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MG MGF Technical - Green stuff leakage

Frequently when I take my MGF 1.8 out of the garage find some green stuff on the floor. This is apparently leaking from somewhere in the engine, centrally. I believe it leaks after I park the car after a long run and with the engine hot. It does not leak all the time. Possibly a leakage from the cooling system?. But I have been unable to identify the leakage site. Any suggestion about a frequent site of leaks where to look at?
Alan Mann


Sounds as if it could be your inlet manifold - if you've got an MPi that is...

or corroded underbody pipes...

There's a load of stuff in the archives about it..

HTH

mike
mike

Thank you Mike. What is an inlet manifold?. And where in the engine is located? Do you have any pics?. Appologies for the many questions. I actually searched "inlet manifold" but couldn“t find any advise.
Alan
Alan Mann

Centre, front of engine is lightly to be dodgy hose clips or perrishing rubber hoses, this isn't too costly but you must get it fixed now or you will end up will £700 of overheated HGF fix. Take engine cover off (under parcel shelf 10mm spanner needed) and have a look to see if there are any telltale crusty bits around the pipes.

drivers side, front of engine is bad, and lightly to be HGF, again fix now and you will save youself £200 extra of an overheated engine and coolant/oil mix.
Will Munns

Thank you Will, Mike.
I will have the manifold and hoses checked. Do you people know the part number of the inlet manifold replacement - I would like to be sure the garage replaces the early one for the new part-. Alan
Alan Mann

inlet manifold gasket, the 'new' one is bright green, but I doubt that any 'old' ones have lasted this long.

the inlet manifold is on the rear of the engine (when fitted) and up high and therefore can be seen thru the grill - it should be obvious with a torch from the boot if there is any green stuff over the engine.
Will Munns

Alan,

Best advice I could give is leave a news paper under car and then you can clearly see where drip is coming. Is definatly a coolant leak and if not fixed it could get worse and an HGF. You should be able to trace back horizontally if coming from those rusty pipes to the rad at the front or drippingonto engine and then working its way round.

You need as has been said to remove parcel shelf and lift back of hood up and remove the engine bay cover and see if you can see anything obvious from anyy rubber hoses. Try grabing the hoses and giving a squeeze and see if any fluid escapes.

Start engine as it pressurises the system and see if you can see any leaks.

If coming from engine you will have to see where its path leads. A trick is to use standard school chalk, and make a thick line markings on the engine, and bits and the drip if it goes through the chalk you can see the chalk line has been wiped by the water.

I'm afraid its hanging over the engine with a bright light and hoking about.

Rubber hoses are usually cheap and it tends to be perished rubber or those damn rover cheap pseudo jubilees which you should replace with proper jubilees.

Brian

Check inlet manifold gasket. Our 97 MPi had HGF at 55K 4 months ago - checked coolant one day and found oil sludge in coolant and water in oil. Got HGF replaced but I noticed that the coolant levels kept dropping after the HG replacement with water drip from right side of engine just in front of right rear axle. When I took the engine cover off I suspected that the coolant leak was from the inlet manifold although it was difficult to see and be sure. Was starting to think it was another HGF but good news was that another mechanic found inlet manifold gasket leak and replaced it - everything OK again and we're now enjoying the car as much as when we bought it new in 97. He showed me the gasket which was one of the (?newer) green ones but looked in poor condition - I suspect it wasn't replaced with HG repair. I think it may have been replaced when another coolant leak was fixed some time ago under the original 3 year warranty. I'm fairly sure that the leak from the gasket may have precipitated my HGF so get it checked before it becomes expensive.

Chris
Chris

Sorry question for Chris.

Chris where did you get the HGF fixed ? Hursts ?

I had my mgf go bang AND LOADS OF STEAMo n way back from airport using airport transfers tunbridge wells on the M2 and had car towed home, but couldn't get anyone to look at it. One mechanic didn't even know how to look at engine. So ended up looking at it myself and found it was only coolant pipe burst so replace and bled.

So need decent mechanic

Brian
brian

My original Black inlet manifold gasket lasted 9 years and 70K miles!!. :o)

Only new it was going by Very poor starting from cold (white smoke and anti-freeze smell from exhaust), once manifold warmed up gaskit expanded and sealed the leak!, car then ran perfect!.
Mark.L

Errr... Gaskit>> Gasket!, you dozy git..err..get!!!
Mark.L

Brian,

Head gasket work carried out by McCabe Engineering in Bangor and inlet manifold gasket replaced last week by Wheelbase (in Royal Hospital site, Broadway, Belfast). Both excellent to deal with and reasonable prices. They've also done work for me on my wife's car and I'd recommend them both. Hope this helps.

Chris
Chris Johnston

A very interesting thread. I own a 1997 MGF 1.8 MPI with only 30k on the clock. No cooling problems so far -but many other-. Should I get the inlet manifold gasket replaced just in case?. Any early warnings I could possibly check of something going wrong? Mike
JM Vega-P.

This thread was discussed between 22/08/2005 and 24/08/2005

MG MGF Technical index

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