[Rover = :)]

Hi there everyone, after being a visitor to the forum for a little while (found it courtesy of RoverRon) I have now ‘joined-up’ and hope to join in a bit too J

I noticed there are a few threads on ‘what do I look for when buying my 75’ and after just buying a 1999 CDT I might be able to give some constructive input I hope….

We all know there are a wealth of CDT’s for sale from £3k upwards and after thoroughly enjoying my 1999 600 diesel I thought it was time to move on as I use my car for work and needed something that looked more modern…..

I originally looked at Mercedes E-Class CDI’s (overpriced and all without exception rusting!!!) and BMW’s excellent 530D though at £6k+ and not wearing the years so well aesthetically and to my mind not presenting the right ‘image’ I stayed with Rover and decided on the super 75 (also the same insurance as my 600, which was nice)…..

Being a reasonable home mechanic I was not too impressed with many of the small garage type places offering Club & Club SE’s from £3.5k+ which still required a good service/immediate work and the next step up seemed to be 02/03 ex-fleet cars with 100k+ on the clock and prices of around £5k+

To my mind, there is little point paying more than you have to for cars that will need work regardless….so I opted for a 110k Club CDT (could be an SE as it has front fog lights though the wheels are 8 spoke 15 inch jobbies?) with FRSH (but 1500 miles overdue it’s next service) for £2200 in the full knowledge it would need a fair bit of work and money to make it 100% again…..

Here’s what I found wrong with it once I got my fine tooth comb out:-

OSR Hub Bearing-Definitely the bearing as opposed to the other potential issues mentioned on the forum-after much haggling a new hub was secured for £70 and fitted by myself in 2 hours (giving timings as if you have to pay a garage it might be helpful to know)

H rated tyres-The diesel can run on H rated tyres though my 75 followed the camber of the road so much it was unpleasant to drive (and the last owner had worn the steering wheel with the constant tugging trying to keep it in a straight line-not my idea of luxury motoring)-Sourced 4 new Goodyear NCT5 tyres on Blackcircles.com for £270 fully fitted/balanced etc.-Steering now neutral and superb (these tyres did 35k on my Golf)

No Aircon-I was hoping this would be the normal requirement for a recharge though no such luck as the rubber damper that cushions the drive at the very front of the compressor had melted!!! and the compressor was U/S-Sourced S/H compressor for £80 and told fitting and refill will be at least £220-Moral of the story…if the Aircon no work get underneath the OSF and remove the small triangular access panel behind the bumper to the side of the main under-tray (only 5 self tapers) and ensure the compressor has not suffered melt-down as this job is if all goes well is going to cost £300+

Alternator Belt-Very tight access and need a special tool to relieve the tension on the belt-Garage quotes minimum of 1.3 hrs for the job plus £25 for the belt-So a new alternator belt is the best part of £100 fitted-if you see any wear haggle on the purchase price!

Aircon Belt-Super design this one, not L….cannot be replaced without removing the alternator belt so if you are having the alternator belt done, for goodness sake get this one replaced at the same time (takes 5mins with the alternator belt off) otherwise you are looking at around 2 hrs labour plus a £20 belt (all belts quoted are Gates’s)

Rear Dampers (shocks)-One of mine was leaking fluid and the Rimmer’s price for them is around £120 each!-decided for the time being to fit a S/H unit from a breakers car cost £25 and took 1 hr-To do this job 100% is going to cost £260 in parts inc P&P and 2 hrs labour!

Rear Pads-£25 for some Ferrodo ones (isn’t he a Hobbit? LOL) and about an hour per side to fit-piece of p**s job though remember to take the cap off the fluid reservoir b4 you start J

Rear Handbrake shoes-£25 a set again and a bit of a bugger of a job if your disc will not come off as the old shoes have grooved into the inside of the disc that acts as the hub-gave mine all a good clean for now though will in due course replace both discs, new pads again and new shoes at a cost of approx £100 plus 4hrs labour

Basic Service-My local garage does the oil & oil filter service with semi-syn oil and gives the car a ‘once over’ and resets the service indicator with the proper diagnostic tool for the princely sum of £65inc-at that price they’re welcome to do it! J

Air Filter-what a job to get to it and what a palaver getting the allen screws at the bulkhead side undone (could have done with a foot long allen key!)-once in there I have never seen an air filter so dirty (could it be the original!! LOL & so much for FRSH!)-replaced with a new unit form Halfords for £20 and took the best part of 2 hours! Arggh!

MAF Clean-following advice on RoverRon’s website I cleaned my MAF as a precaution-1hr

A nasty smell of raw diesel in the cab-this occurred (like the hub whine/bearing) on a long drive to London and back-took the sound deadening cover off the top of the engine and found the head and block where covered in neat diesel (hence the smell and slight fire risk!)-a little further investigating revealed the actual ‘common rail’ of the injection system had loose ‘nuts’ which RoverRon informs me have to withstand 20,000psi so no wonder they were leaking a little-tightened them up and have not have a problem since-3hrs labour

Xenon Headlight bulbs (4600 rated)-a bit of pure vanity here though wanted a more pure white light for looks and enhanced vision-£20 off Ebay and 2 hrs to fit since one of the bulb holder brackets came loose and needed a wheel taking off to get enough line-of-site to get it back on which was a tad annoying

Lack of wash-wipe-this turned out to be a pain as the filter in the washer bottle needed washing three times before it would work properly and the washer tank needed at least 20 pints of hot water pouring through it to remove the crud that kept fouling the fine gauze filter-total time taken on this one 5 hrs as the bottom of the washer bottle is a real pig to get at

Underbody rust-I noticed that though the ‘body’ is spot on underneath, the bolted on front and rear sub-frames are starting to show some rusting which is not too good though a good ‘waxoyling’ in summer should help and cost around £60

I noticed the back box is starting to die though will replace it with a Sebring as found by RoverRon for around £250

Rectangular number plates V half moon-the car came with a rectangular number plate which looked aweful-have now put my private plate on the car (a 2x3) on a halfmoon plate somewhat reluctantly supplied by the ex-Rover dealer and it looks the business, could pass for an 03/04 (last pre-facelift & what were Rover thinking as it looks ‘different’) which I notice are still in Autotrader at up to £9k

I still have to fit my pollen filter and that looks like another pig of a job plus I will change the gearbox oil/coolant/brake fluid

A word of warning on Full Rover Service Histories-mine has a full Rover history though now that I have a copy of what should be done at the full services (as opposed to oil services) I can see from the receipts the schedule has not been followed!!!!! My advice would be when buying your new car expect to have the cost of a full major service that replaces everything added to the purchase price which if you cannot do it yourself might be £500 (and the rest!)

Summary-

Be a little wary of the older/higher miles cars as they may still be 100% engine/gearbox yet a lot of other parts are starting to need replacement. The parts can be expensive (the highest quote for the hub was £125 though I sourced mine for £70) and if you pay for fitting the simple jobs can easily be £300 a time and you may need several of them doing!

The motorway performance of my car in 5th gear is shocking, infact I would go as far to say dangerously slow! I have checked my 50-70mph etc times and they are bang on spec for a 116 CDT so I have just invested in a TU4 Synergy with Ron to ensure my car becomes the Rover it should be!

Conclusion-

If I could not have done most of the work myself this car would have been a one-off financial black hole or worse still a dripping tap of a £300 job every month! As it is, the car is now 100% in every respect, cost around £3k in total and drives/performs as new…..I am delighted with it and a recent trip to a major PLC’s HQ for work (the London trip) proves these cars still cut it in the Board Room car park amongst the best Merc, BMWQ et al have to offer with several people stopping to give my standard silver car a second look whilst ignoring £40k X5’s and the like which was a very satisfying feeling……what a pity Rover couldn’t pull through

 

[Dunks]

Thanks

Thanks for the thread. Nice to read informative common sense. I must agree that a full Rover service history can mean very little. My own tourer was ex fleet, 52 plate, with 60,000 on the clock and FSH. After a detailed examination I am convinced this vehicle had not been serviced at all, the oil was like sludge. After changing this for a good semi syth and new filter in 5,000 miles it is still quite clean! Proving I do not have a "dirty " engine. Fortunately and a credit to the builders no harm has been done and I have a lovely motor with no faults. (reaches for wood!).

 

[Rover_ron]

Thanks for the thread. Nice to read informative common sense. I must agree that a full Rover service history can mean very little. My own tourer was ex fleet, 52 plate, with 60,000 on the clock and FSH. After a detailed examination I am convinced this vehicle had not been serviced at all, the oil was like sludge. After changing this for a good semi syth and new filter in 5,000 miles it is still quite clean! Proving I do not have a "dirty " engine. Fortunately and a credit to the builders no harm has been done and I have a lovely motor with no faults. (reaches for wood!).

I have to agree that a 'fsh' is best regarded as worthless.
My first Rover for 10years a 420d with 105k supposedly had a fsh. It was owned by a local vet from new who had trusted a small garage to look after it.
I always carry out a full service of any vehicle I buy, which was just as well in this case as the cambelt was on the verge of snapping. It was 20k miles overdue and there were holes in it!!
Oil like sludge is a good indicator of neglected servicing as is a filthy air filter - both also in evidence on the car as well.

Ron

 

[Rover_ron]

If I could not have done most of the work myself this car would have been a one-off financial black hole or worse still a dripping tap of a £300 job every month! As it is, the car is now 100% in every respect, cost around £3k in total and drives/performs as new…..I am delighted with it and a recent trip to a major PLC’s HQ for work (the London trip) proves these cars still cut it in the Board Room car park amongst the best Merc, BMWQ et al have to offer with several people stopping to give my standard silver car a second look whilst ignoring £40k X5’s and the like which was a very satisfying feeling……what a pity Rover couldn’t pull through

My CDT is ex lease and had done 92k in 31/2 yrs. Again I was told it had a FSH and being a lease car possibly it did, but I never did receive the handbook/service records. Just as well I wasn't relying on them!

Apart from a small scrape on the left hand lower bumper corner it was in good condition. The dealer said they would give it a service but I've no idea whether it was done, though the oil looked fairly clean.
I wasn't bothered anyway as I intended to give it a once over myself.
I soon discovered the air filter had not been changed and nor the oil filter nor fuel filter.
The pads were okay, though one or both front discs are slightly warped, not enough to fail the MOT though - it passed that the day before I collected it.

The back box is showing rust on the seams and I too noticed some corrosion on the front subframes that has now been waxoyled.

The clutch feels solid enough and doesn't slip, but it is biting higher up than when I bought the car in October.
The maf sensor had been changed though I killed it by heavy handed cleaning and have been using a Pierburgh one for a couple of months.

Interestingly, the salesman insisted in putting some fuel in the tank - he didn't like me driving off with the flow fuel light on. I wonder if he had come across the faulty fuel pumps issue.... He needn't have worried - fuel starvation has never (yet) been a problem.

Buying any used car is a risky business. You can end up with a lemon regardless of fsh or fdsh's. Unless you can do the servicing and maintenance yourself, I would definitley consider paying for a warranty. Just read the small print first!
Ron

 

[Rover = :)]

Thanks for the feedback chaps....my first day on here as a posting member so still sussing out how everything works

 

[Rover = :)]

With regard to my inital posting....the really scary thing is my 75 is not a 'skip' indeed far from it.....

Interior and exterior are excellent and the chap selling it was a genuine bloke who had a raft of receipts (£1400's worth) from his 18 months of ownership (2 company owners prior to that I think?).....and the original owners wallet with all books and the fully stamped Rover service history

He was shocked at what was wrong with the car though to be fair it was over due a service and therefore the last time it had seen a garage was 'half way around the world' ago....and that's a long way!

A non mechanically minded person might have spotted non of the faults, paid £3.5k and then found they needed to spend another £2-£3k at the garage getting it all put right.....which would have made it a very expensive motor indeed!

Caveat Emptor if my spelling is anything like comes to mind

Cheers

Jason

 

[Brad Pitt]

Nice post.

I found the air con element particularly interesting as there seems to be a fair few CDT owners who are trying to "chill" with the recent warm weather and finding they have no air con. . . .

 

[Rover = :)]

Well I hope for their sakes they don't have the problem I have as it could cost a fortune to fix!! £300 absolute minimum and you could easily get into very big dollar at the big garages using a new compressor Just hope my 2nd hand one works (fingers crossed, touch wood etc.)

 

[palwing]

Thanx for a very honest and informative post. Excellent

Good luck with your purchase and welcome to the forum.

 

[Brad Pitt]

Well I hope for their sakes they don't have the problem I have as it could cost a fortune to fix!! £300 absolute minimum and you could easily get into very big dollar at the big garages using a new compressor Just hope my 2nd hand one works (fingers crossed, touch wood etc.)

Well I reckon they do .. .. .. .. .. ..

There have been a bundle of posts of people with inoperative air con, which is seemingly due to a lack of gas. The system is well designed, so I was surprised at the amount of new "spring" posts with people trying, in vain, to use air con for the first time in 6 months . . . . . .

Can you explain exactly what happens with the compressor and what the resolution is. . . .I hope it is not a new compressor . . . . .

 

[Rover = :)]

Well....on the front of the compressor there is a rubber ring (is the best way I can describe it) and that links the drive to the compressor to metal surface the magnet reacts against (the magnet is part of the freewheeling part that is connected to the drive belt)....

The only reason I can think for this rubber connector to totally disintegrate into molten rubber is for the driver to keep trying to put the aircon on when the compressor intself has failed/seized for whatever reason....hence the comprssor locks solid.....the magent engages drive to the compressor and the rubber band/link is torn to shreds!....mine is so bad there and many spatters of molten rubber on the outside of my alternator belt which was also damaged in the incident.....

I bodged the link where the washer should have been just to double check the compressor and the thing just jammed solid within a few seconds of running.....the compressor is totally knackered to put it politely! and the only answer is to fit a replacement....trouble is, there are not many 75's in the breakers, and the ones there are, are asking big money for parts.....my £80 for a compressor is cheap (if it works?!) as the next nearest quote was £120+vat+del

My guess would be due to lack of use over winter the compressor has seized somehow and this is the messy and expensive end result.....

Hope this helps anyone suffering the problem....but be ready to raid your piggy bank!

BR Jason

 

[Brad Pitt]

Sounds like your "compressor clutch" has taken a hammering as a result of a ceased compressor.

Not sure whether this is a common problem, or you are just very unlucky. If a compressor ceases, it usually means you are in a whole world of pain as the swarf goes into the rest of the A/C system and knackers the thermal expansion valve in the evaporator, etc, etc.

The only was a compressor would cease is due to a lack of gas and or refrigeration oil flowing around the system.

The trinary switch constantly monitors system pressure, so if the gas pressure is too low (not enough gas) for the system to run, the system will not cut in at all. If the trinary switch was buggered, or it was a hot day, it is possible the AC could run with little or no gas in it and it would be goodbly compessor or clutch too as in your instance.

This is why it is bloody important to have an AC engineer regas and vac the system as it is possible for the system to get ruined through a lack of gas on a hot day - it has happened to me and cost me well over £600 on a Rover Sterling 8 years ago.

Halfrauds cans to re-gas a system are inviting trouble IMO.

 

[Rover = :)]

Thanks Palwing....after owning a LR Discovery the rover 75 is childs play and really the work to date has been fun (and was budgeted for anyways apart from the replacement compressor)......

Love the 75 to bits and after doing the RoverRon intake mod today it is a different car....can't wait for my TU4 next week! ....you just cant beat 150bhp cars that do best part of 50mpg....!!!!!

Cheers once again, this is an excellent forum and I just wanted to give my experiences to a wider audience in the hope it might save someone money.....as for the non mechanic purchaser my car would have been a financial disaster zone...LOL ......as it is, I used to be an engineer so this is just a chance to work hands on, as opposed to being behind a desk like I do 9-5......also half the reason I bought the Disco as I knew it would need a fair amount of work on it

There both just a it of fun I suppose and neither are going to depreciate much from where I started.......