Category: News & Updates

A snowy one for our first call of the day in South Cockerington, near Louth this morning, where it was really good to meet Roger and Elizabeth for work on their 2004 TF 135 (in paint code FAR). They’d moved to the area about 12 months ago and were wondering who to use for the servicing etc having always used the lovely Jason Swinyard over in Oldham at MGTastic. Thanks also to one of our customers, Julie, over in Grimsby who recommended they get in touch with ourselves.

Full cambelt service carried out with no issues, all the major bolts having been suitably copper greased. The car is in super condition and we look forward to our return next year for the minor service. Big thanks to them for the cuppas and biscuits and, more importantly, a garage to work in, keeping us sheltered from the elements.

From there we headed over to Brigg, where we met Darren for hydragas fill on his fairly new acquisition of a very tidy looking year 2000 MGF 1.8 (in paint code CAQ). Great to meet him and have a chat, still plenty of bounce left on the suspension, and on a quick inspection he’s got himself a good one, in what he describes as something for him and his wife to enjoy some fun days out in.

Weather was a bit too brisk for a walk back over the Humber Bridge to home, but the sunrise this morning from it was beautiful.

We haven’t had a lazy last few days, we bought ourselves another doer upper, a TF 160 from a lovely chap in Richmond. We will get this one turned around, along with some others in the new year. That’s the plan! Plus we’ve also bought ourselves a bargain of a run around, rather than using the van all the time, a BMW X5, at least we can pick up family members for days out and use it for tip runs etc.

Hope everyone has stayed warm and safe on what has been a quick jolt into winter weather 🥶 – https://ift.tt/SixEpA9

Day 4 of 4 (originally 7) – heading to the South East (ish) with some stops along the way and our last away trip of the year…

A departure from our digs in between Chatham and Gillingham, this morning, to head a few miles along to Rochester for work on Gerry’s 2002 TF 160 (paint code LEF) that he’s owned for about a year, having bought it from a chap in Bournemouth after a search for the right one.

Underfloor coolant pipes replaced with stainless steel ones, initially booked in for soft-ride-kit too, he’s still having a think about it. Gerry wanted us to give the car a general check over and wished to discuss a few things.

When we fired the car up we noticed that it was slightly lumpy, on code reading found another duff Lambda sensor, but the symptoms didn’t fit 100%. Although it was running lumpy, it was too even. We replaced the Lambda sensor and then checked further for another cause. Possibly thinking it could be one tooth out on the cam. After removing one of the short cambelt pulleys that side was found to be all good, but the main belt exhaust-cam pulley had a severely crushed roll pin. This, therefore, put the exhaust-cam out by half a tooth, bit of a theme this week. Though this was probably due to the fact that the bolt holding the pulley on wasn’t tight! If left like this any longer it could have caused catastrophic engine failure. Once replaced all the timing marks matched up perfectly, resulting in a much smoother engine.

Coolant cap replaced as the one on the car failed the pressure test, alternator splash-guard was missing so new one fitted, a few missing and wrong bolts etc replaced and she’s all good to go!

A pleasurable days work in Gerry’s company and having a good natter while we worked, he’s got himself a cracking car.

So we’re now on the long haul back home. The inevitable big hold up for the Dartford tunnel, but hopefully won’t be too late back. A successful last trip away of 2024. – https://ift.tt/BpXLsVc

Day 3 of 4 (originally 7) – heading to the South East (ish) with some stops along the way and our last away trip of the year…

We left our fab digs in Little Thetford and headed down to Royston, where it was lovely to meet Jonathan who asked if we could come and investigate an issue he’d been experiencing with his 2001 MGF mpi 120 (in paint code JBH).

On idle the car was massively hunting flicking between 500 and 1500 rpm. Part of the problem was a faulty Lambda sensor, the other part of the problem was that someone had been adjusting the throttle body stop, this usually has a small cap on it and should not really be messed with.

We replaced the Lambda sensor and as he had a new aluminum 48 mm throttle body we fitted this too, and problem happily resolved for Jonathan, and no other error codes coming up.

From there we headed over to Biggleswade to take a look at what was occurring with Barry’s 2004 TF 135 (in paint code HFF).

Some time ago he had experienced a loss of power with the car, and after that it wouldn’t start at all. He’d had two new fuel pumps fitted, fuel filter, plugs etc etc all to no avail.

Unfortunately, we hadn’t been able to get down to see him before today. So we set about with our usual investigations, such as checking the ECU for codes, nothing really relevant found, the crank sensor and cam sensors were fine, so after testing the fuel pressure and finding that there was absolutely none, we set about trying to remote power the fuel pump, while we could hear it working there was no actual output from the fuel pump. We decided to remove this from the fuel tank to see if a pipe had come off, as it was though to be reasonably new, however once we removed the cap off the top the sender-unit it was found that the seal that was meant to be around the lip had dropped into the tank when it had been fitted, when trying to remove the complete
sender-unit it was actually in pieces and with some of the parts missing!

As it was so badly damaged we had to dismantle the rest of it while it was in the tank as it wouldn’t come away in the usual fashion.

Once all the bits were finally removed from the tank the fuel was direct wired and found to be faulty yet again.

The whole sender unit and pump housing will have to be replaced, as well as the pump. Once this is all done we will get on with the other main issue of finding the reason for the pump wiring not being powered.

Poor Barry, not only is he very poorly, having just come out of hospital he also has a very poorly car. Pump duly ordered, we have a couple of sender units on stock so a date to be arranged to get this sorted for him. Hoping Barry makes a full and speedy recovery and that we get the car fixed soon too, feeling a bit sad for Barry right now. It was great to meet him and Lucy though and have a chat before we headed off on our way. We look forward to seeing them again soon!

Now wending our way round the M25, through the Dartford tunnel and on to our next destination for the night.

Good to have such decent weather again, too. – https://ift.tt/365IZ9x

Day 2 of 4 (originally 7) – heading to the South East (ish) with some stops along the way…

A nice short commute this morning into Ely where it was good, as always, to see Philip, this time for work on his new acquisition, a 1998 MGF 143 (in paint code JRJ). He’d bought the car knowing that it had a few issues, including the inevitable head gasket failure, and hadn’t even heard it running, but thought he’d take a punt on it, given that it’s a VVC with not a massive amount of miles on the clock, plus it was a bit of a bargain.

So this morning we set about with our investigations. We had a spark, we had fuel, someone had fitted new HT leads, so we checked that they had been connected correctly for the firing order, we then discovered that the timing was completely out, the exhaust-cam was three teeth advanced and the inlet-cam was three teeth retarded. With concerns that there may be valve damage we set about taking everything apart.

A Mk II elastomer gasket was fitted, and there had been quite a bit of heat in there, as the cam-cover gasket was completely delaminated. However, we were very pleased to find that the valves were all in tact. We found that three of the roll pins on the cam timing cogs were severely damaged and crushed too.

New roll pins fitted, everything put back together, including carrying out the cambelt service and she fired up nicely on the first turn of the key. Excellent timing just as Philip was walking back up the drive on returning from work. Really pleased for him to have it running. We look forward to our return in a years time for the cambelt service on his other MGF.

Big thanks to Philip for the cream cakes, which Jon enjoyed back at the digs, while I made the most of the good weather and remaining daylight with a lovely walk back, along the banks of the River Great Ouse, what a beautiful spot. – https://ift.tt/365IZ9x

Day 1 of 4 (originally 7) – heading to the South East (ish) with some stops along the way…

A bright and early start this morning to head to our job of the day in Bourne.

Peter’s 2002 TF 135 ‘Sprint’ (paint code JFV) was due a minor service, along with checking out a misfire. On code reading all it showed was a code relating to a misfire causing increased emissions. When we swapped out the spark plugs noticed that one of the HT leads had been jammed under the cover, we replaced the leads with new and problem duly resolved.

A check over of a few things that had come up on his last MOT. Car to be booked in for some welding at the workshop in a few months time, when Peter and his wife will enjoy a long weekend away in Yorkshire. Really good to see Peter and have a chat, who also makes a cracking brew!

Bit of a shorter day than planned, the MOT bits that need doing before the next test will be done at workshop when they come up. So we headed on to Ely and thought we’d take a look at the Cathedral, only ever seen from a distance, not enough time to go in though.

We’re in some fab digs for the next couple of nights, that we stayed in last year, just outside of Ely with only a short commute tomorrow morning. – https://ift.tt/Y4daxp0

Bit of a late finish tonight at the workshop, we wanted to get the work completed on a couple of the cars we have in.

We picked up Rob’s TF from Hartlepool (please see previous post for info) on Monday as planned, bit of a slow journey up with long hold ups. Jon set about revalving the head and fitting new stem seals for it, as well as doing the same on the other head we’d had skimmed, yesterday morning. I had the day off, fab day with my daughter. Initially this week was planned for a double subframe swap, but it was cancelled and postponed until next year, so at least we were able to get a few other things done in its place.

This morning the sump was removed, as planned, so we could check for any further damage to the oil pick-up and oil pump etc., fortunately nothing else untoward found there. Engine rebuilt and car fired up, still over heating after being left on test for quite some time. The bottom of the radiator wasn’t getting hot, and on inspection it was found to be bloated and cooler in the bottom channels, so this was replaced for a secondhand one, finally the problem was solved with an oil-cooler bypass and new PRT, which were completely blocked with k-seal! We’d found traces of it anyway, but this bloomin stuff gets into everything, please please don’t be tempted to use it, it’s absolutely the pits on these engines! Many have been scrapped because of it.

We’re pleased to have a quick turnaround on this car for Rob as it’s his daily commute, and look forward to seeing him at the weekend for collection.

We’re pleased also to report that ‘Princess’ (please see previous posts) was finally sent for the MOT this week.

This car has been enjoyed for many charity runs, days out with her owners and is well known, along with her owners, Leona and Laura in the MG community, but unfortunately hadn’t been out very much over the last year due to commitments and was looking a bit sorry for herself. So we were happy to take on the task of giving her a new lease of life.

Full cambelt service carried out, welding to three of the sills, full underfloor treatment done. New clutch-line, clutch-slave cylinder, clutch-flexi fitted. Window surround repair, as it was letting water in quite significantly. Replacement of; carpets, soft-top, hard-top, dipstick bracket, wiper blades, squib ring, battery, air pressure temperature sensor, reg-light holder, wheel-nuts.

Good old clean up and sort of lots of other bits (long list, because that’s what we do) and she’s ready for collection.

They have plans to do the NC500 next year in her and we look forward to hearing all about it, along with her other adventures to be had. – https://ift.tt/i5vsVR8

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

After departing from our last digs of this trip we headed further north to Desborough.

Marcus’s 2006 TF 135 (in paint code JFM) was due its cambelt service. Only a short one carried out for him this time as he’s not really been doing many miles in the car this year.

Great to see Marcus and have a chat while we worked. Thanks to him for the cuppas and bacon sarnie.

A decent run back home and good to be back. It’s been a decent week weather wise for the time of year, I was a bit concerned when I had to rebook it. Thanks to everyone for their hospitality this week and their understanding with the date changes. So not a bad week all in all, 626 miles, 5 hotels & 9 MGs. – https://ift.tt/igkXpLf

Day 5 of 6 – South Coast & some other places too…

After departing from our digs in Fleet, this morning, we headed a bit further north to Farnham.

Robert had got in touch with us as his 1996 MGF 1.8 mpi (in paint code HAM) had been given an advisory at the last MOT, on both headlights, the tester thought they were actually at the edge of a fail.

So today we replaced them with two new units, given the astonishing price that they are they don’t even come with any bulbs! Ride height set to the correct height too, as they were finding it slightly uncomfortable. Hopefully this will improve it and they’ll be able to see where they’re going again, not that they ever use the car in the evening, not the point I know, but at least it does make this already tidy car look a lot more tidy, and it will be comfier too.

Very nice to see Robert again and have a brief chat before we were on our way again.

Next stop was in Aspley Guise, Liz and Phil had got back in touch as Liz’s 2001 MGF 120 mpi (paint code COF) had sprung a bit of a leak.

On pressure testing we found the culprit, so this was replaced with new hoses from our stock on the van. Well Jon did all the work as I was temporarily incapacitated by my annoying recurring inner ear prob and could barely stand up. 😵‍💫 Bit frustrating as I’d left my meds at home as not needed them for yonks. Liz directed us to a local pharmacy for a get-me-by.

It was really lovely to see them both again, (sorry both I was not my usual self), and pleased that it was a relatively simple fix and not some other underlying issue on their fab looking MGF.

We’re in our last digs of this trip, near Bletchley, for the night, before heading further north in the morning for our last call. Can’t believe it’s Saturday again, getting a bit late now and just realised Strictly Comes Dancing is on the telly! Got to go. Have a great weekend everyone near and far. – https://ift.tt/igkXpLf