. 

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Also some fault finding on the 12v socket, it's not worked since I got it. The plastic had mostly disintegrated and I think it's shorted as the fuse had blown. Luckily parts are cheap and it's an easy fix.

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It lives!

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1 hour ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Top mounts on the streetwise?

Could be - I need to have a poke at all the suspension bits! Job for next week.
 

1 hour ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I didn't even think they went after cats on Rovers, or is it the "Honda engine m9" crowd that has dubbed all rovers to have Honda engines so go after the cats anyway...!?

Unfortunately it's a bit of a thing for Rovers too, I've heard a few similar stories now :(

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Just now, moosemansjukebox said:

Could be - I need to have a poke at all the suspension bits! Job for next week.
 

Unfortunately it's a bit of a thing for Rovers too, I've heard a few similar stories now :(

Short of the rack (very unlikely) its all I can think of. Or maybe the UJs in the column want some grease

That's annoying with the cats, as it'll mean more ultimately get written off and fragged given the costs of replacing them

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Nice Rovers 😊 I love that 216, reminds me of the one my dad had when I was a kid. I always found the streetwise a bit ahead of its time, It might sell better nowadays with all the fake 4x4s and soft roaders.  

14 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

 Or maybe the UJs in the column want some grease

Also try this first, when I first got my Volvo the power steering kept going heavy and it was the UJs in the steering column that needed some grease on because it hadn't been used much for a couple of years. I just drowned them in oil and then steered full lock to full lock with the front wheels off the ground and it fixed it. Even if it doesn't in your case at least its free to try 

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6 hours ago, paolodivichio said:

Nice Rovers 😊 I love that 216, reminds me of the one my dad had when I was a kid. I always found the streetwise a bit ahead of its time, It might sell better nowadays with all the fake 4x4s and soft roaders.  

Also try this first, when I first got my Volvo the power steering kept going heavy and it was the UJs in the steering column that needed some grease on because it hadn't been used much for a couple of years. I just drowned them in oil and then steered full lock to full lock with the front wheels off the ground and it fixed it. Even if it doesn't in your case at least its free to try 

Oil, lithium grease, silicon grease, anything really that doesn't dry up i.e wd40 :D

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More Streetwise steering juddering debuggery. 

Tried oiling the UJs, but no difference yet.  One thing I have noticed is that the juddering only happens when the engine is on a low idle... at startup when it's idling at 1300 RPM it seems fine, but once it's up to temperature and at 900RPM, it's juddery. If I rev the engine while steering the juddering improves. Not really sure what this tells me - belt slipping perhaps? Pump failing? To be continued. 

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41 minutes ago, moosemansjukebox said:

More Streetwise steering juddering debuggery. 

Tried oiling the UJs, but no difference yet.  One thing I have noticed is that the juddering only happens when the engine is on a low idle... at startup when it's idling at 1300 RPM it seems fine, but once it's up to temperature and at 900RPM, it's juddery. If I rev the engine while steering the juddering improves. Not really sure what this tells me - belt slipping perhaps? Pump failing? To be continued. 

Able to upload a video? Might give me some better ideas!

May sound silly but is the PAS pump pulley bolt tight? The system will be under more load at low engine speeds so if the pulley is slipping slightly against the resistance of the pump shaft that might cause an intermittent rhythmic judder.

I have no idea if PAS pumps have keyway pulleys on these, if they were then that cant happen. Or if they are in fact bolt on, they maybe just a press fit. I've never seen one fail or had to replace one so am not entirely sure! 

You might as well spray some silicon grease or similar into the top mounts to see if that improves things, but given the change with engine speed that now seems unlikely to be the problem

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Just looked it up and the PAS pulley has three bolts holding the pulley, so what I said is not possible in this case.

Given the low cost of a second hand pump and relative ease of replacing it, I'd agree that it seems likely to be a bad pump and is probably worthwhile swapping it to see. 

Have you flushed the fluid out, is it nice and clean or still a little grotty? Definitely bled all the air out of the system? But then again, if it was air in the system I wouldn't inspect raised revs to improve it

Edit to add - it does sound like belt slippage, but you've replaced it. So that stumps me too!

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27 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Able to upload a video? Might give me some better ideas!

May sound silly but is the PAS pump pulley bolt tight? The system will be under more load at low engine speeds so if the pulley is slipping slightly against the resistance of the pump shaft that might cause an intermittent rhythmic judder.

I have no idea if PAS pumps have keyway pulleys on these, if they were then that cant happen. Or if they are in fact bolt on, they maybe just a press fit. I've never seen one fail or had to replace one so am not entirely sure! 

You might as well spray some silicon grease or similar into the top mounts to see if that improves things, but given the change with engine speed that now seems unlikely to be the problem

I'll try grab a video next time i'm out in it - might not be possible to see it as it's quite subtle, you can definitely feel it though!
 

24 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Just looked it up and the PAS pulley has three bolts holding the pulley, so what I said is not possible in this case.

Given the low cost of a second hand pump and relative ease of replacing it, I'd agree that it seems likely to be a bad pump and is probably worthwhile swapping it to see. 

Have you flushed the fluid out, is it nice and clean or still a little grotty? Definitely bled all the air out of the system? But then again, if it was air in the system I wouldn't inspect raised revs to improve it

Edit to add - it does sound like belt slippage, but you've replaced it. So that stumps me too!

I've flushed the fluid, it wasn't even that bad. Definitely not bright red, but not brown either. I've seen much worse :)

I think tomorrow i'll take the belt off again and clean the pulleys in case there's anything that's contaminated them. Failing that, yeah, might be time to swap the pump! 

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40 minutes ago, moosemansjukebox said:

I'll try grab a video next time i'm out in it - might not be possible to see it as it's quite subtle, you can definitely feel it though!
 

I've flushed the fluid, it wasn't even that bad. Definitely not bright red, but not brown either. I've seen much worse :)

I think tomorrow i'll take the belt off again and clean the pulleys in case there's anything that's contaminated them. Failing that, yeah, might be time to swap the pump! 

Any chance of finding the 750mm belt from somewhere? I know it's only 5mm but it might make some difference. 

Cleaning the pulleys is a good shout, it could only help!

Might help if you could get a second person to steer while you observe the belt to see what it's doing and if it's visibly juddering or slipping a bit 

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I’m well paranoid about the cat getting nicked from my Ronda 600. It’s the real McCoy and worth a few quid. A few guys on the 600 fb group have scrapped their originals and replaced with aftermarkets, so they get the benefit rather than some scrote, but I like mine actually passing the emissions test every year.

I wonder if there’s some way they could be marked so if found by police in the boot of a stolen Golf with a load of others they could find their way home. I have thought about stamping mine with the car reg.

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8 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

I’m well paranoid about the cat getting nicked from my Ronda 600. It’s the real McCoy and worth a few quid. A few guys on the 600 fb group have scrapped their originals and replaced with aftermarkets, so they get the benefit rather than some scrote, but I like mine actually passing the emissions test every year.

I wonder if there’s some way they could be marked so if found by police in the boot of a stolen Golf with a load of others they could find their way home. I have thought about stamping mine with the car reg.

How about something like this?

I know it looks ridiculous and carries a pretty price but it should be cheaper than replacing it with OEM and saves you the hassle of constantly needing to replace aftermarket cats? 

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Plus has the added benefit of being able to remove it and keep it for future Hondas/Rhondas you may end up getting should you come to get rid of the 600 at some point

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1 hour ago, Angrydicky said:

What’s stopping the scrote just cutting either side of that cable and taking the whole thing including the guard thing though?

Sorry for the thread hijack btw!

Erm, yes, that's a good point! I think it affixes to the car somehow to stop that from happening, and the cable itself is supposed to take ages to cut through if they even attempt it

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3 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Erm, yes, that's a good point! I think it affixes to the car somehow to stop that from happening, and the cable itself is supposed to take ages to cut through if they even attempt it

Ok just looked it up, if you unwind the cable from the device, wrap it around the underbody or otherwise attach it to the car somehow, then wrap it over the cat. The idea being it would take ages to cut through it so should deter them, and that means they can't cut around it and steal the device with it as we thought at first.

Also apologies on my part for derailing the thread but I thought it was handy information to note for those with "sought after" cats!

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RE the power steering, could it be a failing tensioner? I assume its the same as on our MG, and its just an automatic spring loaded one. If the tensioner was failing perhaps at low revs it causes the belt to slip slightly, but at higher revs the belt is moving fast enough to keep everything moving. Just a thought! 

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1 hour ago, paolodivichio said:

RE the power steering, could it be a failing tensioner? I assume its the same as on our MG, and its just an automatic spring loaded one. If the tensioner was failing perhaps at low revs it causes the belt to slip slightly, but at higher revs the belt is moving fast enough to keep everything moving. Just a thought! 

The PAS pump has its own drive on these, it's just a double crank pulley and a stretch belt over the PAS pulley. 

I'm 99% sure the double pulley is driven straight from the crank and not a piggyback off the AUX drive and primary belt that has the tensioner. 

If that was the case a weak tensioner wouldn't affect it, but if it gets a piggyback off the primary AUX drive it could have an effect.

But I'm sure the PAS pump is driven straight from the crank with a stretch belt, which is why I thought a 5mm longer belt might make a bit of a difference

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I've had juddery power steering on a caddy van, when jacked up with the engine running you could visibly see the wheels judder as you went from lock to lock. Changed the fluid to no avail. Changing the pump cured it.

I know it's no vw but when I was looking for a 2nd pump there were loads that all looked identical but they all had the different operating pressure on top. Just make sure you get the same pressure.

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On 3/30/2022 at 12:05 AM, Angrydicky said:

Sorry for the thread hijack btw!

A change of topic is good - this is fast becoming a thread about Rover power steering systems which no-one (including me) wants :)

Speaking of which.... time for another go

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New belt on! Checked the tensioner while I was there - it feels fine. It's turning freely and there's no play in it which is good.

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I've clean a fair amount of muck off the pulleys while I was there too... and it's actually made a difference!

It's not perfect, but the juddering is definitely less!! So maybe a combination of a slightly looser belt (5mm...) and some grime on the pulleys has been causing it to slip? Next time i'm under the bonnet, i'm going to give the pulleys a second clean and see how it goes. Definite headway though :)

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

HOWEVER. Being the Streetwise, it's not going to let me off that easily. While taking it for a spin to test the new belt, the "boot open" dash warning light has started flickering on and off while driving. I suspect some water ingress to some cabling somewhere as it's been raining today. To quote myself: "I really don't know why I bother with this car."

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