MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGF Technical - The great purple/red mystery

Hi

About a month ago I had the classic “alarm goes off when opening with key syndrome” (I was feeling a bit left out until that point) which seemed to clear within a week.. Today I finally took a look at the wiring at the bend in the boot and the purple/red wire is snapped in two! However the mystery is ,as far as I can tell, everything works.. Alarm arms, boootlight works etc etc,, Anybody throw any light on what this purple/red is supposed to do?

Thanks
JR
John Roach

John

I also have a wire in my boot that is severd but everything seems to work. I will check on the colour of mine :)
J Price

The wire tells the alarm the boot is open, it is pulled low when the switch is closed (boot open). The alarm was probebly going off when it thought that the boot was being opened as the wire was chaffing, now the wire is all the way thru the alram simply thinks the boot is never opened.

Test this:
super lock the car , if the alarm thinks the boot is open it will not superlock, try with boot open/closed and there should be no diffrence => there is a problem
Will Munns

I can see a pattern emerging, I recently purchased an 'F' and discovered after about a month that the whole wiring loom leading into the boot had severed, and had been that way for some time (the copper wires had severly oxsidised) however no problems with the alarm. The cause seems to be constant abrasion of the loom against the body! Is this a common problem?
Simon

Thanks Will

Tried the superlocking test and the car will not superlock with the boot open (which is correct??) but my little light that tells me the boot is open doesnt come on now and on closer examination there seems to be two purple/red wires and only one is broken

hmm JR
John Roach

Simon (and anybody else)

Yes loom failure near to the nearside boot hinge is a fairly common problem.

Mine failed at the Y joint where the loom breaks out to go to the boot lid etc. So I'm not convinced it is abrading against the body but is flexing at the Y. Local auto electrician spliced a new bit into the loom and made a bit more slack at the Y as well. No poblems since.

There are lots of mentions in the Archive area but you need to register to access, or at least login as Member if already registered.
John Ponting

Would check the wiring diags but since I banned unauthorised software on all pcs at work and carried out software audits, removed any I didn't like and then locked PCs so that users couldn't change them in any way, I felt morally obliged to clean my own pc as well.

I knew that being a heavy handed IT Manager would rebound on me sometime.
John Ponting

>and on closer examination there seems to be two
>purple/red wires and only one is broken

Ah, yes I was using an early wiring diagram, forgot about the warning light in later cars!
Will Munns

John, why not use dieters on-line versions?

http://www.mgfcar.de/schedules/

althought they are "early car" scanned copies
Will Munns

Usually do Will but I spent a lot of money upgrading from Mono graphics to Full Colour some years ago and hate to waste the money and time :-)
John Ponting

This thread was discussed on 22/07/2003

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG MGF Technical BBS now