Just to fill you in on the background:
Before I went on holiday at the beginning of August I was having problems with my car. It was juddering when in a high gear at around 1300 rpm, then when you put your foot down it would go crazy and just start juddering more and more.:dunno:
My first thought was the fuel pump as it didn't sound like it was priming properly. The engine light did a mix of staying on solid and flashing (neither that good
).
So after my holiday I took it into my local rover specialist to get it sorted. It turned out it was a valve-train issue, but what was causing it I hear you cry!
It was SAND!!!
Now to put this in perspective I live in lincoln, about 50 miles from the coast, and the lady that had the car before me (from new) also lived in lincoln! The only time i have been anywhere near sand is on the .org meet in Hunstanton and even then we were on the cliff!
As you can probably guess, what was happening was the sand had (somehow) got into the engine (past the air filter which baffles me :dunno and was causing the valves not to close properly.
To cut a long story short, £430 later, the valve seats have been reground, a new mls head gasket fitted (a plus I suppose), a new oil and air filter and everything thoroughly flushed out! and the car drives like new now.
But I am still baffled as to how it happened in the first place!
Ideas welcome!
Cheers.
Clifford.
Before I went on holiday at the beginning of August I was having problems with my car. It was juddering when in a high gear at around 1300 rpm, then when you put your foot down it would go crazy and just start juddering more and more.:dunno:
My first thought was the fuel pump as it didn't sound like it was priming properly. The engine light did a mix of staying on solid and flashing (neither that good
).So after my holiday I took it into my local rover specialist to get it sorted. It turned out it was a valve-train issue, but what was causing it I hear you cry!
It was SAND!!!
Now to put this in perspective I live in lincoln, about 50 miles from the coast, and the lady that had the car before me (from new) also lived in lincoln! The only time i have been anywhere near sand is on the .org meet in Hunstanton and even then we were on the cliff!
As you can probably guess, what was happening was the sand had (somehow) got into the engine (past the air filter which baffles me :dunno
and was causing the valves not to close properly.To cut a long story short, £430 later, the valve seats have been reground, a new mls head gasket fitted (a plus I suppose), a new oil and air filter and everything thoroughly flushed out! and the car drives like new now.
But I am still baffled as to how it happened in the first place!
Ideas welcome!
Cheers.
Clifford.
