Roverwhelming: 800 comes out to play

[RoadworkUK]

If you don't mind indulging me, I'm going to let out a massive YESSS of delight.

I had been cacking my kecks about the possibility that my used ABS pump might not have solved the issue, leading to the probability of big money being spent OR the car never seeing the road again.

At one point last week, I woke up at 2AM, sleepless with worry. I would be quite literally heartbroken if the 800 was permanently immobilised.

So. The replacement pump arrived, looking rather scruffier, inevitably, than the original:

Nevertheless, I gave it a bit of a scrub, deplumbed the old and swapped the slightly newer (the part number was oddly ammended on the replacement unit, with the final three digits mechanically scratched out and a different set oddly dot-matrixed in their place. I've a feeling that it was from a later-registered car and may be a revised part). Improved would be nice.

Fitting was a little fiddly for somebody like me who has bananas for fingers, but it was done with surprisingly little dribblage of fluid. I probably dribbled a lot more than the brake pipes, to be honest.

So, fitted, battery reconnected, car started... and absolutely no pedal feel whatsoever. BUT – the brakes were at least working. The car WOULD stop, if you pushed the pedal right down, if not with any urgency.

My optimistic thought was that replacing the ABS unit would quite obviously need a system bleed afterwards, and I know that I'd not changed the brake fluid during my time with the car. And I'm not entirely sure if it was ever done during my grandfather's time with it. A transfusion was probably due, then.

I HATE working with brakes. Don't mind changing disks and pads, but I'm not keen on fluid changes / bleeding etc. So it was at this point that I enlisted the help of Professional People.

The garage around the corner from me are known old rammle sympathists. Cracking bunch of lads, albeit that work in their own time. I took the Rover around on a "whenever you can fit it in" basis. Also figured they might as well MOT it, being that the free re-test I'd have got from the garage that originally MOTd it in May was well and truly lapsed. Anyway. A fortnight later, I got a call along the lines of "all done mate."

So, I now have a working, MOT'd 825 Si on my driveway, with quite the best brake feel it's ever had (still not amazing... because Rover 800). 

Front tyres and a wiper blade were also required for MOT, but that brought my total spend – including the used ABS pump – to £300. A sum that I'm not at all unhappy with for the sheer delight of having a road legal 825 Si again.

So much so that I treated it to a windscreen shade to further help delay the onset of dash lift, which the law dictates will eventually afflict every single 800.  NOT ON MY WATCH.

Cheers all. 

[R Lutz]

KV6 had the worst of the brake pedal feel of all 800s. 

[Matty]

Excellent!

[RoadworkUK]

Here's a thing:

Yeah, I know that Howmanyleft rivals Kennedy's understanding of medical science in as much as how far it should be trusted. But with it showing ZERO Rover 825 SI manuals (825 SI Auto is counted separately, and there are 7 licensed), there's a very real chance that mine (which I taxed in May) is now the only example of the breed still remaining.

Anyway. It recently had a new battery. Lets see how this one lasts; the old one got so battered by parasitic drains and then being left disconnected for months at a time that it died in one cell and ended up at 11v fully charged.

And having surrendered its usual garage spot to the Peugeot while that little honey awaits a new home (as emotionally outlined here), the Rover is back as a going concern. Well, almost...

Used it as transport to go out for a walk, very locally, I should add. It was utterly perfect and completely joyous and gave me an enormous grin.

And then, when I got home and thought 'I wonder how much MOT it has left'... er, it doesn't. Ooops. Sorry officer.

I'll be getting that booked in sharpish, then. And then the fun can continue.

EDIT MoT booked for next Tuesday.

[RoadworkUK]

Passed MOT, as if there was any doubt. And, give or take the usual Howmanyleft limitations, it's looking very much as if my 825Si really is the only one still on the road.

It's gone from 0 on the road in Q1 to 1 on the road in Q2. And given that I taxed mine in May, I reckon it's the one. 

Anyway. Tax has now expired, so it's winter lay-up time again and I'll do it all again next Spring. Not a proper lay up, mind; not going to drain it down because I'll be starting it up at regular intervals. Just not driving it anywhere, nor getting it wet. Or damp, even.

Utterly ridiculous, really, but hey ho.

[RoadworkUK]

Slapped six months of tax on this today.

2026 starts NOW.

Now wondering if I can avoid getting drunk enough to buy this tonight: