Author: Facebook Posts

Workshop days…

Rich came over from York on Sunday (aka Pendas Lad) and left his ‘03 TF 135 in paint code HFF with us for underfloor treatment. So we got cracking with that on Tuesday morning (yesterday), not in bad shape at all underneath, but always a good and timely bit of maintenance to have carried out.

The underfloor coolant pipes were looking a tad ropey, so on checking with Rich we replaced these. He’d also noticed a strange rattle coming from the rear of the car, this, we discovered, was due to the fact the bolt that holds the alternator in was missing, new bolt duly fitted and rattle silenced.

He’d also noticed that the EML was flickering on the way over, on code reading it was code 1316 – misfire causing emissions, however no reason was found for it and once it was cleared it stayed off.

Car all sorted ready for collection on Friday.

Fiona had got in touch regarding her son Joe’s ‘05 TF 135, as the engine management light was coming on, as they were fairly local in Pocklington they popped over for us to investigate. Found to be the Lambda sensor that was faulty, so new one fitted and problem sorted. Lovely to meet them both and have a chat.

Great to see Chris again, who was working in the area, his TF 115 was still suffering from a squealing alternator belt, so some belt dressing was applied, which will hopefully solve this annoying problem for him! Nice to have a chat and a cuppa with him anyway, before he headed back over to Wirral, plus he came armed with a couple of boxes of biscuits. Thanks Chris!

Tom from Skipton was booked in for alternator belt fit, but he’s postponed for now.

Phil was supposed to be coming over from Knottingley in his ‘05
TF (that we’d last seen 2 years ago) for pre-MoT check and MoT, but had to cancel last minute, due to having discovered a large hole in the sill that would have been a fail straight away, so I believe he’s asked someone to step in and fit a repair panel.

Still it was a busy and productive couple of days despite that, it should have actually been a couple of days off in lieu of working the weekend and having a busy away-time, but who needs time off anyway!

Van duly stocked up and packed with the necessary parts in preparation of heading back on road again in the morning. – https://ift.tt/Plc8GqA

We returned to Acomb this morning to get everything sorted for Colin and his ‘02 TF in IAR, (that was originally a steppy in its former life with the previous owner, who had converted it to a manual).

We had initially visited a month ago for what was booked in for a straight-forward head gasket replacement. But, as of blog of 13th Feb this wasn’t to be the case, unfortunately so, for Colin.

Once we had the head back at the workshop we swapped it out for a refurbed head. The inlet-manifold was damaged so we replaced this with one on stock and Jon set about fettling all the dubious wiring and fitting new casings over it all.

Cylinder head replaced today, along with putting right many missing or incorrect bolts, fasteners and clips. Including tapping out and heli-coiling damaged threads. Good to have it all back to rights and running again.

Colin can enjoy his car again, that he’s owned now for 10 years, with many trips away, including one to Italy, amongst others. He and his wife plan to drive over to the south of France this summer.

Great to see Colin again, who was a lovely host, with lots of tea, biscuits and cake! Plus he surprised us with a box of Chocs and an Easter Egg, so kind of him, they will go down well!

It was lovely to have fusses with their dog Kelso and fab puss called Bruce.

A good run up this morning and a smooth run back home, with decent weather all morning too. – https://ift.tt/EUg8NzM

Our last call, this morning, of our latest away trip was in Costessey, near Norwich, where it was good to meet Phil and Helen for work on their ‘99 MGF VVC in paint code HFF.

Full cambelt service carried out along with replacement of the underfloor coolant-pipes with stainless and hydragas pump up. Not one awkward bolt, car ran up to temperature and sounding nice and smooth. So they’re all set for some trips away throughout the summer months.

Nice to have a chat with Phil before we headed back home in good time. A successful 5 days away, with some really cracking MGs and lovely people in some fab locations, a bonus too that all our digs have been really good. – https://ift.tt/S8pUQe7

Beckenham this morning for our penultimate call of this trip…

John had asked if we could take on the care of the three MGs that he owns, 2 MGF mpi models, one of which is modified and the other a ‘10 plate TF, one of the Chinese post LE run cars, of which we worked on this morning.

Cambelt service carried out on this, obviously, very well cared for car with the previous owner, and a check over of the underneath, as John would like to bring it up to us at the workshop for underfloor treatment.

On bleeding the car, it had some sort of repair to the heater matrix bleed screw, so we erred on the side of caution and left this well alone, knowing that the Chinese ones are prone to snapping off, resulting in lots of pain and expense! Car ran up to temperature and all running as it should.

It was nice to meet John who sat and chatted to us while we worked. He’s certainly got himself a very nice example there, we look forward to seeing him and the car again, up in East Yorkshire.

From there, we headed on to our next destination for the night, what a long journey that was, so many hold ups with road works, and a couple of break downs. We eventually arrived in a very lovely village, East Harling and a really fab little place to stay, for the night. Spotted a TF 1.6, a Rover 25 and a ZS on my walk round the village. – https://ift.tt/jspJYSo

Westcliffe-on-Sea and another very short commute this morning, from our fab digs, for work on Gary’s ‘00 MGF VVC in paint code LQW.

The cambelt service was overdue, so this was carried out, along with replacement of spark plugs and all filters and oil. Gary had bought a Vadar cold-air-induction kit some time ago, so we fitted this for him. Hydragas pump up and the car is all ready for the summer months. Good to hear from Gary later on that he’d enjoyed a good blast out this afternoon.

Great to meet Gary and also meet and have fusses with his lovely woofers, Noodles and Roxy.

With an early finish and fab weather, we made our way down to the sea front and enjoyed a trip along Southend Pier, well Jon got the train and I took the pedestrian route. Sandwich and a cuppa at the end of the pier before heading off to our next destination. We’re now in our next digs, right next to the Dartford crossing with a view of the ever busy bridge. – https://ift.tt/jspJYSo

Leigh-on-Sea…

‘Pearl’, Adrian’s TF 80th anniversary TF has done a phenomenal amount of miles, throughout many countries, giving himself and his lovely wife Dawn so much pleasure throughout the years, and they plan to have many more adventures in her, with 4 trips abroad, already planned, for this year alone.

That said, Adrian wanted to take the precaution of replacing the wheel-bearings, with them being the original ones, and didn’t want to risk one going, on a mountain pass, in some remote location that they, very often, find themselves.

We travelled down yesterday, with a call in Great Doddinton, near Wellingborough, where it was nice to meet John and his S reg MGF VVC in JRJ for hydragas pump up.

With a very short commute, this morning, from our digs, we set on with replacing all four wheel-bearings, plus both rear drive-shafts and both front stub-shafts, all of which Adrian had sourced. The offside-rear was very stubborn to get the drive-shaft nut off, when it finally did come off, it was evident that all of the grease had come out of the back of the bearing, so it was a timely change for this one.

Minor service carried out, along with hood and window adjustment, as his new hood, (which looks fab), was still being awkward around the new seals that he’d also had fitted, so hopefully now, after a bit of fettling, it will now be water-tight. Couple of other things sorted for him, and Pearl is now set for many more adventures ahead.

Big thanks, to him and Dawn, for their, as always, warm welcome and hospitality. Plus, great to have fusses with Molly dog, too cute! (Meant to get a pic).

Back to our digs, with another short commute planned in the morning for work on Gary’s MGF, who had popped over today to say hello.

I managed to get a walk in, yesterday afternoon/evening, over to Two Tree Island, weather not the best, but as always good to make the most of the area we’re in. – https://ift.tt/mHIeM7R

Denton & Failsworth, near Manchester…

The usual slow, stop-start journey that is the M62 this morning, and despite a contingency of an added hour to the ETA we were still 15 minutes late!

Anyway we got there eventually for work on Steve’s ‘02 TF 135 (in HFN) that we had last worked on 7 years ago at another garage.

Full cambelt service carried out, along with alternator belt. On firing it up the car had a rough and lumpy idle. This was located to be due to very old and corroded coil packs and HT leads, so these were swapped out for decent secondhand ones. Plus there was no return to the tank as a couple of the return hoses were well gunked up with k-seal. I’d already cleaned out the tank that was full of the stuff! Car now running nice and smooth with a healthy return to the tank.

Great to see Steve and have a chat, who made us a few welcome and cracking brews.

From Steve’s we headed a few miles along the road to Failsworth, where it was lovely to meet Darryl and her ‘02 TF 135 (in JRJ) that she’s owned since 2007, but unfortunately hasn’t had any use out of it for a couple of years.

We went over today to replace the slave-cylinder and free off the clutch release-arm, to get her moving again. We discussed everything else that needs doing to bring the car back to rights, despite her being told by another garage that it should just be scrapped, which is a shame as there’s nothing that can’t be done to save it.

Jon popped over to the workshop yesterday, as Steve came over from Hull to collect his MGF that had been in with us for the subframe swap. Plus Pete came over from Barton with his TF 160 for a check over of a couple of things ahead of his track day at Silverstone today.

The van is all stocked up and ready for our trip south in the morning for a few days… – https://ift.tt/FvJfZIt

Rear subframe replacement…

Steve left his MGF 1.8 mpi (paint code CMU) with us for replacement of the rear subframe. Steve had sourced his own subframe and not gone for one of our galvanized ones. Steve had sourced a secondhand frame and had prepped and painted it up himself in Hammerite paint.

The usual crusted and corroded bolts removed and replaced along with gear-box oil change, clutch fluid and hydragas lift. The flexi-exhaust section had certainly seen better days and fell to pieces, so this was replaced, along with one of the ball joints. Car all now sorted and ready for collection.

It wasn’t the week we had planned, we had to do a bit of a switch around with the away jobs last week that should have been this week and the subframe last week done this week, due to personal family circumstances. Big thanks to everyone for their understanding and being so accommodating. Although, instead of the contingency of a 3-4 day plan for a rear subframe swap, doing it in 2 days is doable, but we’d not like to do it that way all the time as a bit stressy, all doors firmly shut, radio off and heads down, but we got the job done! 👊🏽 – https://ift.tt/jLRCgNI