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MG MGF Technical - aaarghh, didn't order a range rover!!

Just had my 36000mi (60000km) service.
When I picked it up, I had the shock of my life! They reset the ride-height to the factory setting again. 368 mm -> UGLY!
I hate it! And the ride has gone bad too! I was so happy with the way it handled at 340mm. Now its all wobbly... (is that an english word?)

Anyway, they will put it back at 340 again tomorrow. They say it will take 45 mins. Is this true? Shouldn't they also consider camber and tracking? Would this be ok if they didn't change that in the first place? Should the pressure be different at lower ride-height?

I wish they never touched it... sigh...

Anyone know of a REALLY good dealer/garage with REAL knowledge of MGFs in the Netherlands? Mike Satur going to open a garage over here any time soon??
Bram

From what I understand a change in ride height will alter the car tracking. If you're getting the ride height changed get the tracking done at the same time or soon after. Also be careful that if the suspension is set when the ambient temperature is low then the supension will rise when the air temperature rises.

The ride height will change in the summer but you may want to invest in some of Mikes lowering knuckles.... I have found the at theride height changes after working the car really hard. i recent ly went on a 1sr Lotus driver train ing day and I was driving a 4x4 by the end of the day.....

May be some of the other Dutch contributors could point you in the direction of a decent dealership.... failing that come to UK for a long weekend :o)
tim woolcott

Bram, if they put it to 368 but did not check or change the tracking, then putting it back to 340 should also result in the tracking being how it was in the first place....
David

And to mix what was said above:
Yes the hight effects tracking
No the tracking will not have changed if you just drop the suspension back down (all we'd all be cursing speedbumps!)
You should be able to do it at home (see Robs site)
Are you sure you can get it the same (tracking will be an issue if you just do it till it looks right)

Will
Will Munns

My advice is to never let an MGR dealer touch the height unless it is really needed. Follow the instructions on the FAQ to lower the car yourself. It's not very technical you just have to follow the procedure to the letter. If you let the dealer lower it you can guarentee that by the time you get it home it will be wrong again.

Once you have the car at around the correct height don't touch it. By the middle of winter it will have dropped about 5-10 mm, as the weather gets warmer it will rise maybe 5 mm. Once it has been throught the full temperature range it should be very stable as long as you don't let the dealer touch it.

Once the height has been adjusted take the car to a good tyre speciallist and get four wheel alignment done to fix the tracking. The camber can't be changed on the F so you have to forget about it. If you have a problem with the front tyres wearing down unevenly on the inside it would be a good idea to have the front tracking set at 0Deg 5Min Toe in instead of the standard toe out setting.

Lowering procedure.

After dealer has pumped it up drive it around for a while. park on a flat even bit of ground, do not use the hand brake. Bounce the front and back on the suspension and roll the car forwards a couple of meters. Leave the car for a couple of hours to settle. Measure the height at the front wheels from the center of the hub to the start of the wheel arch lip directly above. For a final height of 340mm set it down to around 350mm.

To set the height, open the bonnet, the large plastic cover behind the water bottle needs to be removed, three plasic nuts and it's free, ease the plastic cover of and you will see two tyre type valves. To lower let a little liquid out of each valve. Do this little at a time on each side and measure. This helps you get both sides even and makes sure you don't go too far and end up having to go back to a dealer to pump it up again.

When letting out fluid it is important to put a cloth over the valve to prevent it squirting fluid in your eye, it is under pressure so you want to avoid this. Some try to collect the fluid in a bottle but the amount is so small it is hardly worth it.

On the coldest day it will drop to around 340mm, when it get's a bit warmer it will go up to around 345mm. The height should then be stable and will go from 340mm on the coldest day to around 345mm on the warmest day.

This is all from my experience. The dealers in my experience never lower the car correctly because they don't haver time to let the car settle and they mostly don't really understand how much a flat even surface is really important to get this right.
T.E.D.

>>You should be able to do it at home (see Robs site)<<

As Will and Tony have said, you can do this pretty easily yourself - and if you take your time, you'll do the job rather better than your garage too, Bram.

45 minutes is not long enough to do the job 'by the book' - so I can almost guarantee that the ride height will be significantly lower than 340 mm within 12 hours of getting your car home...

DIY instructions (the rule of thirds) can be found @ http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/howto_lower.htm

>>I wish they never touched it... sigh...<<

Unfortunately, I know that feeling :o((
It forces us enthusiasts to become much more knowledgable about our favourite car.
Rob Bell

A big hand for MGR dealers, forcing us to learn how our cars work so we can tell them is a great service.
T.E.D.

But it brings us closer to our cars tony ;-)
Will Munns

Bram, don't complain about the dealer... he knew the car was too low (officially) and restored it to the correct height. It's part of the service.

Mine complained about inner tyre wear, told him the tracking could be wrong, cause the car was too low (320) and he said: inner tyre wear has nothing to do with ride height.

45minutes could be possible for a real pro. Had mine done (somewhere different) in less than 45minutes. Normally it would take longer to get the suspension settled between pressure changes.

my 2 eurocents
Erik

Well,
Already had an appointment with the dealer so I thought, I give them the benifit of the doubt..
45 mins?!??! They were done in 10 minutes! They did everything according Tony's post, except for the "couple of ours to settle". They set it to 345, he said that it would come down a bit... Got a generally good feeling about it, escpecially because I got my old ride back!!
Thanks for the posts everyone.
Bram

The tracking does change with height along with the camber so it will cause uneven tyre wear unless the tracking is adjusted accordingly. So we (on the BBS) advise if you are lowering your F under the specification you should have a toe in setting at the front to stop this from happening.

On some cars like my F (ex F) the tyres wore down on the inside at standard height so the only cure was to set the front to toe in, problem solved and less understeer. This was after dealers pumped it up to 388mm then down to 330mm then up again, then I took control and everything worked as it should, even at 350mm, my final height.

The dealer is just doing his job, but it is your car so tell him not to touch the height unless it is unavoidable. You are the customer and do have some say in what is done to your car, if you feel you don't, get another dealer.

>But it brings us closer to our cars tony ;-)

That's what I said, a big hand to MGR dealers....:-)

>Got a generally good feeling about it, escpecially because I got my old ride back!!

Check the height yourself and if it's seems ok leave it the way it is, do not change the height unless a hydragas unit falls off or something serious happens :-) I assume the dealer checked the tracking because it will need checking after lowering the car. If your tyres on the front are ok you may as well leave things as they are, just keep an eye on the tyres next time you change them.
Tony Smith

Is it possible to get a Haynes manual for the MGF?

Should be!

Neil

> Is it possible to get a Haynes manual for the MGF?

> Should be!

But it's not
Will Munns

No Haynes manual only the MGR manual which you can order from an MGR dealer.

Bram, any problems come and look me up (I'm in Hoograven) and I can advise. I don't have an F anymore but I spent a lot of time playing with the suspension to get it right.

You can use the email above fingandblinding@yahoo.co.uk to contact me.

hich dealer are you using? I used Kimman in Amersfort, nice enough but useless. I then used Vogel (Ekris) who were great until they became a BMW dealership and the customer service went down hill. The last garage I tried was Sille in Nieuwegein who seemed to be ok.
T.E.D.

This thread was discussed between 14/11/2002 and 19/11/2002

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