Just picked this up for a song

But does it fit!!! :woowoo:

Holy F*%$!

It's mounting points seem wrong! Or at least the one on the passenger side does!





Have emailed the seller..... GGGRRRRR :rant:

Well seller has repsonsed asking for a few more details - at least they are quick at responding. Sent them this:

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. It looks the same apart from the drain plug nut is small and the one on the listing is bigger, but it's in the right place.

The car is an MGTF 2003 115. All MGF's and TFs share the same radiator layout though so any F/TF radiator should fit any of them. I am a moderator on the T-Bar MGF/TF forum so I could get a couple of the guys to measure as well, but my TF is not modified in any way so they will come back with the same results.

One of them did mention that they had a rad with mountings in the wrong place before on a third party alloy rad they had purchased - so wonder if there are erroneous specifications floating round the net that someone has followed when putting the mountings on this one? There's no massive rush to get it swapped as it won't be going on until I get some stainless underfloor pipes, but obviously if all your rads for the F/TF have been made up like this you may get more issues when people come to fit them after Christmas if they got them as presents.

If you look here: http://www.aaronradiator.co.uk/products/Radiator_Rover_MGTF_02_1_8i_2AU206-1993-1452.html You can see the radiator in question.

The radiator in that picture is in fact UPSIDE DOWN (Even Rimmer Brothers have their picture upside down! You can tell by the drain plug which on the F/TF is at the TOP - god knows why!) but if you imagine it the right way up the top mountings should be 46.5 and bottom 44.5. On your radiator the mountings are 44.5 on both top and bottom.

On this picture from Mike Satur ( http://www.mikesatur.com/images/alirad.jpg ) you can see the spacing on the top mounts is more than the spacing on the bottom mounts

Let's see their response as I imagine he's concerned now as he probably sold a few for Christmas pressies that haven't been even opened and tried yet!

This sounds very familiar and may be the same issue as discussed In this thread

Haven't read to the end of that thread so can't tell you the final outcome.

cairnsys wrote: This sounds very familiar and may be the same issue as discussed In this thread

Haven't read to the end of that thread so can't tell you the final outcome.

I have pointed the seller to that post thanks! Fingers crossed. I know I got it cheaper than normal but it should still be fit for purpose.

UPDATE:

Seller called me... very helpful chap. Seems they have sold 12 in the last 30 days, and I suspect they haven't yet been fitted!

I've got two options... a. See if a local garage can move the point for me, and they'll sort out a refund to cover the cost, or b. They'll take it back for a refund.

I am going to ask a local garage how much they'd charge to move it the 20mm it needs to go and then speak to the seller again and decide. What a palava! However at least the seller is genuine which is a relief.

Until a solution is found the seller has also taken them out of stock which is a good move.

I doubt you'll do much good a a local garage, most aren't up to welding aluminium, better to go to a welding fabication shop.

Yes, mine was the same, but I got it to fit by removing the nearside mounting plate,, the rubber collar just fits in the hole left there, not pretty, but it's a worker.

I'm tempted on a botch of some kind due to the incredibly cheap price i got it for. I'm sure i could get the slam panel altered to fit easier than alloy welding.

That'd be my way of thinking too, lot easier to mod a slam panel than the rad.

This is how mine turned out.

Andy the tyre man wrote: That'd be my way of thinking too, lot easier to mod a slam panel than the rad.

Agreed - I think I've got a spare from Fleur round the side of the house somewhere.... done carefully the 2cm offset probably wont even notice - and I am loathed to send the rad back as I'll never get another one as cheap as that with the huge cooling capacity it has!