8 replies to this topic

[Tommyboy12]

So my girlfriend and I bought a new car for her to use over the weekend. She had been hankering for a convertible for a while having owned a VW Polo for a while. We decided on a TF since we had owned an MGF and then an MX-5 already. The MGF went back to my Mum, who had given it to us. It went back in a much better condition than it came to me in (although she has recenlty crashed it)! The MX-5 was a total dog, the shell rotted through and the vinyl roof leaked like a sieve. I did not have any part in the buying of that car and I wasnt very impressed when it sold for a third of the buying cost after about 6 months.

 

So far I think the TF is the best handling of the three convertibles weve owned. The MX-5 was solidly reliable but very dull to drive. Even getting the tail out wasnt much of an event! Maybe it was the small wheels and high sidewall tyres but it was a bit of a spongy affair. The MGF was good fun, the hydragas made it very compliant, but the CVT gearbox meant it lost a bit of its pzazz!

 

Not too many pictures available at the moment as ive been a bit busy!

 

 

 

Its got a few short term jobs that need doing:

• The heater doesnt work on speed 1 and 2 (a fairly common fault)


• The heater isnt very warm and the engine stays cool


• The central locking relay has failed

These jobs are all 'fairly' easy to sort. Im hoping that by changing the PRT thermostat the engine should get warmer and once the system is bled properly the heater should be hot. Some of the resistor wires have burnt out on the heater so thats why speed 1 and 2 dont work. Ive already got the tiny little resistors sat on my desk waiting to go in at the weekend. The central locking relay is actually mounted to the PCB for the BCU (body control unit), I have a relay ready to replace it. Its a fairly simple job to remove, just a bit fiddly soldering it to the PCB.

 

Overall im quite happy with the car. Its a nice colour, its got the 4-pot big brakes, its got a hardtop, its had a headgasket change, and a brand new clutch less than 100 miles ago! The roof is also spotless. It seems that the factory hardtop has lived on the car most of its life.

 

 

 

[Anthony30]

Very nice. I've always liked these, though trophy blue would be my choice.

[Tommyboy12]

Hopefully managed to sort the heater now. It had a massive airlock in it which I doubt was helped by the plastic bleed nut that sits on top of the radiator, which had a few stripped threads on it. According to the manual I have the screw is only meant to be done up to 5Nm and it seems that anything more instantly strips it and fills your system with air!

 

I replaced it with a billet piece that has a bleed nipple built into it. It happens that the nipple is the same 8mm size as the heater bleed nipple making it a bit simpler to bleed both the radiator and heater matrix at the same time.

 

Original (not my car):

 

 

New billet item:

 

 

Anyway it now has a nice warm heater!

[Tommyboy12]

So I set about fixing the heater today so it works on settings 1 and 2, as well as the 3 and 4 as currently. A common problem with a number of MG Rover cars is that they use an air cooled resistor pack, these wire resistors go brittle with age and crack meaning you lose heater speeds.

 

It was buried under the dashboard behind the glove box. Glove box came out and off came a piece of ducting for the cold air feed.

 

 

The offending article.

 

 

After I had soldered in all the new wires with shiney new ones. These are apparently made from better wire than the originals so wont go brittle. 'Apparently'.

 

 

Also repaired the damaged glovebox light switch, which I didnt know was broken until I saw the light wasnt working! It was cracked and the contacts werent touching. A bit of superglue sorted that.

 

 

So now the heater works on all speeds which is good!

[Tommyboy12]

I had planned to fix the central locking yesterday but the BCU is held in with a special bolt that needs a fancy bit to undo (A 5 lobed torx-plus security bit). I thought I had one but it turns out mine are 6 lobe so that will have to wait until next weekend...

[Tommyboy12]

Serviced the car over the weekend. Considering the mid-mounted engine it wasnt too difficult. What was difficult was fitting a new damn alternator belt! What an absolute PITA! Its 3 bolts and an adjuster bolt to adjust the tension but the adjuster bolt is missing so I had to apply pressure while tightening the 3 other bolts. Not so easy when the best way to reach two of the olts is through the engine cover on top and the pressure needs to be applied from the wheel well...

[LukeH]

Looks a tiday car and I love that colour.

I've got to sort a heater issue on mine. I susspect its an airlock but I can't get anything to come out the heater bleed valve on the bulkhead.

[Tommyboy12]

There are 3 bleed points on the TF so you may find it is one of the others.

 

The heater has gone cold again in this and I bled a lot of air out again so I think I have an air leak somewhere as its not losing water.

[Tommyboy12]

Busy easter weekend on this. I took the hard top off to start with! The sun is coming out more often so its taken up residence in the living room and the soft top is out to play.

 

I also fixed a few more issues. The wiper stalk on the column was broken at the base. I ordered a second hand one off ebay for £9 delivered and set about replacing it. In order to do so you have to remove the airbag then remove the steering wheel, then the column cowling. Once youve done this youre faced with this:

 

 

The piece that yellow warning sticker is attached to is a ribbon wound round a casette which tells the airbag to go off in case of an accident. Its not held together in any way so being too ham-fisted means the cable will spew out everywhere and youll ruin it. I taped it together and gently removed it and was left with just the stalk. Unplug those and unscrew. These are the new ones:

 

 

Re-assembly was the opposite. I made sure the steering wheel was on straight too. Thats a real bug-bear of mine.

 

I also replaced the rear pads on the car after they started to sing over the last few weeks. That was an easy enough job. Took me about an hour to take the wheels off, remove the caliper, wind it back, and put new pads in. The disks were ok to keep.

 

Not one to waste a weekend I also finally resolved the minor water leak this car has! It boiled down to the inlet manifold gasket which has a habit of failing apparently. The original design of the K-series had a water-heated inlet. This was changed but the waterways in the head remained. As such there is a small o-ring attached to the end of the inlet gasket to seal the waterway. That fails. It was a total pig to replace as I had to go in from both the engine cover and the boot to undo the 7 nuts using rachet spanners and extension bars on rachets. However now there is no more water leak! So I topped it up with proper OAT antifreeze. Hopefully the car shouldnt have any problems for a while now.

 

I also adjusted the alternator belt which had started to slip since I originally fitted a new belt. Without the proper adjuster bolt it was difficult to do the first time and clearly I didnt do it tight enough. I managed to lever against the alternator and use a rachet strap to keep enough tension to tighten the belt properly.

 

Finally I also replaced the relay in the SCU for the central locking. Its the one on the far right:

 

 

It took all of 2 minutes to get this out of the car so god knows how the car got a Thatcham category alarm rating... I un-soldered the relay and soldered in a new one and the alarm still works so I know I did it properly. However... It turns out that this particular car doesnt have central locking as standard! So this exercise was a total waste of my time...

 

Lots done and now the car is virtually there! I need to replace the drivers door handle as its fallen to pieces and is barely attached anymore. I also need to get some central locking motors to fit into the empty motor cases in the doors... (Which is why I thought it had central locking in the first place). What fun!