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MG MGF Technical - Niggles

I have a couple of niggles with my F and wondered if anyone has the fix:

1. Revs stick on at 2500 when slowing down. This is an intermittant fault and can be cured with a quick kick on the pedal but is very annoying.

2. Very light steering causing very nervous driving at exactly 70mph????? Is this because the car is light at the front and lifts? If so what's the fix?!

If anyone know what to do to cure this, you will make a person happy today.

thanks
Mark



Mark

Mark,

I don't know about the first one, but when I got my 'F' just over a month ago, it scared the living daylights out of me at anything over 70 cause it was all over the road and it was a real battle to keep it straight. I thought it was to do with the EPAS cause I had never driven a car with power steering before, so put it down to inexperience, but it turned out to be the tracking on the rear wheels!! Does your car snake around long sweeping bends?

Chris
Chris George

For point one:-

Check the throttle body is not distorted or gunged up, Check if the clip holding the filter tube to the throttle body has beeen replaced with a Jubilee (worm) clip and if it has that it has not been overtightened.Also check the throttle cable does not have any kinks in it.

For point two:-

Get a full check of your suspension and steering setup.

There is much more on these subjects in the archives and the FAQ.

Ted
Ted Newman

Mark

Answer to Q1 - Your throttle assembly is sticking. Either it will need lubricating or maybe replacing. I had the same problem and a new throttle assembly was fitted under warranty.

Go and pester your dealer.
Dave.
Dave

Hi Mark,
if your tracking is all right but you still find your car a handfull at speeds above 70mph you might want to try fitting a splitter. This has really changed my F's behaviour on german Autobahns, it's as stable as any mid-engined car can be, I wouldn't be without it any more!
Nikolaj
Nikolaj

Mark,

You're not alone... I can totally symphathize with you on the skittish steering at highspeed. When I first got my F, it used to hop all over the highway at any speed over 120kph. Had to drive with a two-handed death grip on the steering wheel at all times. God forbid a crosswind or a bump on the highway... This got worse at my 6 mos service as the garage pumped up suspension to a 380mm ride height. But since then, got that problem cured by having the car lowered to 330 w/ lowering knuckles, tracking fixed, and better performance tires. Now I can comfortably drive my F at close 200kph without it feeling out control. Haven't tried the splitter, but people who installed them swear by it.

So the solutions to the handling problem are:

1) Check your ride height (if the car is sitting too high, the handling is gonna be rubbish) Dealers tend to be over zealous about pumping up MGF's to 4x4 monster-truck mode...

2) get the tracking checked

3) Get your F lowered by either depressurizing the hydragas suspension or installing a lowering kit.

4) Install a splitter (which prevents front-end lift)

5) Get a sports car whose manufacturer/ dealers don't go out of their way to purposely ruin its true handling ability.
Mike

It's nice to know I'm not alone... I was beginning to think "this is how the MGF is accept it". Thinking about it I really couldn't imagine how you could possible go to anywhere near the cars top speed without wrapping around the central reservation.

Is there an order of priority for all these cures as all this work sounds expensive. How much should all this cost? Should any of this come under warranty?

I am very interested in the splitter, does anyone have a diagram or picture?

Many thanks for your help...

Mark

PS Mike... are you really in Tokyo?
mark

Chris

Sorry I missed your question. It does snake a bit. The best way I can desribe the feeling is if you had really flat tyres and you turned the car sharply from left to right it seems like you are always trying to catch up and put the car back on track. This only realy happens above 70 to full effect.

Mark
mark

Mark,

Yes I'm am actually in Tokyo. Travelled all the way from the US to Tokyo so I could drive a MGF... just kidding (of course hopping over the Atlantic would have been faster...)

Almost forgot, also check your tire pressure. The F handling can be a bit fickle about air pressure. I think the warranty would only cover the ride height. I doubt they would pay for tracking check, but I'm not in the UK so I really can't comment on what UK dealers will do.

Mike
Mike

Hi Mark,

Take a look at Rob Bell's site. There is a good explanation of splitters in the technical section of his web site.

The address is:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/robmidgleybell/index.htm

Cheers,

Daniel.
Daniel Ginger

Mike..

On advice from my Uncle who has owned a mid engined car; I checked the tyres and the monkeys at the garage had put them up to 30psi (NICE!) along with filling the coolant reservoir to the top to produce a worrying moment in my 1st week of ownership when green fluid spouted from the engine!

The pressure drop has altered the drive but I still find it a bit scary... I will double check this though as I set the pressure using a service station gauge which are not too reliable at the best of times.

thanks
Mark

mark

Mark

Just to re-iterate what has already been said. Take the car back to the dealer. I feel safer and more in control in the F than any other car I have driven in the last quarter of a century. My car is a bog standard VVC on standard Goodyears and standard ride height. Only over 110mph do I start to feel unsafe.

I have read nothing but good things about the splitter and am sure it will improve your handling but get the underlying problem fixed before fitting a splitter otherwise you could merely be masking the problem. I confess I do not have one as I think it detracts from the aesthetics of the F (like a super model with a hairy wart on her chin!)

I also suggest not following Mike's advice to depressurise the hydragas units to lower the ride height as this appears to lead to all sorts of tyre wear problems. General opinion seems to be that the lowering knuckles are good news but expensive if the garage fits.

Cheers

Patrick
Patrick

Look.

The MGF in all it's forms is a Pile of manure.

It's embarrasing that it got the badge.

Don't waste your time and money trying to improve it.

Get shot of it and go out and buy a decent sports car.

Not japanese crap, not italian crap, not american crap.

Unfortunatley Scotland doesn't have car industry, then you'd see some engineering.

So Reluctantly, I have you recommend that you go out and buy a Porker, or even an Audi TT.
Martin Jackson

Good weekend then Martin?
Patrick

Mark,

It really does sound like your car has the same problems as I did. How long have you had it? If you bought it from a dealer (like I did) take it back and the get them to do a full geometry check on it, it was all covered under my warranty.

Like you, I thought that it was just the way it is, especially as it was so different to my cavalier! But then when it started getting dangerous, especially in the lorry grooves on motorways where is would skip from one to the other _VERY_ dangerously, I queried it with the garage.

Hope you have some luck with it. I honestly can't imagine that the front end is lifting, especially at just 70 mph...

Chris
Chris George

Great Week End, how was your's Patrick
Martin Jackson

Why doesn't everyone on the BBS just ignore attention seekers like Martin from Glasgow. I've seen about 30 threads with entries from people like this.

Make it a rule.......!
mark

Martin, tried Porkers, had 5x911's and a 944 Turbo, still got a MG. The 911 has a similar feel to it and needs respect!I once did a 360 in one ,without any damage, but never managed that same experiance in a MGF.Also made more friends with the MG!Must admit though the 944T was a superb car, would probably still have it if hadn't met an untimly death with a Transit! (Not while I was driving it BTW)
Mike.
mikesatur

Throttle sticking requires a new throttle body fitted under warranty as I have just had done. A previous thread also mentions an upgraded assembly to fix the problem. When hot the throttle body distorts keeping the revs up.....
Greg Croll

So the throttle being warped is a manufacturing fault? I assume this has been rectified with a new part?
mark

Cobblers,

The throttle being warped is not the cause of the problem.

There is a known fault with the throttle body.

In fact there is a known fault with the whole car.

Basically it's crap. Like ALL MG's.

So I suggest that you all dump the Garbage and do as suggested by other contributors here.

Buy a decent car, and stop wasting time and money.

Scotland Forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Martin Jackson

I don't know about you but I'm beginning to like Martin from Scotland....

Martin if your not an F owner why do you come onto this site? Try and answer seriously for a change!

Are you lonely?

psych

What are you a shrink.

Come an lie on my couch laddie?

Why do people attempt everest, or go to the moon.

Because it's there, because I can, because in this great land of the free and brave I can be and do anything I want.

As for being lonely, is a Schitzo ever lonely???

Who said that?
Martin Jackson

Martin/Martin II

I think people climb Everest because they have nothing better to do. Is that the case with you two?

People go to the moon for the advancement of science and to find new life forms.

Can you really do anything you want? Nah! You both just think you can.

Do you own an MGF? (T77 JAK)


psych

Actually there are several of us, I think.

And I can't keep up with everything we all do.

T77 JAK is my post code, or one of them anyway.

I'm not telling what I own, it's my secret
Martin Jackson

a mysterious Scot probably from Birmingham!
psych

And what's wrong with Birmingham then?
Amy Turtle

T77 JAK??? Post code??? I don't think so. Glasgow postcodes start with 'G' and all postcodes have a number in the last part ie G99 9ZW.

So what car is this plate attached to? You slag of MG's but then don't tell us what you have? C'mon or is it really that bad?
Hmmm

Yes, it really is that bad.
Martin Jackson

that's a pseudo Martin. Where's the real one!
psych

Hay psych, was that last comment supposed a question?
Hmmm Glasgow

It was "supposed a question" but like you I do typos
psych

This is one of them, and the last comment was one of the others.

There is nothing Psuedo aboot any of us.

Is there?
Martin Jackson

Mark,

Like others, I had the exact same feeling about the car's handling at high speed when I first got my VVC, P100 VVC. I did start to get used to it, but found motorway journeys in cross winds very hard work. I bought and fitted a Krafthaus splitter and found that it transformed the handling. the car feels so much more stable now. So i can heartily recommend the splitter and I don't think it looks too bad. My cars BRG and I've left the splitter gloss black, matching the windscreen surround and it doesn't look too bad at all. I have since though had the feeling that i should ahve checked out the tracking and ride height first and I will do at next service. I suggest your plan of attack is check those first and if it still feels a bit lively then get the splitter - it's only about £70 anyway.
PS. why don't the rest of you lot take your inane comments to the MX5 site and leave us alone.
Gord.

Is that Gordon Bennet.

Just because you are getting irate, don't take it out on MX5's.
MAZ

Thanks Gord.... Have booked it in with Rover as first point of attack. Will get the tracking and allignment done along with the throttle problem.

I've seen the splitter and agree it looks fine

cheers
mark

Hi All,

I have a similar problem with my MGF VVC. The front end feels very light when going round sweeping bends @ around 70 mph. My last car was the old style MX5 which did the same but @ around 60 mph. I just feel that with the MGF having so much more power I should be able to push it a bit further without wrapping it round a lamp post. I also reckon my old Fiesta RS turbo could handle it a lot better. Any suggestions??

MGF VVC BRG R464 USP
Kenny Taylor

Mark,

Ref Q1 and Q2.
If I have had similar issues with my new 1.8I (Mk2) MGF.

Q1. Simple cleaning of the throttle and it’s butterfly clip cleared a very similar fault I had. (Under warranty)

Q2. A good MGF should have perfect straight line precession driving (less cross winds, road “tramlines” and adverse cambers etc.) on a motorway. I am lucky in that my servicing dealer (Trident Ottershaw, M3/M25) have got mine set up perfectly… and similarly the cornering is effortless. I’d say the work could be done under warranty (but if the car is s/hand you may need to pay for alignment approx 38GBP as a basic fee)… but I think you may need to find a better servicing dealer… I appreciate this is not easy… regretfully some dealers “best” however hard, and truly well meaning they try, just is not up to the same standard as others.

One observation… I thought that the faster you drive… PAS automatically stiffens slightly… is still happening on your MGF?

PS I always pay to have my alignment when the car is with the dealer… as this issues makes the biggest difference to handling I’ve noticed. I’ve now travelled 12.5K since October over various terrain…and the car has kept its alignment pretty perfectly ONCE it is set correctly!

This niggle is well worth persevering for!

Francis
Francis

Thanks Francis.

The only problem with the throttle is it is intermittent and has now cured itself before I've even taken it to the garage. I will get them to take a look anyway. You are probably right that it only needs cleaning.


To be honest I haven't noticed the PAS stiffening at all (is it really evident when it happens?). Could this be the problem? I have seen many threads talking about EPAS causing the car to be light but these are then discounted by other saying it is down to tracking and alignment. My suspisions are that it is allignment as I'm veering left on braking from 70mph. I swear it's not my knee pushing the wheel down!

Mark
Mark

Mark,

RE Q1.
My Throttle problem started as an intermittent problem (and sometimes after brakeing hartd)... it then got worse.... but had the car booked in!

RE Q2.
Sounds definitely tracking alignment... and maybe PAS as well.

When tracking/ alignment is correct... then I notice there is slight tightening effect of the steering... However, I test drove a brand new VVC (June00 vintage) and it had very light steering and perfect straight line handling... may be the latest MGF are getting better!
Francis

This thread was discussed between 17/07/2000 and 24/07/2000

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGF Technical BBS is active now.