Firstly you will have to forgive me on my total lack of car knowledge.
My 4 year old Rover 25 broke down the other day. The temperature guage had been going mad for a little while. Going up high then dropping back down to normal. After a few days it made this funny ticking sound then broke down. And there was no water in it when I looked!!
What could this be? Head gasket blown?? Something more serious??? How much am I looked at to get this fixed??
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks.
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This does not sound good I'm afraid.
The temperature guage is of course reliant on water being in the system to show a reading. If coolant is lost then the guage will drop down to the bottom and give a false sense of security. Remove the oil filler cap and check for signs of water in the oil which would suggest a blown head gasket.
I would suggest that you have nothing to lose by slowly refilling the cooling system (to prevent airlocks) and attempt to start the car. I would imagine the head gasket has gone (if you are lucky) or possibly the engine is caput as they dont take kindly to getting too hot. I have never actually got an engine so hot it actually stops but have still knackered a couple. I speak from experience sadly :(
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Almost certainly a head gasket failure, they are very common on this engine. You may live to regret not checking the coolant level once the temp gauage was jumping about! The situation you decribe sound very expensive indeed. These engines can be wrecked just by having too little coolant in the, never mind none! The engine may well have siezed. Despite the recnt firming of Rover 25 prices the repair may cost more than the car is worth.
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Another K Series meets its maker.
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Just as I thought... How much do you reckon this would cost to repair?
Can anyone nominate a good garage/mechanic in Chatham / Rochester / Gillingham area of Kent?
Thanks
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You have not sated how the car broke down. Did the engine stop running with lots of noises, or refuse to start or what.
I would guess at the very minimum you will need a new head gasket and probably a head skim . Little change from £500.
Of course you may have properly damaged the engine and or got oil in the coolant in which case you may need a new radiator or a new enegine or both.. Even second hand £1000 ish .
madf
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It made a funny ticking sound then stopped working. It wouldn't re start either. We reckon that could juts be head gasket or something worse??
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I would bet my money on it being completely cooked.
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Hi,
A little tip to check whether a Rover 25 engine has been cooked:
Take the oil dipstick out, as far as i can remember, there should be a green (or yellow) plastic moulding at the bottom of the dipstick, the purpose of the plastic is to mark where the oil maximum and minimum level is.
If there is no plastic marker on your dipstick, believe it or not the heat of the oil has melted it off!
In this case the engine has been cooked (as people describe it) and has therefore been subjected to serious thermal stresses.
Some people have sucessfully rebuilt cooked engines, but in my experience it is better to pay approx £300 and get a second hand engine from the breakers.
Hope this helps.
Stephen
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Altheace,
I just had a laugh there, while I was writing to you, someone else directed you to my thread i posted last christmas, I completely forgot about that thread.
I like you, was having a pretty tough time with a Rover 25, you can read through the thread yourself, i tried absolutely everything, new head, skimmed etc.
The problem turned out to be a cooked engine, the solution was to buy a secondhand engine, which cost £300.
For those not practically gifted, it sounds like a massive undertaking, however many breakers will have one and changing the engine isn't an awful job for a mechanic.
I hope your engine isn't cooked and you have better luck than me.
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for the benefit of anybody else who has a similar problem most modern dashboards have little bulbs that flash warnings and some cars have needle things that move up and down and point at things and where they point there is a description behind the needle as to what they are pointing at..(a fuel guage is a good example if the needle points to a symbol E it usually means the vehicle is empty of fuel and may refuse to start)
If unsure it is suggested that the car manual is read pronto............
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What is so pitiful is that all this aggro could have been minimised if only Rover hadn't been so tight fisted and fitted a low level warning in the expansion tank. It could also have saved the company some money on warranty claims. The ECU could have stored the fact the light came on and for how long etc...
I suppose the bean counters over-ruled it. Saved money on the short term but took no account of damage to reputation. The rest is of course history.
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yes i agree all rovers should have come with some kind of dinner schol bell nailed onto the dashboard at the factory and could have given a good shrill warning before the head turned turtle.
Maybe all the other car manufacturers should be offered this advice? oh no ive just remembered other manufacturers didnt have this kind of problem with mainstream motors..... ;-)
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yes i agree all rovers should have come with some kind of dinner schol bell nailed onto the dashboard at the factory and could have given a good shrill warning before the head turned turtle. Maybe all the other car manufacturers should be offered this advice? oh no ive just remembered other manufacturers didnt have this kind of problem with mainstream motors..... ;-)
I think we have a Rover enthusiast! :-D
To be fair, those K-series engines have always been gasket-poppers. The challenge now is to find a Rover with the same engine in a scrapyard, which has panel damage (i'd bet big money that any Rover in a scrapyard with no panel damage has fried its own engine in a similar manner to the car in question). Those engines are very common, so you shouldn't have any probs getting one - just get it compression-tested before you buy!
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>>i'd bet big money that any Rover in a scrapyard with no panel damage has fried its own engine in a similar manner to the car in question). Those engines are very common
You dont need to bet,you are correct, plenty around nearly all with almost perfect bodies
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Steve
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The latest shape Astra doesnt even have a water temp gauge fitted on the dash.
Wont be long before these start cooking engines in a year or two
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The latest shape Astra doesnt even have a water temp gauge fitted on the dash.
It's not alone, and it's nothing new. I once drove an X-reg (1980) Audi80 Coupe and that only had a warning light fitted.
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Warning lights? temeprature guage.
The OP said "The temperature guage had been going mad for a little while. Going up high then dropping back down to normal."
and did nothing about it.
Perhaps some drivers need to learn to actually read their instruments /check coolant and oil.
Something about horses and not drinking water...
madf
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see my post 14.36.............
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temp guage on these dont usually go much above halfway before the fan kicks in,probably why no notice was taken of it jumping around,Been there done it.
Dont always mean coolant level is down,but due to weather we have had suspect a lot of motors have done the same thing.But it is a good idea,*ok a must* on this engine to keep an eye on all levels.
Even oil level as they do run slightly hotter if oil level is between max and min,top up prevents this as well as coolant level being up to normal level.
Not many check though
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Steve
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When I replied to this post I didn't realise this was a K series engined car.
I said it might be cooked....If its a K it will definately be at least a head gasket.
My brother has a three year old factory built K series engined Caterham 7 and popped the first head gasket at 7000 miles.
Apparently one of the main problems is that there is relatively little water in the cooling system when full so the slightest coolant loss has big implications.
For every pro K series kit car enthusiast (I own a ford engined kit car) there are 25-30 that wouldn't have one as a gift.
Altheace, where in uk are you?
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>>Apparently one of the main problems is that there is relatively little water in the cooling system when full so the slightest coolant loss has big implications.
5 litres full.4.3 to fill up after draining IIRC on both
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Steve
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temp guage on these dont usually go much above halfway before the fan kicks in,probably why no notice was taken of it jumping around,Been there done it.
I drive a kit car and keep my eyes firmly focussed on oil pressure, oil and water temp.........dont worry so much in the car tho....mind you I dont have the car engine in pieces as often as the kit car one : o )
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>>I drive a kit car and keep my eyes firmly focussed on oil pressure, oil and water temp.........
As its not a 25, and can only keep an eye on temp on 25.your comment doesnt count.But it would be nice to keep an eye on all these, if these guages were fitted as standard,sorry to say they are not!
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Steve
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As its not a 25, and can only keep an eye on temp on 25.your comment doesnt count.
I was simply highlighting the fact that careful attention to any guage displaying an unusual reading can prevent catastrophic results.
To say my comment 'doesn't count' is a bit strong and unnecessary.
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I doubt it, GM engines are fairly durable unlike the chocolate teapot K Series.
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I shared a brand new Astra hire car with a collegue the other week and we both spent ages trying to "find" the temperature gauge!
But as in the original post, if drivers see these fluctuating and stil take absolutely no action whatsoever (and I mean no action until the car stops), can you really blame the manufacturers for not fitting them? Remember in mass market cars, literally every penny (or even tenth of a penny) that can be saved on production costs will be!
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When the top hose disconnected on my Audi A4tdi at 70mph, the warning lights on the dash lit up like a Christmas tree. You'd have to be a cretin or half blind to miss that.
I will refrain from making allusions.
madf
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altheace, I'm not sure where in the country you are, but theres plenty of rover engines on ebay. I'm assuming you have a 1.4? Heres an example:
snipurl.com/u9j3
You could do a search so the nearest to you will be shown in miles, but a lot might deliver the engine.
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