New Rover owner, the story so far
 

Hey all,
A bit of an introduction of myself and my recently acquired 51 plate Rover 75 Connie SE Tourer 2.5 V6.

My Rover journey started recently when my wife wanted to clear out the garage, attic, and back garden and I told her there was no way in Hell I was using our newly acquired (leased) BMW M140i as a general junk transporter so we started looking at cheap diesel estates, 4x4’s, etc to use as a second car. I looked at few cheap diesel Astra estates, a Kia Sedona, and some others and nothing really took my fancy.

A quick look on Gumtree later and I clocked this “greenish” (I was later informed by a more knowledgeable friend that it’s “Moonstone”) Rover 75 Connoisseur SE Tourer 2.5 V6 with a full MOT at what I thought was a reasonable price. I’m not too mechanically minded but it looked and drove nicely and other than being the V6 as opposed to diesel it was pretty much ideal for what I wanted. Haggled on the price (I’m a Scotsman, it’s in the blood!) and got it down to an even more reasonable price so took it. Genuinely surprised with the stuff that’s on it for such an old and (now) cheap car, electric memory seat, independent climate control, cruise control, fully heated leather seats, etc. All for considerably less than the cost of 2 months payments on our new car……..

First day of owning it I snapped the cam breather pipe trying to reconnect it as it was coming away at the T piece…..after a lot of swearing I ordered a new one of those as well as new oil, oil filter, plugs, pollen filter, air filter.

Read up on this forum and others about how difficult the plug change would be and initially talked myself out of doing it and enlisting a more mechanically minded friend but armed with a Haynes manual and some print out from the net and all 6 were changed in about an hour although my hands look like I’ve been wrestling a bear and coming off second best!! Air and pollen filters changed easy enough but when I went to do the oil I realised my ramps are too steep so that’s still to be done yet….hopefully this week.

When changing the pollen filter I noticed about 4 inches of water in the bulkhead (that’ll account for the damp smell when I switched the heater on then!!) and read up on the drain holes being blocked! More swearing and a stolen garden cane later and the passenger side one and the ones in the wings cleared and water all gone.. Braw

After all that I went to start the car and kept getting “bonnet open” error that I never had before. More swear words, a check on this forum, and I pull the switch out to find the wires snapped so have temporarily twisted them and wrapped insulating tape around them until I get around to ordering wire connectors. Problem solved

Yesterday for the first time since owning it (late February) I actually took it for a proper drive to work and I was about as excited as I was when I picked up my new BMW……. The car’s maybe not as fast or fancy BUT It’s smooth and quite luxurious and I did the work myself on it to get it running so a sense of achievement for me there, bearing in mind my lack of mechanical knowledge!

Initially it was just bought as a cheap runabout for dump runs and taking my mums large dog out but I can see this being used for a lot more and a good experiment to see if I’ll be buying a new car again when the current PCP ends.......

Thanks to the fine folks on this forum for the detailed "How too's" as it's made my life so much easier already and I look forward to contributing member here when my own knowledge builds up a bit more! :D

Welcome to the forum, hope you get good service out of your new purchase.


Used to play Ice Hockey at Kirkaldy in my Glasgow Dynamos days and run my dugs at Thornton greyhound track not to far away.

Hi and welcome. With a bit of TLC, these cars are great. Your V6 is a reliable beast if looked after. as with all "older" cars, they need a bit of fettling now and then but most things are doable. I used to visit Butler Buildings in Kirkcaldy before they moved to the M8 area near Glasgow. Spent many a night in a truck on the seafront! Great fish and chips if I remember well. Enjoy! Mike:}

Welcome along, looks like you are already well versed in the issues with our cars 👍👍

They're great cars and your story reminds me of my own when I bought for five grand a 2004 Connoisseur diesel Tourer in August 2012. I have enjoyed it and fettled with it as our first car since then with dogs and three large trips to the continent under the belt. A great and decent garage owner/mechanic down the road and a bit of imposed patience from the wifey has helped the car during the 60,000 miles we have done since we bought it. There's a real sense of achievement with them when they go as well as mine does and this 'club' has been brilliant too. Regards Jeremy

as your post make sure you have done all 4 plenums one each side of the wings near the bulk head the other 2 are inside the scuttle panels one near the ecm passengers side and the other near the brake servo but that one can only be accessed from under neath the car . if they have not all ready been done i suggest you get under the car and cut the ends off so they allow more water and debris to escape rgds mark

Thanks everyone, seems Kirkcaldy is a thriving hotspot!! :D. I've a few trips planned for the car already and am serioulsy considering useing it for "Rust to Rome" a few of us are talking about doing next year if it remains solid and reliable this year. First it'll need to get to my in-laws in Lairg (200 miles away from out house) and see how it goes! :}

Wow, a fellow Kirkcaldy member. Great story. Sounds like you have a gem there. Welcome to the club. I have too many Rovers and trying to reduce the amount! :D

Your post took me back 65 years to when I played ice hockey for the Haringey Greyhounds and used to run two dogs at the dog track in Haringey. One was a grader but earned his keep but my other one was open class and won a fair bit of dosh in its short racing life until he broke his hock and had to be retired. I miss those days.

Haha small world! I'll keep my eye out for other Rover 75s in Kirkcaldy now! :D