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MG MGF Technical - Dangerous MGF

You may remember some time ago I wrote saying I was experiencing some problems with motorway driving ie hitting 60mph means the car starts to sway for some reason. Well anyway, I have now tried loads of stuff to try and cure it, but alas to no avail. So far, have replaced the steering column, ball joints, had it fully tracked etc by MG and still (after about £1300 spent) it is no different. Anyone any ideas what else could cause this; it is making us start to hate the car, when I am pretty sure there is a lot of fun to be had with it.
nic


Hi Nic,
can understand the frustration. Have You had the sub-frame rubber mounts checked ? 8 of them, 4 front and 4 rear. If one or several are weak or not tighten to spec. the whole car floats around.... And of course there is also the rear tie-bars but they are hopefully obvious to check even for a dealer ;)
Good luck, hope they find out what´s wrong. When sorted out the "F" is indeed a very good car !

BR, Carl.
Carl Blom

Is it your money being spent?

If so, take a trip to someone who can give you a realistic assessment of what's wrong. Brown and gammons, Mike Satur, techspeed.

The cost of travel will be negligible compared to how much you're spending.
David Bainbridge

I had exactly the same problem until recently. It started after I had the 2 front tyres changed. I
changed them back to the MG recommended brand and the problem vanished. Other F users I know who've had a similar problem have lowered the car simply because of this reason.
A good solution to this problem is to buy a TF which holds the road far better!

kind regards

bryan
B4 LGW
bryan

Hi,

sometimes it's one of the subframe mounts bolts which came loose and cause such trouble.
Worn big ball joint on top of the wheel hub is another one, impossible to find without depressuring the hydragas suspension.

And while you are on there, check the condition of all four 'lowering knuckles'. I mean the roll bearing joints between hydragas piston and upper arms.

Regards
Dieter
PS @ Carl, great to having met you at the Munich fair :)))
Dieter K.

I had a similar thing on a road in Belgium which had ruts running the length of the road. This started a standing wave between the front and rear Hydragas making the car sway from side to side increasing continuously, the only solution was to drop my speed. A little scary to say the least.

What size tyres do you have on the front? I got really bad tramlining with anything wider than 195 on the front.

>A good solution to this problem is to buy a TF which holds the road far better!

I don't agree, set up properly with a few superior parts the F can hold the road just as well as the TF. Also buying a new TF is hardly the cheapest option is it now? So spend a grand at Techspeed and your F will handle as well as anything on the road.

To get my F how I wanted it I had to fit polly bushes all roung and replace the hopelless shocks. If I had the oportunity I would have had the Hydragas made indipendant front to back but unfortunately two years of unemployment meant I had to sell the car before I could finish my "Suspension Project".
T.E.D.

nic,
as already mentioned by the colleagues: the tyres can have a major impact on the stability. Different brands on the front an rear axle is very risky.
Another idea: wheel bearing! My rear left wheel bearing became worn, up to ~ 80km/h nothing to mention, but above ... uuuahh, like driving on ice. Already a slight free play has a big impact!
Reagrds Markus
Markus

>Different brands on the front an rear axle is very risky.

Again I don't agree, in a few cases this has been true but I never had any trouble. Only when I had much better tyres on the front than on the rear for a couple of weeks and that was just because of the difference between the good traction on the front (Pirelli p7000) and the bad traction on the rears (NCT3s).

Toyo proxes are ok, Goodyear F1 are ok, Pirelli P6/7000 are ok, Bridgestone S02/3 are ok, Yokohamas are ok, Dunlops are ok (the list goes on).

Some MGR dealers will tell you you can't use any other tyre than Goodyears, they are telling porkies or are confused.
T.E.D.

>>Again I don't agree, in a few cases this has been true but I never had any trouble.<<

Tony, I have to agree with Marcus - mixing tyre brands is a recipe for diaster that has been reported again and again on this board (see the archives). Some have got away with it, but IMO the best (keeping it simple) advice, is to NOT mix tyre brands and types where at all avoidable.
Rob Bell

I'd agree with david, take it to someone who's likely to want to fix it rather than keep taking your money, thechspeed would be my reccommendation.
Kingsley

I had exactly the same problem on a 2000 (V-reg) 1.8i I bought in August last year. The car was weaving, and this increased when the brakes were depressed above 60mph. I was so scary that I rejected the car. It was totally re-aligned, but did not solve the problem. The car was rejected, and I was given a brand new car in September, as both the dealer and I were convinced it had been in an accident. What an apology eh?!? I have to say that the dealer was fantastic.
The problem was eventually tracked down to a faulty rear tyre (cheap Venturis the previous owner had put on). Even though I had a new car, I was still interested to hear what happened to the old one. New set of tyres fitted (manufactures recommended tyres) and it was as good as new.
I am certain that this is your problem. Just try fitting different tyres (see if your dealer will lend you a set for 1 hr so you can try - they must have a set in the workshop) and I think you'll be pleased.
Cheers
Paul
Paul

Nic,

I had a very simillar sounding problem earlier this year. I went to three different MG Dealers in and around Glasgow they could only recomend changing all four tyres and get them to align all four wheels, which I did, in all around £350. However, the problem was still there. Eventually I went to see a neighbour who works for SAAB, as sooon as he drove the car he knew something was wrong. We then jacked the car up and inspected the back end we he found that the near side bearings had gone.
It might be worth while checking this.

Olly
O Scott

'I don't agree, set up properly with a few superior parts the F can hold the road just as well as the TF. Also buying a new TF is hardly the cheapest option is it now? So spend a grand at Techspeed and your F will handle as well as anything on the road.'

Sorry T.E.D., but having had a VVC for 3.5 years and now having a tf160, there is no way an F can keep up. And also you have to take into account the brakes on the tf160, and also the FAR improved steering rack. And at the moment, no not incredibly cheap, but with £7500 down my payments are tiny. A price of £18,000 with £2k's worth of extras is 'cheap' in my opinion :)

But back to teh question, my VVC used to do that once upon a time and it was because the left rear wheel hub was disintegrating (to many roundabouts at speed!!). Had it replaced and all was well.

Ian
Ian

I bought a new VVC last Dec.(2001) It started off with an erratic drive. Sometimes I would be driving along fine and suddenly it was as if I was driving on ice. The height was dropped, the front tyres were changed from 215 to 195, the tracking was done. The car became much more predictable but the ride was bad (it had a wobble through the steering that I could not live with) I traded it at three months old for TF135. The steering on it was much more precise but the ride too harsh and 'bouncy' for my taste. I traded it at three months old for VVC (2001) exactly like the first with 215/45 tyres all round and the car is perfect. I think that there are cars that leave the factory that are simply poorly made. Take it to Techspeed and ask them to check it out. I took mine to several dealers and would not rely on them ever again.

Alan
Alan Dunlop

Rob, I am not saying that it does not cause a problem in some cases, I am saying that it is not a fast and fixed rule. I agree that different types of tyre may cause problems but I don't believe that you can make this overall statement. It is sometimes true, but not always if the tyres are selected carefully.

You could make the statement that changing anything from standard is dangerous, how many of us would listen to that? Providing the tyres are on the same axel and are tyres that are fine with the F (some are not) and the tyres on the front never have more grip than the tyres on the back I see no problem.

Obviously some tyre combinations are desasterous but I don't think we can say that in anywhere near all cases. I would never mix tyres on the same axel.

The only real problem is you can only tell if you have a dangerous combination after you have fitted the tyres, unless it has been tried and tested by someone else first.
T.E.D.

Tony, there is a difference. Whereas we have no idea which tyre combinations work (other than the ones you were happy with) and which are bad, we DO at least have a good idea as to which tyres work well with the MGF, and which don't.

Therefore, I think that it would be "Best Practice" not to mix tyres between axles, but with the rider that some tyre combinations may not be dangerous.
Rob Bell

This thread was discussed between 19/11/2002 and 22/11/2002

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