Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

First things first - this is ALL N1tr0_9’s FAULT!

Never owned a Rover before and after going down a major YouTube rabbit hole I’ve somehow ended up buying a 1992 216 SLi.

With the cost of living crisis and everything the wife and I decided we didn’t want to take on too much of a project, so obviously I did the right thing and bought a non-runner.

Not entirely sure what the plan is yet but for now I guess the first thing is going to be figure out why it doesn’t start and go from there - project thread to follow.

Well that’s me, I’m sure I’m going to have lots of questions as my knowledge is mainly Ford and BMW.

Welcome! Apart from the non-start issue, are there any other issues?

Sounds like it’s a Honda engine - if so, check the main fuel injection relay, which are apparently known to fail.

If it's been laid up, I would also suggest the fuel pump may be the culprit - but first you need to post some symptoms and you'll get better guidance from there. The usual, does it crank over, do you hear the fuel pump priming when the ignition is first turned on, is there a spark, etc.

To be fair it doesn’t look too bad but I haven’t given it a good prodding yet. It’s a bit of an unknown and I probably should have steered clear but time will tell.

Yes it is a Honda lump, previous owner had a look at a few things including the inertia switch and main relay but wasn’t sure what to look for. He then loaded the parts cannon and replaced the battery, dizzy cap, rotor arm, and the dizzy module.

All I know is potentially it has no spark but I’m yet to investigate.

Forgot to add, it was being driven and it cut out and just wouldn’t restart.

Could actually be a snapped timing belt, but don't panic as the Honda single cam 1.6 is reputed to be a non-interference engine. A compression test will soon tell you.

A quick squirt of EasiStart or brake cleaner down the air intake will soon indicate if you have a spark to fire it or not.

(sorry if you know all this already!)

If it just suddenly stopped, at that age, there is a strong possibility it's the coil that's failed. I had 2 25+ year old coils fail and the engine just stops. No forewarning or symptoms. They're only about £20-30 and take 5 minutes to change. Another possibility is the ignition module, also in the dizzy. I'd try the coil first though, maybe you could borrow one before you buy.