Month: October 2024

Workshop days…

Dave tailored over his ‘05 TF 135 (paint code LEF), from Poulton-le-Fylde on Wednesday to leave it with us for full underfloor treatment to be carried out.

We set about doing this yesterday morning, a really nice one to do, we’d last seen this car a year ago at his home for the cambelt service. All finished off today and ready for collection.

Work continues on the list of things on ‘Princess’. Making the most of the sunny weather the seats and carpets were all removed and left out to dry. The cars interior will be then be dry enough for fitting of the replacements, that Leona and Laura have sourced.

We had a visit from Ian this morning who came over from Gilberdyke in his ‘05 TF 135 (paint code MBB) for investigation of a coolant loss from one of the hoses noticed by the tester at the last MOT. Leak traced and sorted for now, but he really needs to replace the underfloor coolant-pipes, Ian and his pal, Stuart, will set to with this task at some point.

Rich came back over to us today in his ‘03 TF 135, as he’d noticed an intermittent problem, that was occurring shortly after first starting the car in a morning. As we suspected, it was down to the Lambda sensor being faulty. So we replaced with new, and on code reading, all error codes had cleared. Good to see Rich again and at least he had good weather for a top down drive both ways.

Nice to see Dave this afternoon when he came over to collect his TF.

Have a great weekend everyone, hope this decent weather stays with us. Apparently there’s another Aurora to be seen this evening, not as good as last nights though, but saying that we didn’t see it anyway as we were fast asleep. – https://ift.tt/PNY7Gy6

A couple of days since my last blog, hope everyone had a great weekend where ever you may have been…

Friday morning found us over in Goulceby for work on Francene’s MGF, she’d noticed the clutch pedal wasn’t returning, so we said we’d pop over when we had a gap in the diary, we squeezed her in as thought it was probably due to the slave-cylinder, sure enough, the seals had blown and grotty old black fluid was in there, slave-cylinder replaced and system bled through, resulting in a nice pedal once more, so we were soon on our way. Didn’t see Francene, this time, as she was at work.

Back over to the workshop, where we had also squeezed in Rich, for head gasket replacement on his TF 135. He’d noticed a few tell-tale signs, and having a trip booked in it to attend the Remembrance Day at Flanders, next month, didn’t want to take the risk of driving it there like that, quite rightly so. All sorted for him, while he waited, and he was soon on his way, once we’d sorted a niggle with the manifold air-intake temperature sensor that is.

It was good to see Will and his lovely partner Jayne, the day before, when they ventured over from Stockport, to pick up a load of bits, that he was in need of, to go for galvanizing. Plus, they very kindly dropped off all of our spheres to get refurbed, on their way back. Thanks Will, saves us a trip!

Monday morning found us back up near Durham again, and a lot less soggy than last Monday! This time we were in Quebec, where it was lovely to see Frank and Linda again and their gorgeous woofers, Cher and Cocoa, Cocoa was only a small pup on our last visit and has grown into a very handsome chap. Their TF 135 had a couple of advisories noted on the last MOT, so we replaced both front wishbones and all of the brake flexi-hoses with new. Thanks to them for a cracking brew and offers of lunch.

This morning we were supposed to be back in Durham, but we weren’t needed, so we pulled the second call forward a bit. This found us in a lovely village called Aislaby, just outside of Whitby, this morning, fortunately they had a barn for us to work in as it was once more inclement.

Great to meet Dave, who’d noticed a slight coolant loss in his 2001 MGF 1.8 mpi (paint code CMU). On our inspection found one of the clips on the underfloor coolant pipes was leaking. Hopefully this will be all it was. On code reading, however, we pulled up error code P0655 – hot lamp output, P1316 – causing increased emissions and P0170 – fuel trim bank 1. So we set about swapping out the Lambda sensor. Yep it put up a bit of a struggle, but Jon persisted with heat, grinder and patience. New Lambda fitted and error codes didn’t return.

We also noticed where a mouse had been in and decided to have a chew, one of which was one of the breather hoses, that’s a new one on us, new piece of hose duly fitted and other bits taped up. Thanks to Dave for a cracking brew, and good to have a chat with his neighbours who had spotted the van on their way past while walking their beautiful woofer.

Having a little bit of an earlier finish, we called in to Matthewsons on our way back home. We passed through Thornton-Le-Dale on the way up, but it was tipping it down. We also went along to the auction site a couple of miles along from there, which was pretty impressive, plus they do have a good collection of Fs and TFs coming up for auction. It was good to have a chat with a couple of the lovely chaps there.

A load of nostalgia for us both and decided we had better not attend the actual auction, at the weekend, or we could find ourselves in a sticky situation! – https://ift.tt/hqIm6tU

Workshop day yesterday, Stuart came over from Scunthorpe in his 2003 TF 135 in x-power grey, to leave it with us for a couple of things.

The nearside sill needed a bit of welding, the car will now go along to our paint shop neighbours on the site to have this colour-matched next week. It should have gone over straight away, but sadly someone backed into his, usually pristine, car and dented the back end and cracked the rear bumper, in a car park, and, yes, the car was parked well away from other cars and, no, the owner in question didn’t leave any of their details. How very frustrating. He’s managed though to source a bumper from a chap on our site as he was walking around this morning, fortunately, how lucky was that!

The car was also showing error code P0420, so we swapped out the (useless) CAT for a homologated one. We had fitting of the new back box on the list, a Daytona, but he’d already done that. So car all good to go and no error codes showing.

Good to see Stuart again and have a chat before he headed home.

I had my head deep in the books all morning, putting the final touches to one of our upcoming trips, in a couple of weeks, to the south west of the country, with a couple of calls on the way. We’d been recommended by a friend to someone down in Ilford who was requiring a minor service and a pre MOT check up, and the owner of the car asked if we could come in November when the MOT and service was due, against my better judgment, given time of year, I agreed to go, said person then asked if we could find someone else nearby so that the travel costs could be shared. So yep no problem in doing that, and a trip was soon put together, thereby a few others benefiting from the reduced travel costs and the added trip in the diary. Confirmation all sent out to all concerned on the trip, all fine except one chap, who had scrapped the car and didn’t need our help anymore, hmm nice to be informed. 🙄 But then! Said person in Ilford asks which MOT station we wanted to book the car into, and they would make the call, erm sorry, but that wasn’t the arrangement, so I explained that we don’t take cars for MOTs when at distance, apart from anything else we’re not insured. So they immediately responded in a rather abrupt manner by canceling the whole booking! Taken aback? Yes, we certainly were. Not only that, it mucks up the entire trip, where the costs and logistics are concerned. So yesterday evening was spent rearranging the hotels and contacting the other people. I know we should have asked for a deposit, but when it’s come from a ‘friend’ you automatically assume that it’s all going to be fine. One should never assume! So it’s going to be a shorter trip than anticipated, three nights away instead of five. Given the time of year maybe that will be a bonus.

On to a brighter note, we collected ‘Princess’ this morning! Mum and daughter, Leona and Laura are wanting to venture on to the NC500 next year and would like to do it in their 2001 MGF 1.8 (original paint code LQW), but as a lot of people will know that Princess is sparkly pink! Not only doing that trip they just wanted her recommissioned so they can get out and about with their MG friends again, on runs and days out.

So we went along to Broomfleet to pick her up from Laura’s house and then took her back to the workshop for a good wash and brush up, initially, before putting her up on the lift to see what needs doing. We’re very much looking forward to getting her all sorted for them to enjoy once more as she should be. Good to see them both again, and as a bonus the sun was out, as she did take a little bit of persuasion to move from her spot. – https://ift.tt/P5nUVuj

SNAP!

Our first call of the day was over in Horsforth for work on Gerald’s year 2000 MGF 1.8 in Wedgewood (paint code JBH). Another soggy day, we managed to squeeze into the end of the garage for some shelter.

Cambelt, water pump, tensioner and alternator belt all replaced. Both front arm pin-bushes greased up, and the track-rod-end on the nearside front replaced, as he had been told by the local garage at the time of the MOT that there was some play on both sides. Still a little bit of play on nearside, we have advised that he should have the steering control-arm replaced at his local garage, where they can carry out four-wheel computer alignment.

Good to see Gerald as always, who does make a proper brew!

From there we headed over to just west of Leeds to check out a slight coolant loss on Jack’s year 2000 MGF 1.8 in Wedgewood. From his description, we thought it could be the heater control valve that was weeping, (thanks to Mr B and Elf for supplying), but on investigation we think it could be either be the heater matrix, or the internal heater pipes that are the causing the problem. Either way it’s a workshop job, so Jack will bring the car over to us at some point for us to sort, although he says he’s not in a hurry as has lived with it for long enough now.

It was good to see Jack again, thanks to him for the homemade biscuits and the brew. The hydragas was topped up, as the car was sitting quite low and was struggling with all the speed-bumps, then we were on our way back home. ☔️ – https://ift.tt/CSk90ds