New Rover owner, the story so far

SIB01 · 6th March 2019, 12:28

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!

6th March 2019, 12:28	#1
SIB01 Newbie Rover 75 Tourer Join Date: Feb 2019 Location: Kirkcaldy Posts: 10 Thanks: 0 Thanked 21 Times in 2 Posts	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!