Worn out flywheel?
 

Long story short, my car developed about half a year ago a ticking/tapping noise which got gradually worse, thought it was from one of the timing parts of the engine, replaced all 3 belts, all the pulleys, tensioners for both main and aux belt, and still nothing's changed, thought it would be the tappets, so I bought a mechanics stethoscope to closely listen to the engine and found out that it's something completely different, the sound was coming from the transmission. And since I've replaced the clutch kit about 10-15k miles ago the only logical explanation would be that now it was the flywheel that gave up, because that wasn't changed, I am thinking this because, as far as I know, when flywheels are slightly cracked or worn, they start making rattling or tapping noises which gradually increase. In my case, yesterday I found where the tapping is coming from, and guess what, today the clutch started slipping while IN GEAR and I started smelling that typical clutch smell. I'm writing this in uppercase letter because it should be noted that in only slips when the car is already in gear, but it shifts perfectly fine which leads me to think that the disk and other clutch parts are not worn.

My question is, is it possible that the almost new clutch disk has got premature wear because of the faulty flywheel making it needing to be replaced again? It would really suck opening the transmission and finding out that I have to replace that too even though new disk and pressure plate + master and slave cylinder were fitted 10-15k miles ago...

The dual mass clutch is an invention of the devil, and can give all sorts of problems.
They are far less reliable than the old fashioned clutches.
I have had dual clutch clutches fail after 2000km.
I will never buy a car with a DMF.

I thought the petrol engine cars had solid flywheels?

My 1.8L petrol has a dual mass flywheel! Original clutch plate was solid, no longer available, so now has clutch plate with springs. Very noticeable difference when changing gear.

You live and learn!:}

I also thought it was a single mass flywheel until I asked my mechanic that fitted the clutch kit 10-15k miles ago and he told me it's certainly a dual mass one, should've replaced that too... But still my question stands still, do you think that the disk worn out too in such a short time if the flywheel has been developing the ticking for the last half year and if today only it started slipping? I really cannot see how such a fresh clutch disk could possibly wear out so fast... But still, if I'd know I wouldn't ask.

From what I have read on here , It is very rare for the DMF needing to be replaced many have been OK for well over 250-300K miles.My car is approaching 200K on the original DMF without any problem. So I would be looking elsewhere for the problem with your clutch.:shrug:

Yep they can fail but mine has covered over 400k miles and still on the original DMF.

Mine covered over 150k now... But now I'm asking, how could other clutch parts besides the DMF start tapping? I closely listened with the stethoscope and the tapping comes from right under the DMF. Or especially make the car vibrate, and by the way this is also a small update on the matter, I started the car this morning to see how it acts while idling and no matter if it's in gear or not, the whole car is vibrating/shaking, and I don't think other transmission parts couldcbe responsible for that. Or could they?

How are your engine mounts ?:shrug:

The clutch can only slip in gear because that's when it's working. It can't slip out of gear.---;)

The rattling could be the springs in the dual mass flywheel.

However a slipping clutch means the driven plate is worn or the cover plate springs are very weak.

Was the cover plate renewed 15K ago ??

Engine mounts are still almost like new suprisingly after so much time, checked them immediately after feeling the vibrations...

Pressure plate was also renewed, yes, along with disk, master and slave cylinder (metal ones). But really now how could a new clutch disk wear out literally so fast to the point where it slips already? So even if it's in gear it still could be either the flywheel or the clutch disk you're suggesting? But since we already know that the flywheel is causing the vibrations, wouldn't it be reasonable thinking that the flywheel is also causing the slippage and that the clutch disk can still be fine as it should with no premature wear? I am just asking now if this could be possible in my case, not if it really is so, of course no one can say for sure, only estimating :shrug:

a small update on the matter, I started the car this morning to see how it acts while idling and no matter if it's in gear or not, the whole car is vibrating/shaking, and I don't think other transmission parts could be responsible for that. Or could they?

Is this happening when the car is stationary?? with the engine running

If the engine is vibrating and shaking could be a faulty injector or valves causing a misfire.:shrug:

Yes, when it is stationary and idling, but then again... if we take the fuel injectors hypothesis, how could those create the clutch slippage when driving? And it would be too much of a coincidence if the clutch and one or more injectors would choose to pack up at the same time..

When you drive the car does it drive normally or is it sluggish and feel if it is "missing"?

It feels "normally" regarding the way you're asking me, trust me I know what a misfire sounds/feels like, experienced those about 2 years ago, not the case here :shrug:

Sorry then, I have no more ideas at the moment.:shrug:

Well, my bad lol, it is actually a misfire, checked with toaf and it confirmed, it shows cylinder nr 5, as far as I know that's the middle one, closest to the front bumper to say so right? And also, next thing to do would be to switch coil plugs and see if the misfire goes to another cylinder right?

Actually nr 5 is the right one at the front looking from the front of the car... anyways, swapped coil pack from nr 3 to nr 5, misfire remained on 5, then swapped the spark plugs from 3 to 5, same thing, even swapped the leads from 3 to 5 and the misfire is still on nr 5. So what are the options now? Bad injector or no compression on that cylinder or what else?

Interested in your latest find myself as an owner in Stockholm has much the same problem but on no.2 (V6) cylinder. As I understand it, there are three connectors on each coil, one a live (+) from the main relay, another a minus (-) and the third is the impulse from the ECM. Hope that’s right ?
I’d begin by removing the connector perhaps on no.3 coil, measuring what you find and compare that to your misfiring no.5.

I believe it’s safe to do this just with ignition on but car not running (?) if you want the car running you’d have to fit everything in place and pierce the insulation with a pin or something.

At the moment I don’t know what reading I should expect to receive at the third cable from the ECM , perhaps someone could enlighten us ?

Regards

Seems like it's going to end up being a duff injector.

If the cylinder bore or rings were the problem it would be blowing out smoke from the exhaust.

I will proceed at swapping the injectors no 3 with 5 too and see how that goes, however, hope I won't damage one of those cursed O rings while swapping them, had that problem before and it drove me nuts.

Also, if TOAF shows p0305 then it is definetely cyl no. 5 misfiring and not other right? I am asking this because I am not sure if TOAF counts the cylinder the way Rover did

And also, if the cylinder bore or rings are the problem, would it always be blowing smoke or only for a while after starting it up?

Seem to remember some discussion ages ago on the dark side about Toaf and counting cylinders but that was about the diesel, something about the unique French way of numbering. T-Cut might have been one of the contributors.

Will be following your progress with interest.

Regards

Just checked now and oil smells like gasoline, badly... bad sign obviously, this further tends me to think that it's the injector that's bad, spraying too much or not enough gasoline into the combustion chamber which is then not properly ignited thus what's left leaking down in the oil pan, and of course in the meanwhile creating a misfire too, hope it's this thesis the one that's valid, if the cylinder really has no proper compression then it's gonna cost a buck more that's for sure :getmecoat:

I've thought in the meanwhile of more things that could cause the matter: O2 sensors, lambda sensor, maybe even timing issues, but the O2 sensors should affect one of the engine banks that they're responsible for I guess and the latest issues I mentioned should make the whole engine misfire in a matter and make it run a little rough I guess, but neither should affect only one cylinder I suppose...

I have never known a faulty injector on the petrol engines, have a look at the O2 sensors and their wiring first.

I took the injectors off anyway and brought all of them to my mechanic to get them properly inspected and cleaned, also the small filters inside of them will be replaced together with all the o rings because they were in a really ugly shape, some of them looked like melted and had some cracks in them. This won't hurt for the car anyway and should help. Just hope that when I install them back the misfire will be gone. And even though I swapped the spark plugs, coils and leads from a good cylinder to the misfiring one and the misfire remained on cylinder nr 5, I still bought a set of 6 iridium spark plugs, and will see if the refreshed injectors and the new spark plugs resolve the issue, if not, I kind of ran out of ideas.

Some more things though:

- If the ECU is the problem, how can one diagnose that?
- What are the readings that the O2 sensors should output when they are operating normally?

Received the cleaned injectors and all of them are perfectly fine now, 2 of them were not spraying enough but after cleaning they were fine as sound. Installed them back, fired it up and nothing has changed, not even a bit, same misfire.

Although forgot to mention something from the beginning: my professional delphi scanner shows me the P0305 error code which indicates cylinder 5 of course, but in the description of the code it say misfire cylinder 2 (P0305 - Misfire cylinder 2). How could this be possible. Could it be that cylinder 2 is really the problem here?

RAVE gives P0305 as cylinder 5.

Simon

I'm starting to think that the misfire is happening because of the bad lifter/s that I have now for almost half a year, maybe the lifter on cylinder 5 wore so badly that the valve is not properly closing anymore, hence the misfire, any thoughts? Meanwhile I'm still waiting for the spark plugs to arrive, those would be the last "cheap" fix that could cure it, already swapped everything from one cylinder to another and still the misfire stays on nr 5...

Compression test will tell you.

But before opening the engine there is no possible way of knowing if it's actually bad lifters or bad piston rings or something else right?

Correct, but it will tell you that something is not right if the compression is low, or if the compression is good that the rings and valves are sealing.

Quite thought so. Although, as I said, I also have gasoline in my oil, it is obviously forced down in the oil pan by the piston rings, and regarding this, I know what I am saying is a far reach, but wouldn't it be logical that this is happening because the tappet on cyl 5 is either worn or blocked? Otherwise shouldn't the gasoline be thrown out the exhaust pipe? Now the only thing that comes out of the exhaust in comparison to before the misfiring is some white/greyish smoke.

Dissapointing news. Spark plugs arrived, changed the easy ones on the right side of the engine (front to say so) and drove the car for about 2 miles, both on idle and even in 5th gear while driving 30 miles per hour it was running PERFECT, like new, no misfire at all, not even the slightest. Then I thought ok everything's back to normal now, let's take the intake manifold off and change the 3 ones from the back side, did so, went for a ride again, and everything went back to being wrong again, misfiring on idle again, although just a little better while normally driving...

I can't imagine now really. How can it be that with only the 3 front easier plugs replaced with new ones, the engine runs perfectly smooth again and after changing the other 3 ones with new ones of course, it misfires like hell again? This is really frustrating now.

Did you do a compression test yet? Worn valve stem or valve stem seal will allow fuel to get up into the cam box and thus into the oil. The valve may not be seating properly, seat may be burned/damaged, stem may be carbonised or gummed up, causing it to stick. I think a compression check would be a quick and easy way to check symptoms.

It was meant to get a compression test yesterday, but after replacing the front spark plugs and seeing that everything was perfectly fine again I called my mechanic and told him not to come anymore. I shouldn't have changed the rear spark plugs also and maybe it would've still ran perfect even now lol.

Anyways, what are the normal values for the KV6 on a dry and also on a wet compression test? And also what fuses do I have to remove to not get a spark and also no fuel into the heads?

When you did this, was the small earth cable attached properly? As you stand at the radiator, it's on the far right hand side.

Also, there are two screws holding the back of the manifold chamber (the black plastic moulding) which are very difficult to see and reach. If these are missing it is possible to refit the chamber without it being properly sealed.

Simon

If you are talking about the small earth cable on the front bank (closest to radiator), that one was always attached to the coil of cylinder nr 1, or cylinder 3 as far as I remeber, but for the rear bank I've had no earth cable there :shrug:

Those screws at the rear for the manifold have been missing since I've installed the new manifold about 1 year ago, although I've never had problems regarding those missing screws...

No, sorry, I'll try a better explanation.
When you remove the manifold chamber (black plastic moulding) and look at the right hand bank (at the rear of the engine compartment) you should see an earth cable attached under one of the cam cover screws on the far right hand side (close to the battery). Make sure that it is present. It's illustrated in Haynes, page 2B-6, fig. 4.15.
As I said, I discovered from experience that it's possible to think that you have refitted the manifold chamber correctly when it fact it is improperly seated. Those two 8mm AF screws are there for a reason, to secure fully the manifold chamber which must be air tight. Attention to detail like this is the secret of long term reliability.

Simon

Now you really got me wondering if that earth wire is properly attached back there.. I certainly didn't notice it! Where exactly should it be attached to? One of the coil screws? And what exactly is that ground for?

Just checked and that wire is indeed properly connected, also, flushed the oil with comma flush, poured 2.5l in the engine and let it run at 1400 rpm for 15 minutes. The oil that initially was inside the engine didn't contain any crud in it, it was clean, only thing to notice is that it came out a little black which I think is normal, and it was also containing gasoline in it, it was smelling hard of gasoline. The flushing oil also came out just a little blacker and that's it, no crud and no sludge in it, as I was expecting since I've ALWAYS changed the oil after about 10k miles max.

After all this, misfire is still there, and the exhaust still blows white smoke. And also the tapping noise didn't get cured, it is still there, not even a little quieter. I think it would be logical at this moment to say that the cyl 5 lifter is badly worn and that disturbs the normal valve functioning.

Just as a recap: new spark plugs, injectors cleaned (all spraying perfect now), coil pack switched from cyl 3 to 5, leads switched also for a test, and that NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- misfire is still on cylinder 5, just a little better after the new spark plugs and that's it...

What do you think this is?

You believe that you have a noisy hydraulic tappet on no. 5. That means that there's a large gap between the top of the valve stem and the camshaft lobe. The valve will therefore close normally won't it?

Your Delphi code reader identified no.5 as misfiring. Was the sparking plug black or wet to confirm this?

Also, in post no. 36 you described how the fault cleared after renewing the LH bank sparking plugs (odd, if it's a faulty tappet). Then, after renewing the plugs in the RH bank, the fault returned. Might it be possible that you have an intermittent electrical connection in the wiring to one or more of the coils?

Simon

Hang on a minute ... hadn't you used a stethoscope which indicated that the tapping noise was coming from the bellhousing? :confused:

Get the compression checked. It's so simple, its just about the first thing I would do. Worn valve stem/seal would explain petrol in oil, Badly seating valve would explain misfire and "tick" could be compression escaping.

Got a major update on the issue now. I wanted to try and swap the coils on the rear of the engine today, and while managed to get to them by removing everything, I noticed that I forgot to tightly screw down the coil screws, I only screwed them hand tight :eek: However, torqued everything down properly now, triple checked every single screw and connection and installed everything back. Ran the car, and it runs thousand times better, felt like the misfire was gone for a while, however, the misfire can still slightly be felt while idling, and when running, you can feel it really sporadically, and it happens rarely and it is barely noticeable if you don't know from before that it's there, and while looking at live data with delphi scanner while driving, guess what, now every cylinder was sporadically misfiring in a chaotic matter, even though, as said, you can feel them only every now and then... and also it seems that cylinder 5 is not the one with the most misfires anymore, but rather cylinder 2 now besides the other that happen randomly. Also, white smoke still present.

Although, the situation is furthermore confusing, I've had a a powerful odor of fuel in the oil that I took out of the engine today, and also the exhaust is blowing white smoke, these 2 things indicate that oil gets inside the combustion chamber and is being burned and also that fuel is being forced in the oil too :getmecoat:

And Simon, I'd say yes and no, every spark plug was showing signs of only "normal" wear with nr 5 being a little blacker than the others, with normal meaning that they weren't replaced for longer than minimun 4 years I guess, but no abnormal contamination or gunk or sandiness on the electrodes or something like that :o

And yes, the stethoscope was clearly indicating the souns from the bell hoising, but my mechanic told me that it's not a cedtainty because, of course as every metal part in an engine and transimission is connected to one another, the sound will resonate through every part making the stethoscope method unreliable in this case :shrug:

I disagree [Joe] Galambosi. Burning oil produces blue smoke. Thin white smoke indicates coolant in the combustion chamber, similar to that produced when the engine is started in very cold conditions but more sustained.

Simon

I could get used to Joe lol haha. However, as far as I know, if that would be coolant in the combustion chambers, then the smell of the smoke should also be kind of sweet and in my case it certainly is not, it is that stingy nose disturbing fuel smell

Are you using water? is there abnormal pressure in the cooling system?If not then it is not coolant in the combustion chamber:shrug:

I am using red O.A.T. antifreeze 50/50. It is perfectly clean and no abnormal pressure. Also did a intake manifold gasket test and everything is perfectly sealed :shrug: Will try a vacuum test too. Anyone knows the normal values on idle? And also, is it enough to look at the vacuum with a scanner or should one do an "external" test? Also fuel pressure. What should the normal value be?

3.5 bar or 50ish psi

Regards

Hooked up my scanner and the following values looked interesting to me:

Intake manifold pressure: steady at 40kpa/12inhg which seems a little low to me, I read that it normally should be about 16-20inhg. When revving on idle it goes to 90kpa then drops to 20kpa when letting go of the pedal and then stabilizes at 40 again.

Air mass meter 65mg/stroke at idle

Also, the value for indication rich mixture bank 1/2 constantly switches to on-off-on-off and so on for both banks

Also, another thing I noticed now, when starting the car from cold it idles at about 1500rpm and as the engine warms up it slowly goes down, but it takes a few minutes..

If anyone has some ideas or can compare these values please let me know.

The fuel pressure as measured at the Schrader valve should be around 3.5Bar (50psi area).


The gross fuel contamination of the sump oil in such a short period as you've described is worrying. Like other contributers, I'd also recommend a standard compression test to confirm all the valves and piston rings are functioning normally.


TC

Read something pointing out that the idle control valve could cause the fast idle when cold, but would it be able to also cause misfires? Also what about the map sensor? Should that be a place to look?

One more thing, I bought 6 spark plugs from Champion, platinum ones and they have a 0.8mm electrode gap. Is that fine for a KV6? Haynes says 1mm but I've read some shortened the gap to 0.5mm and it supposedly cured their slight misfiring issues, and not only for one of them, read a lot of cases, what do you guys think?

Many K-series owners find a spark gap less than the specified 1mm does reduce some minor firing issues. I have 0.7mm on my 1.8T but others do indeed go down further. It can't do anyharm I guess.

Rather than spend more money on parts that don't appear to be solving the problem, a simple comression test will be very informative.


TC

Of course. That will do my mechanic tomorrow since the last time when I thought that the issue was cured I canceled the appointment. In the meantime, would someone know what are the "normal" compression values on both dry and wet tests?

Your questions
 

1.0 mm is the correct gap for the KV6. Reducing it has been done on the 4 cylinder engine but not, to my knowledge, on the KV6. After all, it's not an easy job extracting the plugs from the RH bank. I have never had any trouble with sparking plug gaps in fifteen years of ownership.

As for it doing no harm, I recently had trouble starting my SD1 V8 from cold with terrible misfiring. I found the cause to be an incorrect plug gap on no.8. It was too small! :eek: Once enlarged to the specified size the engine started beautifully. So on that basis I'd say that your plug gaps definitely need to be 1.0 mm and no smaller. :D

Simon

I think 140-150psi will be near the optimum for well lubricated pistons.

EDIT: Haynes (which I guess means RAVE) indicate 10bar (about 150psi) minimum with a variation not exceeding 1.5bar (22psi) between any two cylinders.

Note that all values will vary depending on the teperature of the engine. Most people will do compression tests when the engine is cold.

TC

Unestimated value you are providing here! Never thought it was possible for an engine to misfire if the gap is smaller, thought it could only misfire if the gap is larger since smaller gap allows for the spark to get ignited better. I think the logical explanation for this is that the ECU also calculates the exact time of the spark taking into consideration the normal spark gap and if the gap is smaller, the spark happens just a bit too early to create misfires, of course I am only speculating.

Will try tomorrow to increase the gap to 1mm, do you guys know a way to do this with stuff I can find at home or in my garage without damaging the plugs?

Yes, you're speculating. For all practical purposes, the spark occurs at the same instant irrespective of the size of spark gap.

Maybe click here? https://www.google.co.uk/search?sxsr...4dUDCAU&uact=5

TC

Neither did I. Car maintenance is full of surprises. It's unwise to theorise too deeply. :D
My original factory-fitted sparking plugs were of the triple electrode design and so were the recommended NGK plugs with which I replaced them. I found that the gap didn't alter by any significant amount over the 60,000 miles interval specified by Rover for replacement (interestingly there is no requirement to check the gaps at all on the service check sheet).

Are the Champion plugs you've bought listed by the manufacturer for use with the KV6? Are they the triple electrode design? If the answer to either of these questions is no, I would take the necessary action.

Simon

Yes, the plugs I bought were listed as compatible for use with the R75 2.0 V6, and they looked exactly like my original ones, I don't know what you mean with the triple electrode but anyways here are the ones I bought: Spark plugs

Just Google "NGK triple electrode sparking plugs" and you'll see.
The plugs you have bought are the conventional single electrode type. These are not the same as those specified and originally fitted at the factory. They will work, but I suspect that the gaps will need checking frequently and you don't want to be doing that on the RH bank do you? ;)

The triple electrode type are long lasting and virtually maintenance free. As I said, when I inspected mine at 60,000 miles they were perfect. It's not a good idea to follow what Mr. Previous Owner did. Find out what should be there and act accordingly. :}

Simon

Hmm that's interesting. Didn't know about that up until now. Thought that the ones fitted were still the original ones since there was the part nr printed on them. Will look into that too.

Bingo! Problem solved. I think you remember I mentioned that I replaced the front 3 plugs, gave the car a run and everything was perfect, and after replacing the rear ones it was misfiring again. Well, turns out that the spark plug for number 2 was the culprit, today I thought well let's just put back the old plugs in the rear and see how it runs since it was fine before replacing those, and when doing so, found out that the new plug for cylinder 2 had the eletrodes practically touching eachother :eek: I don't know how that could've happened, I guess I dropped the plug before fitting it and didn't notice that at all when inatalling it :shrug: Lesson learned atleast, always be careful with the smallest details haha. I guess sometimes the most basic and simple stuff turns out to be the solution in most cases.

As a note though, I still did the compression test and it revealed that the engine is still going strong, values between 145-150 psi for all cylinders. No vacuum leaks and fuel pressure is normal.

I couldn't wait to get my car back on the road again, a big thank you to EVERYBODY that contributed to solving this matter and helping me out in the process!

Next thing to look out for is how the tappets ticking will develop going further. After the oil flush it is noticeably better, about 70-80% gone I'd say, but still there, will see about that if it gets worse in the future :}

:clap:
Well done. Remember my little story from earlier ...
And the moral?
:D

As for the hydraulic tappets, I'm very pleased to hear that the flushing oil made a significant difference. ;)

Simon

Well moral is everything that's too small is not pleasing at all ahahah. I am thinking about doing a flush again, but I'm not really sure it'a worth it, for the first flush, the flushing oil came out almost same color as it went it, I really was wondered how clean the engine was, not even a trace of gunk, I have to replace the oil anyway since I put in the cheapest oil I found until fixing the problem. I hope that now if the misfire is cured I will not get anymore fuel pushed inside the crankcase

It seems to have had some effect Gambalosi. ;)
You don't. If the cheap oil meets the MGR spec., which dates back nearly twenty years so it is bound to, then it will be fine. In my view and experience, it's the frequency of oil changes that keeps engines in good condition, not the price.

Simon

I had the same problem with a "New Mini" It took 3 flushes to get the hydraulic tappets to quieten down. And also the correct spec oil which is most important.;)

Then I guess I'll do another flush when I have some spare time, I know that every oil will be good as long as it meets the specs but I've always run the car with Motul 6100 10w40 and I intend to stay with that.

Which flushing oil do you use? (I'm thinking of trying some in my V6 before I put the good stuff in).

Comma Flush Out, available from motor factors and even Wilco on-line!

Simon

Ah yes - good old Comma, I always liked their stuff. Amazon is probably as cheap as anywhere. £16.86 5L - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OIPZ2...v_ov_lig_dp_it

I just bought some.

After 2 flushes and all the other things I've done while still looking for the misfire cause, the car is running mint now. However, I have one more question, I want to make sure that this issue will not cause me any problems in the future, so, do you guys know if there should be something regarding the fuel pump to look at? For example I guess that the car has a fuel filter, and if so, is it serviceable? Also heard that some models have a fuel filter that has a common problem with some orange O ring? Just talking from what I can remember reading on the forum. If the car really has a fuel filter I'd like to look at that too just to make sure it's clean and letting properly enough fuel through, and if not, to replace it. Mind you I have a 2.0 V6 engine.

Another thing to mention, my mechanic drove the car and he told me that even though it's got 150hp it doesn't really feel like that, he said he feels something is not 100% right in terms of acceleration, which makes me wonder because I always replace the air filter sooner than neccesarry, also recently fitted new upgraded VIS motors plus a rattle free manifold, checked fuel pressure and compression which are both right, reader shows no errors and everything seems right, but it still has that quite lack of acceleration that a 150hp engine should have :icon_confused: Any ideas what I should check?

Your year 2000 V6 2.0 will have the earlier type petrol filter which is non-serviceable and doesn’t require the clip like the later filters.

The V6 in 2.0 form is not quick and needs high revs to do anything. I’ve recently gone from a 2.0 to a 2.5 and there’s a very noticeable difference, more like an 827 if you’ve had one of those. So I don't think there's much you can do, just enjoy the sound and the cruising ability.

Regards

Your mechanic is right. Rover V6 engines are not as powerful as you would think, hope or pray for. Most people, with a few exceptions, feel there is too little beef.
And I agree.

Recap
 

That's excellent news and thanks for concluding this thread. Just to be clear though, as you had two threads running, is this an accurate summary of the outcome?

• The misfire was an incorrectly gapped sparking plug.
• The tapping noise came from the hydraulic tappets which responded to several applications of flushing oil.

Simon

Exactly Simon, that would conclude it all, the tapping noise is still there at about 20-30% intensity I'd say compared to before but it's barely unnoticeable now compared to before, so I'd say it's in a "safe" range for now, will see how that develops in the future.

Having a perfectly working Rover again (which is quite rare haha) really makes the owner feel joyful and fulfilled lol, I just love these cars. :icon_lol:

Thanks Galambosi. It's worth noting that both faults turned out to be very simple; nothing wrong with the flywheel after all! Diagnosis is always the tricky bit. It requires a lot of patience and organised thinking. Fortunately you applied both (and it didn't cost you a lot of money either!).

Simon

Finding the faulty spark plug was purely luck haha, I would've never thought that one of the spark plug's tip would be bent since I bought new ones, as I said maybe I dropped it before installing or it came this way and I didn't notice it, I was taking out the plugs to make the compression test and then I saw it and I was like oh look how simple that was lol. Happily I noticed that soon enough and didn't spend more money for useless things. I have to thank you Simon and all of the members that helped with this issues again for your kindness, guys like you are the reason that most of these beautiful cars are still on the road and running!

Well I've got more great news now, my mechanic replaced today the remaining timing parts that he found needed replacement when fitting the timing kit (the ones that arrived later), which were: crank pulley, aux tensioner with it's pulley plus aux idler pulley and the ticking noise is now completely gone! Turns out that the crank pulley was the main reason for the horrible ticking noise, when replacing it, my mechanic found out that the last mechanic that replaced the timing kit installed the pulley using just brute force and no brains at all, it was clearly forcefully pushed onto the crank sprocker and went on it at a slight angle causing the noise when driving. I guess that's would be the least expected thing to look at since it wasn't naturally caused and it happens quite rarely that a crank pulley causes noises. Now luckily got rid of this issue and also cleaned the tappets in the meanwhile which surely helped a little bit too haha :laugh:

Happy day! I can feel your relief. Happy Christmas!:icon_biggrin: