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MG MGF Technical - Cross-member creaking - Best £1.50 ever spent?!?

I have just invested in a pair of exhaust clamps from Halfords (58mm £1.49 each) in an attempt to fix the cross-member creaking/cracking noise heard from behind the dash on bumpy roads.

I fitted the passenger-side clamp yesterday (much more straightforward than I thought it would be - took around 15mins, including time to remove the glove-box).

WHAT A DIFFERENCE! - it's almost unbelieveable… not a single creak, rattle or crack on my usual bumpy route to work. No need, it seems, to fit one to the driver's side on my car.

Thanks to Dieter and his site for the guide.

Mike
M Chase

Mike,

I'll be having my second crack at my drivers side clamp this weekend :-) I'm looking forward to the same results as you hopefully :-)

Chris.
Chris Tromans

Chris,

keep cool. The noise source must not be the bar. There are several more.
I remember my investigations after the clamp didn't help 100%.
At last I found a second noise source below the wiper, LH, at a weld dot.
I have a pic of the location online anywhere but not linked. So get back if you need advise.
Dieter K.

Hi Dieter,

Do you mean the two pics at the foot of this page of yours?

http://www.mgfcar.de/cross_member_bar/index.htm

If, not yeah send me the pic if you can...

I put my clamp on tonight and the rattle is still there...

I've decided my sound is like plastic on plastic - something like one of the plastic fasteners behind the instrument panel (speedo etc). Any ideas how easy it is to remove the instrument cowl and instruments and take a look behind... I have a copy of the MGF cd so I'll take a look at that in the morning as well...

At the moment, I hate taking the car out because it just makes such a noise and the whole interior just rattles and sounds cheap... Believe me I love my car - if only they'd bothered to put it together properly...

Anyhow, I am going to persevere and keep searching this weekend...

I'm not even going to start talking about my door rattles as well... that's for another day...

Cheers again

Chris
Chris Tromans

>> Any ideas how easy it is to remove the instrument cowl and instruments and take a look behind... <<

Take a look at Andy's excellent site - there are step by step instructions on how to dissassemble the instrument cowl: http://www.sfforever.co.uk/
Rob Bell

Whoa...

This looks like fun... :-)

A weekend job me feels.. but I'm determined to find this rattle if it kills me. I'm thinking it might be one of the three retaining bolts/screws that are behind the instrument pack as I've read on another post that these easily break in the event of a shunt (had one in March and it seems to have occurred since then) and I've also read these are virtually impossible to fix as they are attached from the rear but inside the air ducting... nice... :-)

Thanks Rob for pointing me in the right direction...

Chris.
Chris Tromans

Yeah I have some sort of weird clunk sensation ( more than a sound) when cornering hard. It is like there is something loose behind the pedals that taps on the them when you go around right handers, it only happens occasionally though.
Hmmm must get in and have a butchers, it's probably something daft like a loose relay floating about.

I also get a nasty rattly sound on idle when the car is warm, it's been doing it for years I couldnt locate it last time I had the engine cover off. It sounds like a lose nut on the exhuast, perhaps it's the alternator but I poked at it a lot and nothing seemed to be lose or worn. Mind you the engine seemed to wobble back and forward considerably in sympathy with the rattle, probably a cause. Do the engine mounts get soggy? Is it worth fitting harder ones like the orange plastic affairs we used to put into Mini engine stabaliser bars?

Car still goes great though, and still attracts loads of attention

The near perfect silence of the ZT has really thrown these little foibles into perspective

Neil

>> Do the engine mounts get soggy? Is it worth fitting harder ones like the orange plastic affairs we used to put into Mini engine stabaliser bars? <<

Yes they do. Mine, I'm told, are still perfectly servicable (something of a surprise to be honest!), but I know that Dave had to have his replaced fairly recently.

Regarding stopping the engine moving around excessively, yup, there are harder bushes available to curtail this trait - made of polyurethane, so should have a long service life - I think that Elise Parts do these...
Rob Bell

Thread hijack - Neil, so you have your ZT now! Come on and tell us all about it then. Just been talking to a MGR bloke and he said the X-power exhaust for the 260 just sounds great, can you feel the pull of the darkside yet....
tony

If the welds are broken, does scuttle shake increase as a result? That looks to be a pretty sturdy cross bar, so a poor weld must make some sort of difference musn't it?

Karl Woodhead

I recently had great success in fixing my creaking cross-member with the exhaust clamp technique.
I was not 100% sure it was the cross-member and it sounded like a plastic clicking and it was driving me nuts but i thought what the hell....take out the glovebox and go for a drive on a bumpy road whilst my son was upside down in the car. ie feet where his head should be and his head down in the footwell. i just asked him to place his hand on the crossmember and tell me if he felt it click. he felt some movement so Success!!!.... after applying the clamp and tightening it up as tight as i could go.....Problem solved
half the problem is isolating where that annoying click is coming from.... but once u do u r a happy MGF'r again....
good luck in isolating your annoying click sounds

Jazz
P. Russell

Jazz,

This gets a little more difficult if you think it's coming from the drivers side... I reckon if I drive along with someone upside down in the drivers footwell, I may just get arrested ;-)

Anyhow, my second clamp will be going on hopefully one evening this week as I need to remove my glovebox to give my multi-cd player a good kicking... :-)

Chris.
Chris Tromans

Good luck Chris with both your efforts
I hope one of them works out for you
hahahaha

Jazz
P. Russell

This thread was discussed between 16/06/2004 and 25/06/2004

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