doramatadora

Hello everyone,

I hope you're doing well. It's been a while since I've sadly had to part with my MG TF 135. I still have the hard top, that I have only used on a couple of occasions.

• Trophy Blue (I had planned to respray it or restore the paint, but I never got around to it)
• Grey vinyl interior in decent condition
• Yours for £70 (negotiable), to pick up from East Dulwich in London (SE22)

I also have a cover and this metal trolley stand . You can have those too if you need them.

Right, I'm afraid I have some bad news.

It turns out I can't tow the car home because it is not roadworthy (MOT expired) – I risk an automatic 3 points. We don't have a drive – only street parking – so even if I paid to get it transported home, I would still be committing an offence and worse, risking that the car is seized.

I don't want to be a criminal and I can't afford to get anything fixed right now, so here we are:

It was nice to have hope, if short-lived

Friends – I can't thank you enough!

Cobber – I nearly spat out my coffee at "when these things shit themselves they’ll make the engine run like a hairy goat". We have whisk(e)y at home, it's such a shame about the ocean. You're a legend.

I have sourced a PDF of the workshop manual for now, and arranged to pick up the car + tow on Saturday... FINALLY! I don't feel so defeated anymore, thanks to you all, especially James and Cobber. I've a clear list of things to check now, and just need to find the right person to go through it (and save up a bit). We are going away for a week, but I'm so much happier knowing that my little car will be safe at home. Still in disbelief that somebody managed to drive into it at the garage.

I did ask the garage to check the HO2Ss and was told "that's got nothing to do with anything". Grr. I didn't know to suggest the coolant and intake temp sensors, or MAP sensor – and I guess I'd hoped the more qualified people would have thought of these things (of course they didn't).

minimax, I am mightily unimpressed with these hacks. I wanted to shout at them last time I was there, but just ended up sobbing a bit. On Saturday I'm going to ask them for a printout of all the "work" they did, and then leave an honest review.

I will have a look for Rob Bell over at MGF Register when we are back.

James, congratulations on your daughters' weddings! What a lovely way to be busy.

Much love, Dora

I did, Keiran — but didn't try any of the other diagnostics you suggested in relation to codes. I will try to have a go when I get the car back.

You're all warming my heart! I'll give the full back story if it helps.

The car first lost power right out of the gate of a garden centre about 2mi from home, end of June. It drove fine all the way there. I called upon AA roadside recovery, who read some codes (they didn't tell me, just said they were old codes), said it was running very rich but that the car seemed fine otherwise, and they thought it was probably the fuel (E10). They advised me to drain the tank, change the fuel filter, and fill up with E5. I then drove home in first gear, escorted by AA.

That weekend I emptied the fuel tank using the fuel intake line before the fuel filter, and the fuel pump. I put in a new fuel filter and half a tank of E5. Went out for dinner around 2mi away, car drove there fine. Power loss again after dinner, so I walked home.

I went to check on the car the next day, and drove it home fine. I called up MG specialists, who couldn't fit me in, and finally booked it in with a local garage that had good reviews (the MOT due date was approaching anyway).

Didn't try to drive anywhere until the evening before the garage appointment, and then it lost power almost immediately. Then I reset the IACV. Engine light came on after that, for the first time, and I read the 3 codes I provided. I booked AA for the morning.

AA came, car runs ok again. I asked them to follow me to the garage and good thing I had because I ended up losing power halfway there, and finally, getting towed for the last half mile.

After about 2 weeks of chasing them, the garage got back to me to say they had checked the crank sensor and "tested the fuel pump up to 60psi (? – that's like a power washer)", and tested with different spark plugs and it was sparking fine. They put in my old plugs. Then they did the plug test again – old plugs sparking haphazardly, garage plugs similar. Apparently it won't crank all of a sudden. I asked them to keep poking. I asked them to check for vacuum leaks and they sort of dismissed it, so I don't know if they did.

Another week later I asked my husband to call them because I was getting tired of being told how hard and costly it's been to take out the fuel pump ("do you know where it is?" well, actually). Anyway, husband then got the news that another customer had crashed into the front of the car, at the garage. I rather hit the roof and went there in person.

Garage called ECU repair people with me in the room, on speaker, and ECU repair asked for £125 for diagnostics and estimated a further £500 for repairs. Garage also told me it would cost for them to take the ECU out, so it was at that point I threw in the towel and asked them to just fix the damage their other customer did to my front bumper and leave me alone.

I still need to find a way to tow the car back to my hilltop home when the garage are finally done AA only covers towing in the direction of a garage.

This is why I'm tired and sad.

I have a little Torque PRO and even provided the codes to the garage myself when I took in the car Here is what they were:

• P0170 - Powertrain Fuel Trim (Bank 1)
• P0304 - Powertrain Cyl 4 Misfire
• (Pending) P0313 - Powertrain Misfire Detected with Low Fuel

The garage tested the fuel pump and found nothing wrong with it.

They've told me now it's misfiring and sparking everywhere.

Yes, I'm very sad...

I wish I had, but our garage has already charged us £350 for diagnostics so far (where they ruled out mechanical issues) and I can no longer afford to keep diagnosing things...

Hi friends,

I have decided to part with my 2003 MG TF 135 in Trophy Blue.

At the start of July 2022, I began experiencing loss of power (I live atop a hill in SE22, London). I ended up towing it to a local garage – MG specialists on a 50mi radius had 2 month waiting lists at the time! The garage have so far ruled out mechanical problems and suspect that the ECU is at fault (I understand, from my online browsing, that this is quite rare and it is more likely that the problem is with the wiring harness).

In the meantime, my circumstances have changed and I can no longer afford to continue diagnosis of electrical problems and to fix my beloved MG.

I would like it to go to an MG enthusiast who will either fix it or salvage the many goodies my car offers – see:

When I bought it, in May 2020, the car had:

• Mike Satur windstop
• Braided steel brake hoses
• Stainless steel coolant pipe
• Black anti roll hoops

Mods & replacements in September 2020:

• New LE500 edition soft ride comfort suspension kit RND001400 / RPD000720 – £475.00
• New Gravity Performance stainless exhaust manifold & 6 bolt downpipes (T304 Steel | 4 Branch manifold for maximum exhaust gasflow) - £246.49
• Gravity Performance stainless exhaust system rear silencer back box (Twin 3" Tailpipes | T304 Steel) – £212.49
• New Magnecor HT ignition set (will fit MG ZR/ZS, ZT 120, MG6, and late MGFs with coil packs) – £45
• New MTEC drilled grooved brake discs and pads £145
• New Pipercross performance panel air filter PP1555 - £39.52
• Solid alloy seat belt tidies in polished finish - £26.98
• Billet alloy handbrake handle in polished finish - £24.99
• Blue stitch black leather gear and handbrake gaiters - £21.26
• New water pump
• New BGA cylinder head cover gasket
• New OEM cat

April 2022

• New alternator + belt

June 2022

• 4x Hankook Ventus Prime3 tyres (£346), fitted in June, with less than 100mi on them since
• 1 new license plate lamp
• New number plates which say "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you"
• Sony MEX-N4300BT stereo (bluetooth, £100ish)

Other DIY mods

• Covered dash cowl and dash panel in leather, with blue stitch
• Covered central panel in leather
• Ugraded speakers (but did not do so well on the rear speaker assembly, where the speakers fouled the bar)
• Interior LEDs everywhere, and dash lighting in blue
• Tailored rubber carpets
• Customised badges
• New silver vent and rear grilles

The car is currently at the same garage I left it with at the start of July, receiving a brand new front bumper – because one of their customers accidentally drove into the old one and cracked it

The MOT expired on 17 Jul...

I enclose photos of my baby at the foot of Scafell Pike, at the beach in Kent, on the street in London, and proof of my undying love (the rocker cover I hand-polished and painted silver).

With the MOT coming up, I set about to fix a short in one of the number plate lights on my 2003 MG TF 135, and of course ended up doing something completely different & unnecessary...

Here is how to change the colour of the clock and oil temperature backlight, from the original orange, quickly and without soldering new LEDs .

Materials:

• A sheet of coloured PVC photo filter gel (I used blue)
• Scissors
• Hole punch / hot needle / clean soldering iron

Method:
Remove the clock and oil temperature gauge from the back of the centre panel. You'll need trim tools / a flat-head screwdriver and a phillips-head screwdriver to do so.

Gently and carefully pry away the crimped round black metal thing that holds together the front and back of the clock / oil gauge. You can use a small flat-head screwdriver for this.

Use small fingers or needle nose pliers to disconnect the the circuit board from the rest of the instrument:


Cut a few approximate circles or hexagons from the coloured photo filter gel that are large enough to cover the back aperture of the dial. You can use a (2p) coin to guide you.


Poke two small 5mm apart and 5mm inside the bottom end of each circle. You can use a hole punch, a hot needle or a clean slim-tipped soldering iron:


Nudge the filter gel onto the back of the dial as follows, and, holding the dial against a light with the filter gel facing you, poke a slightly larger hole that aligns with the shaft that will go through the dial to hold the instrument hand(s):


You can stack the filter gel to intensify the colour change effect. I used two circles. To test the effect, shine your phone torch through the gel while looking at the front of the dial, and imagine it a little less bright.

I used clear double-sided sticky dots cut in half to secure the filter gel onto the back of the dial, but you don't have to.

Reassemble everything in reverse order.

Enjoy!

It sounds like I should head north Are T Bar meetups happening again soon? (Aside: I bought Roger Parker's Everyday Modifications... and some of you folks are in the book!! How cool is that?)

I wish I could drive to Melbourne, Cobber. How did you get into MG(T)Fs? Are they more expensive, but less corroded/troublesome over there?