Rover Sports Register Forum

Formerly my father in law's.

1997 820 saloon. Genuine 80,000 miles (well, just under).

Like most late model 800s, it's just badged "800" but it's an Si.

Zircon silver with beige cloth upholstery and blue carpet.
80,000 miles
Climate control, fully operational.
Rover stereo and CD player with steering wheel controls.
Aftermarket alloy wheels with slightly wider offset giving a a very "purposeful" stance. All tyres are good.
Towbar with electrics and spare rear number plate (only ever towed a small trailer).
Boot spoiler.

You'd be hard pressed to find better bodywork on an 800 - the superficial rust that was on the wheelarches has been professionally sorted and the car looks absolutely great, especially with those wheels.

It feels like a nearly new car when you drive it and the interior is as good as you're ever likely to see on a car that actually gets used! To be honest, it's the best 820 I've ever driven.

As expected, it has electric windows, mirror, sunroof, PAS, ABS, twin airbags, central locking, TWO functioning remote fobs. ABS and SRS function properly with no warning lights.

Jobs done:

Replacement (good used) gearbox at 62,000 along with new clutch (both fitted by me).
Front ABS sensors replaced.
Water pump replaced less than 12 months ago and recon radiator fitted at the same time.
Cambelt changed less than 6 months ago.
ARB droplinks and brake pads changed at the same time as the cambelt.
Fusebox and driver's switchpack resoldered.

Basically, if the car needed it, it's been done (David is an aircraft engineer and total perfectionist!) and the usual 820 weakspots have been taken care off.

I've made a start on the LPG installation on this. There's now a nice, big tank in the boot, a filler hanging off the towbar, a gas pipe and wiring under the floor and a vapouriser under the bonnet (plumbed into the heater circuit).

I need to finish off the rest of the wiring and fit a mixer on to the throttle body and we're away.

Much over due update:

Most of thursday was spent on this car. First cleaning, greasing and adjusting the brakes (especially the rears and the handbrake) ready for friday's MOT. I wasn't 100% happy with the handbrake but gave it a go and it failed. The handbrake mechanism in the right rear caliper was knackered, giving poor performance on both sides (footbrake and parking brake).

The rest of the time was spent dr-rusting, rustproofing and undersealing the underneath.

There was a surprising amount of (mostly) superficial corrosion and it took a very long time to get it tidied up. whilst at it, I went over the fuel filler and I'm glad I did because the little loop of breather right at the top had rusted through and the rest of it was looking crappy.

The breather was cut out, the crimped ends of pipe cut off, a loop of 6mm coper pipe inserted and sealed with Araldite before treating to a coat of Hammerite. The under arch area was done at the same time and then the whole lot clobbered with undrbody "schutz" applied with a compressed air gun to reach all those awkward little places.








All four arches were treated to the schutz, along with most of the floor pan, the fuel tank, rear chassis legs and all those little nooks and crannies that get crusty over time. Not pretty but hopefully effective. The metal pipes on the fuel tank were also hit with Waxoyl first, as were the insides of the rear wheelarches. That should keep rust at bay for a bit.

I had to shell out for a rear caliper on friday afternoon - £75 but it did the job. No problems on the retest on saturday morning.

Poor quality photos of the new caliper and the underside after spraying with schutz.

I got the rest of the LPG kit installed this afternoon/evening and just need to tune it now - but it started and ran first time. I also got most of the cruise control installation done at the same time (whilst I was at it!) so that should be finished tomorrow.

I've completed the LPG installation, with just a little tuning to do as well as tidying up the wiring with black insulating tape.

The mixer is attached directly to the throttle body and the hoses run off to the vapouriser on the right of the shot.



This shut-off solenoid is one of three - there's another on the vapouriser and one on the tank. The whole electrical system is powered from the petrol pump relay switched supply, so all solenoids will shut if the inertia switch operates.



General shot of the engine bay - it needs a clean up.



This is the cruise control actuator unit - the kit is from http://www.rostra.com" target="_blank .



The cruise control cable piggy-backs onto the main throttle actuator.



Vehicle speed is picked up from a VERY convenient point on the back of the speedo head. The rev counter signal comes from a white/black wire running into the instrument pod (or can come from the coil).



I'll post pictures of the control stalk later.

Cruise control stalk:

The cruise control stalk on my VW is in the same place as that Rich.


I must do the underside of my Si before the weather turns, it's takes hours with a paint brush I really must buy myself a compressor.

Compressor + schutz gun = darned good idea!

A few weeks down the line and there's not much to report.

I do need to do something about the rear end as it droops a little when the LPG tank is full. I will probably take the self leveling dampers off the mk1 and use on this one (as long as I can get the bolts undone on both cars). The alternative is a set of the rubber coil inserts for the springs.

The gearbox is getting noisy - these Honda derived boxes have a problem with bearing wear on the input shaft and differential. It only takes about £30 to replace the bearings but it does mean taking the box off and splitting it open.

I've a couple of tidy-up jobs to do but precious little else to report.

I took the throttle body off today and gave it a really good clean out with petrol and a toothbrush. It now seems to be running more smoothly at idle. I also tweaked the LPG tuning and connected up the last feed to the LPG ECU - the lambda sensor output and again, it appears smoother now.

Whilst at it, I cleaned up and repainted the battery tray, air filter mounting bracket, gearbox and engine mounts. The original finish seems to be paint straight onto bare metal with no hint of primer - typical Rover penny pinching.

The differential bearings are definitely knackered, by the way, the driveshafts move about far too much.