With the car safely delivered to Lates the next day provided an opportunity to start conducting the evaluation of the car. As this vehicle has been so active during its life it has also got to be assumed that literally every aspect has to be looked at – and on what is a reasonably complex car like a Rover 75 this will need time and a methodical approach. So the first tasks today were to try and get the engine running and switch the flat front tyre for the spare – which will at the same time allow a cursory inspection of part of the front suspension.
With the car jacked up it very quickly became clear why the front tyre wouldn’t inflate – the spring had snapped and torn into it. Very nasty and, as we all know, something that the factory was concerned enough about to issue a recall for dealers to fit retainer systems to prevent exactly such a scenario happening with owners. It’s ironic to discover that this modification was not done at Longbridge to one of their own cars....
So, with the car now much easier to move about it was time for Lates and Pete to have a bash at getting it to start. As it had stood for a pretty long period of time the spark plugs were removed and oil squirted down into the cylinders, the booster cables were attached and the key turned. The engine turned, but it was struggling despite having plenty of oomph running through the jump leads.
With the car making some God awful schreeching noises,despite having plenty of power to it, Lates and Pete looked at each other and sort of went "hmmm..... does that sound internal or a belt tensioner bearing, water pump bearing or more ?" Taking a step back to allow the battery recover somewhat a burst of inspiration came over them..... out came the side cutters to say goodbye to the alternator drive belt. Well, the battery wasn’t interested in holding a charge so it was pointless worrying about that for now. Lo and behold, the engine starts to turn a lot faster – so we can add a duff alternator to the list. The bearings within the alernator were shot.
While the engine was turning over fine, actually starting was another matter. A good ten minutes passed until it began to kick into life but slowly it reawakened and white plumes of smoke puffed out the exhaust – a legacy of the oil poured into the cylinders.
By holding it on a fast tickover to encourage it to warm up Lates and Pete were able to watch and listen to it for any early indications of problems, but it seemed fairly happy until it eventually used up the old fuel in the tank and coughed and died. Some fresh fuel next time will have us taking a deeper look into its health.
With the electrics now wide awake from their slumber the instrument pack has become a real source of interest. As you can imagine from a car containing bits hurriedly replaced to turn it into a pretend ZT it was having a little trouble recognising itself properly. But some of the error messages the instrument panel was displaying are not exactly what you may expect. What seems to be a warning that the self levelling suspension has failed for example is a real curio, along with a traction control warning – the 1.8 didn’t have this even as an option. And with the dashboard making a bonging noise with the driver’s door open while the key is in the ignition does lead us to suspect that it may be an export spec IPK that was put in.
While mentioning the driver’s door it became very obvious that the check strap has gone AWOL too. A minor part but really rather important if you don’t want to get bruised shins!
So, the next step is to move on with evaluating the car and see what else we can find that is unusual, broken or missing. We’ll be back next week with an update.