If you look on the Rovertorque site you will find this is a common problem with this engine. These motors suffer badly if oil changes have been skimped and regularly driven hard. There are two main culprits: oil passing through the turbos seals under high boost straight into the engine to be burnt (with some going straight down the exhaust too) and oil pull-over where oil is pulled up past the rings and is burnt. take a look at the inside of your throttle body - I'll bet it's as black as the Ace of Spades. If it is contact Steve at the club and he will provide you a copy of an article I wrote on how to clean it (or email me).

you could try sticking to a 10W40 semi synthetic (this engine was specified as needing at least semi) like Castrol Magnatec. Also try not to use high revs too much - try to make use of the low down torque this motor provides.

I drive my 800VS quite briskly most of the time (I have a 25 mile country route to work). It has 122k up and had been run on a mixture of Magnatec and Mobil 1 up to 88k (when I bought it) and on Halfords Fully Synthetic and Castrol RS since. It gets through around 1/2 (a half) litre per 1000 miles (slightly less using the Halfords oil). If I drive hard down the Fosse Way to see my brother (96 miles each way) the rate of consumption roughly doubles.

These engines are prone to blowing turbos too. Despite being water cooled they don't like it if you turn off when they are hot. Leave it running for a few minutes first. Also warm it up gently too - driving off at full chat from cold is a sure way to destroy the turbo.

Also check to see if it's leaving any on your drive. These are prone to 'cold' sump gasket leaks - which can be quite bad on some examples. I'm fortunate as the previous owner had the sump gasket replaced under warranty just before I bought it, but 2 yrs on it is now dripping about an egg cup full per 2 months onto the garage floor (I put cardboard down). Also check the front left corner of the head gasket for leakage. If yours is not leaking from either of these points then you have the only non leaking T series on the road I reckon!!!

Personally I'd point the finger of suspicion at the turbo and would consider a rebuild while it can still be rebuilt.

When I bought my car, it was the first 19 I'd seen. I took to it because it was obviously well cared for, although there were some minor problems - but it had an excellent spec and looked good, and was less than I'd been expecting to pay.

However, before that, in summer 2001, I went to look at a 92K reg Pug 405 1.6 GL. It was only £600, and I'd have expected to pay double that. There was no history, the paint was faded (except for the newly resprayed bonnet, which had obviously been white in the manner of local taxis), and it ran like a dog with no legs. (Smoke out the back, occasional misfire, and a man with a pneumatic drill attempting to escape from the engine compartment I'm sure).

Yet the dealer insisted that the 34k mileage showing was genuine (unlikely to have been 1,034,000 but quite easily 300k+), the seats were all suspiciously immaculate (vinyl covers) but the pedal rubbers were the size and texture of hobnobs and the steering wheel doubled up as a vanity mirror. Despite this, I played naïve and the guy swore blind that it was never a taxi and the owner had been a private person who only used it to take to the car wash (more or less anyway).

Oh and the central locking didn't work. In fairness to it though, it didn't look like it had been crashed.

Hi All

Just wanted to let you know (if you're in any way interested ;) ) that I have fixed the problem!!!!!

It was the airflow meter where the MOT guy had changed the settings and made everything too lean. Therefore after a while of cruising the flaps within the airbox would flap shut and open because the meter spring couldn't withstand the constant pressure from the airflow into the car.

Opened up the meter, adjusted potentiometer (think that's how you spell it!) adjusted cog and spring and now all fine. Whole car is running much better fr that matter.

If anyone wants anymore info there is a site I found showing adjustment and how to etc.

Feel free to email me.

Thanks again for all your ideas.

Dan

24hr test drives are like gold dust IMO

MG-Rover Problems? forums.mg-rover.org

Total shot in the dark; the Vectra Alarm has a separate battery back up. Is the flashing light telling you the battery has failed?

Is the alarm linked to the immobiliser? I don't think that it is.