https://ift.tt/bvCjgeU
Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire…
An early start on Wednesday morning to head to our first call of the week in Bythorn, where it was lovely to see Paul again and his 2004 TF135 in Royal Blue – JFM. Initially booked in for the cambelt service he’d subsequently got in touch to say he noticed a few symptoms with the car after the last few runs out. As we suspected, it was the proverbial, so we carried out the cambelt service along with replacing the head gasket. Paul had wanted to watch us while we were doing the cambelt service anyway, as was curious as to what’s involved, well he ended up seeing a bit more of his car than he’d anticipated! Thanks to Paul for cuppas and biscuits.
After a nights stopover in St Ives, we headed over to Stansted on Thursday morning. We had two bookings initially for the day, but the owner in Chelmsford had got in touch a few weeks ago to say that he’d reluctantly had to sell his car. Then, unfortunately, the booking in Stansted had given us the wrong address. So, not wanting a completely wasted day we had a hunt through the enquiries book to possibly find someone in the area, that we’d recently had to turn away, and we got in touch with Bob, in Chelmsford, who was delighted that we could come over.
Bob had owned his 1999 MGF VVC in British Racing Green – HFF from new and hadn’t been using it for a couple of years, but wanted to get it back on the road and just wanted the brake-fluid and clutch-fluid changing and a quick check over. Lovely to meet him, glad we managed to get to him at such short notice.
We then had a stopover just outside of Hullbridge, with a short commute on Friday morning to Hockley, where it was great to meet David and his 1997 MGF 120 mpi in Charcoal – LVD, that he’d owned for about three years. He’d been told at a recent MOT that the head gasket had failed and had also thought that the thermostat was sticking.
We arrived really early, and just as well we did, from what we thought was a straight forward head gasket replacement, (cambelts etc all up to date) it turned into a bit of a different story. We removed the head and found that the head was completely full of oil and coolant mixed, which as some of you know turns into a sort of cake mixture, type sludge, this is fairly common. But we then discovered that the hoses weren’t just blocked with the stuff, there were some that were absolutely solid with crud! We removed every one of the coolant hoses, the engine bay pipes and cleared them all out. We replaced the thermostat as that was definitely not going to work again.
When it came to firing it up found that it was still overheating. So we then removed the hoses to the radiator and the radiator itself. These were all flushed out and refitted. What an absolute nightmare. But, us being us just cracked on with good humour and got the job done. Car eventually fired up and fans coming on and off as they should. We’re really pleased to have this one back as it should be for David. Big thanks to him for a plentiful supply of tea! And nice to meet cute Monty dog too who kept an eye on proceedings! With a much later finish than anticipated we headed on up to our digs in Stevenage.
We should’ve actually been heading further south to Gravsend, for a call this morning, but the owner had got in touch last month to say that he’d also sadly had to part with his TF. So I’d had a bit of diary juggling and brought Sundays call forward to today. So we had a short commute up to Little Wymondley, from our digs in Stevenage this morning, where it was great to meet Mark and his LE 500 (paint code 106).
A short cambelt service carried out along with alternator belt all done without any issue. After a chat with Mark we were soon on our way back home.
Not the full on week originally planned, but glad we got everyone sorted, plus we have gained a day off tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a good weekend, near and far. – https://ift.tt/bvCjgeU
