An happy 75 owner's blog

[Dorchester2]

Missing bit
Having a close look in the foot well, I think I may able to answer to my own question.

Each of both holes looks good and of the same shape.
On each side I can push in any of my fasteners easily, but too easily, directly in a hole a bit too large within the car body!

I bet something's missing, like a little sheath as the green part shown below, the black part being my fastener and the red part car body.

Any idea there to get me out of my misery?

Thanks a lot.

[Dorchester2]

Could the likely missing item be EYC10061 at Rimmer's?

Item 4 at https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-GRID001822?

[Dorchester2]

Don't understand
Very quick answer from Rimmers but I don't understand at all what that's mean!

I've asked for 'inside and outside diameter', and here is the answer:
'The large hole is 17mm and it tapers down to 8mm'!

'17 mm' what? Large, wide, deep?
'Tapers': does that mean something's conical in shape?

Nice man, but doesn't exactly answer my question and doesn't realize I'm not at all a mechanic...
They've put a picture from above: it would have been wiser to make a side sketch eventually with dimensions...

Nevertheless I think you may be right: it may be too large for my fasteners, that are 9mm in diameter.
BTW I can't give a precise figure for the hole diameter (too painful for my backbone to have access so far and my eyes are not so good at 30/40cm distance), but I assume it's around 11/12mm.

Hence back to square one...

[Dorchester2]

Mystery deepening...
Quick update.

I've succeed to look inside the hole: nothing's missing!
But the fasteners ordered are the wrong ones!
Nothing to do in that place.

The hole is filled with a piece with a large rim and a screw inside.
Can't say exactly the screwing diameter because I can't reach it.
Can't take any picture in that dark & deep place as well unfortunately.

So I need a kind of fastener / screw / bolt (possibly a metal one, don't know) provided with an internal thread!

Anybody just able to unscrew that part of his 75 to give me (us) the measurements?
It would be soooo simpler!

Pleeeease!
Thank you soooo much.

[Dorchester2]

Did you want more puzzling news?
A very kind chap from another forum, keen to sell me all 4 fasteners (front & back) on their own, sent me a picture of the back fasteners:
they are actually the same as those I've ordered!

I think I'm turning bonkers!

Probably a bit too short in my 75 with the thickness of the carpet & sub carpet (both genuinely Rover).
In other words the hole may be a bit too deep or even I may be likely clumsy to see and do the right job at the same time in that very uncomfortable position.

But when I look at the 3 very tiny plastic brackets that are inside the fastener central tube, I bet that provided you have pushed the fastener in its right place, it may likely be a pig of a job to extract it to have access to the fuse box.
Hence if you break them to take off the cover & change a fuse and you haven't any spare ones, the operation is ending with no longer any fastener to replace them with.
I bet that's why the car was without when I bought it!

So I'm waiting to order the 2 I've already have got and the 2 front ones I'm in great need of. I cannot see myself asking the nice lad to sell me only the front ones he has to strip out from his cover that may become totally useless without. Unless he asks too much...
Wait & see...

[Dorchester2]

As in the hole I've obviously a threaded stud, I can effectively unscrew the fastener above without any difficulty when wanting to open the fuse box.

As usual too when I'm confronted to a new problem in my lovely Rovers, which is... every time (!), I feel distressed because it's every time the first time as well!

But my big & preposterous concern now is to find the right way & manner to push my fasteners on my stud.
You know in order to push it in when I put my hand between the cover hole and my eye, I feel like a blind man: I can no longer see what I'm doing in that bl..dy well!

[Dorchester2]

Half the gremlin sorted out...
Well, thanks to an overheating of the shuttle I received my fasteners cum washers only today from a kind member of the 75&ZT owners club.

But they are mint, looked never having been used, and the front fasteners are the very ones my fuse box cover was wanting.

So you may easily imagine that I rushed out to have them fitted.
Easy job for the once missing front one hence both of them are now keeping up the cover.

But no way for the back ones.
It looks like an original misconception: both genuine carpet & sub carpet are so thick that the threads are hardly to be reached.
Just a few mm more and the trick would have been possible.
It's not the first time that I can notice some loose adjustments in that early 75. Lots of people had already noticed that & it's easy to find some complains within the dedicated forums.

I'd just succeed to screw in the right back fastener by half a turn or scarcely a bit more, when I tried to do the same with the left one and while pushing hard to reach the thread, the right fastener popped up immediately!
And I bet that even I'd succeeded for a while for both of them in the first place they would have popped up very soon afterwards...

I defy anybody to succeed in that every time loser game!

But thanks to both the front fasteners the cover looks rather enough tightly fitted. Never mind for those beasty & stubborn back ones. The back of the foot well shape is very much helping that. The cover can't actually go down: mind you that until yesterday it was only maintained by a lonely left front fastener!
I give up!

[Dorchester2]

A bit of (hi)story...
Just a short addition to my car's story.

It seems that at an unknown date (possibly before MG Rover failure in 2005) my original Rover carpet was swapped with another one.

An evidence? Easy.
All the genuine factory fitted carpets in 1999-2000 were marked ones with Rover monogram, like my headrests. But my actual Rover carpet (it's a Rover one for sure, even the 'over' carpets are labelled 'Rover' with references on the unseen side) is unmarked.

I guess that the original sandstone one (a very delicate colour!) was too dirty or maybe damaged by a splash or a stain then the once owner decided to change the whole lot. The fact is that for a 19 years old (or likely less) carpet, it's very nearly immaculate!

Regarding the back fasteners, I think a mod exists, it was mentioned on another forum. I've asked for it.
But given I've now got 6 of them (4 ordered from Rimmer plus 2 from Mickyboy), I'm thinking to modify 2 of them with 2 others in order to add some mm to the initial length.
But if possible the solution may emerge later in the month.

At the moment I've just ordered from Mijexhaust my new stainless steel exhaust line yesterday evening. A big chunk of money for sure but I think it's worth it. I'll be relaxed with the exhaust for our remaining life (the car's & mine!), with a nice growling sound (not too noisy I hope) and mainly less restriction to increase the engine smoothness & mpg efficiency (coupled with my K&N air filter).
But I'll be waiting for September to have the job done at the same time as the oil & filter service (1 year & around 6.5k mls / 10k km).

[Dorchester2]

I just wonder why you just do not look for long female metal fastener of the stud size you have? I think that your stud size is M6. Make a mod by yourself? Invent another mod ...

I think I'm totally unable to point out exactly the good one, with convenient size, length & thread.
I know me: I shall end ordering several wrong ones and unsure in the end to get the right one...
Pictures or even dimensions are worth nothing for my bad self: the only way is to have the item at hand and try it...
Being an unskilled & untrained mechanic, I need only to be a practical man...

EDIT: my fasteners are 23mm long & the external diameter is 10mm, and head diameter 22mm... Mmmh very specific... But properly speaking curiously no thread inside, some plastic bits seem catching the threaded stud.

[Dorchester2]

Not so little update
Regarding the fasteners, I'll have a try later in August. I don't give up now: I've my idea on the matter...

My week holidays in the 75 were a treat but a deer that felt hard to get off the road and would have nearly ruined my mesh grill and bumper...

Curious and inexplicable consumption variations:

1- 3 Aug - 22.2 mpg (12.73 L)
2- 6 Aug - 20.97 mpg (13.47 L)
3- 8 Aug - 19.31 mpg (14.63 L)
4- 9 Aug (morning) - 21.13 mpg (13.37 L)
5- 9 Aug (afternoon) - 24.52 mpg (11.52 L)

A/C permanent (very hot weather - 30/36°C) for 1, 2 & 3.
Weather more temperate (15/25°C) and A/C rare (intermittent) for 4 & 5 (same day!). Moreover I've used the sport mode half the time in the morning and always in the afternoon!
That engine is a very enigma...
Mind you that fuelling ethanol, my consumption is rather 25% above the normal one.

And two new gremlins came on stage:
- my boot lock barrel is now turning round & round when I'm inserting the key and nothing does happen any longer: I can't open it. Fortunately the inside electrical switch is perfectly working.
I think I've found the perfect answer here:
https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/s...d.php?t=128765
It's just remaining to be done!

- more annoying: brakes are working fine (otherwise I would have had the deer on my bonnet!) but the steering column is shaking more & more when I'm pressing hard on the pedal. It's not coming from silent blocks: the 3 of them are new. Something wrong in the brake shoe?
I hope my mechanic does have the right answer.
What do you reckon?

Lastly, for her nearly 1st anniversary of my ownership, I've at last found my 75 a nickname: Lady Carlotta, a reminder of an English text I'd studied when I was a teen: 'The Schartz-Metterklume Method' by Saki (I'm still chuckling...), that can be read at Short Stories: The Schartz-Metterklume Method by Saki (http://eastoftheweb.com/short-storie...aMeth804.shtml), and of the third forename of my Mum, Charlotte, after her father's forename: Charles Davis. That looks deliciously old and out-of-date: I love to feel & look off-beat & out-of-date...