Year: 2021

Reluctantly left our amazing digs this morning, said goodbye to Poppy and headed off to Orton on the Hill.

Zoe had bought her partner, James, a ‘voucher’ for his Christmas present to have the head gasket replaced and hydragas fill on his MGF back in November. We carried this out for them this morning. What an inspired gift!

A very interesting car, a Y reg Mk II VVC with circa 20k on clock, that had spent quite a few years living in Gibraltar. Battery was flat from being stood so long, but once fired up what a lovely smooth sounding engine it has. Really lovely to meet Zoe and James. Date booked in next year for some other work.

We then went over to Brownhills, Walsall to diagnose an electrical problem Paul’s Dad was experiencing with his very smart looking Rover 75. On code reading the body control module we found multiple errors. After clearing the errors the problem with the boot release has resolved. Other issues with the drivers side front and rear doors central locking motors was traced to be two faulty motors, the wiring checked out all ok.

We then went on to Luton to meet Collette. Her late husband Owen had a number of cars and had contacted us last year to come and do some work on one of them, but very sadly he passed away and we never got to meet him. Collette contacted us earlier this year to see if we could come over and look at an issue, when we had the chance, as she wants to keep his fleet going.

The TF 160 is to go to his son Chris. New door lock required, and after a chat the cambelt service is overdue, plus discs and pads and underfloor pipes.

Whilst we were there, their neighbour Terry popped over, as his TF 135 was having a bit of coolant loss. Pressure tested his cap and discussed the symptoms. Date to be arranged to get back to them both.

We’re now in erm…where are we?! 😆 somewhere near Oxford!

Well it was a long day, but spent with lovely people, and some sun thrown in again too ☀️

Posted today to the
Rough Luck Racing Facebook page.

Great to meet Rupert this morning, in Molesworth, for some work on his TF 135…

The car had been overheating, Rupert and his friend, Andy, thought it may have been the thermostat, so they replaced it, but found that there was no actual thermostat within the housing and at that point they gave up, so asked if we could come and have a look to see what was going on, as they also suspected the head gasket had failed.

All our usual checks carried out, to determine what was occurring.

Head gasket, cambelt, water pump, tensioner, thermostat and housing, alternator belt and underfloor coolant pipes all replaced.

Previous owner of the car had wired the radiator fan in permanently, to alleviate the over heating, further investigation needed, as the ECU temperature sensor that controls the fan normally does seem to be working, but not getting power to the rad fan by its own means.

Really great to get the car back up and running again. Lovely to chat to Rupert and see some of the other vehicles that they’re doing up.

Back to our fab digs in time for a walk in beautiful surroundings with a good bit of sunshine thrown in. Plus we even had the pleasure of a very lovely visitor 🐾 ☺️

Posted today to the
Rough Luck Racing Facebook page.

Well that was a bit of a longer day than thought, but all good…

We ventured to Sutton Coldfield for some work on a couple of Rob & Jane’s amazing fleet!

First up was ‘Holly’ their MGF mpi 120, on which the cambelt had slipped, so we went armed with a replacement head. On removal of the head only two of the valves had bent. Refurbed head fitted, new cambelt, water pump and tensioner. On firing the car up it wouldn’t start. Code reading told us it was crank position sensor out of sync. Sensor replaced, but although now syncing it still wouldn’t fire. Distributor cap and rotor arm replaced, main HT lead and the coil pack. Holly now up and sounding really good.

Next up was ‘Zip’ which was an early race car, which has been modified now to have a 160 VVC engine with mems 3. Cambelt service carried out. Zip didn’t want to start either, but was just down to flat battery.

Lovely to see Rob again and have a catch-up. Really good day, despite the length and slight frustrations.

Now at some, again, amazing digs, we managed to find last minute. Dinner is in the oven and now time me to do my admin.

Posted today to the
Rough Luck Racing Facebook page.