My Rover diesel automatic

[good_mojo]

Buying the car

I saw a Rover 75 Classic CDT automatic on eBay and was unsuccessful at biding so I thought no more about it until the following day when the seller offered it to me because the original buyer was unresponsive. I went to inspect the car and paid for it. I bought the car from the town where my partner’s mother lives so I got the seller to drive it round and park it on her drive and went back a week later having sorted out insurance, etc.

I bought it, knowing that it had a fault with the auto transmission. However, from a bit of reading, I was fairly confident that I would be able to fix it. The previous owner had replaced the lower engine mount. I found the procedure for a complete change of fluids, so we did that on my partner’s mother’s driveway. (The excellent ‘how to’ is at http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/foru...d.php?t=124816). Briefly, for those that don’t know, you drain the fluid from the drain plug, refit the plug and then add some new fluid. I ran the engine for 15 seconds with the oil cooler disconnected to flush the last of the fluid out, then reconnected it and refilled with new fluid then ensured the levels were correct. The old ATF was very dirty, rusty coloured, and had numerous disconcerting small black bits in suspension. It was clearly long overdue a change.

Despite the fluid transfusion, when I drove the car for the first time, the gearbox was still jerky so I have been driving like an old granny to nurse it through the low gears. Apart from the gearbox fault, the car is fantastic. It is very refined on the motorway and makes for relaxed long distance cruising. I like the leather and walnut and it feels like a quality car. This is going to be my everyday car and my aim is to have a quiet comfortable car for my daily 45-minute commute to work and for longer runs on the motorway.

[good_mojo]

My priority was getting the car through its MOT as it only had a few days left. I took it to the council depot at Billingham. (TIP: the council MOT centres have no vested interest in finding a fault with your car so offer a fair test. In the past I’m sure I have been ripped off by garages who find all sorts of unnecessary work to do. There is some good info and links to the centres on Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert site). It needed a new track rod end and a new exhaust back box. I fitted the track rod end, which was straightforward enough after releasing the nut with a butane torch. I did not fancy cutting the old exhaust and fitting up the new one I got from the local motor factor, so my local garage fitted it for £40. (The exhaust is an ugly one that must be for a tourer as it is too long, so it will go to be replaced by stainless at some time). Before going for the re-test, I fitted four new tyres. (I went for Dunlop SP Sport BluResponse 195 65 r15 v load 91 which are rated B fuel efficiency, A wet braking and 68 db noise level) and had a full 4 wheel alignment. It passed the re-test OK – and the nice people there did not charge me for it. The new tyres are very quiet.

[good_mojo]

I have bought a Rover 75 1.8t Connoisseur in exactly the same colour. This is going to be more of a project as it has the all too predictable head gasket failure. Someone has bodged one of the coolant hoses as it is barely hanging on, so when I tried to top up the coolant level, it all flowed out on the ground. I bought this initially as a spares care to upgrade my Classic, but it seems a sound car so I will strip the engine to investigate if I can bring it back to life. In the meantime, I may well take advantage of the similar colour panels and fit the front bumper to my Classic as it has a few battle scars from poor parking. This will minimise its time off road as it is my only transport at the moment.

This 1.8t project will have to take a back seat until my automatic is fixed.

[good_mojo]

On Sunday 12th of October I went to Trikey’s third meet in Hull. This was my fist club meet and I found everyone I met to be very friendly and supportive. There were some tremendously knowledgeable guys there, including ex-employees of MG rover. I paid Andy for a service and was taken through the process step by step so I can do it myself next time. We fitted a new PCV, new fuel filter, new oil filter and changed the oil.

Someone asked me where the temperature gauge was sitting and I replied that it barely rose at all – never getting beyond the eight o clock position. He said that meant that the thermostat was kaput and replacing the original was a PITA, so I should fit a Renault one in the top pipe.

Marina Brian is a wizard as he read my ECU, with the full diagnostic malarkey then proceeded to wipe it and re-write it as it was set wrong from the factory. Before the meet, I had diagnosed that the 2-4 brake duty solenoid in the auto box was faulty – from reading reports from others with exactly my symptoms and already had a new one in a jiffy bag ready to fit. I had borrowed my neighbours fault code reader but because my ECU was faulty it was not logging any fault data. Once the ECU was ‘awake’ after Brian’s surgery it reported the solenoid was faulty. Fitting a functioning solenoid was clearly a priority now.

[flying_pig]

Welcome and enjoy your new car

[good_mojo]

I decided to minimise the amount of dismantling and take of the front in as few pieces as possible. I read the how to at http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/foru...17&postcount=1

Then I set to:
• Raise car at front on axle stands (to minimise the amount of fluid lost from the transmission)
• Remove engine top cover
• Remove screw (Philips) from intake snorkel to manifold
• Remove 10mm bolts from slam panel to each wing
• Remover 10 mm screws from top under each wheel arch
• Place protective tape on wings and pop bumper out from side of wings
• Remove 10mm bolt from front of fuse box
• Remove 9 x 10 mm bolts across top of bumper (leave middle one till last)
• Disconnect wiring
• Get assistance to remove bumper (this is a two person job to avoid damage to car or bumper)
• Remove 8 x crash bar main bolts (leave slam panel attached)
• Unclip headlamp wires
• Slide black clip to separate and detach metal pipe
• Release bonnet release cable from divider block
• Remove steering pump cooler bolts
• Remove retaining pin to temperature sender wiring and separate
• There are t-25 splined fixings holding the radiator – these were seized solid so push the soft rubber like fixings through the large holes instead

[good_mojo]

My primary objective was to fix the transmission issue. However, as usual, there were several other things that cropped up along the way...

This is what I did:

EGR

• Disconnect large diameter rubber intercooler pipe from EGR valve
• Remove 4 x bolts (5 mm allen head)

Picture of EGR


Inlet manifold

• 8 x captive nuts (10 mm)
• 4 x nuts (11 mm)
• 1 x bolt (11 mm)
• Disconnect –ve terminal from battery (to prevent the ECU from harm as other electrics are unplugged and plugged back in).
• Disconnect wires from MAP sensor (release spring clip and pull off)
• Slide off grommet from right hand side to release wires (Be careful! Mine pinged off and was never seen again.)

picture of inlet manifold removed



Auto box

• With the two intercooler pipes removed you can now see the front panel of the auto transmission.

• Remove the +ve battery cable from the front of the auto box. (Note there is a threaded rod sticking out of the front panel and the clip from the battery +ve wire was just pushed on. There must be ‘proper’ way to hold this in place…)
• Place bowl underneath to catch any lost transmission fluid
• Remove the numerous bolts holding the front pan in place
• Use a wallpaper scraper to release the seal all around. There is no gasket, so the pan is held in place by sealant. The wallpaper scraper is broad and thin so should not cause any distortion.
• Disconnect the wire to the 2-4 brake duty solenoid
• Remove the 2-4 brake duty solenoid and its partner the timing solenoid – two long bolts
• Refit new 2-4 brake duty solenoid and intertwine with its partner then refit
• Reconnect wire to new 2-4 brake duty solenoid
• Clean the front pan and ensure the mating face of the trans block and the pan are clean

• Apply a thin bead of gasket sealant to the pan

• Offer up pan and hand tighten bolts in the corners (apply copperslip to all bolts)
• Hand tighten all the bolts
• Tighten bolts incrementally all round to avoid distortion
• Refill auto box – 400ml lost, so 400 ml added
• Refit clean inlet manifold with EGR bypass
• Refit both intercooler hoses (copperslip on jubilee clips)

Inlet manifold reprise
My inlet manifold was badly choked

with a horrible black sludge. I collected all the o-rings and put them to one side then sprayed a can of foaming oven cleaner into it and left it overnight. The following morning I pressure washed it out, though there was still a huge amount of gunge left. I shook it dry and reapplied another ½ can of cleaner and worked this around with a bottle brush, before re-jetting with the pressure washer. Then used the remainder of the can and repeated… Eventually I managed to clear the sludge.
If you are going to do this, ensure you are suited and booted! Oven cleaner itself is highly caustic and the black gunge is NASTY. I had gloves, protective goggles, boiler suit, rigger boots and an old coat on. I got very filthy as did the surrounding area.

This is not something I ever want to do again, so hopefully the EGR bypass will prevent the sooty gunge build up from re-occurring.

I wish I had weighed the manifold before and after cleaning. Carbon is one of the lightest elements, yet there was so much of it, that the manifold seems to be considerably less heavy now it has all gone.

At the cylinder head, where the manifold meets up was similarly gunged, so I sprayed carb cleaner in to try to shift the worst of it. Hopefully, a motorway run will deal with anything stuck by the valves. I cleaned the MAP sensor with carb cleaner and re-fitted it along with all the o-rings.

Once dry, I refitted the manifold and intercooler pipes, with the EGR bypass.


I ordered my stainless steel EGR bypass from DMGRS late in the afternoon and it arrived next morning. (What a fantastic service). I fitted a K&N air filter and ensured all the engine orifices were closed before moving to the next stage, reconditioning the cooling system.

Fit Renault thermostat

• Dremel off steel band and remove top hose
• Remove hose bottom after auto box cooler
• flush radiator
• back flush radiator
• flush engine though top hose inlet
• attempt to flush engine through bottom (without much success)
• flush though expansion tank
• Fit Renault thermostat into top hose with brass bulb to engine

• Refit top hose with jubilee clip
• Refit bottom hose
• Refill with correct coolant mix of antifreeze (put neat antifreeze in first)

Refit slam panel assembly and bumper
With my able assistant, we reconnected the steering pump cooler, and all the electrics, then refitted the slam panel assembly. I held the crash bar up as high as possible while it was bolted on. We then bolted on the bumper, taking care to connect the wiring first.

Checks
After I fitted the engine top cover, I checked that all the lights work as they should and then fired up the engine. It was reluctant to start at first then produced an enormous cloud of smoke, before settling down to idle. This must be the initial clearing of the crud that I dislodged with the carb cleaner. I will take it for a run up the motorway tomorrow to ensure it gets a good chance to clear everything properly.

[Fusilier]

Scott

Glad to see you are getting it sorted, and will be an excellent car which will give you many years of service, much better than that golf thing you had, I told you many years ago whilst at work, that these cars are very unrated by the general public, until you drive one, and then your opinions do change, nice to have you on board, and hope that you will join us at the many meets we have in the North East

See you soon

Stu

[Heddy]

Blimey, were there any tea breaks? I wish you well with your project(s)

[DMGRS]

I also had the solenoid issue - a new one sorted it out too. Not a bad job, and nice to have smooth changes back!