Day: 30 July 2022

Our last day on our trip south, we left our digs in Seale, near Farnham and headed a few miles along the road for our first call of the day…

Robert had got in touch just after our last visit to the area and asked if we could come and see him on our next trip to the area. His very lovely MGF 1.8 mpi that he’d owned for the past 18 years was needing a couple of things doing.

The underfloor coolant pipes had certainly done their time, so we replaced these. The hydragas needed filling up and he was doubtful about the radiator, whether that would need replacement, so went armed with a new one, but the one he has is still in good condition.

A visit booked in for next year to replace the engine bay coolant pipes with stainless and a service. It was a pleasure to meet Robert and we look forward to seeing him again next year, plus he makes a very good brew!

From there we headed up to Lower Earley near Reading for a minor service and a check over of David’s MGF VVC, that he had bought during lockdown, what a very nice example, it has obviously been well cared for and serviced regularly in its previous ownership.

Great to meet David and have a chat about a few things that were on his mind about the car, we reassured him that he’s got himself a very good example. Another cracking brew and cake and we bid our farewells.

So from there we should have been heading home, but the continuing diagnosis of ‘Big Ears’ was required, plus having the benefit of an early finish we headed back over to Worcester Park, rather than stay another night.

Following on from Mark’s test drive as detailed in yesterdays blog, and taking in the description of symptoms Mark said that the car had a markedly improved performance on power, but after a long spell when stationary in traffic it would overheat. Diagnostics therefore plugged in today and ran the car back to to temperature once more. The readings we got from the ECU were all correct. However, as the car approached 100 degrees on the coolant temperature, the gauge inside the car would shoot towards the top. On the previous day we had already replaced the sensor, but to make sure we replaced it again. When the same result occurred we took apart the engine wiring loom to try and find a break or possible earthing point in the loom.

We piggy backed a wire on the existing one just to make sure there was continuity and we also metered the existing wire and found that there were no breaks in it.

The strange thing is if we just plugged another sensor into it and rested it against the engine it all behaves as normal. The only strange thing was if we metered the cars wiring loom we were getting continuity to earth. So the next port of call to test, is a new temperature gauge itself. When this has been fitted we can test the continuity of the wire from the front to the back of the car.

Good job we like a challenge now and then! On the plus side, the engine itself is running extremely sweetly.

Bit of a late finish, but that’s just how it goes. On the M1 now and about 100 miles to go. Looking forward to seeing the cat. – https://ift.tt/WDqn0ae