James is still reeling from a recent big bill but knows that it could have been much worse
2003 ROVER 25
It never rains but it pours. There I was in the middle of spending a substantial number of hard-earned pennies on the Range Rover when a problem arose on my wife’s Rover 25.
I was having a leisurely breakfast when the phone rang. It was my wife saying that the Rover had broken down. The car had been very sluggish for a few yards and then failed to proceed altogether. She would have blocked the bridge into town at the busiest time of day if she hadn’t been rescued by some guys from her work who were passing by.
There hadn’t been anything wrong when I’d driven the Rover a couple of days earlier and though she’d complained that it had been a bit reluctant to pick up the day before the breakdown I’d driven it back and forth around our courtyard and the problem hadn’t recurred. Now it had, big time.
I went to the rescue and took her to work, confirming that there was no drive in any of the gears. It was pretty clear that something had failed in the CVT automatic gearbox. I arranged to have it recovered to a nearby garage, and their first assessment agreed with mine. Actually, it was worse.
They reckoned that the steel belt inside the gearbox had gone. Replacements are available but a snapped belt tends to shed debris and damage something else. They guessed at £2000 or more, assuming that they could get hold of all of the parts they needed and that the belt breakage had not damaged anything else. ‘Probably game over on a car of that age,’ they said.
Mrs T was quite upset. She loves that car and I also have a lot of respect for it. It�
