Rover 416 that hates wet weather | Technical matters | Back Room Forum

Sat 17 Jan 2004 22:31

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - hallg2

I have a Rover 416 that hates going out in the rain.When it's been raining hard the car runs fine until it's hit a few puddles. The car will be running fine and then all of us sudden it will miss go back to normal and then miss again before cutting out. Once cut out it can take 15 mins before it will start again, once started it's great and runs well until a few more puddles later. It's been into Rover who said nothing was wrong, it's been in Panks Auto Electrical who said it was the ECU. Replaced ECU at a cost of £300 and it still breaks down (in the process of getting money back for that). I replaced the HT leads last week and thought that cured the problem until a heavy downfall this week and once again it packed up. Starting to get a bit fed up of looking at the weather forecast before driving.... any ideas, help would be a major breakthrough.

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Sat 17 Jan 2004 23:17

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - Ivor E Tower

Is this the 416 with a Honda engine? Could be worth giving your local Honda dealer a visit and asking them, or phoning Honda's technical helpline. Can't think what the problem may be unless it's water getting onto something it shouldn't get to - is your engine undertray in place? Sunroof fitted - are the drainage channels routed correctly? Leaves blocking heater intake drain holes so that the water goes onto electrical connections?

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Sun 18 Jan 2004 00:07

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - bikemade3

I do not know the layout of the engine electrics in a 416.But a L reg 214 i once owned had a similair occurance on really wet roads especially fast A Roads / motorways if you were following someone.The HT coil is fitted to the inner nearside wing behind the light assembly. Spray from the car infront would get in and short the coil terminals ( covered with the rubber boot)

I removed the Coil protective boot and WD40 it to death, then greased every connector / stud i could find with a silicon grease to stop the water getting in . The dist cap had exactly the same done to it and the car never suffered a misfire in the rain again. This may be of help to you best of luck

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Sun 18 Jan 2004 20:50

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - kithmo

I saw something similar happen to a chap with a Rover 216 in a car wash. He had chosen to include the underbody wash and when he came to move out of the bay the Rover wouldn't start. After a quick look under the bonnet it was fairly obvious that the under body sprays had sprayed water up into his engine compartment, the engine was covered in it. Drying the plug leads etc. and spraying them with WD40 didn't seem to help much. Then I noticed a large multiplug under the bonnet. I pulled it apart and dried and sprayed WD40 on it and after refitting the plug together the engine fired instantly. Check the multiplugs, some of the connections, from sensors etc. carry information to the ECU such as resistances and if the connector is shorted by water then it will give a low resistance to the ECU.

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Tue 20 Jan 2004 11:36

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - MarkSmith

Hi "Hallg2",

Sorry to change the subject slightly - but how is it going trying to get a refund for the ECU? I've had two significant pieces of unnecessary work done on my car (Rover 220 turbo) costing in total £2000. Despite huge effort I was completely unsuccessful trying to get even a partial refund for either of them (because once the work is done I couldn't _prove_ how it used to be before). So I'm interested to know more about your story here.

Thanks,
Mark

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Tue 20 Jan 2004 22:28

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - hallg2

will keep you informed of how it goes on the refund Mark.

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Tue 20 Jan 2004 19:04

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - mgk luton beds

have you changed the rota arm and dissy cap or checked to see if its wet inside
if replaceing then change leads as well

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Tue 20 Jan 2004 21:15

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - Civic8

Is that the rover 1.6 or Honda

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Tue 20 Jan 2004 22:26

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - hallg2

Sorry for being a bit thick here, but how do I tell if it's Rover or a Honda engine?

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Tue 20 Jan 2004 22:57

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - Civic8

Is it a manual or auto.the 1.6 rover as far as I.m aware wasn`t
used on auto box.The honda unit was used.may be a different layout for engine components.

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Wed 21 Jan 2004 09:10

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - MarkSmith

Hi again hallg2,

A number of ways to see whether it's a Rover or Honda engine:

Standing in front of the car, facing it, is the air intake on your left (=Honda) or the right (=Rover)?

Honda-engined cars have a computer in the passenger footwell, under the carpet.

I think (but I can't remember for sure) that the Honda-enginerd cars are basically back to front - gearbox on on the left, distributor on the left, timing belt on the right. They're certainly on the right, right and left (respectively) in the Rover-engined cars.

Look forward to hearing about your refund!

Cheers,
Mark

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Wed 21 Jan 2004 17:38

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - hallg2

Ok, for those who asked, the engine is that of a Rover type.

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Tue 20 Jan 2004 22:46

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - si span

Assuming you have the Honda engine fitted not the K series my first check would be is the red light on the ECU flashing (under passenger side floor mat) if so you have a management fault, if not check fan belt tension and alternator output especially under load, if it is dropping below 12.5 volts at any time this will cause ECU confusion.

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Sat 28 Feb 2004 20:14

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - sp30

had this problem with escort once, after driving me mad a friend suggested putting a bread bag over the coil after spraying in wd40 and taping it up....never cut out again.....worth a try!!!

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Sun 29 Feb 2004 08:30

Rover 416 that hates wet weather - DL

Replace the ignition coil, together with the HT leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm (unless previously replaced!) and you'll be fine.
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