Category: News & Updates

Day 1 & 2 of Scotland trip.

An early start on Monday with our first en route, which found us in the very peaceful location of Scotby, near Carlisle where it was great to meet John and to work on his 1998 MGF VVC (in JRJ).

The head gasket had failed, and the cambelt service was due so everything duly sorted for him. He had considered selling the car, but glad he invested in it, as it’s such a very quiet engine and a sound car. It was really interesting to chat to and meet his lovely mum, as John had to go.

From there we headed along to Gretna for our digs for the night.

This morning found us, on our first call of the day in Biggar, where it was great to see Mike again and his TF 135 for fitting of a soft-ride kit. Pleased to report that none of the bolts sheared off as the sneaky things can do! Great to see Mike’s smiling face when he came back from a test drive.

Thanks, so much, to Mike for all things Tunnock’s and the tray of tea. They will keep us fortified as we venture further north!

From there we pootled along through beautiful scenery behind a sheep trailer to Crossford where we met Bob again for work on his Trophy. Thanks to his lovely wife for her warm welcome and hospitality.

Cat replaced, oil change, plug leads replaced, speaker cover replaced and window cheater replaced that we found was broken on our last visit. On doing all of our usual checks found that the car was suffering from signs of the proverbial. So a date needed to return and sort, no time today to sort it, unfortunately.

For our last call today we were back in Glengarnock for work on one of Alan’s fab fleet. ‘Noel’ his TF 135, that he uses mainly as his daily car was in need of a new rear calipers and brake pads.

Really lovely to see Alan and Andy as always and have a catch-up, plus have big fusses with Bruce and Mabel (aka Molly). Thanks both for the many warming cuppas!

We’ve now arrived at some amazing digs for the next couple of nights, with the bonus of a very short commute in the morning to see Neil in Lochwinnoch. – https://ift.tt/1izmv0C

Chesterfield has been our destination over the last couple of days with a call into Goole too…

Monday morning found us back at Craigs for work on his TF 160 (in LEF), good to see them both again. Full cambelt service carried out and replacement of the underfloor coolant pipes. Can’t believe it was 7 years ago that we were there last to replace the head gasket!

We called over to Goole in the afternoon, where it was good to see Ian again and his MGF 120 mpi (in JBH). The clutch pedal had gone to the floor and as we suspected it was due to the clutch release-arm seizing up and subsequently taking out the seals on the slave cylinder. Clutch arm duly eased off and slave cylinder replaced. Noticed she was sitting a little low too so we pumped the hydragas back up for them. Fab weather and nice to have a cuppa and chat with them before we headed off.

This morning we went back over to Chesterfield where it was good to meet Dave and Donna for work on their fairly recent acquisition of a TF 135 (in MBB). Not long after purchasing the car in December the proverbial unfortunately happened.

The cambelt service was also due so we carried this out for them along with replacing all the gaskets. The battery was completely flat, so after jump-starting off the van and eventually firing the car up we found it to have multiple misfires. We found a few things to be at fault, the spark plugs were way overdue for replacing, one of the coil packs was faulty, as was one of the plug leads. Secondhand coil pack fitted, new plugs and plug leads. Car ran up to temperature, all now sounding nice and smooth. Really pleased to have got this sorted for them, it’s their first convertible and Dave will be using it as his daily car.

Thanks to them for bringing round the brews and the biscuits to the garage, much appreciated as the weather was a contrast to yesterday, a bit on the chilly side and it tipped it down all day, so the gazebo was duly deployed! Date booked in to return later in the year for some further work.

Workshop day tomorrow, and we look forward to seeing our visitor venturing up from the south. – https://ift.tt/hqJkp76

A last minute decision this morning to head down to the NEC for the Classic Car & Restoration show, really glad we did, what an enjoyable and interesting event, first time we’ve had chance to go.

Great to catch-up with a few people. Jon caught up with his old pal Sarah who he’s not seen for a couple of decades, except on the telly! Lovely to have a good chat with Mike who between him and his lad Jake had been doing a live head gasket on Helen’s TF.

Really nice way to spend a day off after a busy day at the workshop yesterday.

Paul and Olivia came over to collect their Steppy and enjoy a proper run out, the first one since buying it. Great to see them both looking happy as they drove off, so pleased that they decided to invest in it. Hope they have loads of fun.

Rodney came over from Norton to have the wiring sorted on his TF 160, having previously traced an erratic idle to the wiring on the VVC actuators when we were at his a couple of weeks ago, but not being able to pin it down to a specific wire, as it was very intermittent. Ended up replacing 4 wires relating to the sensors and then testing, one or more of the wires must have had a fault as this cured the problem straight away. Once the old wiring was out of the car it was easier to metre the wires to find the fault. One definite fault was found and one very suspicious one.

Rodney was pleased to have his car back to normal again, good to see him drive away happy.

Alastair popped over from Beverley in his TF to have his remote battery fob looked at and a new battery fitted.

Bob came over from South Cave in his MGF, as he was having a problem with his wipers as someone had set up the position of the motor arm incorrectly and then tried to compensate by moving the blades to a different position. Everything was then duly reset with the motor and the blades.

Van also all restocked ready for a couple of days on the road tomorrow morning. – https://ift.tt/dVp5CST

We made our way over to Matlock this morning, where it was good to meet Matt and Zoe for work on their MGF 143 VVC.

Matt had got in touch back in December as he’d started noticing issues with overheating. He had the thermostat replaced, but was still having a problem and noticed signs of the head gasket having failed.

On our usual checks it was evident this was the case. So all gaskets duly replaced today, the main belt exhaust cam roll-pin fell out when the head was removed so new one fitted. All error codes cleared. The car is back up and running great now.

Bit of a mixed bag of weather. Thanks to them both for the cuppa, it was good to have time for a chat before we left them to it to carry on moving house. – https://ift.tt/VDK6uTc

Harpole, Northampton was our last call of this trip away today, leaving our fab digs in Hemel Hempstead this morning.

Great to meet Neil, who had got in touch, a few months ago, regarding an intermittent over-heating issue on his ‘02 TF 135 (in CMU).

Pressure tested it and found no external leaks, checked both return valves, and the pipe work returning to the bottle, found the outlet on the inlet manifold to be blocked, cleared this, pressure tested both his caps, bled the system to see if there was any air and nothing found, plugged in the diagnostics, and ran it up to temperature while watching the coolant temp on the diagnostics, bang on time the thermostat opened, and once fully up to temperature the radiator fan turned on bang on 104 degrees and took way less than 3 minutes to bring the coolant temperature level to come down to when the fan turns off. Repeated the heat up and checking cool down for two full cycles and found everything to be ok.

Minor service also carried out, so she’s all good to go for them for the summer months.

Set off for home and I spotted the Hotel Chocolat factory, never seen Jon do such a quick u-turn! His favourite chocolate, while he was loading up with armfuls of as much as he could carry, a chap spotted my jacket and came over for a chat and to ask if our company dealt with the MGBGTs, I said we didn’t as standard, but know a man who does, so we pointed him in the direction of the lovely chap that is Jason Swinyard in Oldham that does.

Good to be back home now and to see the cat, who was very pleased to see us. Then we’re heading off to Wirksworth in the morning.

A good few days away with some really lovely and interesting people and their fab MGs. – https://ift.tt/VDK6uTc

Westcliff-on-Sea was our next destination this morning with a good run over from Colchester, for work on ‘Pearl’, Adrian’s much travelled TF.

Cambelt service carried out along with spark plugs and all filters replaced and cleaned up.

Brake discs replaced all round with Mtec drilled and grooved black discs.

Top arm grease points filled up, new fob batteries, replacement of window washers and a good general check of ball joints etc. to ensure that she’s all good to go ahead of her many exciting travels that are planned throughout this year.

Adrian wasn’t there, unfortunately, as he was on a surprise holiday, that was a gift from his sons. So one of his sons, Michael was on hand to meet us, and very nice it was to meet him too, with thanks to him for his warm welcome and hospitality.

From there we headed over to Hemel Hempstead, with a rare free-flowing and hassle-free run along the M25! Arrived in good time for a walk into the town along the canal and then a look around the gardens of the fab digs we’re in. While I did this Jon repaired the TV in the room, which is massive along with the room! Star Trek on now while I’m doing the admin.

Then we’re on to Harpole in the morning… – https://ift.tt/ogBipau

Colchester and surrounding area…

Clive had got in touch back in August following the purchase of a ‘96 MGF 143 VVC (in COF) and wanted the main things sorting to give him peace of mind and enjoyable motoring.

We left our digs in Colchester and went over to Great Cornard where we carried out head gasket replacement, cambelt service and replaced the underfloor coolant pipes. Whilst in there noticed that one of the cam seals needed to be replaced, and the VVC plunger gasket needed replacing too. Few other bits sorted for him and advised on. Very quiet sounding VVC mechs, at 72k miles he’s got himself a really great car. Thanks to Clive and his lovely wife for all the tea and chocolates!

From there we went over to Halstead, where it was good to meet Eamonn and his TF 160 (in HFN) that he’d owned for many years. Just recently he’d noticed a strange noise coming from the back of the car. On our investigation found it to be the engine mount bolts that were the culprits, one was wobbling about and the other wasn’t tightened down enough. Duly copper greased and tightened down along with exhaust manifold heat shield bolt replaced all now strange noises and rattles eradicated. Thanks to Eamonn for the tea and huge chunks of cake!

We then went over to Feering, where it was lovely to meet Susan, for investigation of an intermittent issue with the ABS light on her Stepspeed (in JRJ).

On code reading the ABS unit no errors were found. Looking at the live data there appears to be an open circuit on the brake light switch, although the brake lights are all working fine. Investigation is required into the wiring diagram. Susan will be coming up to spend a few days in York while she leaves the car with us at the workshop.

We got back to our digs for about half seven, so not our latest finish! Time now for me to crack on with the admin after I’ve posted this.

We traveled down yesterday, which included a call in to Hartest, near Bury St Edmonds, for pump up of the hydragas on Sylvia’s Metro 1.1. A very long and tedious trip down with a load of roadworks and hold ups. Great digs though, last night tonight, then we set off to venture further south in the morning. – https://ift.tt/ogBipau

A long day today, hooked up the trailer at the workshop early this morning and delivered Bills MGF back to him in Wolston. Absolutely brilliant to see how delighted he was with the results on his pride and joy.

From there we went over to Desborough, to see Marcus and his TF 135, that had a problem with the clutch, initially they thought the clutch itself had gone, but, as we thought, it was the slave cylinder that had gone due to the release arm being seized. Marcus had tried to replace the slave, but unfortunately this had only blown the seals again. Release arm duly freed off this afternoon and new slave cylinder and clevis pin fitted and she’s good to go again.

Pleased to have finally managed to fit them in, we had planned on going on Monday when we picked up Bills MGF, but we encountered a problem with the lights on the trailer, so we were 2 hours late setting off anyway, with a repair, only for the lights to go out again on the M1 in torrential rain. So we made a diversion and called in to a ‘local’ Halfords, near Chesterfield, to purchase a light board and hook that up to continue on. Therefore, we had to let them know we couldn’t make it as we still had to get to Wolston and get the car back to the workshop. Which resulted in another long day in the life and times of a mobile mechanic! 🥴

Came through a few storms and floods on the way home too, albeit in some beautiful countryside. – https://ift.tt/mnGvo7g