Rover 2000 sound upgrade
The radio was the first thing I changed on my Rover 2000. This was probably done as soon as I got the car home back in 1992, as even then there wasn’t much on Medium Wave I wanted to listen to. The replacement unit had a pull-out head-unit (remember them?) and played tapes but this has been upgraded several times over the years, so the latest change may not look period correct.
But it does bring me bang up to date for the technology I use and this car is a driver, not a trailer queen. I’ve become used to DAB radio in the car, as well as playing music from my ‘phone and having Bluetooth handsfree. I’ve always liked Alpine equipment, so picked up a CDE 196 DAB head unit and a KAE-232DA DAB antenna for the Rover. Fitting the stereo was simple, as I already had a modern radio in the dash, so just had to cut off the old adapter plug and solder on the new Alpine friendly connector.
Fitting the DAB antenna and hands-free microphone took a little more disassembly to hide the wires. Fortunately the trim A-pillar trim on the Rover is held on by just two screws, so I could remove this piece and feed the cables from under the dash up
to the top of the screen. The DAB aerial was left stuck to the inside of the glass and the microphone mount was screwed in place just under the sun visor bracket. It was an easy install and has made my already very usable P6 even more everyday friendly.
The job of getting the Y-reg MINI R50 up to scratch has begun. First off I had to replace the exhaust, as the original one had dropped off on the way home. I hunted around and found a new one with a good copy of the ‘beer can’ sized tail pipe for just £50 plus delivery. For a 1.6, the MINI with its new exhaust is incredibly noisy and is loud enough for the neighbours to comment about my cars for the first time!
I hate fitting exhausts and as for safety’s sake also desperately needed to change the car’s ageing, mismatched ditch-finder tyres. I took the pipe with me to get it fitted at the same time as having a full set of Continental Sport Contact 5 tyres put onto the MINI’s 15-inch pepper pot alloys.
Having used Conti tyres on a several cars and always been impressed with the resulting grip and ride, it wasn’t surprising to find the car’s handling was transformed from ‘Fifties’ saloon to modern sports car at a stroke. I got to poke around under the MINI while it was up on the ramp and the good news is that the chassis is nice and straight and there’s no rust. The bad news is that the sump plug is held in with a dollop of instant gasket. That will need sorting fairly urgently!
The other pressing task was to make it habitable, as the interior smelt like someone had smoked themselves to death and been left to rot. I started by scrubbing the seats and carpet with Flash and hot water, then lashings of interior cleaner until I stopped wringing black water from the fabric, but still couldn’t get the smell out.
To try and clear the pong I set off a can of Meguiar’s Air Re-Fresher Odour Eliminator with the engine running and blowers on full while the vapour filled the cabin and this finally shifted the stink. My ‘Young Timer’ classic MINI is getting there, but there’s still plenty more to be done!
The bad news is that the sump plug on my newly acquired MINI R50 is held in with a dollop of instant gasket