Great suggestion from 220 GSi Turbo to have a review of the pros and cons various diagnostic tools for Rover engines. I don’t think I’d be the best person to do that as I’ve only very recently used one! Over the years I’ve thought of getting something for our 1990 214, but usually heard that these e...

An article could certainly be drafted. I'll probably wait a little while to avoid "egg on face". We went for a good drive this morning and the car ran perfectly. Fingers crossed.

Interesting to see the diagnostic connectors on a later car, with the plastic boot protecting the open end of the connector. My car is very early so possibly they simply used a plug-socket arrangement with a sealing O-ring to keep everything clean. That little evolution is now lost in history. I spo...

Here’s an update. The 214 has been performing faultlessly since the strange event a couple of weeks ago, even with the low temperatures up here in Scotland. Maybe the suggestion that it was a bit of random debris blocking the fuel system is a possibility. My wife suggested that as I’m old I could ha...

I contacted James and Rovermems, and he confirmed the App should work fine with the MEMS 1.2. I also downloaded the App onto my Android phone and it looks like it works, though currently it shows disconnected. Need to wait for the cables to come. This is the diagnostic connector on my car. Looks lik...

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I run the car on E5 petrol, usually Tesco Momentum. The car's done about 113k miles. I hadn't thought about dirt in the fuel. The fuel pump has quite a large filter at the base in the fuel tank and there's the in-line fuel filter just before the injection head...

Went round to the supermarket yesterday afternoon to pick up my wife in our 1990 214. Although the engine wasn’t cold, it seemed to behave a bit strange, with the idle revs a good bit higher than usual. I turned a corner to go up a slight hill, and there was no power. I put it into first and it real...

Certainly had this problem quite a few times with brake pipes over the years, and usually end up making a new brake pipe. A small job turns into a bigger one, though I now have the flaring tools so I can quickly make up a new pipe. Now try to use brass rather than steel ferrules which along with cop...

That's interesting, as I've had exactly the same problem on a couple of occasions. It's easy to leave the boot not fully closed. Unlike the other courtesy lights, this one isn't on a timer, just a simple on/off switch and will flatten the battery in a couple of days. After the last flat battery, I c...

I did have an occasion 10 years ago when the battery wasn't getting enough charge from the alternator and eventually went flat. In this case the alternator was working well enough to turn off the alternator warning light but was only delivering about 10 amps, not enough to keep things going. That wa...