Another ECU saved?

[mcdonaa]

Since it was such a nice afternoon, I thought I would give the car a good clean and polish. Whilst under the bonnet giving it all a wipe over, I thought I might as well check the plenum drain holes. I had checked the one under the brake servo a few days after I bought the car (as this one is the easiest to get at) and it looked clear. So I hadn't bothered with the one under the ECU. Today though, this is what greeted me when removing all the trim:





Drain hole covered with leaves, and a whole load more of the little ******s in there! Just what was Rover on with this design??!!?! 5 mins and a little hoovering later (+ a lot of hole proddage) this is the result:




Take heed all that have not yet checked their plenums - do it ASAP!!!

[justmicky]

Take heed all that have not yet checked their plenums - do it ASAP!!! [/quote]

[Chris Broughton]

Originally Posted by mcdonaa

Since it was such a nice afternoon, I thought I would give the car a good clean and polish. Whilst under the bonnet giving it all a wipe over, I thought I might as well check the plenum drain holes. I had checked the one under the brake servo a few days after I bought the car (as this one is the easiest to get at) and it looked clear. So I hadn't bothered with the one under the ECU. Today though, this is what greeted me when removing all the trim:





Drain hole covered with leaves, and a whole load more of the little ******s in there! Just what was Rover on with this design??!!?! 5 mins and a little hoovering later (+ a lot of hole proddage) this is the result:

Take heed all that have not yet checked their plenums - do it ASAP!!!

Well spotted Sir!

Must check mine

Thought a good opportunity to mention my own experience of water ingress on the ECU.

At around 80000 miles put my old Connie Saloon through a car wash it was at the time when Rover was still producing the 75. Went round two roundabouts and and she started spluttering. We limped into a TESCO,s car park and rang the RAC. After about an hour the patrolman gave up saying he thought it was electrical!!.THe RAC towed connie to my local garage.Having checked and replaced the cam sensor with limited success the fault was identified as a faulty ecu. The problem was that Rover did not have any in stock anywhere in the country.This was the only time my 75 has been off the road for any length of time. It took five weeks in the end and my local Bosch tuning centre managed to get me one from Germany as Rover just couldn't give me a date when I could expect to receive it. The price at the time for the unit and the fitting was a massive £956 and lot's of inconvenience. Car washes are now always done by yours truly or a hand car wash and the plenums are checked regularly.

So your advice is spot on.

PS like the ZT in firefrost

All the best
Chris

[Roverowner]

Originally Posted by Chris Broughton

Well spotted Sir!

Must check mine

Thought a good opportunity to mention my own experience of water ingress on the ECU.

At around 80000 miles put my old Connie Saloon through a car wash it was at the time when Rover was still producing the 75. Went round two roundabouts and and she started spluttering. We limped into a TESCO,s car park and rang the RAC. After about an hour the patrolman gave up saying he thought it was electrical!!.THe RAC towed connie to my local garage.Having checked and replaced the cam sensor with limited success the fault was identified as a faulty ecu. The problem was that Rover did not have any in stock anywhere in the country.This was the only time my 75 has been off the road for any length of time. It took five weeks in the end and my local Bosch tuning centre managed to get me one from Germany as Rover just couldn't give me a date when I could expect to receive it. The price at the time for the unit and the fitting was a massive £956 and lot's of inconvenience. Car washes are now always done by yours truly or a hand car wash and the plenums are checked regularly.

So your advice is spot on.

PS like the ZT in firefrost

All the best
Chris

Don´t use car washes!!!! Learn to do it by hand. Pressure hoses destroy more than they clean! A car wash makes it look very nice on the outside but does absolutely nothing to stop the muck and rust advancing towards the nice paintwork. From the inside!!!! I judge a good car wash not really by the outside but by opening the doors, putting my fingers along the inside lip of the wheel arches. Opening the bonnet and boot-tailgate and checking where the outside panel meets the frame. Bottom of sills. If you do a proper car wash then the chances are very large that the car will end up on the scrappy because of mechanical failure, not rust.
I´ve kept old Volvos looking immaculate for years and years despite the tons of salt they put on the roads here. I was lucky enough to be taught in the Army how to properly clean a vehicle.
To keep it looking nice - Polish, polish and polish. Good chrome cleaner and silicon for all the rubbers. A good car wash (say after driving behind the big lorries here for about 400km while they are chucking up the slush and salt in December, takes about an hour. The inside of the car is another story! Alan:lol:

[StevenWilliams]

I'm wit Roverowner.

Stay away from car washes. They only do a superficial job and destroy your paintwork.

If you don't want to or cannot do it yourself then there are always the hand car wash places you see everywhere. Some of them are very good and don't cost a huge amount.

[mcdonaa]

Originally Posted by Chris Broughton

Well spotted Sir!

Must check mine

PS like the ZT in firefrost

All the best
Chris

Thanks for the kind comments!

Originally Posted by Roverowner

Don´t use car washes!!!! Learn to do it by hand. Alan:lol:

I was just about to take it to a car wash as well! However, like you say - they never do a very good job. I always like to do all the door shuts and make sure that the inside bottom of the doors are kept clean.

[pab]

i had the same situation as as you.all of mine were partially blocked,with water up to the pollen filter.member timesearcher cleaned the drain holes and replaced the pollen filter and did the spy hole mod.i could not believe the amount of water that drained out of it...