Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

I have a new short indicator if you need one ?
I'll check which side tonight £15 delivered.
PM me if you're interested

I'm good for wings now, thanks though!

The GSi is going to be put up for sale, to generate funds to improve my GTi. GTi needs a head gasket, cambelt, work on the gearbox, and a better fitting exhuast.

GSi is spot on and rot free but surplus to requirements.

Who was it that was looking for an auto R8? I tried to reply to the PM thread but it just sent the message back to me

usually gbs100

burtonm wrote: ↑Thu Sep 27, 2018 12:32 pm Made a minor upgrade today:

IMG_20180927_132819_842 by max_burton, on Flickr

a NOS wooden heater control panel from a bubble dash. Needs a little adjustment but it looks great, right at home.

That does look good . Do you have to take half the dash out to do this or is it a quick job?

Rover dave wrote: ↑Mon Oct 01, 2018 6:39 pm
That does look good . Do you have to take half the dash out to do this or is it a quick job?

Centre console trim out - 4 screws, two each side (one down by the gear lever and one halfway up round the side of the fan controls and radio), & pull forward.

Then the knobs need taking off the heater control panel - shouldn't take long as you just pull/lever. There are screws hiding behind them, as well as four obvious ones round the outside.
Unplug the multiplug that goes to the PCB for the backlighting.
A NOS heater panel might not come with the backlighting PCB attached - if not just unclip the white backing plate from both heater panels using the tabs round the outside, and swap them over. Otherwise you have to break a load of plastic rivets to get it off, and there's no easy way to get it back on.
Bear in mind the cutout for the a/c button is missing on the wooden panel, if you have a/c.

And then as Haynes say, refitting is the reverse of removal!

Nothing much like this is hard on R8s.

burtonm wrote: ↑Sun Sep 30, 2018 8:58 pm The GSi is going to be put up for sale, to generate funds to improve my GTi. GTi needs a head gasket, cambelt, work on the gearbox, and a better fitting exhuast.

GSi is spot on and rot free but surplus to requirements.

Who was it that was looking for an auto R8? I tried to reply to the PM thread but it just sent the message back to me

That was me, however I've lashed out on something else now, so no longer in the market.

Well, I've been busy. Thanks to Craig Cheetham, the car is now back in one piece and relatively straight.

IMG_20180928_122620297 by max_burton, on Flickr

After the trip down to the Fens however, the car started to condense its header tank It was misfiring, a little down on power and hunting in neutral.
Fearing the worst, and considering the cambelt was due on age, supposedly last having been done at around 50k in 2003, I figured it was worth going whole hog. Everything to recondition the head was ordered, and over the last week or so my dad and I have been working on it all.

We were right to fear the worst.



The stainless 4-2-1 manifold has also been fitted, and the original exhaust bodged back on until the car is booked in for a stainless system.
To compliment this I also ordered a washable K&N air filter element - I ordered it from Amazon from a company in Croatia, as it was by far the cheapest one available. Only one was in stock.

To my surprise the part turned out to be NOS, dated 1997!



The car is all back together now, ready for a shakedown this evening. There's a bit of vibration (I had to use standard bolts in place of compensators to join the exhaust together as the Japspeed stainless downpipe is 2" shorter than the original one, think it's off a Civic) but it's running well. The improvement in performance is subtle, but suits the car well. It's smooth and refined, and goes a lot faster than it feels like it is. Wonderfully relaxed.

I said goodbye to the GSi today.

20181101_162901 by max_burton, on Flickr

It's gone to a good home with a fellow R8 enthusiast, from the recently fractured Facebook page.
This leaves a hole on my driveway, which I'm hoping to fill with a fourth-generation Honda Civic, possibly even this weekend if all goes to plan.

In other news, the GTi abides - it's not running too well though. I have ordered a replacement new fuel relay for it, as I felt compelled to let the good relay go with the GSi, leaving me a working, but slightly unreliable unit.
I also have a new gear shifter cable, distributor ignition module and HT leads on the way. Oh, and a rear engine mount, as the gearbox is shunting around on it a bit.

The car is booked in for its stainless exhaust on Monday - when it's done I'll be retaining the backbox, as I'm swapping it with another GTi owner off FB, for a lattice alloy. One of mine has a big scratch across it, so that saves me a job! Also, I'll have 6