Rover 75 woes

[SJG]

My wife owns and runs a Rover 75 diesel tourer, which she loves. Over 2 years there has been the usual things but recently the crank pulley went and we had to get that changed and yesterday as she pulled off the drive it started making a nasty noise - not from the engine thankfully but after having a look I saw that one of the front coil springs had broken. I gingerly drove it back up the drive and felt the brake pedal was a little spongy. I have managed to get the strut off but it has damaged the brake pipe so that is leaking and needs replacing too.

I need to split the lower ball joint to get the strut back on, sort the brake pipe out and then bleed the brakes. Once I have (hopefully) got it back on the road I will change the other spring over. Keep you fingers crossed that my limited abilities will prevail!

[dollysprint]

Simon 75's are well known for this, rover brought out a modification to stop the snapped spring from causing damage, mainly shredding the tyre inner wall. If you google rover 75 spring saver it should come up. The kit isn't too costly and if you're doing the springs anyway its the ideal time to fit it. My dad's front spring snapped just sat on his drive, you would have thought the modification would have been to strengthen the spring but unfortunately not. 75's are beautiful to drive but given the money thrown at development and the BMW engineering input I find myself somewhat disappointed at the many, and costly faults the model has. Just imagine a spring snapping at 70mph on a motorway, its frightening to be honest.
Have to say though this problem is not limited to Rover 75's, a lot of modern springs seem to be extremely thin steel these days.

Dave

[SJG]

To be honest I wish she had kept the lovely fastback she had previously Dave. The only thing with that is that being a 2 litre auto I was always worried about the gearbox but a lovely car it was.

[rovercoup]

sorry to hear of this Simon but thankfully this happened on the drive and not out on the main road at any speed. Someone (chrisE) i think posted something earlier about 75's snapping springs due to low profiles and big rims? maybe look at the other direction smaller rim larger tyre? For future I mean

[scoobyh123]

Good luck with the repairs Simon, i know of a 75 that's being broken for spares, would you like me to enquire about the front springs/struts? It's a 1.8 K(ettle) Series on a V reg so not sure if the springs would be the right ones for your wifes diesel (heavier engine on the diesel?) or whether Rover/BMW changed anything else over the intervening time period.
I know they changed the gear lever knob at some point and from what i could see on Rimmers the two knobs aren't interchangeable so it doesn't bode well for all the springs being the same.

[SJG]

I made sure we get low profile tyres, but I was aware of the issue and had intended to sort it in the warmer weather. Typically we need 2 cars at the moment so very inconvenient. I am also not familiar with the 75 so it is all a bit scary.

[SJG]

Thanks Dave, I have got the springs sorted from Ron at Best of British, the brake pipe worries me more.

[scoobyh123]

You could probably get the brake pipe from Ron as well - is it a flexi or a rigid pipe? I'm guessing it's a flexi given where it is?

Douse the unions on each end of it several times with WD40 or similar before you come to change it, put some cling film over the top of the master cylinder to prevent it leaking out too much (the cling film creates a seal and hence a vacuum) and hopefully the WD will do its stuff and removal should be easy. Fit the new pipe and then you should get away with just bleeding that one part of the system normally - as long as the brake fluid level in the master cylinder hasn't dropped too far.
Don't forget to use one spanner on the fixed part of the brake pipe union and another on the moving part, this helps prevent rotational damage along the rigid parts.

With a bit of luck and methodical working i don't think there's anything too scary there for you, sure you've done more scary things with an 800!!!

[SJG]

Thanks Dave, sadly its the metal pipe that goes back to the abs unit. To get to that has necessitated the removal of a load of stuff.

[scoobyh123]

Curses and naughty words! It would be the harder one to do! Same advice with the cling film, 2 spanners and WD applies, hopefully the bleeding will still be just the one leg of the system although you may find you have to bleed the whole system - try just the one leg to see if you've got away with it, obviously if you're in any doubt, do the whole system. Would be a good opportunity to change the brake fluid anyway.

As an aside, i daresay you'll have to remove some plastic liners/splash-guards or similar. If you happen to break any of the fasteners, don't go spending shed loads on the plastic buttons etc from Rimmers etc, try Amazon instead :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007 ... ge_o04_s00

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00G ... ge_o05_s00

They might come in handy for your coupe as i got them for the plastic cladding and wheelarch liners that had to come off for the sill repair but it gives you an idea - Rimmers want about £1.60 per fastener (+P&P) and i bought a pack of each of those for a total of about a fiver delivered. I know they do some Rover 75 specific fasteners as my mate round the corner has bought them for his ever-growing fleet of 75s (including the one being broken) and apparently the ones he has bought worked well.

Re the springs on modern cars breaking easily - i'm not at all surprised! Go back 30-40 years when cars didn't have air-con, central locking, electric everything and so forth. They were much lighter and to get sharper handling, it was easy to wind a stiffer spring and temper it more to gain a stronger spring on the same platform with reliability. These days they are putting all kinds of extras on cars which makes them heavier and trying to reduce the unsprung weight (including the springs!) and reduce the space taken up by "boring" things like suspension, steering, brakes etc by making them smaller to give even more cabin room for the available footprint of the car, without making it even bigger and heavier so they preserve/improve the ride and handling. As such, the springs are getting smaller thinner and more highly tempered to gain the necessary spring rate. Inevitably there has to be a point somewhere that these springs will consequently fail in service as they are so close to their limits when new that they won't last long.
Take the Nissan Micra as an example - the K10 (original) Micra had a kerb weight of 635kg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Micra and the lates K13 Micras start at 1035kg and range up to 1118kg in a car that is more or less the same size (149" x 60-66") so the springs (which have probably remained the same apart from their rate) are now carrying at least 60% more weight on the base model and heading for twice the weight on the heaviest model.

That's my theory for what it's worth, all manufacturers seem to be guilty of overloading cars with kit these days without beefing up the suspension, brakes etc and i wouldn't be at all surprised to find out Rover had used an old design of springs/front suspension for the 75, perhaps even the design originally intended for the 800, albeit in modified form.

[SJG]

Thanks Dave, I will check them out.

Progress update...

Strut off

Lower ball joint split and out

Battery box removed

Damaged brake pipe location on the ABS unit established

The problem I now have is the nut to remove the pipe at the wheelarch where it meets the flexible brake hose and to remove the pipe itself.

Any help, links or ideas would be really appreciated

[scoobyh123]

Thanks Dave, I will check them out.

Progress update...

Strut off

Lower ball joint split and out

Battery box removed

Damaged brake pipe location on the ABS unit established

The problem I now have is the nut to remove the pipe at the wheelarch where it meets the flexible brake hose and to remove the pipe itself.

Any help, links or ideas would be really appreciated

As previously mentioned, loads of WD40 and at least 2 spanner, one on the fixed half of the union and the other on the moving half (nut) and a bucket load of perseverance and patience!

[SJG]

Well I have finally sorted the 75 out.

I have ended up changing both springs, shock absorbers, top bearings, one of the anti rollbar drop links and various other bits. Sadly I couldn't get the brake pipe off and had to get the car trailered to Ron at Best of British to get it sorted out.

So a very expensive couple of weeks.

[mercedade]

So frustrating, but hopefully worth it. Glad you got it sorted Simon

[scoobyh123]

Glad you got it sorted Simon - what was the problem with removing the brake pipe?