F**ked Black Rover 827 SLi - The Mistake Machine

25,447 · April 4

Attacked it with the RugDoctor today. For all the use it is. But it’s cleaner than it was. This dehumidifier was recommended when I was looking for one for the Peugeot, so we will see how good it is now.

Getting a list of stuff post-starting, but a good one would be the rear passenger door. That’s seized, so couldn’t get that side to give it a wash.

Hopefully leave the dehumidifier to do its thing over tonight and tomorrow, then Monday will swap the throttle body over and see what it does then.

22,879 · April 4

44 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

Attacked it with the RugDoctor today. For all the use it is. But it’s cleaner than it was. This dehumidifier was recommended when I was looking for one for the Peugeot, so we will see how good it is now.

Getting a list of stuff post-starting, but a good one would be the rear passenger door. That’s seized, so couldn’t get that side to give it a wash.

Hopefully leave the dehumidifier to do its thing over tonight and tomorrow, then Monday will swap the throttle body over and see what it does then.

When I first saw the picture I thought why is there an organ in the car?

25,447 · April 4

6 minutes ago, Bren said:

When I first saw the picture I thought why is there an organ in the car?

You never know when you need a kidney!

25,623 · April 4

1 hour ago, Bren said:

When I first saw the picture I thought why is there an organ in the car?

It got caught in the door when he slammed it shut.

25,447 · April 6

Amazingly I haven’t had chance to look at this, other than monitoring the dehumidifier. It’s getting a good load of water out of it still, even though it’s been running really from 7am to about 10pm in the day since Saturday.

Checking the interior, all the bits I’ve attacked with the RugDoctor are dry now. Except for the drivers side floor which is sodden. I suspect the sunroof is leaking, or the gutter is blocked or some shit, and all of the driver floor is soaked. I recall these have some sort of sound deadening that’s essentially a foam under the carpet. So I’m going to be going a long time with this dehumidifier to get all that water out.

I have a day off tomorrow to sort the garage out. I hope that at some point I will get an hour to swap the throttle body over.

April 7

Please, please promise that if you do run out of time/ patience/ partner's co-operation that you'll give me a kick before you scrap it.

I've accidentally started a retirement home for silly old police cars and one more will make a nice triumvirate...

25,447 · April 7

5 hours ago, shampooefficient said:

Please, please promise that if you do run out of time/ patience/ partner's co-operation that you'll give me a kick before you scrap it.

I've accidentally started a retirement home for silly old police cars and one more will make a nice triumvirate...

Yeah of course, I will always help people make bad life decisions!

25,447 · April 11

So was at this today. New throttle body is on there.

Nothing. But the ECU was flashing a code, translated to top dead centre sensor bad. Which is what I noticed before. The break is right down in the loom near where it joins. Can’t fathom how to liberate the wiring loom from the injectors. But I moved them enough to strip them back and solder them together as a bodge.

My solder would not take to the wires. I may have to invest in some leaded stuff.

Anyway, fucker burst in to life didn’t it. Turned over straight away and ran.

For a few seconds, but my own eagerness killed it again. Blipped the throttle and it promptly died. Didn’t start again after that.

Battery took a beating so that’s back on charge. It wasn’t fully charged to begin with. I think, possibly, it might start straight away on a fully charged battery, but still incredibly odd that it dies when throttle is applied.

51,312 · April 11

Brilliant! well done for perseverance

18,432 · April 11

Excellent work!

7,577 · April 11

24,195 · April 11

OMFG!!! 1!

It only bloody started! That is incredible... I'm so pleased for you. It's the least you deserve after all the shit luck you've had with cars.

Keep going!!!

3,935 · April 12

Any Rover action mister? I'm cooking Sunday dinner and need some automotive entertainment.

25,447 · April 12

1 hour ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

Any Rover action mister? I'm cooking Sunday dinner and need some automotive entertainment.

I mean there was an attempt to do something. I went out, got the toolbox out, started fucking down rain so the wife roped me in to something else.

Annoying. As I was about to remove and attempt to clean the idle control valve. Which has coolant going through it, and something around it has been weeping as you can see the antifreeze crystallising on the outside of it.

May get half hour shortly but it’s either wife or weather dependent - and I think she’s already spooked with her “6 months or scrap” mandate after she heard it splurt in to life.

25,447 · April 12

And it’s raining again. So no more Rover now till Tuesday lunchtime.

51,312 · April 12

25,447 · April 12

1 hour ago, HMC said:

That’s @Noel Tidybeard and I won’t be told otherwise.

7,577 · April 12

25,447 · April 13

Well I got to it for half an hour tonight.

I have removed the idle control valve. This is the state of it in the late evening “sunlight”.

For comparison, the spare I have. Spare on the left.

The filter/gauze on the one that came off looks rather dark. So will benefit from some sort of clean.

There is a lid on top of it which I removed:

Someone has been at it before though as one screw was lacking a washer.

I decided to put the spare one on just to see what would happen. And while it didn’t start it felt/sounded eager to start. But I think I may have let go of the starter slightly prematurely so it died again. But I noticed the subsequent start wasn’t as bright. I threw the battery on to the charger (it’s a Halfrauds “intelligent/smart” charger) and it reckoned half the battery was gone.

So I need to really test this battery to see if it’s still good. It had been on charge since Saturday so was 100% full.

14,642 · April 13

You really need to get a decent battery on there.

It doesn’t matter how long it’s been on charge if it’s dropping to 50% after a couple of attempts to spin it over..it’s knackered!

Buy a cheapie one online or even ‘borrow’ one temporarily from something else and I reckon it’ll run 👍

24,602 · April 13

For me, this old barge has taken the place of the blue 800 liberated from Castle Gresley but then broken up. So near yet so far.

This 800 needs to live again.

25,447 · April 14

11 hours ago, NorthernMonkey said:

You really need to get a decent battery on there.

It doesn’t matter how long it’s been on charge if it’s dropping to 50% after a couple of attempts to spin it over..it’s knackered!

Buy a cheapie one online or even ‘borrow’ one temporarily from something else and I reckon it’ll run 👍

Yeah, I’ll have to get one ordered. I’ve a fair collection of batteries now so could do with seeing what scrap prices are for them. Help offset the cost of a new one.

But you know what might have helped last night? If I had plugged the valve back in to the loom. I woke up this morning and the first thing in my head was “did we plug that back in?”.

As I went out to take my lad to nursery I checked and nope, it was dangling down. Fuck it, it may have started if it weren’t for that! But a new battery will be ordered.

11 hours ago, Dick Cheeseburger said:

For me, this old barge has taken the place of the blue 800 liberated from Castle Gresley but then broken up. So near yet so far.

This 800 needs to live again.

I keep reading that as Castle Greyskull.

4,857 · April 14

On 12/04/2026 at 03:56, St.Jude said:

So was at this today. New throttle body is on there.

Nothing. But the ECU was flashing a code, translated to top dead centre sensor bad. Which is what I noticed before. The break is right down in the loom near where it joins. Can’t fathom how to liberate the wiring loom from the injectors. But I moved them enough to strip them back and solder them together as a bodge.

My solder would not take to the wires. I may have to invest in some leaded stuff.

Anyway, fucker burst in to life didn’t it. Turned over straight away and ran.

For a few seconds, but my own eagerness killed it again. Blipped the throttle and it promptly died. Didn’t start again after that.

Battery took a beating so that’s back on charge. It wasn’t fully charged to begin with. I think, possibly, it might start straight away on a fully charged battery, but still incredibly odd that it dies when throttle is applied.

Just in case you have access to vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, use the method I got from an Edd China's Workshop Diaries episode to clean up the wire strands - soak in vinegar first, till the wire goes bright, then dowse in some bicarb solution to neutralise the acid. I reckon the solder you have will take after doing that.

7,460 · April 14

50 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

I keep reading that as Castle Greyskull.

That's the kind of power you need

25,447 · April 14

31 minutes ago, chodweaver said:

Just in case you have access to vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, use the method I got from an Edd China's Workshop Diaries episode to clean up the wire strands - soak in vinegar first, till the wire goes bright, then dowse in some bicarb solution to neutralise the acid. I reckon the solder you have will take after doing that.

You sure it’s vinegar and bicarb? I thought it’d be salt? Bicarb to neutralise it?

7,577 · April 14

25,447 · April 15

My wife is finding new ways of sabotaging this.

Ordered the battery yesterday and I’ve received this:

She has too much time on her hands clearly, managing to disrupt logistics from battery firms.

25,447 · April 16

Battery arrived! Heavy old Exide job.

Car doesn’t start. Again, sounds eager to and coughed a bit but nothing.

Decided to check sparks. I unplugged the bottom left plug and, all the way from Australia, here it is.

Bone dry though. Did provide a white spark, that I could tell anyway.

So maybe tomorrow I’ll take all 6 out, look at them, clean them and try again.

But - I’d like to know if anyone has a guide or method to work out where the leads from the dizzy should go to the spark plugs? The Haynes BOL doesn’t have this, I don’t want to guess, but I would like to know it’s correct as well.

4,555 · April 16

8 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

But - I’d like to know if anyone has a guide or method to work out where the leads from the dizzy should go to the spark plugs? The Haynes BOL doesn’t have this, I don’t want to guess, but I would like to know it’s correct as well.

Surely it has started and run recently, and has certainly run in the past so the order is likely to be correct?

Just do one plug/lead at a time and put it back as it was. Then there is no chance of confusing them.

15,603 · April 16

On 13/04/2026 at 22:12, Dick Cheeseburger said:

For me, this old barge has taken the place of the blue 800 liberated from Castle Gresley but then broken up. So near yet so far.

This 800 needs to live again.

ive not read about this 800?

F**ked Black Rover 827 SLi - The Mistake Machine

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