Rover 100 cuts out in the rain...any ideas??

[diane1]

hi, my sons little rover 100, knightsbridge, p reg keeps cutting out when it rains..which is a bit unfortunate with the weather as it is!
hes changed the spark plugs for new ones, but problem still occuring.
has anyone got any ideas what the problem is and how to fix it????

regards, diane

 

[breezer]

dont drive in the rain

but seriously, can you be more specific?

does it happen when it rains or when has been raining does he drive through big puddles, how long before it will start again

 

[diane1]

hi, he says, all of the above!

diane

 

[doyle]

sounds like rain the fault, best option is to stop our native freinds dancing round camp fires at night

try changing the ht leads water is getting on the ignition system when water is thrown up in transit, damp air/condensation also cause bad ignition on damaged or worn out ht leads ect.

 

[diane1]

thanks for that, will whisper the advice when he crawls out of bed......late night, i suppose u are only 18 once!!
cheers!
diane

 

[JohnD]

it will help to clean the dirt around the ignition parts and cables (this holds damp) and spray with a water-repellent.

WD40 on a rag is quite good for cleaning off oily dirt.

It would also be useful to look under the bonnet to see if it is possible to put a defector between the radiator grille and the ignition parts to keep water spray out (when the original mini came out it had this problem, as there is no radiator in front of the engine, so later ones had a metal plate in front of the engine to deflect the spray.

If the ignition cables, and particularly the distributer cap, are old, cracked or loose, they will enable water to get in.

if he doesn't know the ignition parts on his car, buy him a Haynes manual on Ebay.

p.s. it will not be the spark plugs

 

[TicklyT]

Too much water repellant/WD40 can cause problems too. An old Vauxhall (Viva HA ) I used to drive at work refused to start without a squirt of it on the dizzy cap in the morning.
I eventually got round to removing the cap, scraped about 1/8" of crud off everything inside and outside the cap and cleaned it up with a dry rag..... No more starting problems.
You may find 'track lines' from the HT terminals where they have been shorting. If they don't clean off, they may encorage more shorting when damp. a new cap would then be the answer

 

[diane1]

thanks guys for all advice, he's done a lot of the things you all suggested and one of them must have worked because......touch wood...since sunday it hasnt cut out.

so cheers for that!

diane

ps, already had haynes manual!