Just a few lines concerning a recent fault on the "B" car, this fault can affect any vehicle fitted with the L series turbo diesel engine.
The L series is fitted with a vacuum pump on the end of the alternator to provide vacuum servo to the master cylinder. Lubrication comes via a steel pipe from the top front of the engine block directly into the top of the pump. The return comes out of the bottom of the hose, first as a steel pipe, then the return from the pump as a moulded plastic hose to the sump. The steel and plastic sides are connected by a 3" length of 10mm inside bore neoprene hose held together with those nasty circular pipe spring clips. A phos bronze insert is fitted to the plastic tube to stop the spring clip collapsing the bore, the plastic hose slides over the insert right up to the rounded pipe end, the neoprene connector pushes over and the clip added to hold it all together. The whole connection sits directly below the alternator.
Using a torch, check to see if the spring clips have been correctly fitted, either at factory level or subsequent repairs. In my case one of the clips was not in the correct place and over the course of 9 years the plastic hose "breathed off" and out of the neoprene tube connector ( the plastic hose should be approx 1" inside the neoprene connecting hose) with the result that during the recent cold weather the hose finally popped out and the return oil escaped into the acoustic pan below, rapidly draining the sump at a rate of 1 litre per 15 minutes operation.
The connector can be inspected with a torch by looking in from the drivers side of the car, the connector sits directly below the alternator but above the air con pump. To fix you will need to remove the engine cover, disconnect a sensor plug and earth connection, move the wiring loom out of the way, swinging the alternator on its lower holding bolts towards the front of the car. I removed the spring clips and fitted equal grip jubilee clips for reliability. Overall a pain of a job that cost me £3 to fix vice the price of an arm and leg garage fix or a new engine/ scrapping eventuality if you run out of lube oil. If you need to remove the vacuum pump (as I did due to the poor fitting of the clip) you will need to drop the aux belt and swing the washer bottle filler hose out of the way. I recommend that you also renew the connector clips for the vacuum servo pipe with jubilee clips for piece of mind.
Edited by Pugugly on 12/01/2009 at 21:58
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Just made this model non-specific seeing as the L series appeared in other Rover products. Thanks to the OP for an excellent write up.
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I believe that the L series lump was also used in other non Rover vehicles like the 2 litre Discovery? There are a lot of them out there in the real world.
The engine is generally reliable as such, by todays diesel standards the design is not that refined but for a mid 90s engine it was good for its time. Reasonably easy to maintain although some items on the engine appear to have been shoehorned in as an afterthought. I would be hard pressed to find a suitable modern day replacement car to the same versitility and standard as the 25 diesel.
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