Rover's engine broke on highway

Very good mileage indeed. By the looks of it, Rover DO know how to build cars.

PDH

A very good mileage on what is probably the Honda engine rather than the 'K' series rubbish.

Cam belt gone?

Brian G

Thanks for your replies.

By the way ... don't let your cars have more than 150000 miles - because to any car is too good -.

Devil escreveu:

K-series rubbish?

Yep, compared to the Honda 1.6 engine, the Rover K-series is total rubbish.

The rover 416GSi fitted with the Honda engine that I bought with 108,000 miles on the clock hadn't had the head lifted when I sold it after doing

No coolant leaks, no oil leaks, oil consumption at over 1,000 miles per pint and still able to do well 'over a ton' in it.

Try doing that with a K series.

BTW, the ONLY time it ever let me down was when a driveshaft snapped as a was negotiating a roundabout - it had rusted under the anti-twis/vibration rubber bolted around the shaft!

Brian G

Never had a problem with a K-series, been running them for 10 years. The K-series is better to drive, more low down torque and more useable power.

I would suggest that you are lucky with that engine. My daughter is on her second Rover with a K-series and both have had problems with the head. If you want more 'horror stories' on the K series, just pop over to uk.rec.cars.maintenance and have a look through the old posts there, or just look at the post Rover 414 below in this group.

With regards to 'drivability', after having driven Rovers with both the K-series and Honda engines, I believe that the Honda one is far superior to that of the K, but that as always, is subjective to the individual :-)

Brian G

Why has your daughter bought another K-series then?

Must have been lucky with all four of mine. One 8 valve 1.1 two 16 valve 1.4s (one single point injection one multipoint) and a 1.6 16 valve. Never had a problem with any of the engines. Then again I only had 1 K series built by Rover under BMW. In my experience HG failure was no better or worse than any other engine up until then.

I have driven over 250k miles behind the K series and I always found them fast frugal and reliable.

I have driven 150k behind Honda engines of various types. They too were fast and reliable. Frugal is not a plaudit I would give.

The very worst engines? Ford units. Loud and coarse with sod all power and poor reliability. Vauxhall Ecotecs. Dire in all departments.

But that is my experience.

The Honda units are great as long as you are willing to rev them. Low down pull is non existent. The K is a bit better. But for real low down grunt get a old 2 liter O series EFi lump. Lovely.

Quite simply she likes the shape of the Rover 216 - and like all kids (an adult at 32 really) she won't take telling - just gives it to me when it needs repairing :-(. As for me, I wouldn't touch a Rover with a K-series even if you gave it to me. My local garage positively enjoys them though, they reckon they make at least a grand a month on repairing them.

Brian G

I haven't driven a Ford for many years, but back in the '60/'70s when I was a very young driver, my combination of power in a car would have been a BMC (Austin/Morris) engine with a Ford gearbox. When Ford started to bring out their high-powered cars though, my choice of engine would have been something along the lines of the Cosworth 'blueprint' build. Ah a dream that never came true!

I used to have the 416GSi (Honda unit) and that literally went like s**t off a shovel and according to the records that I keep, averaged around 35 mpg pottering locally and up to 48 mpg on long, primarily motorway/dual carriageway cruising at around the 60/70 mph mark (petrol engine). Speeds above that, I needed a petrol tanker for mid-flight refuelling :-)

Brian G

I know what you mean, I will never touch another Ford again as long as I live. Ford gives you less, as the advert should have said. The only cars I know of where the fuel burnt is in exponential proportion to the speed you are doing, and the level of noise.

Current Vauxhalls are naff, but my wife had a Mk2 Astra J plate from which she got 175k before getting fed up with it and trading it in for something different ( a gas guzzling Mazda MX3 V6, nice car to look at but a bitch to maintain). Even then, apart from a few small oil leaks on the block the only other issue was the usual Vauxhall vice, a bit of rust on the rear wheel arch.

BTW, does anybody know if Car Mechanic magazine is still out there? WHSmith are not carrying much in the way a magazines these days. :o)

Went from a Ford to a G reg 214Si, astounding car, especially one morning when I was late for work one morning and did warp speed up the A23 to London. Very gutsy, very drivable, and the most reliable car I ever had. Got 110k on the engine with basic home maintenance before trading it in for.....

Rover 220SDi R plate. Took this to 100k before some arse pulled out on me on the motorway in driving rain without looking behind. Again, very gutsy and very capable with good economy. I replaced it with a 25iLTD, same powertrain. Although the build quality was not as good as the old SDi due to the BMW owned move to the use of scrivits, the powertrain was outstanding, ultra reliable (only one repair needed, that of a MAP sensor going slowly wrong) and very economical. Due to a chage of work my wife uses it and can make a full tank of fuel last 500 miles and 5 to 6 working weeks worth of driving. A compliment from the wife is that of all the cars she has driven, she finds the all round vision of the 200/25s very good, especially when reversing into car park bays. I think that says it all.

Its my impression that those people who have had head gasket issues just do not appear to be carrying out basic maintenance. As with all three Rovers I have had, change the fluids and do the check ups on a regular basis and the car should behave itself. Neglect it, and you get what you deserve.

Rdgs

PDH

Paul, yes it is. Go to the links page of my Rover site

Cheers.

WHSmith are about as much use as a choccy teapot these days.

PDH

Andy.

Don't know if you still have server probs but the links page only runs from A to B wit no obvious forward for C onwards.

PDH

OK Paul you've lost me there I'm afraid but I've just checked and it seems to be working fine........ with one exception. I made a mistake, I put the Car Mechanic Mag link on the main index page (scroll down a bit). Sorry about that.

Andy J.

Got it now, thanks.

PDH