Day 4 of 4 – Last Trip Away of the Year – Wereham…
This ‘03 TF 135 in paint code MBB, was initially booked in for a clutch replacement, as the symptoms that the owner, Mark, was experiencing and had read about had lead him to think that the clutch itself was on its way out.
Mark has done an absolute ton of work on the car in the 18 months he’s owned it, including replacing the clutch-slave and clutch-master cylinders. But, with only 47k on the clock we set about making some checks.
Following a test drive it was felt that they may be a build up of crud inside the bell-housing, after running the engine and flushing brake and clutch cleaner into it we noticed after a while the fluid coming out of the bell-housing turned from black to clear, indicating that there was no further crud left in there.
On ECU code reading it detected a misfire, and on inspection of the coil packs found that they had been subjected to heat damage, so these were swapped out, along with a new set of spark plugs, a couple of which were showing signs of age and corrosion. This misfire would account for the intermittent juddering that Mark had been experiencing on driving the car rather than the clutch itself.
A process of elimination has ruled this out, resulting in a very nice smooth engine.
It was great to meet Mark and have a chat and a brew, he’s got himself a very sound car after all his hard work, so we’re pleased to have got this issue sorted out for him, plus it was slightly less costly than the alternative for him, which is a bonus.
We left in good time for the drive home, and even had time to call into Rimmer Bros for some parts on our way past. An interesting and enjoyable last trip away, with some really great people and their fab MGs, with thanks to everyone for their hospitality. – https://ift.tt/Sb0avmM
