Engine "cooked" Connie 1.8 se petrol (53)

[roamer]

Hi All, Ii realise this post is in the wrong place but for some reason I cannot post on tech help! Please bear with me as im not very mechanically minded so post may be a bit long winded. Ok here goes ... my car had been parked up for some months due to me being unwell although had been started and had very short runs. Last week was her proper run out after a few local runs totalling approx 80 mile. On Saturday coolant and oil checked all ok, drove to fort william approx 200 mile to visit son and family, car drove well and im thinking ... i love my car. prior to return journey coolant and oil etc checked again no probs, hadnt used any and no evidence of mayo etc on cap or in tanks, again lovely drive back up until 1 mile from home when car starts to loose power, judder and temp gauge shot to red then car came to a complete halt. I called my garage who came to get the car, it had to be winched onto the recovery truck as wouldnt fire to start. Garage phoned yesterday to say car very poorly and probably renewing the head gasket wouldnt help as no compression to engine! then they say will have another look at it over the weekend to see if can get it started and advise me that hg replacement would cost 500/600 or if needing engine looking at 1500!!! I cannot justify spending 1500 despite really liking the car. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated as I dont have a clue what to do next x

[flyer_phil]

Anna

I cant really offer you any advice except to offer you my sincere sympathy.

If you follow this forum, week after week we hear of people with the 1.8 litre engine suffering the same fate. The fact is the 1.8 K series engine is not fit for purpose. Its a demic.

If this was America, by now there would have been a tort class action against the people that designed and marketed this engine and you would have had compensation.

Unfortunately you probably were not to know when you bought the car, the reputation of this lousy piece of engineering. I agree with you that it is not worth spending a lot of money on it, because the value of the 1.8 is very poor (due to its reputation) and it could happen again.

If you really like the Rover 75, then scrap the one you have for parts, and buy another one, but this time a diesel. Personally, I would probably move on and buy a Volvo, a Japanese or a German car.

Sorry for your bad luck.

[greendriver]

A sad and familiar story. This is why on all long journeys I turn on the OBD and monitor the engine temperature. It's the only early warning system you get as the temp guage is a terrible design. This example is particularly sad as you seem to have done the essential checks.

I also have the mechanical breakdown insurance with the AA as a backup.

I hope you get this sorted without too much expense.

[chrissyboy]

[QUOTE=flyer_phil;762738]Anna

I cant really offer you any advice except to offer you my sincere sympathy.

If you follow this forum, week after week we hear of people with the 1.8 litre engine suffering the same fate. The fact is the 1.8 K series engine is not fit for purpose. Its a demic.

If this was America, by now there would have been a tort class action against the people that designed and marketed this engine and you would have had compensation.

Unfortunately you probably were not to know when you bought the car, the reputation of this lousy piece of engineering. I agree with you that it is not worth spending a lot of money on it, because the value of the 1.8 is very poor (due to its reputation) and it could happen again.

If you really like the Rover 75, then scrap the one you have for parts, and buy another one, but this time a diesel. Personally, I would probably move on and buy a Volvo, a Japanese or a German car.

Sorry for your bad luck.[/QUOTE


wheres this week after week ??? ]wrong ... wrong again here .
the value of the 1.8 is very poor (due to its reputation) and it could happen again,infact the 1800 is holding its price its the 2.5 that had gone way down .... the truth of the matter is yes the 1800 can delvelop hgf as can any car .fact and not just design... is there is always an underlining reason why the head gasket went in the first place,a good mechanic should be able to sort the car for £450/£500 ... me personally would have it repaired by a mechanic that a member has used for the same repair and their car is still going strong .... alot is said about the head gasket being hard to do on these cars ,infact it is very easy .all you need to have is a good mechanic that will find the cause of the hgf and srt that so it wont go again .

[e668ecp]

Originally Posted by flyer_phil

If you really like the Rover 75, then scrap the one you have for parts, and buy another one, but this time a diesel. Personally, I would probably move on and buy a Volvo, a Japanese or a German car.

Sorry for your bad luck.

Correct apart from buying another make. They all have their problems, inc HGF on some German cars

[pab]

There is nothing wrong with the design of this unit,it's the small charge of coolant which is the problem.The slightest drop in coolant level leaves problems that the OP had experienced.

If the cooling system is suspect of leakage and you find you have to top up to maintain the level,then you obviously have a leak which needs to be rectified.Plenty of information is available on these forums of the main areas to check,inlet manifold gasket,waterpump,top hose T-piece etc.

The temperature gauge on all models is useless,it hits the red at 115C and that will render the head unrepairable,the heads suffice is case hardened and the manufacturer does not advise having this surface skimmed,this is the expensive part of the repair.

The MLS gasket is a good option on gasket choice but ensure the full kit is fitted.Before any attempt to rear the car the cause of the HGF must be found to ensure the repair is successful

[e668ecp]

Pab is quite correct but the cooling on the 1.6k/1.8k is woeful and Rover Group did over stretch the usefulness of the engine beyond what it was designed for (1.4 max)

[Siberman81]

woah, im just about to pick up a 1.8 75 club, not inspiring lol. however, i have a 1.8 vvc k series in my BRM and its been great (touch wood).

lets talk about german cars:

wasn't it the bmw 3 series from 02 onwards that suffered sub frame chassis tear, wasn't it BMW's 1.6 and 1.8 lumps that suffer badly from HGF?

i had a 1.8 citroen xantia dimension.........HGF.
my old 1.2 corsa..............HGF

its just one of those common 'word got round' things.

Speak to Kayleigh on mg-rover.org, she does head gaskets, is very reliable as loads of members have had there cars fixed by her and her husband, great prices and they travel the country to fix them using the MLS kits.

tell her simon with the full size dalek sent you!

cheers, si

[Rolled1]

There was a piece in several newspapers yesterday where Warranty Direct built a vitrual "frankenstein" car using pieces from different cars which had the highest number of claims against them according to Warranty Directs own figures, the engine in this frankenstein car was surprise surprise the 1.8k although they only mentioned it giving serious trouble in the TF's and not across the whole MG/Rover range.

[ASHEEN]

Before I bought my Diesel 75, I did some thorough research about these cars. MG Rover did not design the Petrol engines well, they are all prone to HGF, even the 2.0 and 2.5, with some prone to irrepairable water/oil leaks on the side of the block (having seen 2 with similar fates). I knew the Diesel was very reliable, so the majority of 75's around today are the Diesel ones, they seem to last forever, they are very strong engines. The bits that fail on these are non engine related, but all Rover bits and pieces related, like Airbag Warning lights going off, etc.

Somehow, I think the Rover Engineers (English not German) deliberately did this, so that in the long term, they would make more money out of the customers, due to them having to keep going back to the dealers for various fix's. The whole mentality at MG Rover was wrong. Remember the old 200/400/600 series, well the Honda Engined 1.6's and 2.0's were the most reliable, the others, namely 1.4 and 1.8's were prone to HGF and generally unreliable.

Rovers Cars are beautifully crafted, well screwed together, with soft supple rides and comfort, but badly let down by poor quality engineering, leading to bad customer service. Someone was right, if this was America, they would have been sued by the Motoring Federation and every owner for poor Quality and Unfit for Purpose

Get a diesel one, if you want another 75. They are less bother and the car does look gorgeous, from every angle and Demands another look, as you walk away after parking it up.