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MG MGF Technical - My first F

Yesterday I became the proud (?) owner of a 2000 1.8i F, with only 8.000 miles on the counter, and on the way home, two things bothered me:
1. driving 50-70 miles/hr,the car started vibrating badly,( the rear-view mirror threatened to fall off), when I drove 80-90 miles, the vibrating stopped, so my conclusion is that the backwheels are out of balance, do you agree??
2. at slow speeds I smell the engine, is this normal in an F because of the position of the engine?
I bought the car at a well known dealer in exchange for my MGA. I hope I will not regret this! I got a 12-month warranty on this car, and I hpr I do'nt need is this soon!
Kryn
Kryn Saman

1 Yes, could be out of balance or could be badly seated tyres on the metal rims. I mean the tyres could be correctly balanced but running out of true ie not round. Hope you understand this.

2 No it is not usual to smell the engine with the hood up or down. Perhaps there was a strong wind blowing from behind you which made the fumes catch up with you.
You may smell some exhaust fumes if you run with the hood up and the back window unzipped.
Some owners have smelt petrol fumes when the car is left standing in the sun and the hood up.

Hope this helps

Bruce
Bruce Caldwell

Yes, Bruce I think the the wheels are the least of my worries. But the smell forbode real problems. We drove the F today,and after a while it was like the car did not brake on the engine any more, and when I stopped,the engine kept turning at 3000 revs, while I did not touch the throttle. So I drove into my garage, and I will not drive another mile in this car. When I phone the dealer tomorrow,he has to give me a very satisfactory response, otherwise I will invoke the dutch law,and demand my MGA back,because this is the worst scenario I could dream of, and it confirms all the horrible stories that are told about the F!!!!!!!
Kryn
Kryn Saman

Kryn,

I've sent you an email with all the answers and recommandations you will need for encountering your dealer tomorrow.

Best regards, Peter
Peter Roos

Peter,

I hope you did not forget the ride height term
:)
Dieter Koennecke

Dieter,

Because of the smiley I'm not sure if you are joking or not. I know Kryn for some time now and I gave him all the information about ride height, balancing tyres, toe-in 0.5" "front" and neutral "back", fuel tanks (a 2000 car with a fuel tank problem? thought the problems with part number WFE 105220 were sorted out in 1998) and the accelerator.

I directed him to the http://www.mgf.be of my Belgian friends (I was prohibited by the MGCC Holland to write on our own Dutch MGCC website, because of my view on Dutch MGR dealers) and of course to your famous website
http://www.mgfcar.de/index.htm (especially to check the VIN number of his car). Hope we can help this guy out. Or will he be the next in line of victims of the "skillfull" MGR dealers around here?.

All the best, Peter
Peter Roos

Not joking, only in good mood.

I see he's in best hands.

Cheers
Dieter
Dieter Koennecke

Hallo Dieter,

Thanks for your most friendly comment. I hope we all can help this guy Kryn with the best of our abilities and knowledge. He deserves this after his most disappointing experience.

Best regards, Peter
(hope to meet you at the Kempenrit 2002, I still got a lot of questions)
Peter Roos

Hi Kryn,

I feel for you trading in an undoubtfully very nice A to end up with a troublesome *F*.

Me too, I encountered the sticking revs at 3000 rpm, 1 day before waranty expired. I told my dealer and he acknowledged that he had more *F*īs coming in with a sticking butterfly valve of the throttle body. Mind you I did only 10.000 km, got replaced for free.
donīt want to think what would have happened if it were one day later. You might consider swapping it with a trophy throttle body or Dieterīs adapted Opel item

Best of luck at the dealersī

Peter,
quite interested in this list of yours, can I receive a copy?
t.i.a.,

David.
David (MGF driver)

David,

Thank you for mentioning the problem of the throttle body. Yes, we had this problem before and one of our members spent nearly Euro 900.- on unnecessary repairs at a MGR dealer. Then, as we told him, he bought a new one in England for GBP 90.- and installed it himself. Problem solved. This was only one of the many cases we encountered in the last few months with "skilled craftsmen" at MGR dealers. I will be obliged to send you a copy of any list I've got. Which one first?

Peter,
hope to see you at the Kempenrit 2002. Happy motoring!
Peter Roos

Peter,

The smelling fuel tank seems most interesting as this an intermittant problem with my *F*, it comes and goes!

€ 900,- My goodness. These guys realy donīt know what theyīre doing.

I try to carry out all repairs/maintenance myself. Although I am not a mechanic, I like doing this with the workshop manual beside me.
The only downside to it is the lack of a signature and stamp in the maintenance booklet or waranty of repair. Iīll probably never sell the car, but you never know. So I just have go to the dealersīto change the oil and oil filter, stuff that really canīt go wrong. And presto hereīs the stamp,

Iīll be there on the 25th,
cheers,
David.

David

Kryn,

How did the dealer take it?
Iīm curious,

David.
David

Well, David, A Dutch saying goes as follows:
"the soup is never eaten as hot as when it's served" And that is true in this case as well. After an unpleasant telephone conversation on monday morning, I decided to take matters in my own hand, and I phoned the "Wegenwacht", the dutch equivalent of the RAC. The guy came, looked and sprayed WD 40 on the throttle cable, and that solved two problems at once, because the smell had also disappeared.
I then drove the car to my own tyre-farmer, and he balanced the wheels and concluded that two of them were square. He advised me to make a long hard run and check the tyres again. I phoned the dealer the next day, and he said the same thing, so that is what I am going to do this weekend. I really blew my cool because of everything going wrong at the same time on a car you do'nt know anything about.
Kryn
Kryn Saman

Kryn,

Nice to hear things werenīt as bad as they seemed. And with the nice weather out, youīll probably be able to cover the necessary miles to get your tires "straightened".

Oh, and the saying goes the same in Flemish,

happy motoring,

david
David

This thread was discussed between 21/07/2002 and 27/07/2002

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