£1000 Challenge
Rover 216 Coupé
THE STORY SO FAR Miles driven 14 Total mileage 100,603 What’s gone wrong For once, it’s not the idleÉ
CHRIS HOPE My past few updates on the Rover have all followed a similar theme, which can be summed up as ‘continues working, but...’.
To be more specific, it’ll get my colleagues and I to the likes of the National Exhibition Centre, Stansted Airport, plus a top-secret location near Silverstone with a rare cache of pre-war Renaults all without fail, but it won’t be running exactly as Longbridge intended – especially when it’s stood at a set of traffic lights.
I’ve made numerous attempts to try to cure our Tomcat’s uneven idle, and while replacing a variety of ignition components has improved its composure at low revs and, according to a couple of my colleagues, even returned a sense of eagerness to its power delivery, I’ve not as yet found the root cause of the problem.
Speaking with John Batchelor from the Rover 200 and 400 Owners’ Club at the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show gave me my next lead to follow – a gummed up idle control valve (ICV). So, with the Rover enjoying some time off, I decided to clean it.
The ICV is behind the Honda D-series and forms part of the engine’s PGM-FI (Programmed Fuel Injection) system. Access is tight due to the system’s position close to the bulkhead, but can be improved by gently repositioning some of the flexible hoses.
The valve is secured to the injection system by a pair of bolts, eventually liberated after plenty of penetrating oil. Removing the valve requires loosening spring clamps on the pair of hoses below the ICV, but even with these freed the hoses refused to budge. Deciding it best not to disturb the hoses (and using pliers to spread the clamps to grip the hoses again) I undid the three screws on the plate those hoses attach to instead, finally freeing off the valve.
I then liberally sprayed the inside of the valve with brake cleaner to remove years of gunk before ensuring it was thoroughly dry before refitting.
As well as echoing John’s sentiments regarding the ICV, Peterborough garage Express Autocare also suggested the temperature sensor might be the culprit – could it have been damaged when the Rover’s old radiator decided to do its best impression of Swiss cheese and disintegrate on the A1 at the beginning of the year?
I decided to hold off replacing the sensor for now, but did clean its connections with electrical contact cleaner – I also did the same with the pair of connections that go into the idle control valve to be thorough.
Turning the key in the ignition barrel following my ICV tinkering, the Japanese four-cylinder fires immediately and rather than idling at a high 1500rpm (as it has recently) it held at a much less lively 800rpm. A short drive suggests nothing is amiss and as I stop to turn back and return, the engine nicely up to temperature, I pause in a layby to see how it’s idling. Rather than the needle bouncing as the revs fall away before rising again to prevent the engine stalling, it held steady. Problem solved at
last!
Setting off again, it’s fair to say I’m feeling just a little smug. Any sense of satisfaction though was all too brief as the red ‘check engine’ light blinked into life on the dash. Bother.
Limping the Tomcat back to base, I lift the bonnet to find what appears to be steam emanating from idle control valve. My suspicion is that while I thought I’d thoroughly cleaned the valve of brake cleaner that I perhaps, well, hadn’t. Or rather, I’m hopeful that this is the reason the check engine light was tripped and that I’ve not somehow goosed things completely…
With the light failing I skulked back into the CCW office with my tail between my legs anticipating the mickey-taking from my oh-so ‘supportive’ colleagues. Diagnosis of what went wrong will follow soon I hope – fingers crossed that whatever the problem is, it doesn’t take the Tomcat off the road, otherwise editor Simister, with his now-working Reliant three-wheeler, will never let me hear the end of it.