This page is made up of my own experiences and cullings from the Xpower forums
A couple of 260s have had an issue with
repeated bursting
radiators. The problem was diagnosed as the cooling fan which should
run at half speed
when the aircon is on and it apears that the cooling fan resistor
fails. Apparently these are notorious on the Rover 75's for failing and
a mod is
to double / upgrade the wattage to a 100 watt type. The resistor is the
aluminium component a little bigger than a AA size battery, between the
fan blades and the radiator with black wire either end of it).
So if you do get a burst ; before just replacing the rad find the cause
of it's premature
failure, check your fan is running at half speed with air con on
(assuming your A/C is fully operational!), then get someone to check
the
value of the resistor for you.
Or here's how to do it yourself:
1) First whip off the front bumper!
(Easier to write than do)
2) Then remove the screenwash water bottle
3) Remove the headlights, radiator, expansion
tank and radiator cowlings
4) Cut though cowling to remove the old resistor
5) You need to extend the cable a bit as you need to mount the new
resistor on the front crossmember to get a good flow of cooling
air. You can solder like in the picture or use a couple of bullet
connectors.
6) New 100 watt 0.3 ohm on left compared with weedy original
7) The old part is 16mm deep whereas the new is 24mm.
8) Solder the new resistor to you extension
cable, and lather it with heat transfer compound if you are really
worried about heat dissapation - careful it is mucky stuff an gets
everywhere!
9) Drill a couple of holes to the crossmember
and screw the resistor in place with a couple of self tapping screws.
Prpbably worth putting some primer in the holes to inhibit corrosion.
10) Drive up a big hill to test you new mod!
