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We left our digs in Bromley this morning and had a short commute down the road, where it was great to meet Barry, who had got in touch back in November having recently purchased a TF 135.

Quite a few things needed sorting on the car, some of which he has done himself. When he took it in for the MOT it failed on a couple of things.

So this morning we replaced one of the front lower arms and both forward front subframe mounts. They had definitely seen better days!! Minor service carried out too. Only one of the subframe mount bolts was awkward, as it had obviously snapped off on a previous repair, and the head of which had been welded in to place. This was drilled and tapped out and new bolt fitted.

Bit of a wet and cold day, but fortunately Barry had borrowed a gazebo, which was very welcome as we forgot to transfer ours over from the camper!

Really good day apart from that.

Now at our new digs for the next couple of nights in Croydon. Had a bit of a walk around the place. Admin time now and room service steak is on the menu for Jon tonight. 🥩 Think he deserves it after lying in the wet all morning 🌧 – https://ift.tt/hCR5qPj

A very early and frosty start to travel down to Welling this morning, where it was good to see Simon again and his definitely not Eww TF 160…

Simon had got in touch as the car had suffered from coolant loss while out in December and had called upon the RAC, the chap who arrived to assist was a 160 owner himself and located the leaking hose and carried a roadside repair to get Simon home again, which included bypassing the oil cooler. A cracking repair, using a bit of ingenuity, which involved 2 long sockets used as coolant pipe joiners. As it was just a temporary repair Simon asked if we could come and see him when we were next in the area to refit the pipes with proper pipe connectors. All our usual tests carried out to see if everything else was ok and any signs of head gasket failure, but all found to be good.

The last MOT had advised on the brake lines, so the two front ones were replaced also while we were there. Had a chat about fitting a soft-ride-kit later in the year.

Now at our digs in Bromley. I enjoyed a lovely long walk around Beckenham Place Park this evening, what a fab place, well worth a visit. – https://ift.tt/nAl9Y5P

We managed to dodge the snow and hail fairly well today…

Great to see Lorna again in Yeadon for work on her fab TF 135, ‘Madge’ that was needing the discs and pads replacing. The reverse lights weren’t working so we fitted a new switch and got that working again. Pre MOT check done ahead of the test next week.

Thanks for the cuppas Lorna, nice to have a catch-up and hope you had a nice run out this evening.

From there we headed over to Keighley to assess what was occurring with Steve’s fab TF 160. He had noticed intermittent coolant loss, slowly getting worse and the engine management light had come on.

On pressure testing the system we found that the head was weeping externally and the oil had mild emulsification. Head gasket duly replaced and car back up and running lovely again. The EML codes were showing that it was down to the lambda sensor, but once cleared didn’t seem to be coming back again, but if it does will be looked into.

Great to see Steve and have a chat while we worked and we look forward to seeing him and the car again later in the year for some further work.

Almost home now, and thawing out, with a few more roadworks and hold ups, but it’s still light and lots of squalls to see over the hills. 🌨 – https://ift.tt/xgDo3FU

Out on the road today with a call in Alsager, Stoke-on-Trent, where we had last met Paul, for diagnosis of some
issues with his MGF Trophy 143, back in October.

The car had many oil leaks, from various places, so these were duly sorted by replacing the following; all 4 of the cam seals, the cam cover gasket, the oil pump seal and both VVC plunger seals.

One of the plunger bolts had been stripped, luckily there were still threads at the bottom of the casting, so a quarter inch longer bolt allowed us to fit a new one. With the bolt being stripped it meant that there was no support on the rear edge of the plunger housing, this would only leak at over 4.5k rpm, as the solenoids would open and pressurise the cylinder with oil.

Paul had also noticed issues with misfires on his own code reader. When looking at the spark plugs cylinder 3 was the worst for slight sooting up on the plug, followed by cylinder 4. Although there is no connection on the electrical circuits between cylinder 3 and 4 they do however share the same inlet cam.

While replacing the seals, we checked the roll pins that hold the timing cogs, two of these were found to be slightly crushed, while seemingly not a significant amount, when combined they allowed the small belt side inlet-cam cog to be 1 tooth out. One of the roll pins, which normally take a bit of removing, just came away. Definitely not good.

Once new pins were installed, together with all the above, the engine ran a lot smoother, and with no error codes.

Really pleased that Paul can now enjoy, what is a very good example of this model, once again and get out and about throughout the summer with the odd track day too, when he has time!

Good to see you again Paul, nice to have a chat and thanks for many welcome warning mugs of tea.

Weather a bit Baltic, but we did have a lovely garage to work in. Hold ups on the way there this morning making us a tad late and so many on the way home, totaling 3 hours in delays on the return trip. 😧 At least the admin got caught up on 📖 – https://ift.tt/xgDo3FU

Up bright and early on Monday morning, at the workshop, to get cracking with this fantastic low mileage, MGF 143 VVC that was spotted and saved from inevitable impending peril by Caroline and Tony…

– Head gasket replaced
– Cambelt, water pump, tensioner and alternator belt replaced
– Air filter, fuel filter and plugs all replaced
– Disc and pads fitted all round
– Caliper carrier replaced nearside front
– Caliper replaced offside front
– Offside front top ball joint
– Hydragas pump up
– Underfloor coolant pipes
– Wiper motor replaced
– Welding of all 4 sills
– Underfloor treatment carried out
A few other things sorted and then finally the MOT this afternoon.

What an enjoyable 3 days turning this one around, particularly as another rare one is saved.

‘Jugs’ is now all ready to be reunited with her owners at the weekend 💙 – https://ift.tt/5wlmV1z

A date for your diaries! So good that events are back up and running again. 😃

Just wanted to share this on behalf of the MG Northumbria group… – https://ift.tt/5wlmV1z

We do love our travels, we went to Quebec this morning!

So lovely to meet Frank and Linda, they had bought their TF 135 from a nearby garage about 4 years ago, on which we had done the head gasket and cambelt service, with the previous owner, in Leicester. Nice to see the car again, it’s still looking really good and being very well cared for by Frank.

Cambelt, water pump and tensioner replaced this morning. Thank you, both, for making us so welcome, with bacon butties and lots of tea. It was good to have cuddles with their woofers, Cher and pup Cocoa too!

We then trundled down to South Cleatlam to collect ‘Jugs’!

This is Caroline and Tony’s addition to their fleet. A fab looking MGF 75th Anniversary in Mulberry, that they came across a few months ago and wanted to save, quite rightly, from a potential early end to its life.

After a bit of a wait for some workshop space, we have brought her back today for some TLC.

Great to see them and Joe, as always, and have a catch-up over tea and cake.

Lovely locations with beautiful weather again, plus I got to meet Pugsley properly who was happy to pose for his photo! – https://ift.tt/iZOQDqy

On our way home following a long, but very productive and enjoyable day in the north east of the country…

Blyth was our first call, as it was minor service time for Steve’s TF 135, and trace of quite a bad oil leak. This was found to be coming from 3 out of the 4 cam seals. These were all replaced and all residue oil cleaned up.

We had a further chat about the intermittent heater issue, the only thing left to replace is the heater matrix itself, so a date to be arranged to swap this out.

Lovely to see Steve and Anne again, who made the most of the fab weather and went out for a run out after we’d gone.

Our next call was to see Roger just outside of Durham, as it was minor service time on his 1995 MGF 1.8 mpi, alternator belt adjusted as it was having the odd squeal first thing in the morning, hydragas topped up. They’ve been enjoying some good runs out in the car, since we replaced the head gasket a year ago.

We then headed to Darlington to see Terry and Craig and ‘The Chairman’. Terry had got in touch a couple of weeks as he had been experiencing a misfire, then on cleaning the car, ahead of our visit, yesterday found that the car wouldn’t turn over. A quick nip into the workshop on the way this morning to pick up a few relevant bits, one of which was a coil pack, of which the one on the car was found to be the culprit and had evidently done it’s time. The misfire was down to one of the HT leads being loose. Have a lovely weekend you two in Wooler and thanks for the muffins. 🧁

For our last visit of day we went over to Billingham, as Gary’s TF 135 had decided to spring a leak when they were out in her last. Culprit traced and duly sorted. Good to have a quick catch-up with Gary and his family. Let’s hope ‘Madam’ behaves herself, she’s certainly looking very good.

Really great people, absolutely fab cars, and sunny weather too made for a long, but good day.

Now on the A1 on our way home, hopefully without the hold ups of last night and not getting in until 10:30 pm. 🥱

Amazing sunset tonight. Have a great weekend everyone, looks like the weather will be good again to enjoy getting out and about. ☀️ – https://ift.tt/86CphAU