the Oakstorm generational car

Because Grandad Oakstorm hadn't driven the car for some time before passing it to Oakstorm, it needed a Ministry Of Transport (MOT) test. It failed the test for multiple reasons. Also, there were other electronic components not working. Problems included: horn not working; rear fog light not working; intermittent wiper not working; remote locking wouldn’t unlock but would lock (there may have been more).

It was obviously a non-mechanical problem and Oakstorm took the car to a company who said they specialised in electrical problems. This was a big mistake. They said they knew what was wrong and were waiting for parts. After 9 weeks we lost patience and demanded the car back - to find it with the roof lining hanging down and no evidence of any attempt at repair.

After considerable research Oakstorm determined the problem was to do with failed relays in the Supervisory Control Unit (SCU). Evidently this was quite a common problem with this model. New SCUs were very expensive indeed but Oakstorm found a person on a Rover forum that could repair them.

The issue now was getting to the SCU so it could be removed and sent for repair. This was a major task as the SCU was located behind the dashboard and, worse, behind the air conditioning unit. Not only was this very difficult to get to, it meant the air conditioning system had to be drained. (And, no, the SCU was nowhere near the roof trim the "professional" had removed!)

Once finally removed and sent off, the repair man did an excellent job in repairing the SCU and returning it within a matter of days (having had to replace three failed relays). For less than a fifth of the cost of a new unit.

Then it was just a matter of refitting the repaired SCU (again, not the easiest of tasks) and voila - everything started working again. Car flew through its MOT and it was back on the road.

Not long after getting the car back on the road we noticed that its alarm would sound while it was unattended. When this happened when we could see the car, it was apparent that it was not being attacked - doors and windows were closed and nobody was near the vehicle. This happened intermittently and, after sounding, the alarm did not repeat the alarm during the same period.

This was worrying as if it was the security system it would have been uneconomic to replace. Also we couldn't risk the alarm going off at night and waking the neighbours (luckily that didn't happen).

After considerable confusion, despair and, finally, deduction followed by confirmatory research, Oakstorm came to the conclusion it was the internal motion sensor causing the problem. Evidently the factory-fitted sensor inside the passenger compartment is too sensitive and gets confused when the air in the car cools down faster than the interior, triggering the intruder alarm.

I think others must have encountered the same issue as it proved impossible to buy a second-hand sensor (the chances are that even if one could be acquired, it too would have the same issue). The solution, however, was simple: I removed the sensor! The main alarm/central locking system still worked properly; it just no longer looked for internal air movement.

Oakstorm was closing the window when we heard a load "clunk" inside the door and the window refused to close further (it was about half-way up). Luckily it wasn't raining and we got home cold but dry.

After removing the door panel the problem was evident: the scissors mechanism that raises and lowers the window must have seized (or jammed in the channel it runs up inside the door) and then the strong motor forced against it and distorted it such that it no longer supported the window which had then fallen inside until it came to rest on some other internal part.

Initially Oakstorm contacted a number of service garages but they wouldn't even look at it as they said it was not possible to get the parts - I'm not sure if this was entirely the case as there are a number of refactor suppliers out there - but they are expensive and, if the parts fail, I suspect the mechanics do not want to be held responsible.

Oakstorm was left with no option but to repair the scissors mechanism. This required dismantling and completely removing the part. Straightening it (vice and hammer) and replacing the hinging rivets with nuts and bolts. Then applying copious amounts of grease to prevent it from seizing again.

Re-installing the window was not easy as you have adjust it to align the window within the channels so that it remains straight throughout its length of trave. Took lots of attempts to get it right.

But, pleasingly, the repair worked and the window operated without issue from then on.

When driving the stalk on the steering column that controlled the front and rear windscreen wipers (and their washers) without warning became loose but still attached. The electrical connections were still operating but because the stalk was no longer anchored, it was not possible to switch the wipers on - luckily they were in the off position when the problem occurred.

It was apparent the stalk had broken - even though it had not been forced or abused in any way. Oakstorm was able to procure a second-hand part - sold as a unit including the lighting stalk.

Replacement of the part was quite a worrying exercise as it involved removal of the steering wheel along with the airbag - for which there were many warnings about the possibility of it exploding while handling and causing serious injury. Luckily this did not happen but the removal was not straight-forward.

I was able to dismantle the old and replacement units and just replace the wiper stalk. The steering wheel replacement also required caution!

We kept the replacement containing unit with its lighting stalk for the remaining years we had the car as it seemed likely that too may fail without warning - but it never did. And the wiper stalk continued to function normally from then on.

To be fair, this wasn't the car's fault.

After fitting new front tyres, the installers said the front discs were scored and needed to be replaced and offered to do it "for a reasonable price using good quality parts". Oakstorm investigated and, while there was some scoring, it was certainly not excessive. Also, it transpired the parts offered were made in India and received poor reviews on various internet forums. Oakstorm decided he'd change the discs and replace the pads at the same time, even though neither were particularly worn.

Removing the disks was not a particularly difficult job although some of the bolts were initially difficult to remove (brake parts are highly-torqued and tend to rust) and the good-quality replacements were easy to fit. The problem came when Oakstorm started to tighten the brake callipers back onto the car. Oakstorm had decided it would be a good idea to smear the bolts with copper grease (designed for brake parts) so that the bolts would be easier to remove should it be necessary in the future. This was a very bad idea. Oakstorm didn't realise the grease affected the amount of torque (tightening force) required. While tightening it to the specified value, far more torque is applied and Oakstorm stripped the threads on the plate (called a calliper carrier) holding the brake callipers to the car.

At this stage the car couldn't be moved. Oakstorm considered having helix threads installed but couldn't find anyone prepared to do it. It appeared the hub would have to be removed (a very difficult if not impossible for an amatuer to do successfully) and the whole assembly - if you could find one - replaced. Oakstorm was in despair but on further investigation, noticed that the carrier itself was bolted on to the hub. Luckily Oakstorm was able to source a carrier and without too much difficulty replace the thread-stripped carrier and attach the brake calliper. This time with all the grease removed from the bolts and properly torqued.

What should have taken less than a day to do took weeks. And it wasn't even a necessary job in the first place. Two lessons: don't do jobs that aren't necessary and never put grease on bolts that have to be tightened to a specified torque. And, no, the lesson isn't to get someone who's trying to upsell you with cheap parts to do it for you!

After the debacle with the brake discs was resolved, Oakstorm couldn't start the car because the battery was dead. Not totally surprising because the car hadn't been run for, maybe, three weeks (deciding how to fix the brake problem, short vacation, getting the parts, fitting them) and the battery was by now eight years old. When trying to remove the battery to charge it Oakstorm found that the platform on which it sat had rusted away (no idea how the water had continually got in to cause that) and there was no firm metal left where the bolts holding the battery's retaining bar in place were meant to be attached. Oakstorm had to buy and fabricate a piece of sheet metal to replace the rotten shelf.

Having made-good the shelf and charged the battery, Oakstorm put the battery back in but then noticed that the positive connector was very loose on the terminal. Oakstorm's theory is that the very bad mechanic who couldn't fix the SCU had, on a number of occasions, screwed/pulled the connector off rather than unbolting, causing the lead terminal to be shaved away.

Oakstorm temporarily fixed the problem (padded-out the terminal with aluminium foil) but decided the permanent solution was to replace the battery (it was by now about eight years old).

The new battery Was now securely held in the repaired platform and performed well but Oakstorm did notice that the car was sluggish to start if left for two or three weeks and is convinced there was something draining the battery. A Rover forum discussion suggested the Rover's alarm system required more power than was usual but Oakstorm never identified the actual culprit and istead just made sure to run the car regularly or give the battery a charge if left for any length of time.

This was unrelated to the Alarm sounding for no evident reason issue described above. This happened only occasionally, which made the cause too difficult to identify. The car would centrally unlock with the remote as normal and flash the lights to show it had done so but as soon as the door was opened it would sound the alarm until it was locked and rearmed from the remote. This hadn't happened for some time and was OK when Oakstorm junior took over the car. But then it happened to him after he hadn't used the car for a while and this time it wouldn't start. He discussed it with a mechanic and he suggested it could be that the system was not receiving enough power and "got confused". Oakstorm junior charged the battery and the issue was resolved.

Our best guess is that this was related to the Battery drain issue mentioned above and the problem did not regularly repeat itself because the car was run reasonably regularly. We still don't know what caused the excessive drain

This occurred under Oakstorm junior's watch. The Rover's clutch was unusually stiff from the start. We put this down to it being mechanically operated rather than hydraulically. However one day it simply jammed and the clutch pedal couldn't be depressed. Oakstorm junior had his mechanic look at it and it seems the cable activating the clutch had somehow got twisted around something and kinked.

The mechanic was able to unkink it and it operated "normally" (i.e. worked but still stiff) for the rest of the time we had the car.

Whenever Oakstorm took out the (never used) full-size spare tyre to check its pressure, he would find it sitting in a pool of water.

Oakstorm never found out where this was coming from - there were no missing or broken seals in the boot, not any bungs missing - in fact, there were no bungs in the wheel-well and, when dried-out, always appeared to be in pristine condition. Furthermore, there was never any dampness on the boot floor or water ingress witness marks on the interior panels.

One more unsolved mystery...

Not really a quirk of the car but something that shouldn't really have happened at reasonably low mileage. At about 30,000 miles a screeching noise started coming from the engine compartment at slow speeds. Oakstorm suspected the alternator but it seemed to be functioning normally and there were no warning indicators on the dashboard.

Not wanting to buy an expensive component that wasn't actually the problem, Oakstorm took it to a mechanic for diagnosis. The mechanic said he too thought it was the alternator but couldn't be sure and warned me that if he bought and fitted a replacement the supplier would not take it back so if that wasn't the problem Oakstorm would have to pay anyway.

So no choice really but to take a chance. Luckily it paid off and it was indeed a faulty alternator and all was well afterwards - although the battery drain (see above) still continued so it wasn't related to that.

Still think it strange that an OEM alternator that had only run for that many miles failed...

Occasionally the low water warning indicator would light on the dashboard. This happens when water in the expansion tank is very low.

This is usually a sign of a leak. But Oakstorm was never able to find one. There was no drips of water, pools under the car or witness marks anywhere along toe pipework.

It was also frustrating that the loss of water wasn't consistent - sometimes it would be weeks before it needed topping-up (Oakstorm checked the water level weekly after the warning light had shown two or three times).

Oakstorm wondered if it might be the cap on the expansion tank letting water vapour out when the engine was at operating temperature. But a new cap did not fix the problem. Oakstorm was reluctant to use a leak sealant addaitive as he wasn't sure if there was a leak or something more insidious that could be worsened by such an additive.

While the cause of the water loss was never identified, topping-up as needed provided a temporary fix and the problem never got worse (as it might if there was an unseen split or loose joint). Oakstorm's best guess is that it was something to do with the heating system. That might explain why the water loss was inconsistent - if the leak only occurred when the heater was on and hot water was flowing through the heating pipes. But it doesn't explain why there was never evidence of a leak...

Again, this is not an unexpected issue with the car. It's noted here because what should have been an easy replacement of the back section of the exhaust was so difficult.

The problem with the removal of the old pipe was that the bolts connecting it to the middle section were completely corroded and couldn't be undone. This is quite common but usually they will come off with enough "persuasion". Oakstorm used copious amounts of penetrating oil, spanners and socket wrenches of various lengths - until the bolt heads were stripped. Oakstorm even tried nut splitters but they failed too as there was insufficient room to get the larger-sized splitter on the nuts and, anyway these bolts had integrated washers that would have prevented it splitting. It didn't help that these efforts were obviously putting considerable strain on the other (good) exhaust parts.

The last resort is usually to use a blow-lamp and get the bolts red-hot. Unfortunately these bolts were next to the petrol tank and draining/removing the tank was not an option!

Lack of space was definitely the main problem. In the end Oakstorm resorted to cutting them off but was only able to move a junior hacksaw about a centimetre a time. It took many hours to remove the bolts holding the old pipe.

Once off, the new exhaust was installed without a problem!