derekmines

I was surprised that there wasn't a huge thread on there with people attending.
I was supposed to be there from tonight, camping over.
Unfortunately we only got my new engine mount fitted a couple of hours ago so I wouldn't have made it before campsite access closed so I'll be heading up early doors and camping tomorrow night only!

Another thanks from me, changed my cable over yesterday - old one was actually partly physically broken.
Followed the procedure here, definitely a good tip to tape the old/new cables together, made pulling the new one through easy.

It was a little fiddly to get the pedal unbolted but all in all well under an hour from start to finish.

So my local mobile mechanic (who's also a good mate) and I fell foul of this same situation yesterday.

Removed 2 of the engine mount bolts no problem, third one seized solid.

Long breaker bar did nothing other than actually break the rubber bonding on the mount and we ended up with a snapped off bolt with about 5mm protruding from the aluminium.

loads of heat and molgrips was slowly helping us win, and after an hour we had about 8mm of the bolt protruding,
This was enough to secure a fancy stud extractor and carry on with the heat routine.

Unfortunately an hour later the stud snapped again, this time flush with the aluminium so we ended up having to drill and re-thread the hole.

After all that, the belt and water pump change went fine, sadly I now have to wait for a new engine mount before I can actually drive the car.... what a faff!

Yep, another thanks from me.
Did this changeover this afternoon, 15 minutes well spent.

Thanks all for the welcome. Did the first little job today, using one of the guides on this forum I changed the blower resistor and now have 4 working fan speeds instead of the 2 I had before!

Thanks John, both for the welcome and for the advice.
Once the overdue belt is taken care of, I think the sticky throttle is my next priority, I just took a mate out in it for a quick demo run and it really does make moderating the throttle in traffic quite tough.

I just couldn't see the car go to a breaker, it just "spoke" to me!
 

Just checking in to say hello.

I'd been browsing the usual suspect places for a cheap summer convertible but everything I was finding was either miles away, a rusty wreck (or most often both!)
I hadn't totally settled on an MG (I was looking at MX5 and Z4 as well) but a few days ago I saw an eBay listing for a car that threatened scrappage if it wasn't sold by Monday.

Checking the MOT history I could see nothing seriously offputting, so had a chat with the seller (a garage who'd taken it in px against a Range Rover so just wanted rid) and then negotiated a price we were both happy with.

I grabbed a train down there this morning to be greeted by an obviously currently unloved car, filthy dirty but importantly showing all the signs of being well cared for in the past - a huge history file, 4 matching Toyo proxes, only 2 owners from new etc etc.

A quick dose of tax and a handover of cash and I was on my way home.


So what have I bought?

A 2004 (53) MGTF 135 
93k miles
MOT until Dec
history shows prior head gasket and recent lower arms and sill welding

As with all used cars there are a few things to fix though.

Cambelt last changed in 2016 so that's overdue
blowers only work on speed 3 and 4
Throttle pedal is "sticky" feels like it doesn't depress / release smoothly
it's utterly filthy inside and needs a good polish outside too

Mostly it just needs driving lol

Anyway, I've rattled on enough, sure I'll have more to ask as I've never owned one of these before.