Year: 2025

Biggleswade, Letchworth, Royston.

A couple of head-scratchers that needed to resolved…

Up bright and early to head to Biggleswade, yesterday morning, to see Barry’s TF 135 that had previously been investigated elsewhere for a possible fuel pump issue. (Please see blog dated 13 November for our previous investigations). We took back with us another fuel pump (thanks to Mr Bell for supplying) and fitted this, still no joy, so investigations continued. A little strange as last time all power and grounds were found to be good, however, when testing them again, this time, there was a lack of ground to power the relay. All wiring therefore stripped back to try and find a break, traced the ground wire back to the ECU, where it was found to be a poor connection to the ECU, rather than a break in the wire.

Once this was sorted the car fired into life, barring the fact that it now had a flat battery. We checked the alternator that it was supplying the correct output and that was all good. All wiring taped up and put back as it should be.

Really great to have all this sorted for Barry, finally, he can look forward to getting out in it again.

It would have been bit of a schlep to go back home, plus we didn’t know how long everything would take, so we stayed over in Letchworth for the night, which is an interesting place.

From our digs, we headed back over to Royston this morning to see Jonathan’s MGF that we’d also seen on our November trip. Whilst the car had been sat on the drive it appeared to be running fine, following everything we carried out, only for Jonathan to get back in touch to say the problem had recurred.

We took along with us today a new map sensor and fitted this, after a test drive it was still playing up, but without cutting out as often this time. Just to make sure there were no air leaks we replaced the inlet manifold gasket. On further diagnosis it could now only be down to the wiring, or down to the ECU. The wiring connectors were all sprayed and cleaned, Jonathan had a spare ECU that the previous mechanic couldn’t code to the car, we managed to code this to the car, which instantly eradicated the fluctuating tic-over. On a further test drive car found to be running smoothly with no stalling or fluctuations, result!

So all in all a successful couple of mornings, just a shame that we couldn’t fit either of them in initially, but so glad to have resolved these rather protracted issues for the owners.

Here we are, it’s the weekend again, thermals at the ready! Have a good one everyone near and far. 🥶 – https://ift.tt/kBEoUXr

TF 135 2003 59k on the clock in paint code JFV Trophy Blue.

Peter dropped his car off with us at the weekend and we got cracking with it on Monday morning…

Full cambelt service carried out along with alternator belt. Full underfloor treatment carried out, with rust cure and removal of the wheel arch liners to remove the inevitable build up of crud.

The EML had been on for the last few years, and Peter had taken it to another garage to have it sorted, only for the light came back on the day after, this was due to it having been fitted with an inferior Lambda sensor, unfortunately it doesn’t pay to go with the cheap versions, they are false economy, as they just don’t last. It’s best to stick to either a Bosch or Delphi one, new sensor fitted along with a new flexi-exhaust section, and pleased to see that the light has indeed stayed off.

There had been a few advisories on the last MOT (one of which was the underseal) such as wheel bearing, service brake fluctuating and brake lines.

No need to replace the wheel bearing as the problem was due to the top-arm pin-bushes needing packing out with grease, both sides done for good measure. These often get overlooked, it’s good practice to grease them up.

The brake lines were just covered in over-spray from a previous undersealing job and the fluctuating brake issue was down to the pads not sitting correctly, these were rectified and the calipers cleaned and freed up.

A full health check carried out and then sent round for the MOT this afternoon.

Great to meet Peter and his brother Fred, plus Paris, his very cute poodle, who drove over from Worsley this afternoon to collect. The car was previously owned by Fred for 10 years before Peter took ownership of it a couple of years ago. Lovely to have a chat a cuppa with them before they headed back home, unfortunately the fog had descended on what had been a lovely sunny morning. Safe travels to them all.

Van packed up with the essential parts in preparation for our visits away over the next couple of days. – https://ift.tt/p3yMiaT

⭐️ Happy New Year 2025 ⭐️

Here we are and already a week into 2025 and it seems ages since my last blog. Hope everyone has had a joyful festive season. We’ve not exactly been resting on our laurels, in between fitting a kitchen we did manage to have a couple of days off seeing family, which is always lovely to have the time to spend together.

We collected Rachael’s ‘04 TF 160 (paint code CBT) ‘Katy’ the day before Christmas Eve from Felling, in the north east, to bring back to the workshop for investigation of an idling issue.

Following an extensive investigation; it was found to be a combination of a badly adjusted throttle body, a sticky idle-air control valve and after sorting those two, it also required an air-pressure sensor. Bit of a head scratcher, as obviously several components contributed to the final problem. MOT carried out and ready to return tomorrow, we look forward to seeing Rachael for a cuppa.

Richard had left his ‘03 TF 160 with us, so we could look at the issue with his gears during the week too. It turned out that the gear cable itself didn’t need replacing, as we thought, as there was found to be a lot of play in the rear linkage. This was repaired and a gearbox oil change carried out, resulting in nice smooth gears once again, and pleased to hear from Richard that his drive back home to Sheffield felt a lot more positive.

Pat had brought his ‘82 MGF Steptronic (paint code GUF) over to us from Wakefield. The work carried out included; replacing the head gasket, cambelt service, thermostat replacement, alternator belt and hydragas pump up. We look forward to seeing him again when he comes to collect.

Plans are also in place to work on some of our many doer uppers/projects and will hopefully get a few of them completed finally in between other work. Bit of a challenge in the ice today moving some of them off the hard-core, in readiness for concrete to be put down, creating more parking space, which is great. Nice that they all fired up. – https://ift.tt/sSaz1XA