Rover 25 worth £600 - fix to sell or send to the scrappers?

tonyb42

Hello,
I have a silver 2003 Rover 25 1.4 Impression with 72,000 miles on the clock

The MOT expired back in January and the car has a SORN as we barely use it

I am getting things going to sell the car on and people keep telling me "just scrap it", but I am loathe to do this when someone else could still use it as a cheap first car or backup family runner. Besides, I am a big supporter of all things in the MSE world so want something back!

When I first made an attempt to get it started after a few months out of action it had a flat battery after first thinking it was the engine immobiliser (and paying for the eka code and using the key turn sequence). Once that was charged, I got everything up and running, new battery in key fob and alarm reactivated ok.

However, a few days after getting the engine going and the central locking working properly, the alarm started tripping of its own accord, sometimes late at night (!). After a few more occasions it got progressively worse and my only choice for sanity was to leave the battery unplugged.

On the day I was booked in for an MOT I found, after reconnecting the battery, the alarm would not deactivate easily and the engine failed to engage. After countless efforts with the key fob and trying the eka code sequence with door key (and using the method to add an extra turn on the 2nd and 4th numbers) I was unable to start the car again and had to cancel the MOT.

I am now stuck with a car I can't move and I suspect the alarm system might be at fault, does anyone have any suggestions or should I call in the scrap merchants? Happy to accept any early offers on the car (based in Harlow) for anyone willing to help get it going which normally would fetch £500-700 on autotrader

Thanks!

jaydeeuk1

Try ebay, might get you a little more than scrap. Just list it honestly as a non runner.

arcon5

I suspect the battery knackered causing electrical problems with the alarm. A good looong charge or new battery may well solve this!

eBay it 'spares/repairs', you'd probably get a couple hundred quid for it.

molerat

From experience these Rovers do strange alarm / immobiliser / central locking things with a poorly charged battery

atrixblue.-MFR-.

A poor charge in the battery plays havoc with the immobilizer and central locking on the rover, get a new battery.


try here http://forums.mg-rover.org/forumdisplay.php?f=101 if this doesn't cure it the problem after a battery change.

stator

If you want rid of it sell it on eBay to be towed away. Someone will be willing to fix it up.

colino

Just one of the peculiarities of a Rover. Borrow a known good car battery, hook it all up and then do the frenetic dance between the fob buttons to get it to re-synchronise. That usually works instead of the drivers lock coding.

tonyb42

Thanks for the comments, I have to admit I have tried to get the battery out in the past but struggled to undo a bracket that appears to need access underneath the car. The battery charged fine with the internal cables detached, but my mistake may have been to use a mobile tyre pump off the fully charged battery - since then I have encountered the intermittent alarm problems. I hooked up the battery charger after this and the indicator read it as fully charged, so I guess all along the battery was suspect.
Needless to say the battery does not look the newest and was fitted as a "replacement" by KwikFit a year or so ago.....(if I knew then what I know now about some of the "trusted" car repair chains!)

I'll look into putting up an ad stating it probably needs a new battery to get going again and MOT etc

arcon5

A car sat not running will quickly see the battery turn bad.
A bad battery will also soon eat through the full charge you've just given it. If that is, the full charge actually gave it just that