Month: November 2023

Day 4 of 4 – Wednesday – Wigston.

A very chilly one today in Wigston, near Leicester for the head gasket replacement on Paul’s MGF VVC (in paint code CMU).

We had called by a few weeks ago to carry out the minor service and check out a coolant loss, which was found to be the head gasket. So a date arranged to return this morning.

A warm welcome awaited and his mum had been baking, plus a constant flow of cuppas from Paul to keep us warm. All gaskets replaced along with a new alternator belt as his had been squeaking a bit on start up.

I enjoyed an early morning dawn walk round a very frosty Burghley Park and Stafford, before leaving our lovely digs, with a very picturesque run across to Wigston.

Back home now, after a very successful few days away on some really fab MGs. Thanks to everyone for their warm welcomes and hospitality. – https://ift.tt/aTJRoHZ

Day 3 of 4 – Tuesday – Girton & Bourne.

A short commute to our first call this morning, from our digs, along to Girton, just outside of Cambridge.

Great to meet John who had taken ownership of a ‘96 Mk 1 MGF VVC (in paint code NAL) in August of this year. He got in touch last month to see when we would be in the area as he was needing a couple of things sorting on the car, which for now included replacing the underfloor coolant pipes, repairing the boot light and assessing the dodgy fog light. Having owned MGBs in past this was his first MGF so had a few questions about it, a date to be arranged for some further work.

An interesting morning chatting to John and some very welcome hospitality, we bid our farewells and continued on our way along to Bourne.

The next call was on a ‘02 TF 135 ‘Sprint’ (in paint code JFV) that Peter had owned for a number of years, having previously been owned by his son. The car was originally meant to be just a showroom car and never registered, but the owner of the MG dealerships wife liked it so much it was registered as a demonstration model.

We replaced the exhaust manifold with a new one as the existing one had a bit of a hole in it! (Forgot to take pic). Peter also wanted us to code read the car as he had been experiencing intermittent misfire issues with it. We found the fault to be down to the Lambda sensor. It had been replaced about a year ago with a cheaper alternative, hence why he was still having a problem. So we replaced this with a MG Rover one. All error codes cleared and car now running nice and smooth and a lot quieter for him!

Great to meet Peter and have a chat, who also makes a cracking brew! Thanks to him for the bottle of Rose too from his and his wife’s travels to the south of France. Hope he gets his wish and takes the car down there next year.

We’re now in our last digs of this trip, in Stamford, which is a cracking little self-catering house. A little chilly on the digits today, but a relief to have a dry day and some sun. – https://ift.tt/c6JymW8

Day 2 of 4 – Monday – Milton Keynes & Baldock.

A departure from our fantastic digs in Leicester this morning and headed over to Milton Keynes to see what was occurring with James’s ‘97 MGF 1.8 mpi (in paint code COF).

We went armed with all the usual clutch paraphernalia to cover all bases, James had already fitted a new slave and master cylinder, but was still having problems as the clutch release-arm was still really stiff and it hadn’t been bled correctly. Arm duly freed off and system bled, resulting in a nice smooth clutch once again.

We didn’t get to meet James, unfortunately, as he was at work. Weather a bit on the grim side, but pleased to have him all sorted and we then continued on our way to Baldock for the next call.

Kathryn had recently experienced a problem, also, with the clutch on her ‘02 TF 135, she and Daniel had replaced the slave cylinder, bled the system, but the clutch was still disengaging.

On inspection this afternoon we found that the clutch release-arm was slightly sticking, everything ok with the slave and master cylinders, so we disconnected the slave from the release-arm and manually disengaged the clutch, this did allow the car to have a small amount of drive, but it was obviously either the drive plate or the pressure plate that has become faulty.

Fortunately, for Kathryn, we have just recently had a cancellation, due to, sadly, the car that was booked in with us had the utter misfortune of the cambelt snapping, not good at all and our sympathies are with the owner of course! As she has her own trailer and that it’s her daily drive, she will bring it up to us at the workshop to have the clutch replaced next week.

Now in our next digs of the trip, in Quy, on the outskirts of Cambridge. With a shorter than expected day I managed to fit in a walk along to Anglesey Abbey Gardens, a bit too late to visit the place properly, but the scenery was beautiful, despite the grotty wet weather to match my grotty cold.

Admin time, Star Trek on and tea ordered. Not many miles along the road for our first call in the morning… – https://ift.tt/c6JymW8

Day 1 of 4 – Sunday – Leicester

The first of our trip to the region and we finally got over to meet Mandy and her ‘01 MGF 1.8 ‘Sunshine’ (in paint code GUF).

Initially booked in for minor service and a check over the job grew a little so with a slight reshuffle of the diary we added in an extra day today.

Head gasket replaced, along with alternator belt, spark plugs, all filters and a set of new HT leads as they were past their best. We took along with us a new battery, as Mandy had said that the one on it was flat, even though it looked reasonably new it couldn’t hold any amps, this also caused the ECU to log several faults consistently and the mileage clocks display light to pulse, so new one duly fitted which resolved this.

Great to have this car back up and running again for Mandy. Really lovely to meet her, who gave us a very warm welcome on a bit of a chilly day, along with a continuous supply of warming welcome cuppas too, even more so as it’s my turn to have a grotty cold.

It was also lovely to meet her beautiful woofer, Ollie, who is a rescue dog from Greece, who had experienced a truly appalling life there in his younger years. Well he’s certainly had a happy life here with Mandy, what a great chap he is. What a nice surprise too when we left, she sent us off with a book she’d written about him.

We had a few days off last week, we were supposed to go away on holiday, but that didn’t happen, a familiar story, but needs must. So a trip over to Pocklington where we fitted in Bec, last Thursday, whose Rover 25 had succumbed to the proverbial only a few weeks after taking ownership of the car. All sorted for her and she’s good to go again. Thanks to her for the cuppas and cream cakes.

We’re now in some really fab digs in Leicester right next to the Cathedral, and not far from where Richard III remains were found.

Grand Prix on now, take-away ordered and cold remedies on tap. Hope everyone has had a great weekend. – https://ift.tt/z1tMACJ

Cadwell Park – North Humberside Motor Club Stage Rally & Fireworks 2023.

What a fantastic day, as always, spectating these awesome drivers in some totally fab rally cars. Took a few pics from the Paddock area during a break in proceedings.

We should have been on the track ourselves yesterday for a blast, but we didn’t get chance to prep a car and were a bit pooped anyway. Really great to have the weekend off though and have some fun today.

Definitely worth a visit to this event if you get chance next year. 💥 – https://ift.tt/rDXEtZ6

A productive week with a mix of workshop and on the road…

Neil came over from Conisbrough on Monday morning to leave his ‘03 TF 135 (in paint code LQW) with us for investigation of a coolant loss. So we got cracking with that to carry out all of our usual checks. The internal heater pipes were found to be pretty rusty, so we advised Neil that it would be best practice to replace these as they were never going to get any better. The head gasket had gone, on removing the head, found that an MLS gasket had been previously fitted, but the saver-shim had been left off for some strange reason. The cambelt service was also due so this was carried out too.

Tuesday morning found us in Silverstone, for the first call of the day, where it was good to meet Iain for head gasket replacement and cambelt service on his ‘02 TF 135 (paint code LQW). On removing the head found that the dreaded k-seal had been added prior to his ownership, which had blocked the coolant channels! Pleased to say is now all sorted for Iain. We were fortunate, too, that he had space in the garage to work in as it was a tad on the soggy side.

From there we headed over to Swanbourne, near Milton Keynes where it was lovely to meet Sue and her ‘03 TF 135 (paint code HFN). Sue had developed a problem with the clutch and as we suspected it was the slave-cylinder that had gone, we went armed with flexi-hose, clutch lines and a master, but, fortunately for Sue, that’s all it was. The clutch release-arm was nicely free too so she’s all back up and running again with her pride and joy.

A stop over in some really nice digs just outside of Milton Keynes and we headed off to Turves to see Matt’s ‘04 TF 115 (paint code JFV) again for the annual service in the morning. He’d mentioned that the windows were being really slow, so these were sorted out for him.

For the second call we should have been heading over to see Mandy near Leicester, what was for initially a minor service and a check over and a couple of other bits, but things had changed a bit, as she had reported that the head gasket had, in fact, gone since booking. This would have been fine, but unfortunately due to change of address last minute on the first call and given the lack of daylight at this time of year it wouldn’t have been feasible, so no bother arrangements made to go over to see Mandy when we’re back in the area on our next trip, so we’ve added in an extra day next Sunday to get her MG all sorted.

This morning, found us over in Barnsley to sort a problem on Anthony’s ‘02 TF 160. The bottom alternator bolt that goes into the block had had the threads stripped at some point. So a bit of time spent duly drilling this out, retapping and heli-coiling it, then a new bolt and spacer fitted and now all sorted for him. Thanks to Anthony for the cuppas.

From there we went back over to the workshop to fit the new set of stainless steel internal-heater pipes on Neil’s TF, all the interior of the car put back together again and pleased to say is now ready for collection, which rounded off a busy week nicely.

We should have been heading over to Cadwell Park for our annual thrash round the track, but we’ve not had the time to get one of the cars prepped unfortunately, a shame, but we’re a bit shattered anyway. At least we can still go and spectate the Stage B rally on Sunday, which is always a fab day. Have a great weekend everyone. – https://ift.tt/2P3cu8L

Nemo!

Lee’s ‘04 TF 135 (in paint code LEF) hadn’t turned a wheel in 3 years and he felt it was time to get it back on the road again, so we duly collected the car from Wellingborough and brought it back to the workshop for a few things…

Full cambelt service carried out, clutch replacement, along with a new ‘Mike Satur’ clutch release-arm, a new slave cylinder and gear box oil change. A soft-ride kit fitted. One of the ‘Mike Satur’ slick-shifts fitted. Brake fluid change, along with new discs and pads all round. A remote battery-isolater fob fitted and then finally an MoT carried out on site.

With Lee not being in any rush to have the car back we fitted the work in around other work we had in, which was a pleasure to work on and we’re now really happy to have the car all ready, and look forward to seeing him and Sue when they come up to collect in a few weeks time.

We’re also looking forward to the next ‘Friends Round London’ in February next year, where Nemo will be, once again, leading the way on this fantastic event.

We should add that all details are available on the dedicated Facebook page and the recent addition of the website for Friends Round London. – https://ift.tt/9CXGFyd

Rear Subframe Replacement – Stepspeed.

Chris & Sam had driven down from Acharacle, Scotland on Sunday ahead of bringing their ‘03 Stepspeed (paint code LEF) to the workshop on Monday morning. It was lovely to see them both again, we last saw them when we were up there in April of this year for work on a couple of others of Chris’s fleet. Chris had already replaced the front subframe and asked if we could replace the rear one for him.

With having a postponement on another booking we got cracking, with everything coming apart nicely, the engine all ancillaries transferred into the replacement galvanized subframe we had ready for him, with thanks again to Will Naylor for his service in providing them.

Stainless steel subframe mounts fitted. Cambelt service also carried out, plus fitting of a low coolant alarm that Chris had had for a while and hadn’t had chance to fit, with a top up of CVT fluid we’re pleased to say that their fab MG is all good to go.

Chris and Sam have been enjoying a few days in the area and plan to collect the car on Friday morning, ready to make their long journey back home. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 – https://ift.tt/fcU8pa3