Yet another fail thread... replacement cheapskate car!

mattyprice4004 said:
Head gasket on this? Either learn to read my reply, a few pages ago, or learn about what you're talking about before spouting rubbish.

This doesn't have the made of cheese K series, it's the much tougher T series lump.

Have a nice day, and go and read a book on something useful before you come back talking crap.
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LOL, Im sure Im not the only person who doesn't always read every single page of every thread that they reply too, anyhow don't be defensive, I was merely (speaking from previously owning a K series lump) saying that rovers have a bit of a reputation with head gasket problems. No offence intended
 
Gtiracer said:
LOL, Im sure Im not the only person who doesn't always read every single page of every thread that they reply too, anyhow don't be defensive, I was merely (speaking from previously owning a K series lump) saying that rovers have a bit of a reputation with head gasket problems. No offence intended
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I was in a very bad mood when I wrote that, sorry :o

Yeah they do have a bad rep (a bit? just a little... :p ), and I do love the odd bit of HGF banter, just caught me at a bad time. I'll be the first to admit this car will probably not be cheap to run, break a lot and generally drain me of money... :D

Part of owning it is the fact you know something will break, it's like Russian roulette!

And yeah, the clutch does feel ropey. It doesn't feel like a hydraulic fault, just very tired - it's the only thing that ruins the otherwise very nice drive of the car.
 
mattyprice4004 said:
I was in a very bad mood when I wrote that, sorry :o

Yeah they do have a bad rep (a bit? just a little... :p ), and I do love the odd bit of HGF banter, just caught me at a bad time. I'll be the first to admit this car will probably not be cheap to run, break a lot and generally drain me of money... :D

Part of owning it is the fact you know something will break, it's like Russian roulette!

And yeah, the clutch does feel ropey. It doesn't feel like a hydraulic fault, just very tired - it's the only thing that ruins the otherwise very nice drive of the car.
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No probs, I just hope you have fun owning it, I bet its no slouch
 
sigma said:
Are these tunable?

Boost, baby, booooooost! :D
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Not reallly.

Can remove the standard boost controller which introduces the boost progressively for a ball and spring type, so you get full boost much earlier (around 2500-3000rpm iirc). Run 11.7 psi as standard.

Can't turn the boost up further as the pistons are made from chocolate and the turbo won't blow much more anyway.

Can swap the T25 out for a T28 which will gain you ~25bhp and maybe 30lb/ft when accompanied by a decent exhaust and turbo elbow/downpipe.
 
MOOGLEYS said:
Why are you spending money fixing it ? Its a £180 car just drive it until it falls to bits and then buy another one..
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Because if it's a particularly good example then it's probably worth throwing 100 quids worth of repairs at it to keep it going even longer.
 
Gtiracer said:
No probs, I just hope you have fun owning it, I bet its no slouch
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If you're ever at a meet, I'll get you a pint for being a bell end. :p

It's actually very sedate and relaxed, your sat in pretty much silence as you rocket up to ***mph with ease, it feels a lot less 'broken' than my last one.

Saying that, it's suspension refresh not too long ago combined with the 20mm drop they have as standard means it does handle pretty well, so I'm going to fit a nice Mongoose exhaust to bring out a bit of rumble.

:)
 
MOOGLEYS said:
Why are you spending money fixing it ? Its a £180 car just drive it until it falls to bits and then buy another one..
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Because cars don't tend to spontaneously fall to bits in one single action.

Exhaust starts blowing - you can't just drive it around sounding like a tank, and neither are you going to throw the car in the bin as it now has a noisy exhaust (unless you are a moron)

So you fix it.

Same goes for routine maintenance like filters, belts, oil and so on. You can't just ignore everything because it's cheap, or you'll be throwing it in the bin and buying another one a lot sooner than you'd like.
 
Lopéz said:
Because cars don't tend to spontaneously fall to bits in one single action.

Exhaust starts blowing - you can't just drive it around sounding like a tank, and neither are you going to throw the car in the bin as it now has a noisy exhaust (unless you are a moron)

So you fix it.

Same goes for routine maintenance like filters, belts, oil and so on. You can't just ignore everything because it's cheap, or you'll be throwing it in the bin and buying another one a lot sooner than you'd like.
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Thanks for the lesson it was most informative :D.... My point is more its a £180 car why spend money on changing the cambelt water pump and the likes. The o/p has mentioned a stainless exhaust. Is it really worth it..? Me personally i would fix small things that cost a few quid but nothing more. Yes its a 200bhp turbo car but its also a £180 200bhp turbo car with near 200k on the clock...

I have owned a few cheapo cars and tend to just drive them for a few months then drop them off at the scrappy and pick up something different, the only exeption was my 306 D turbo which turned out to be indestructable..
 
MOOGLEYS said:
Thanks for the lesson it was most informative .... My point is more its a £180 car why spend money on changing the cambelt water pump and the likes
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Well you did ask.....

Why change those parts? Because they are cheap, and if they fail you will be stuck at the roadside and your day will be spoiled. And then you'll have to fix not only the pump or belt but whatever other secondary damage has occurred from them failing.

You can't just not bother with preventative work because it's cheap, in fact it's more imperative it's done on a cheap car which is likely to have been neglected in the past.

As for a stainless exhaust, no idea. If he plans on keeping the car, why not?
 
Lopéz said:
Well you did ask.....

Why change those parts? Because they are cheap, and if they fail you will be stuck at the roadside and your day will be spoiled. And then you'll have to fix not only the pump or belt but whatever other secondary damage has occurred from them failing.

You can't just not bother with preventative work because it's cheap, in fact it's more imperative it's done on a cheap car which is likely to have been neglected in the past.

As for a stainless exhaust, no idea. If he plans on keeping the car, why not?
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Agree with the above being a qualified car mechanic I couldnt agree more. Just its a £180 car its unlikely to last a great deal of time, If it does then even better but is it worth carrying out preventative maintenance on a £180 car to me no.
Thats my opinion and i,m sure others like yourself have different ones and thats what makes forums interesting. Its the o/p,s car and its up to him what he does and what he spends his money on at the end of the day.
 
The stainless exhaust is costing me £100 second hand, so it's hardly the end of the world. :p

Today's work:

1. Running crap under hard acceleration, so changed the spark plugs as they were black as ****. Cost £4 for a full set of NGKs as they're the cheap as chips BKR6Es, as recommended by most tables for the 620ti.

Old one:
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All done:
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Running much better! :D

Also, the ABS light was intermittently coming on, so I got a new sensor off eBay and set to work. This would be the cause of the problem... :eek:
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All sorted now, light off and have ABS back. :cool:

Also, I ran some Redex through in high concentration to clean all the rubbish out of the fuel system. Surprisingly this seemed to also help, and after the whole day the car felt much more responsive.

However... the clutch has started slipping, probably due to the fact it's now running well. Luckily I have a spare lying around, so I'll be doing that this Sunday. Piece of cake to change on one of these, I'll get some beers out and have a lazy Sunday doing that.

Loving the car, did a quick motorway blat in it, and it's running beautifully.

Over and out!
 
Clutch replacement time.

Updates as promised:

One very knackered coolant rail, got a replacement as I knew this was going:
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Bits and bobs I've been pulling off:
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Gearbox side cleared of ancillaries:
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Gearbox, covered in oil (to be cleaned off, oil leak has been sealed up)
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Teeny tiny turbo:
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Draining gearbox oil:
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Caliper tied out of the way:
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After a furious beating the track rod end finally came out:
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I did a lot more but didn't get pictures, was pretty grim weather and iPhones don't like car work. :p
 
You changed the clutch on wet, muddy grass? I'm glad I didn't offer my services now :p

Good job though. Those old plugs look a bit oily on the threads? Did you get the new plugs from eBay? I've been looking for some. £5 posted compared to £12 from Halfords.
 
Can you not remove the bolts from the tie rod to the lower arm, undo the lower arm to chassis bolt and then pull the shaft out of the gearbox as the hub will be free?

Saves buggering the TRE then.

Not sure on the suspension arrangement on the 600 but that would work on the 200/400.
 
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