Thread: We bought a 2000 FY 4.6 HSE

It wasn't a secret but we were rather busy and away for the last few weeks, hence this late note. I spoke with several owners at Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, as well as a few in-between places but missed a few that were sold quickly. In the end I drove down to Melbourne and went to have a look at a few P38s.

The first two were ok, but neither were as good I expected despite their prices and recent or extensive mechanical work. Later on the last day I found this one. It was a private sale, it was straight, largely original,the mileage at 146k seemed genuine and the price was ok. Even the heads, water pump and radiator seemed to not have been removed and the underside had few but really little old oil leaks. Yes, I know but .... Unfortunately for my taste though, it is black/black when I hoped for white/beige colours. Such is life.

The owner's son is a BMW technician and has serviced her car for the last 6 years, so it seemed to have been well looked after. We agreed on a price and put the car in for the RWC process, which should have been ok to my expectation. A week later new rear disks and front bushes were installed to pass it through. Given that the VIC rego was due in the next 10 days, it didn't give me much time as I had to go through the ACT system when I came back home.

When I started to drive back home the car was using enormous fuel (averaging 28l/100km!) in town, far more than I expected. Once we got on the highways it settled around 18, especially after I reset it there at that time. Over the next 300km it dropped down to 13.5 and held it there through NSW, thank goodness.

During this journey I checked the fluids every couple of hours when I stopped for my own drinks, and there were no oil/coolant or leaks/drops at all. I should have none better. As I stopped at Gundagai around 8pm to get a coffee I heard dripping fluids underneath. I had brought with me a small tool kit, some spares and a torch and found that one of the drains over the transmission were leaking coolant, from the heater matrix.

I had spoken to the son about the recent work he had done for the car and said that he had replaced the two heater o-rings, which I was knew was a bigger job under that dash. The o-rings weren't leaking into the driver's footwell and the carpets were dry, so I thought the matrix was split and was draining from the sealed heater 'box'.

I called for the NMRA as I had included this car into our membership before I picked it up in Melbourne. He arrived quickly but wasn't much help or interested. Even said they don't like working on them, which I can understand, but still .... In the end he left and I repaired the system myself by rejoined one of the heater hoses onto the return line and bled the radiator on one of the steep streets near the garage. We were lucky as we only lost about a couple of litres when the car started to split the system as I parked it.

As I started to drive back I was still concerned about the system. I've had Rovers for most of my last 40 years of driving but they were 2nd cars. This car is intended to be the main one for a while, replacing a series of VS/VS2 Commodore models. Knowledge is not the same as experience even though I had read widely about this model through these forums, just like this one, and they're important as sources. Air pockets, overheating, loss of water, damage to the engine, head gaskets, the radiator, thermostat and the water pump are all issues and you just have to sort it out quickly, even though this was just my first journey in this car. It could have been a disaster.

In the end though the engine temperatures were stable and I arrived safely at home. Even without a heater the air conditioning prevented the condensation on the windscreen. When I checked the car the next day I found the later coolant levels were fine and the system was holding pressure. I'll add some other comments later about the cooling system as I've a slight leak in the radiator spigot/bleeder line which was repaired earlier in the previous owner's ownership.

The ACT rego process accepted the car straight away and I've swapped the plates over. I've started cleaning the car, which will be a full-time job and try to find why the top of the bonnet was repainted, but the sides of it weren't, and the work was terrible. Beyond that, I'm enjoying the car, I've plenty of work to check it over and I may have a few other questions later once I've searched for the experience here first. Thanks all. Regards,

Gary.

p.s. I'll attach a picture later.

Welcome Gary, my 2000 was my DD for many years and is now driven twice weekly. Whilst like everyone it's had its issues its always got me home (even if it has been bumpy sometimes).......good luck and congrats.