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MG MGF Technical - More EPAS misery :-(

Well, I give up.
The EPAS on my car now simply provides an irritating and random "tick!,tick! .........tick!.........tick!tick!tick!....tick!" from the area of the glove box as it self tests before quitting all together and illuminating the failure light. I've figured the way forward is simply to strip the system out of the car completely, admit it was just an under-developed Rover gimmick (no surprise there then) and live without it, a bit like removing a rotten tooth.
Is this easy or shall I just remove the fuse and cut the wire to the failure light?

One other question...is there ANYTHING on this car that was designed/engineered to last more than three years or 10,000 miles (which ever is the least costly/inconvenient to Rover)? >:-(
Cannonball Bob

Bob

Mine is goning on 8 year of age !!

Ted
Ted Newman

The MGF may not have been type approved for InterContinental Speed Contests!
JohnP

I look forward to seeing the For Sale:

One carefull owner. Never Raced or Rallied. Dry use only. FMGRSH.
JohnP

Bob,

If you want to strip it out, then simply pull the glovebox, snip thru the two wires - green wire and pink with blue tracer wire, leave enough wire on each side of the snip to put bullet connectors, so in future * you can replace the coloumn/ECU, then put tape on the ends of the wire and replace the glovebox.

job done


Will
PS make sure you cut the pink/blue wire, not the blue/pink wire!

*when the money becomes less important than the effort ;-)
Will Munns

It's may be the connectors.
Bob, did you disconnect / re-connect already the multi-plug at the ECU ?
There is as well an interconnection in the middle of the wiring between ECU and the steering column.

http://www.mgfcar.de/epas/index.htm
Not much help, but see what drives you nuts ;)

Regards
Dieter
PS HEF-MG96 EPAS working since 80k km ;)
Dieter K.

Ted, so is mine, and whilst the build quality is reasonable-ish, I've come to "accept" (since Rover washed their hands long ago) that the quality of actual manufacture and even fundamental sub-surface design in line with third-world 1970s standards. Take a look at the location of the windscreen washer reservoir filler cap. Who ever thought that one up and then agreed it was acceptable? All for the sake of a 12" extention tube. Then there's the seat back adjuster that you can't reach when the seat's fully to the rear, seat belts that get trapped behind seats, cup holders ideally placed to be utterly useless, no internal storage. And that's before we get on to head gaskets and so on.
Gerry McGovern must feel so let down that his idea has been so poorly supported by money grabbing short-cuts and technology that clearly wasn't tested adequately before employment.
<Rant off>

Anyway, how do I remove the EPAS?
Cannonball Bob

Bloody hell! Must log on during the day more often, the results are far quicker!
I've tried re-seating the connectors before Dieter, but obviously it hasn't fixed the problem, just delayed it's return.
Oddly enough during Cannonball Run the car was the most fault free it's ever been so I wonder if it's lack of regular use causing things to go wrong.
Either way my 19 year old midget was less hassle.
Cannonball Bob

Bob, don't remove, simply snip. Actually bugger snipping, simply unplug the connector from the EPAS unit, the one with lots of small wires, not the one with few fat wires, job done.
Will Munns

I'm sure there is a sound reason why just pulling the fuse is not the best action - can one of you guys please explain to me?
JohnP

Will

>>The EPAS on my car now simply provides an irritating and random "tick!,tick! .........tick!.........tick!tick!tick!....tick!" from the area of the glove box as it self tests before quitting all together <<

will snipping wires stop the ticking?
JohnP

Yes, it will stop the ticking, but more important, it will turn off the red light on the dash (but so will unplugging, in fact, forget about the snip, just unplug!
Will Munns

Bugger - I had the snip years ago, wish I'd unplugged instead.
JohnP

Yep, I assume disconnecting the EPAS ECU multiplug not only disconnects the ECU from the steering column, it also removes the power supply thus reducing the ECU to a useless black box and bundle of wiring?
Why didn't they do this as one final check before the car left Longbridge and save me the disappointment of having it fail?
Cannonball Bob

Bulletin connectors weren't very likely to have helped you either John...

Bob - as Will says, pull the smaller of the two EPAS connectors (the one closer to the bulkhead, if memory serves). The advantage of doing this, over pulling the fuse, is that the dashboard warning light will not come on as a consequence (it is fed from the EPAS unit itself).

As to what has caused problems with your EPAS - not sure. The ticking is a bit odd - I wasn't really aware that there were any relays in the EPAS ECU? Again, as Dieter says (and I know you've been down this route already) - it could be a question of a poor earth/ dodgy connection somewhere.

The EPAS, BTW, is manufactured by a certain well-known Japanese company... so you can't *entirely* blame MG for this one ;o)
Rob Bell

>is there ANYTHING on this car that was designed/engineered to last more than three years or 10,000 miles

Bob, my 1997 F still had the original clutch on it when it died last October having completed just under 160,000 miles.

Ralph
Ralph

Weird.
Have now come to the conclusion the EPAS only fails when the car's hot.
Not hot as in up to running temperatures, I mean hot as it been sat in the sun or on bright sunny days.
First thing in the morning, no problem. Parked out in the sun at work, warming up all day, EPAS fails.
Any more ideas?
Cannonball Bob

Bob,
You say that
"I've tried re-seating the connectors before Dieter, but obviously it hasn't fixed the problem, just delayed it's return."
and that it is only an issue when the car is hot.
My EPAS played up intermittently a while ago and after much work by a Rover garage I traced the fault to a loose pin in one of the connectors.
I would suggest that as re-seating the connectors did seem to fix your problem temporarily then it may be worth you actually checking that all the pins in the connector are straight and firmly fixed. Jason H
Jason H

Raising temperatures = rising resistance of a poor connection?
Rob Bell

This thread was discussed between 16/10/2003 and 20/10/2003

MG MGF Technical index

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