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A very foggy run up to Butterknowle in County Durham today, where it was good to see Ken again, who had got in touch as he’d found an issue when servicing his TF 160, unfortunately, one of the spark plugs had stripped the threads in the cylinder head. So we removed the head and will take it back to the workshop to heli-coil it. We’d replaced the head gasket on this some years ago and it was interesting to see that the heat-activated saver-shim had adhered evenly to the head, thereby doing its job perfectly. Date booked in to return and refit next month.

A productive day yesterday on ‘Princess’ (MGF – see previous blogs) and pleased to say she’s almost there, couple of other tweaks and she can go for her MOT.

We also had chance to sort the two cylinders heads we have in that required skimming. One from Roger’s MGF in Haytor and the other from Rob’s TF 160 in Hartlepool. They were ready this afternoon, so Jon will set about replacing the valves and new stem-seals. Dates arranged to refit both of these. As mentioned in a previous blog, we’re bringing Rob’s 160 back to the workshop as we suspect there may be other problems, hopefully not, but makes sense to get it all done in one go.

There’s another week that’s flown by!

Hope a good weekend is had by all, wherever you may be, near and far.

Talking of far, it’s been interesting following the latest travels of Adrian Clifford and his lovely wife, Dawn, this time to Australia to visit their son, (obviously not in the also well travelled ‘Pearl’ this time) and setting a challenge for the furthest, highest and longest that a Rough Luck Racing baseball cap has gone! – https://ift.tt/jRkBceI

We got cracking on Monday morning with Steve’s 2005 TF ‘Spark’ (paint code JHG), that he’d left with us over the weekend. Full cambelt service carried out and then taken round for the MOT, great to see him again when he came over to collect.

Richard came over from Northallerton to leave his 2010 TF 135 with us. Full cambelt service carried out and we then got started on the underfloor treatment.

Stephen and his son Simon came over from Wistow, near Selby on Tuesday morning to drop off their year 2000 MGF 120 mpi (paint code CAQ) for a full cambelt service. Lovely to see them again, Simon popped over this morning to pick it up.

Underfloor treatment and a couple of other bits all completed on Richard’s TF, this is now all ready for collection at the weekend.

This morning Greg drove down from Teeside in his 2004 TF 160 to have the Lambda sensor replaced, pleased to say this one was in complete contrast to the last one we had in! All done in no time at all, and after a chat Greg was on his way back home.

It’s all the Steve’s this week, good to see Steve again who came over from the south side of the river to leave his 2001 MGF 1.8i VVC 143 bhp (paint code CDX) with us this morning, minor service carried out, passenger side window-motor replaced and then sent round for the MOT this afternoon. Car all ready for collection tomorrow morning.

Laura is dropping off the replacement soft-top for ‘Princess’ this evening, so we should be able to put the finishing touches to her tomorrow now we have the full day free, having got a bit of a wriggle on!

Think we need a bigger workshop though! – https://ift.tt/7T6rWtx

Another week has whizzed by! I’ve been meaning to do a blog, but it’s just been too busy, work wise, and the admin has been even busier, head spins, but I’ll get there. 😵‍💫

A frosty start on Monday morning found us up in Hartlepool for work on Rob’s 2003 TF 160 (paint code LQW) that he’d recently taken ownership of in July of this year.

He’d experienced a problem with overheating, so asked when we could come up and sort, initially we had to turn him down as we didn’t have an opening, but then one came up due to a cancellation, at the workshop, for a subframe swap. So I got back in touch to let him know, and he asked if we could do the cambelt service too while we had the chance, which makes perfect sense.

Unfortunately, things weren’t as we were all expecting and something had definitely been going on a while long before he’d noticed any issues. We couldn’t even remove the cylinder head as the inner timing cover casing was melted on to the head and the block, and had to be literally chiseled off. Not a good sign.

When we, eventually, removed the head it had been skimmed many times before, and had fire-ring indentations. Despite Rob’s, understandable, disappointment it would have been completely unethical to refit it.

Plus, given the severity of heat and Rob’s subsequent explanation of how things went, we suspect that there may well be other issues further down in the block and sump. Therefore, situation discussed, a date arranged to collect the car and take back to the workshop. Nothing that can’t be sorted, although the respray that he had booked in, for next week, will have to wait a little longer.

Lovely to meet Rob, we look forward to getting his car back to rights for him, which is actually employed as his weekly commute to Scotland and back.

We called in to Tockwith to see Rich, on our way back home, as his TF 135 was still playing up. The air pressure sensor had been damaged when he’d had the cambelt service done, elsewhere on the car, earlier in the year, so we have tried to resolve this issue, Rich has since reported back that it is still causing an intermittent problem now, so next on the list is to replace the wiring loom on the fuel rail, which we have, and will wait for him to report back further.

On Tuesday morning, we hauled the big old bearing press out with us and headed back over to Swinton, near Manchester.

Front offside wheel-bearing replaced along with the top ball-joint, front top suspension arm packed with grease, reverse-light switch replaced and drivers door lock replaced on this visit.

Really great, as always, to see David, Juliet and bouncy Bodie dog! Some really interesting chats, along with cracking brews. Plus we were honoured to receive our BAFTA award for our upcoming TV show! 🎭

Thursday morning found us hooking up the trailer, and heading up to South Cleatlam, in order to collect ‘Jugs’ and take back to the workshop for some welding. Unfortunately, she’d had a slight mishap with a jack, so needed some attention. Sill repaired this morning and then sent round for an MOT this afternoon. So ‘Jugs’ their MGF 75th (in CDM) is all ready for Tony and Caroline to collect tomorrow, we look forward to seeing them.

Work has continued at a pace in the workshop on ‘Princess’ and she’s almost there, we’re pleased to report. Leona is popping over tomorrow with the new inside bits, so it will be nice for her to see how she’s coming on.

Hope you have a really good weekend everyone. 🌞 – https://ift.tt/5k0jtsA

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

Bowburn, County Durham.

A very soggy one today replacing the clutch on Ian’s 2004 TF 1.6 in Ignition Blue (JGY) with just under 60 k on the clock. He had previously eased off the release-arm and replaced the seals on the clutch slave-cylinder, but it was continuing to give him issues as it was still slipping under load.

Full clutch-kit fitted, along with the updated stainless-steel clutch release-arm, complete with grease nipple.

All went really well despite the grotty weather, gazebo deployed, but still very cold and wet being on the floor etc., a nice early finish and on our way home now, thawing out with a stop at Scotch Corner for a warming large brew. Nice to meet Ian today and have him up and running again, thanks to him for the cuppas. – https://ift.tt/h2SJtzb