Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

I purchased a 1997 Rover 416 I a couple of days ago, I got it cheaper, because it had a few problems with it. The first thing I did was to buy a Haynes workshop manual for it, because most of the faults are electrical, and as I am an electronics engineer by trade, then I needed a wiring diagram for it. The next thing I did was look for an owners club, on the Internet, which is the reason why I am writing here. Apart from the electrical problems, I have a problem with the heater, not heating up. When I did a more detailed check on the car I found that the cable in the engine compartment located under the ECU, that comes from the centre heater switch, on the dashboard, was not connected to anything. I have looked in the manual and I can see no sign of what this cable is connected to, also I have looked in the engine compartment and again I can't see anywhere where the cable would clip onto, so I'm assuming that something is missing, but without a diagram or photograph I don't know what it is. Hence writing on this forum….. I wonder if anybody has a picture or an exploded diagram, that they can e-mail to me please, or if there is a web site that might show me the information I am looking for. Any help gratefully received!

see this thread number 25!!!!

http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.p ... ater+cable


is this the one?

donnyvfr wrote:see this thread number 25!!!!

http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.p ... ater+cable


is this the one?

Thanks for the info...much appreciated!
Well I had a look for the valve, & I can see now that it has been removed, and a copper pipe has been inserted in its place , effectively this means the heater is on hot all the time, but my problem is that the heater does not blow out hot air, even though the 2 heater pipes located in the engine compartment bulkhead,are both getting hot. Any ideas?

i had this problem on my old car......i replaced all sorts, including thermostat, water pump etc etc......but in the end it was the head gasket that had gone. i thought all along head gasket was ok and it was something elst but it wasn't. Before spending a bucket full of dosh get the head gasket checket out if thats ok i'd go for the thermostat but beware when i did mine one of the heads snapped off and i had to take the housing off and with that i found the pipe that it connects to with an 'o' ring that goes under inlet manifold to water pump had corroded. these are a pain to fit but not impossible.

i was lucky that i managed to drill the bolt out of the housing without damaging it.

but ask yourself why has someone taken that valve out???? never heard of those failing , if everything else checks out ok then i'd be at scrap yard getting a valve again as if we have a hot summer and the heater gets working again you are going to boil inside the car.....but check above first.

thinking more about this, someone has had the same problem thats why they took the valve out!!!!!

i suggest head gasket even more now!!!!

donnyvfr wrote:thinking more about this, someone has had the same problem thats why they took the valve out!!!!!

i suggest head gasket even more now!!!!

I just took it out for a drive of 3 miles & the heater was pumping out cold air, I parked up for 1 hour ....on the way home it suddenly started pumping out hot air & worked ok. I know nothing about this model, its my first one, but I dont see how the head gasket could cause the heater not to work all the time....am I missing something here that I dont understand?

do a search on the other forum i posted a link to......common problems with head gasket, could be getting air into water system, check that there is no water in oil and visa versa, check no mayo like substance on oil filler cap......i thought exactly same and tried to deny it, spent bucket loads and still found head gasket failure!!!

sold car, but for my sins bought a newer one!!!!

It could be an air lock in the system, or even a blocked heater matrix.

Both are worth investigating before condemning the headgasket.