Category: News & Updates

North East – Day 1 of 3 – Felling & Blyth…

Our first call this morning found us back in Felling where it was lovely to see Rachael & Tony as always for work on their ‘04 TF 160 in Nightfire Red, affectionately known as Katy.

Tony had sourced a stainless Toyo exhaust-manifold and a Daytona back-box, along with a set of quad tail-pipes. So we duly fitted these for them, unfortunately the Lambda sensor stripped its threads coming out the flexi, so flexi retapped and a new Lambda sensor fitted.

Katy now has a very smart rear, and sounds great. They couldn’t be persuaded to have any pops and burbles added though!

Big thanks to Rachael for her fabulous, as always, hospitality. We bid our farewells and headed on up to Blyth.

Tony wasn’t in this time as he had to work. He’d reported a misfire on his TF 115, so we set about with code reading to see what was occurring. It came up with P301 and P300 and misfire causing emissions. First check was to look at the spark plugs, one of which in cylinder was found to be cracked. All four plugs replaced, codes cleared and on firing up all found to be good again. Pleased to have this sorted for Tony without incurring any major expense for him.

Making the most of the last of the daylight and some very welcome good weather I had a super walk from Blyth to Whitley Bay. We’re now in some really fab digs, near Holywell with lots of horses and woofers as neighbours! – https://ift.tt/Pe4LprE

Yearsley, near York…

Thankfully the weather had made a slight improvement today, for our visit to Mik and Sarah, for work on Sarah’s P reg MGF 1.8 mpi (in HAM), with only 16k on the clock.

Head gasket replaced, the one on the car had been replaced with the previous owner and fitted with a Mk I elastomer and still had the plastic dowels in the block. So these were all swapped out for her. Cambelt, water pump, tensioner and alternator belt all replaced.

The coolant temperature sensor was found to be dodgy when it came to running the car up to temperature, so this was replaced with a new one, gauges and readings now as they should be.

Good to have ‘Tess’ all sorted for Sarah to enjoy. Thanks to them for the cuppas and cake on a chilly day.

And just like that it’s Friday again! We’re not actually working this weekend, just have the van to restock and prep for our trip away next week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. – https://ift.tt/XRkTZfv

Stockport & Macclesfield today…

An early and a soggy start to the day to head over for first call in Stockport, where it was great to meet John for work on his ‘01 MGF 1.8 mpi in Old English White.

Head gasket replaced and the cambelt service carried out, along with a hydragas pump up and this fab looking car, named Frank, in memory of John’s father, is now back on the road and ready to go for its MOT.

Thanks to John for all the cuppas, and despite deploying the gazebo the weather did improve quite a bit.

From there we went over to Rainow, near Macclesfield, where it was good to see Richard again having reported an issue with his ‘04 TF 135 80th Anniversary.

Although the car wasn’t over-heating, when the car was sat ticking over, after driving, the fans would come on but wouldn’t go off, and the car couldn’t cool itself down.

On investigation and running our diagnostics we tracked this down to be the PRT not opening fully. So we replaced this with a new 83 degree PRT and ran the car back up temperature again, subsequently the fans came on and off as they should do and also the temperature dropped as it should. Happily all now sorted for Richard.

We’re now heading back home on the M62, following an extremely slow crawl along an always stacked out M60, despite that an enjoyable and successful day. – https://ift.tt/O1sZSXz

Clutch fitted and all sorted with a nice smooth pedal again on Kathryn’s ‘02 TF 135 (in paint code LEF).

Kathryn had bought one of the kits supplied by Mike Satur, ‘Black Diamond’, which went in without causing issues any grief we’re pleased to say, the clutch release-arm freed off fully for her, old gear box oil all drained off and fresh oil put in. She’d certainly had her money’s worth out of the old one. So she’s all ready for Kathryn and Daniel to collect tomorrow when they drive back up from Baldock.

Thank goodness we were in the workshop today on such a miserable wet day, at least it’s warmed up a bit after a what was a very cold weekend for everyone. – https://ift.tt/pokx0AZ

Day 4 of 4 – Wednesday – Wigston.

A very chilly one today in Wigston, near Leicester for the head gasket replacement on Paul’s MGF VVC (in paint code CMU).

We had called by a few weeks ago to carry out the minor service and check out a coolant loss, which was found to be the head gasket. So a date arranged to return this morning.

A warm welcome awaited and his mum had been baking, plus a constant flow of cuppas from Paul to keep us warm. All gaskets replaced along with a new alternator belt as his had been squeaking a bit on start up.

I enjoyed an early morning dawn walk round a very frosty Burghley Park and Stafford, before leaving our lovely digs, with a very picturesque run across to Wigston.

Back home now, after a very successful few days away on some really fab MGs. Thanks to everyone for their warm welcomes and hospitality. – https://ift.tt/aTJRoHZ

Day 3 of 4 – Tuesday – Girton & Bourne.

A short commute to our first call this morning, from our digs, along to Girton, just outside of Cambridge.

Great to meet John who had taken ownership of a ‘96 Mk 1 MGF VVC (in paint code NAL) in August of this year. He got in touch last month to see when we would be in the area as he was needing a couple of things sorting on the car, which for now included replacing the underfloor coolant pipes, repairing the boot light and assessing the dodgy fog light. Having owned MGBs in past this was his first MGF so had a few questions about it, a date to be arranged for some further work.

An interesting morning chatting to John and some very welcome hospitality, we bid our farewells and continued on our way along to Bourne.

The next call was on a ‘02 TF 135 ‘Sprint’ (in paint code JFV) that Peter had owned for a number of years, having previously been owned by his son. The car was originally meant to be just a showroom car and never registered, but the owner of the MG dealerships wife liked it so much it was registered as a demonstration model.

We replaced the exhaust manifold with a new one as the existing one had a bit of a hole in it! (Forgot to take pic). Peter also wanted us to code read the car as he had been experiencing intermittent misfire issues with it. We found the fault to be down to the Lambda sensor. It had been replaced about a year ago with a cheaper alternative, hence why he was still having a problem. So we replaced this with a MG Rover one. All error codes cleared and car now running nice and smooth and a lot quieter for him!

Great to meet Peter and have a chat, who also makes a cracking brew! Thanks to him for the bottle of Rose too from his and his wife’s travels to the south of France. Hope he gets his wish and takes the car down there next year.

We’re now in our last digs of this trip, in Stamford, which is a cracking little self-catering house. A little chilly on the digits today, but a relief to have a dry day and some sun. – https://ift.tt/c6JymW8

Day 2 of 4 – Monday – Milton Keynes & Baldock.

A departure from our fantastic digs in Leicester this morning and headed over to Milton Keynes to see what was occurring with James’s ‘97 MGF 1.8 mpi (in paint code COF).

We went armed with all the usual clutch paraphernalia to cover all bases, James had already fitted a new slave and master cylinder, but was still having problems as the clutch release-arm was still really stiff and it hadn’t been bled correctly. Arm duly freed off and system bled, resulting in a nice smooth clutch once again.

We didn’t get to meet James, unfortunately, as he was at work. Weather a bit on the grim side, but pleased to have him all sorted and we then continued on our way to Baldock for the next call.

Kathryn had recently experienced a problem, also, with the clutch on her ‘02 TF 135, she and Daniel had replaced the slave cylinder, bled the system, but the clutch was still disengaging.

On inspection this afternoon we found that the clutch release-arm was slightly sticking, everything ok with the slave and master cylinders, so we disconnected the slave from the release-arm and manually disengaged the clutch, this did allow the car to have a small amount of drive, but it was obviously either the drive plate or the pressure plate that has become faulty.

Fortunately, for Kathryn, we have just recently had a cancellation, due to, sadly, the car that was booked in with us had the utter misfortune of the cambelt snapping, not good at all and our sympathies are with the owner of course! As she has her own trailer and that it’s her daily drive, she will bring it up to us at the workshop to have the clutch replaced next week.

Now in our next digs of the trip, in Quy, on the outskirts of Cambridge. With a shorter than expected day I managed to fit in a walk along to Anglesey Abbey Gardens, a bit too late to visit the place properly, but the scenery was beautiful, despite the grotty wet weather to match my grotty cold.

Admin time, Star Trek on and tea ordered. Not many miles along the road for our first call in the morning… – https://ift.tt/c6JymW8

Day 1 of 4 – Sunday – Leicester

The first of our trip to the region and we finally got over to meet Mandy and her ‘01 MGF 1.8 ‘Sunshine’ (in paint code GUF).

Initially booked in for minor service and a check over the job grew a little so with a slight reshuffle of the diary we added in an extra day today.

Head gasket replaced, along with alternator belt, spark plugs, all filters and a set of new HT leads as they were past their best. We took along with us a new battery, as Mandy had said that the one on it was flat, even though it looked reasonably new it couldn’t hold any amps, this also caused the ECU to log several faults consistently and the mileage clocks display light to pulse, so new one duly fitted which resolved this.

Great to have this car back up and running again for Mandy. Really lovely to meet her, who gave us a very warm welcome on a bit of a chilly day, along with a continuous supply of warming welcome cuppas too, even more so as it’s my turn to have a grotty cold.

It was also lovely to meet her beautiful woofer, Ollie, who is a rescue dog from Greece, who had experienced a truly appalling life there in his younger years. Well he’s certainly had a happy life here with Mandy, what a great chap he is. What a nice surprise too when we left, she sent us off with a book she’d written about him.

We had a few days off last week, we were supposed to go away on holiday, but that didn’t happen, a familiar story, but needs must. So a trip over to Pocklington where we fitted in Bec, last Thursday, whose Rover 25 had succumbed to the proverbial only a few weeks after taking ownership of the car. All sorted for her and she’s good to go again. Thanks to her for the cuppas and cream cakes.

We’re now in some really fab digs in Leicester right next to the Cathedral, and not far from where Richard III remains were found.

Grand Prix on now, take-away ordered and cold remedies on tap. Hope everyone has had a great weekend. – https://ift.tt/z1tMACJ