Re: Common Faults with the MGF

Hi there Sally, Your quite correct about "Carcraft" My wife bought a 97 MGF from them some 3 years ago (Christ, what a nightmare that turned out to be) The car in question came from the Leeds area (but was orginally bought in Warrington, ) it was a complete bag of bolts had been in 2 major accidents & had bodged up repairs all over the place, Anyway, I recall when we had it that there was/is a call-back to have the head gaskets checked &/or replaced due to some fault or other, The gear linkage's were alway gonna be a problem with the 'F' our gear-stick had about 20 Foot of travel in it & I always ended up cracking my knuckles on the bottom of the dash. If it's any consolation, a friend of mine says CARCRAFT means.........CAR C..can't. R..remember. A.. a. F... fu....ing. T...thing they promised you when they sold you the car !!!!!!!! Still look on the bright side once you get the back end flicked out into a power slide it'll stay there all day You can't say that for all this Jap junk that driving on the U.K. roads now can you

however......

But to be fair they don't take the piss as they drive passed you, parked on the hard shoulder, with you blown head gasket, snapped gear change cable, or bailing out your footwells.

And most of the Jap stuff, front or mid engine, will easily stay with an MGF.

They do have their drawbacks though. You don't get a Revlon Jetstream 2000 and a bottle of styling mousse with the Jap cars.

You can't say that for all this Jap

Ah well at least us MGF owners can comfort ourselves with the knowledge that HGF happens to the best of us. I did manage to find a little bit of sympathy for the guy we saw the other day stood on the hard shoulder, hands on hips watching steam pouring from the back of his Ferrari & Hoe many of us could say that we wouldn't take the opportunity to laugh at that if we saw it?

Cheers for the info all!

Sally

Don't forget that you have two gauges to keep an eye on, Oil Temp and water temp. If either starts going higher than normal stop and check the coolant before any damage is done.

A lot of people think that all these gauges are only fitted to make a car look 'sporty', they're not, they're there to use.

Maybe some of the ultra reliable Jap and German cars don't really need more than a speedo and fuel gauge but some do.

My Dad had a Lotus in the 60s and there were gauges for oil pressure, oil temp, water temp Voltage Amps etc. They were there because engines weren't as reliable and the driver needed to keep an eye on all of them.

I remember being on the A1 with him when the oil pressure dropped to zero, he pulled over to find an oil seal had disintegrated and dumped all the oil onto the road. No damage just a new seal and filled up with oil.

Use the tools MG gave you and you should be fine. Every time I check my speed I scan all my gauges. If I'm driving hard I check more often.

You are absolutely right Nick. Also in the '60s, the oil pressure gauge in my MGA hit zero. Nothing worse than the oil filter coming loose. That gauge turned the potential cost of a new engine into a couple of dollars for some oil. I routine install volt meters and amp meters in my cars, whichever may be missing from the original package. Nothing like them for keeping track of the electrical system and especially handy on the battery-discharge prone MGB.

Tommy T.

I had a Jensen Healey that used stretch alternator belts, the gauges were the only way to keep an eye on things.