Category: News & Updates

Up bright and early this morning to set off to Worcester, despite the early start hit very heavy Monday morning traffic all the way, eventually arrived just before 10, where Mark was waiting for us with the covers off his TF 135 (in paint code HFN) and a warm welcome. He’d owned the car for 6 years, having owned MGBs in the past.

Cambelt, water pump, tensioner and alternator belt all replaced for him, he was aware that it was overdue and was wary of taking it out too far, but now he’s all set for some fun over the summer months.

Great to meet him and have a chat and a cuppa. Hopefully we’ll bump into him again at an event or show somewhere this year.

From Mark’s we headed along to Walford, near Ross-on-Wye where it was lovely to see Philip again and his TF 115 (in paint code JRJ).

We were due to visit him for the annual service anyway, but he’d got in touch saying that the car was losing coolant and had white smoke. When we checked today, as suspected, the head gasket had gone, having been fitted previously with an elastomer Mk II gasket.

Head gasket duly replaced with one of our MLS gaskets and all parts cleaned up of the gunk, and car back up and running smoothly once more.

An enjoyable afternoon chatting to Philip while we worked with some very welcome sunshine thrown in too.

We bid our farewells and headed further south to our digs for the night in Coleford. Such a beautiful evening I made the most of it and headed into the Forest of Dean for a walk. While heading down the hill back to the digs spotted a very nice looking TF Anniversary in Anthracite out having some top down fun, perfect evening for it. ☀️ – https://ift.tt/jxISz53

Saturday morning found us local in Goxhill, a short commute over the Humber Bridge where it was great to meet Rob for work on his MGF 120 mpi (in paint code JRJ).

Cambelt, water pump, tensioner, alternator belt, all filters and oil replaced as it was slightly overdue.

The slave cylinder seals had gone, thinking the release arm would need freeing off, it was actually nice and free, so a new slave cylinder fitted, system bled through to get rid of some very old fluid and the clutch is good to go again, with only 37k on the clock he should be good for a clutch for a while.

When it came to firing the car up, it was cranking, but wouldn’t turn over. So the distributor cap was taken off and the rotar arm and terminals cleaned up. Rob would like us to return and fit new ones just to ensure that the problem won’t recur. The battery was completely dead so with our jump pack eventually got the car started, resulting in a nice sounding smooth engine.

Rob will now get the car in for its MOT and has plans to get the bodywork sorted where needed.

From there we went back over to Dinnington, as Noel had reported a slight coolant leak under their LE 500, despite it finally getting sorted for its non-starting and intermittent cutting out issues (all on previous blog). On pressure test and investigation we found it to be coming from the water-pump, the seal hadn’t taken unfortunately. So water-pump duly removed and refitted. Thanks to Melanie for the tea and kit-kats.

We had arranged for Dave to come over to the workshop for replacement of his back window, but unfortunately the day wasn’t long enough! Jon went over to his place in Hull this afternoon to fit it for him, thanks for your patience Dave! Glad we got you sorted. This window will be sent off to Ireland for replacement screen ready for the next one.

Van all stocked back up and all parts required for next week packed, ahead of an early start in the morning to various locations, for a busy week away, with the first stop in Worcester.

Hope everyone has had a good weekend and enjoyed the fab weather where possible. ☀️ – https://ift.tt/Yq3UvVy

Workshop days yesterday and today…

Absolutely great to see Ewa and Kenneth who had driven over from Sweden in Ewa’s ‘97 MGF 1.8 mpi (in paint code HAM) that she’s owned for 16 years.

They are on one of their, many, trips to the UK, and the last time we saw and met them, for the first time, was in Bakewell in 2019, when they were on a tour with Steinar and friends from Norway, when we carried out a few cambelt services.

It was time for the cambelt service again so we carried this out, plus all other minor service items, and also fitted underfloor stainless coolant pipes. The drivers side window had decided to stop working just before the trip, and not wanting it to stop their fun managed to pack it out with some wedges to stop it going all the way down. So Jon set about fitting a replacement mechanism (thank you to Phil & Maggy for supplying it) as the old one had definitely done it’s time.

Lovely to see Ewa when she came over to collect her beloved MG this morning and head off to continue on with their voyage, we look forward to seeing the updates.

Brian and Sue came over from Cumbria to drop off one of their cars with us for some work yesterday afternoon.

His post-LE 135 had undergone a load of modifications a few years ago, such as; ported head, high-lift cams, vernier pulleys and a Kmaps remap, the car had been burning oil. Brian had then got in touch with us to ask if we could replace the head gasket as he thought this was the issue, which we carried out last June. Unfortunately, this didn’t resolve it. So he asked if we could further investigate at the workshop, as we advised it was more than likely to be due to the valve stem seals being at fault, given the ongoing symptoms. One thing and another with their commitments and wanting to wait for the better weather to drive it over to us it was left until now.

With only 13k on the clock and the liners showing no marks or scoring on the block it was found to be down to the stem seals. A pic is below showing the difference between the old and the new, which is quite significant. The old ones were still pliable and not hardened as you would have expected. So Jon set about the laborious task of replacing all 16 of the seals. We then put everything back together and all up and running smoothly again this afternoon.

Really lovely to see them both again, when they came over to collect, this afternoon, so pleased that they had a good trip to the area and make the most of their trip.

A busy couple of days, with fab people and their MGs. At least the weather made an improvement for some good top down runs back to their destinations. – https://ift.tt/SYwERgu

The first call of the day was in Wilberfoss where it was really lovely as always to see Derek and Margaret for our annual visit for work on their 80th Anniversary TF 135 (in paint code MBB).

Cambelt service time this year, so cambelt, water pump, tensioner and alternator belt all replaced. Following a couple of advisories on the recent MOT offside top ball joint replaced and both front arms packed with grease.

Really good to have a chat and a catch-up with them. Plus big thanks for the kind donation of a set of 11 spokes that will definitely come in for one of our doer uppers.

I didn’t get a pic again of the exterior, just of the interior, too busy talking!

The next call was over to Bramham, where it was great to see Les again and his MGF, modified from a 120 to a 135 (in paint code CDX).

The front shockers had come up as an advisory on his last MOT so these were swapped out with new ones Les had bought. We were supposed to fit them on our last visit, but the weather was so horrendous and the day ran out of daylight so it didn’t get done.

We needed to return anyway, as the issue, that he had been experiencing since taking ownership of the car needed resolving. Les had a couple of people look at it over the past couple of years, but the problem still persisted, frustratingly for him.

So after running our diagnostics and one-by-one tracing all potential causes for problems with error codes P0130 and P0170 that he had been experiencing, which was causing mis-fires while driving.

So we started off first with the forward lambda sensor replacement and then ran it again, that cleared the P0170 code. However, another code emerged for the heater circuit on the secondary lambda sensor, so it was decided to replace the secondary one also. Unfortunately, the threads wouldn’t take the new sensor, as often happens, so the decision was left to Les on whether he wanted the new and better CAT fitting, which he decided to go for. Also, we noticed that it had some cheap and not so cheerful coil packs, so these were replaced for new. The running then all finally seemed to settle down. We also noticed that the forward lambda sensor wiring had also been modified, however the quality of repair seems to be good, so decided to leave as it was, unless any further problems occur then this will be looked into.

Hopefully, once and for all, this issue is now resolved for him and he can enjoy smooth runs out and enjoy his fab MG.

Thanks to Les for the many cuppas and the box of cakes and not least for ordering the sun this time! ☀️ – https://ift.tt/MipAhxJ

An interesting and busy workshop day today…

Lovely to meet Judith this morning who brought over her ‘97 MGF 143 VVC (in COF) from Saltburn. Judith had taken ownership of the car a few months back and knew that the spheres were past their best and would need replacing. Her brother-in-law managed to source some reconditioned ones so we fitted these for her today. Looks so much better and I’m sure Judith will notice a difference on the drive home.

Great to see Trevor and Gary again who came over from Horncastle in their TF 160 (paint code FAR) for the minor service and a couple of other things sorting. Good to have a chat while we worked. What great weather for their drive back home.

It was good to meet Dave this afternoon who came over from Cottingham in his MGF 75th anniversary (in paint code CDM) having bought it last year and wanted us to check the ride height and have a chat about brakes.

Van packed up with the bearing press etc ready for tomorrow. – https://ift.tt/0W9v8Vu

Dinnington was our destination for our first call of the day where it was lovely to see Noel and Melanie again for work on their LE 500 (paint code 106 and number 11/500).

We carried out the underfloor treatment on the car a couple of years ago and it had also been to our neighbours at Black Sheep Customs for some bodywork.

Noel was going to bring the car back over to us for the cambelt service and a date was booked in, but unfortunately the car had developed an intermittent non-starting issue and also when driving the car it would just cut out and then randomly start again. So, not surprisingly they didn’t want to drive it anywhere.

We carried out all diagnostics and checks. One of those where it was difficult to pinpoint it to one exact culprit. Several issues were found; the fuel pump relay in the boot, that later models have, had been replaced, but that seemed to have temporarily fixed it, however the problem had returned. We took off all the relay connections, cleaned them all up, also the collision impact relay connections were cleaned up, the AA had mentioned that the throttle body may be at fault, so we took a new one along just in case, and Noel wanted us to fit it anyway just in case. P-scan showed all other engine sensors were working perfectly and no misfires were detected. After re-setting everything it was all found to be running smoothly. The only other unknown is that the air filter box was full of wheat grain, possibly from a mouse, let’s just hope that said mouse has not eaten any of the wiring and that the car was all of a sudden behaving by coincidence and that there are no wiring issues. Their cat, Biscuit, has been given a verbal warning for not keeping up good enough mouse control!

Thanks to Noel and Mel for their hospitality. Brilliant to hear from them this evening that a test run was successful and so far no further problems.

From there we went over to Conisbrough where it was lovely to meet Neil for minor service on his TF 135 (paint code LQW). He’d owned the car for a couple of years, which in its previous life had been owned by a chap who worked for Rimmer Bros. Good to have a chat before we headed home.

Fab weather today, and home in good time, but both still feeling absolutely rubbish. Tons of admin to do, which explains my late blog and is getting beyond my bedtime! At least we’re only in the workshop tomorrow. – https://ift.tt/0W9v8Vu

That was a busy and long couple of days, but at least the trusty steed stretched its legs and had a good test run, on our way back now on the A1 and the sun is shining still at 8 pm as start to write this, and get the admin caught up on.

Yesterday found us first near Sheffield for a job, but unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances they had got the day wrong, not to worry, the job had grown a bit anyway since first booking it in so just as well, and we’ve found an alternative date to go back and get everything sorted.

From there we went over to Drighlington where it was lovely to meet Tony and Alison for work on their TF 135, that was initially booked in for the head gasket, when we got there found out that the cambelt or any other services items hasn’t been touched for 7 years. Head gasket and full cambelt service all carried out, plus a very timely save on the alternator belt, which was very badly split and cracked. We had to resort to Plan B on the cambelt service as the engine mount bolts would not come undone.

Really good time spent working and chatting to Tony. Great to meet their lovely woofer Paddy too, and thanks to Alison for all the brews!

We then went back over to see Lee and Janet as their TF 160 following us replacing the head gasket and timing belt etc 3 weeks ago had a misfire on cylinder
2, on removing the plug from cylinder 2 Tony noticed that the spark plug hole had some coolant in the bottom. While we were mystified as to how it got there, having sent us a photo, as there are no coolant channels anywhere on that part of the cylinder head. He had tried wiping it out and it seems to very slightly return.

We carried out a cold pressure test, with the plug in and with the plug out, checked with the borescope inside the cylinder, then ran the car right up to temperature, and watched with the borescope while the car was under pressure, each test running for about 20 minutes, found no signs of any further coolant. While the car was up and running again, we checked out the diagnostics and checked for any mis-fires and none were recorded. A plan was made to test the car over the next week or so and if need be replace the cylinder head for another one that Lee has.

This morning we headed back to the north east for the two jobs that we had to postpone due to the van being out of kilter.

First call of the day was to Steve, in Alnwick, and his MGF 75th VVC in Mulberry (code CDM). Really great to meet him and Jon hadn’t realised that it was the same car he had replaced the head gasket on 14 years ago!

Full cambelt service duly carried out today for him. An enjoyable morning spent chatting to Steve, we took it at a steady pace as Jon’s a bit tired and I’ve got a stinker of a cold. Very nice car to work on which didn’t give us any grief.

We then headed over to Broomhill, and took the coast road, where it was lovely as always to see Kevin and Amanda and of course have cuddles with Monty! Kevin’s Trophy was still sitting a bit lop-sided so we had gone armed with a couple more spheres to swap out. Hope this has sorted it. Good to have a chat before we headed home.

Shame it was a late finish as we would have called in to see my aunt who only lives in the next village, where my mum just happens to be visiting this week. Well we didn’t want to have passed on any manky cold germs anyway.

A day off tomorrow to recharge the batteries. Although I’ve been meaning to do a piece about expansion tank caps aka coolant caps as there is a lot of varying ones out there at the moment that we’re experiencing and hearing a lot about causing issues.

Have a great weekend everyone, hope you can make the most of the lovely weather ☀️ – https://ift.tt/6vg0WY8

Well we couldn’t be more happy to have our trusty steed back on the road and fully functioning again. After our let down at the place we took it to last week we went down in convoy yesterday morning to pick it up and bring back to the workshop.

A massive thank you goes to Steve, our fab neighbour, at Black Sheep Customs, who stepped up at the eleventh hour and stayed until an ungodly hour last night to help Jon replace the gearbox and clutch.

They cracked on again this morning and got everything done and up and running by lunchtime today. Can’t thank him and Taryn enough. Taryn stepped in with the horrible clean up of just about every tool in the place that was covered in diesel grime.

Everything running lovely and smooth and so much quieter when we had a test run over to Hessle to return the hire car. What a relief not having to postpone the jobs we have booked in over the next couple of days, hate having to do that.

Thank you, again to Steve, you’re an absolute star 🤩 – https://ift.tt/x6kC8RD