Eunos Chump

The Rover 75 has a cheerful little temperature gauge with a sunny, optimistic attitude.  He'll tell you everything is fine and dandy in engine land, right up to the point where it reaches critical mass and does a China Syndrome.  However, you can display the real temperature direct from the sensor by careful tapping of the trip reset button: With the engine running, press and hold the button After a few seconds, the number 1 will appear - tap the button to advance the number to 19 After a second or so, Test will appear - press the button again Now tap the button until 7 appears After a couple of seconds, the true engine temperature will be displayed To remember this, I think of Star Wars - 1977.

You are looking at a FULLY OPERATIONAL Rover 75.  Insurance, tax, £240 of new tyres, £5 worth of car wash and it was good to go.  It is so lovely and smooth... multi-cylinder petrol engines will be extinct before long and it's going to be a shame.

The thermostat housing on a Rover KV6 motor is made of plastic; it's then plopped (along with a couple of associated pipes) right in the centre of the engine vee where it can get nicely toasted. These parts appear quite acceptable for the overflow plumbing of a toilet cistern, but certainly do not seem suitable as critical components in the cooling circuit of a complex engine.  I'm sure there's a good reason this material was chosen... I'm guessing it's because chocolate wouldn't last out the warranty period. Predictably, after a while the housing starts to leak.  For the past couple of weeks I've been attempting to replace those parts, WITHOUT dismantling half the engine to reach them.  After much grief, swearing, cut fingers and the use of BBQ tongs, it's fixed.  There was a point where I was ready to raffle it off on Autoshite (£1 a go), but persistence paid off.  The super Pela fluid extractor pump I got for my birthday really earned it's kee...