My '98 Rover 820 SI Fastback Nightfire

[scoobyh123]

That's like having a free car for a year or 9 months, however long it is/was. Bargain! I did have someone interested in it but not sure he would have gone to that price - is the new owner a forum member or have you tattooed "Rover800.info" on the inside of his eyelids to make sure he joins?

You could of course stay in touch quite easily in the "Non-Rover" section of cars we own, be interesting to see how the Honda measures up over time.

How long until the Honda gets massage seats?

[TheVDM]

Nothing like a free car for a while, I will add a thread for it in the non rover section at some point, so far I'm enjoying the economy of it, I filled the tank on Tuesday (I think it was) when I picked it up for £70, so far I have done 150 miles and its still showing over 3/4 of a tank left. Apparently the 2.2 turbo diesels average 600 miles from a tank

The new owner isn't a member (yet) but I have of course mentioned the forum to him, hopefully he will be along to continue this thread.

I did contemplate the idea of massage seats on the Honda, but it's got those fancy seats with air bags all over the place, along with the motors for the electrics and the oem heat pads to contend with, that said they are very comfortable. I'm having fun getting used to the cruise control on it and allowing myself to be lazy, I never realised that you can accelerate and decelerate with buttons on the cruise control, never really thought about it.

I just need to keep telling myself it's the black pump, not the green one... Never owned a diesel before!

[scoobyh123]

I'm guessing it's still a 15 gallon (72L) tank so 600 miles is about 40mpg. Depends how heavy your right foot is and how often you spin that turbo up!
Without trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, you are familiar with the need to let the engine idle for a while before switching off to let the turbo stop spinning?
Even on a short journey without hoofing it the turbo will spool up and they apparently reach speeds of up to 120,000rpm so take a while to wind down, if you switch the engine off too soon the oil pressure will go but the turbo will still be spinning. Result - knackered turbo bearings, a James Bond style smoke screen behind you and a 4 figure repair bill!

Hopefully the new owner will show up at some point, he might already be a member but has kept quiet?

Probably best not to touch the seats if they have airbags built into them. Not nice when those things go off!
Once you've had cruise control you'll wonder how you managed without it. The speed up/down feature on the buttons is very handy as well and cruise in general helps keep your licence as you get to say a 30mph limit and just set the cruise so you don't need to worry.

You can buy devices that fit inside the fuel filler that audibly remind you to get the diesel pump. As long as you don't put too much petrol in, if you do make a mistake you should be ok as long as you fill the rest of the tank with diesel and keep topping it up every couple of days until it's back to normal again which is when the steamy-smoke will stop.

Do you know when the timing belts and glow plugs were last renewed?

[TheVDM]

Just checked it out and its got a 65 litre tank which saves a gallon at the pump each time. Going by the official figures it's range is 696 miles, although I imagine that's the point that you loose power and have to walk 5 miles to the next service station swinging a can as you walk, I'll report a real world figure when I have to fill up again.

The Turbo is getting some use, 20 to 40 takes about 2 or 3 seconds when the revs get high enough (second gear), that and using the turbo to overtake on the German Autobahn goes quite swiftly from 70 to 100 in fifth gear, it's quite a nice feeling being forced back into your seat as you glide along in silence.

I didn't know that, the last turbo diesel I drove was a brand new courtesy car which I had for 3 months a couple of years ago, needless to say I drove it like Colin McRae and managed to squeeze 20mpg out of it after a while (first tank was 60mpg).

The glow plugs were changed on the last service (November 2012) so should be good to go, it also came with almost new tyres all round which is nice. The cam belt has never been changed, although it does have a chain instead which shouldn't need touching unless it's knocking about in there.

[deano]

Diesel engines have to be revved very high when doing the mot to check emissions
Any good mot center should advise you of this, because of the risk of it snapping

Never take cam belts lightly, their failure can write a engine/car off very easily

[scoobyh123]

I'm always dubious of those "range" figures as i've found they are normally over-optimistic and the point where you head off to the nearest filling station with a can is often a lot sooner than they suggest! Also letting a diesel run out isn't good, many these days don't have separate lift pumps so need the tank pressurised to force the fresh fuel through to the injection pump. The result is a car with a gallon of diesel in the tank (from a can) stuck on the hard shoulder with a flat battery! It also drags up the condensation from the tank and this fills your diesel filter up with water meaning you have to drain that too before you can restart. While draining the water from the diesel filter is a service operation, it's not best done by the side of the road after running out of fuel!

I've driven quite a few turbo-diesels in my time and even owned one (work Astra van) so know the feeling. Once the novelty of the "new car" wears off and you start to feel a bit complacent about knowing what speed you're doing from the feel of the car, wind noise etc, that's the time you need to be very careful. The constant "thr-r-r-r-ummmm" of the diesel is a bit hypnotic and your speed can creep up quite alarmingly without you realising. As in you think you're doing 60 and then a week later you get a billet-doux from the DVLA stating you were doing 89mph in a 60 limit and they want your licence and £100 fixed penalty by return of post!

I expect there's a forum for Honda Accords and a sub-forum for diesel models, probably worth joining if you see this car as a "keeper". If nowt else it should give you an insight as to the origins of the engine (i'd guess Isuzu or Holden) as Honda aren't known for their diesel engines so i suspect it's a "bought-in" job, similar to the 1.7TD Isuzu engine used in the Civic of a similar age to yours.

Having a timing chain is always a bonus, less chance of anything going wrong but if/when it does it can often cost more to fix than a shredded timing belt. If it has a hydraulic timing chain tensioner make sure you keep on top of oil/filter changes - if you don't do the mileage, do it on a time-basis instead. Also if the time scale is 6 months (or 10,000 miles) and you're only doing shorter mileage, it would make sense to drop that to 3 months. Oil degrades much more rapidly when it's used in short journeys where the contaminants don't always have a chance to burn off and diesel engine oil by it's nature is more susceptible to breaking down quickly under arduous conditions (diesel engine oil contains extra detergents in it's manufacture) so you need to be a bit more stringent on oil changes.

[TheVDM]

The speed issue is something I will have to keep an eye on, the passenger compartment is virtually soundproof, I can hardly hear a screaming 2 year old with the doors shut , similarly I can barely hear the engine when idling, even at the speed test the other day it was making a similar noise at 20mph to what it was making at a lot more!

The engine is a true Honda built unit, it's known as the N-Series.

I've looked at the cost of a timing chain change and it's not a simple job at all, for the cost of replacing the chain I could probably add some spare change and have a recon engine put in it, hopefully it won't come to that though!

I've signed up at the Accord owners club for any useful information that I need (hopefully not much) and one thing that is mentioned on there about the Diesel engines is to keep an eye on the oil level and to only use 0w30 oil in it, the engines have a habit of burning a bit of oil over time.

When I get my head screwed on properly I will do an oil and filter change as it's been 9 months since the last service.

[scoobyh123]

No wonder she's screaming - you've tied her to the roof while you drive round! That's why you can't hear her! She probably swallowed a lot of insects during your speed test too..............

Didn't realise Honda had finally got round to buildling their own diesel unit, had to come eventually i suppose!

Is that main dealer prices for the timing chain change? Could be a lot cheaper at an independent garage where you won't be paying £100+++ per hour for labour.

Seems like i'm suggesting things you've already done! Good news that the only thing mentioned is they burn a bit of oil, if that's the worst engine fault then they can't be that bad!

Reckon you should make that oil/filter change a priority though, possibly with engine flush too. Also be worth draining the water out of the fuel filter (usually mounted on the bulkhead with a drain valve on the underside - drain it until dieel comes through) and checking the condition of the air filter too.