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Day 2 of 6 – South Coast & some other places too…

Southampton this morning and only a few miles along the road from our digs. Really lovely, as always, to see Mark on our annual visit to him for work on his very well kept 2001 MGF 1.8 mpi (paint code CDX).

Minor service carried out along with hydragas pump up. Good to have a catch-up with Mark before heading on our way. Big thanks to him for all the bakery items, that will keep Jon quiet this evening.

Fishbourne, Chichester was our next location this afternoon. Geoff had got in touch with us as his 2001 MGF 1.8 mpi (paint code LQW) had over heated when having the MOT test done in the summer, and was losing its coolant, the tester suspected that the head gasket had gone. Having then carried out our head gasket calculator it seemed likely that this was indeed the case.

On removing the head this afternoon, we noted that it had been fitted with an MLS gasket, but that the saver-shim was missing, this has the heat-activated bonding agent on it, and without that is pretty much rendered useless.

It was quite some time since the last cambelt service was done so this was also carried out today. Plus a new alternator belt and expansion tank cap, and the car is almost back to rights.

Geoff had been planning on replacing the radiator and now needs an exhaust flexi as he suspected this was on its way out too, sure enough on firing the car up that was the case.

On one of our checks after replacing the head gasket is to check and see if there are any error codes that need clearing. One of these this time was for the radiator-fan control, the fuse had blown in the forward fuse box, so this was replaced, and then we disconnected the ECU temperature sensor, this should automatically put the fan on at the front, however it just blew another fuse. After checking the relay was ok, and unplugging the radiator-fan itself, then running the test again the fuse was fine. So it’s the radiator fan that’s at fault, so Geoff will replace this too when he replaces the radiator.

Once that’s all done he can continue to enjoy using the car on the track and have some fun again.

Great to meet Geoff and have a chat, thanks to him for the cuppas and biscuits. Oh and not forgetting fusses with his lovely woofers when we first arrived.

We’re now tucked up in some very nice digs for the night, got a bit of bargain here and forgotten that I’d booked it, so a nice surprise as we came down the drive this evening. – https://ift.tt/EafpV7w