Topic

Roverlike, thank you for the suggestions.
A failed micro switch sounds quite plausible.
Not long after buying the car and more or less the first day out in light drizzle we experienced “machine gun” noise from the driver’s side door lock with the button going rapidly up and down when trying to lock the car. Locking the car took some time. That situation was repeated in reverse order when coming to get back in after the lunch stop.
Prior to that I seem to remember the mirror lights and at least one but perhaps not both footwell lights working. As we have not had occasion to use the car in dark hours the lack of interior lighting has not troubled us, and locking/unlocking has not been a problem other than perhaps once when one key would not lock the car but the other did. For good measure I changed batteries, obtained a third key and coded in all three. Since then no problems other than the interior light issue. The light in the boot works, there is no,light in the bonnet.

I do have a replacement door handle and would like to change that soon to get rid of the “silver coloured” item for a colour coordinated item. That may prove to be the resolution.
However, I thought there was only one micro switch in the door and as the red led works - on with door open - off with door closed - doesn’t that tend to point to the ECU behind the fuse panel?

Filled with curiosity I have just opened both car doors. I am relieved to say that both doors operate the mirror lights. In bright sunlight yesterday their presence was not noticed.
So it does seem to suggest bulb failures in the footwell and glove box. I can’t easily get at those at the moment as opening the doors is limited by available space.
Doesn’t explain the machine gun experience and issue with one key working and the other not unless car battery voltage is a cause.
The alternator failed and has been replaced and battery voltage is now holding much better.

Yes, that points to bulbs.

+1 on Avast, it’s what I use, shits all over that Norton rubbish

Well, I have kept calm and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately the gun was loaded with blanks!
I tried to download the Avast antivirus. It came back with a message that the laptop needed at least XP3 so that was a fail.

I have re tried the gaining access to the t-bar-mg.com website on the old laptop that I would use for this purpose and it returns a message telling me that t-bar-mg.com's server address could not be found!

I re tried the download that I previously copied across from my windows 11 desktop pc and just as before I cant get anything to work.
I have (or it shows) a zip file RaveBNodate. If I attempt to pent that zip file it shows me a number of files identified as follows i.e. Acrobat 4, indexes, MG Rave Tutorial, pdf, tsb, Autorun, MGModels (pdf), MGselect (pdf), RaveMG, Rave-rc, RCModels (pdf), RCselect (pdf), README (Text document), TData, TData (text file).
If I open the pdf file (called pdf) it takes me to options for various rover vehicles ~ one being the TF. Attempting to open any one of those pdf documents that are then revealed tells me that "no updates available at this time".
So I clearly don't know what I am doing wrong and have not had any message relating to tdata.exe this time.
Looks like I'm "up effluent creek in a barbed wire canoe and without a paddle"

Tried and failed!

I do not know what you meant when you said "pent that zip file" but you need to extract everything outside that zip file in one place and doubleclick on file called TData from your list of files (not TData (text file)).
When I say extract, you can call it copy.

Roverlike, you must have the patience of a saint.
Thank you for those instructions. I have managed to complete the exercise as you described and now have sight of the wiring diagrams and as you appreciate a great deal more. Thank you for bearing with me throughout this exercise. Hopefully the exercise is not just a one off and these diagrams can be viewed many times over.

Obviously "pent" was a typo and should have been "opened". Proof reading things on a small screen when you know what is supposed to be there can and in this case did lead to a careless mistake. Apologies for that.

Checking the details for the cigar lighter (which is what started all this) it appears that there is a relay that is always live as a consequence of a relay coil supply via fuse 1 and I believe that circuit is always live. Why they would do that is a bit of a puzzle. But it is what it is. From the diagram I get the impression that if I "piggyback onto fuse number 2 I will be effectively duplicating the cigar socket but in a position of my choice ~ which is what I want. To achieve a switched relay option, i.e. on when ignition is on I will take a supply from one of the various terminals in the fuse box that are only live with the ignition "on" (there appear to be three of those from what I can see when I tested the various terminals a day or so ago).

~~~~
Not tried the courtesy lights yet as we have been doing other work in the garden but I am a bit puzzled as to the features of the micro switch in the door. That must be very sensitive as it takes little movement in door position to initiate/cancel the red LED in the dashboard. Presumably a small movement of either interior or external door handle activates the switch. having said that I'm reasonably sure that the door does not need to be fully closed to cancel the LED and only a small movement of the door reactivates it.

You are welcome

If anyone would like the MGTF electrical manuals (300 pages) and wiring diagrams sent as a pdf then pm me with your email address and I will send them to you. I may be slow to respond due to being on holiday for another few weeks.

For some inexplicable reason I can’t locate the section on here for downloads at the moment.
I feel sure I have downloaded a pdf version of the wiring diagram at some point in the past and I would be interested to establish what the difference is between the version from “downloads” and the version from the RAV cd section.
The version I think I obtained from the download section has a date reference whereas the version from the RAV CD is undated I.e. does not appear to reference a model year.
In one of the posts above it was suggested that the version that related to my car was a specific RAV but how that is determined is not known - at least not to me.
Can anyone clarify the differences please?

This is the link for all downloads on the-t-bar.com site: https://www.the-t-bar.com/community/downloads

Regarding how to recognise electric diagram in regard to your car I will try to explain following: there are only two versions of MG TF in period of MG TF start of production until demise of MG-Rover in 2005. They are called MG TF mk1 and MG TF mk2.

Regarding RAVE CDs which are delivered into dealership network sometimes you had date sometimes you do not within documents themselves. Having in mind that original RAVE CDs have month/year and version stamped on them you could very easily determine to which MY they belong to.

However discarding these RAVE CDs they got lost and only these copies remained on the Internet (or original CDs at private collections).

In order to determine to which MY particular electric diagram belongs you need to know specifities of particular model and recognise them on electric diagram and by that know what is what.

So on these terms you will need to believe me or not that RAVE B containes electric diagrams for your MG TF.

EDIT: I see that you keep insisting calling these CDs RAV which is not correct. They are RAVE not RAV.

How often is the machine gun noise occurring Del ? It can sometimes be alignment but be aware this is often caused by the failure of the lock mechanism. Search older posts for this. Good 2nd hand mechanisms arent expensive so changing it may be seen as useful preventative maintenance.