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MG MGF Technical - Oh NO....What NOW????

Travelling home tonight...17.15...five miles into journey...temperatures (water & oil) normal...headlights on....CD player playing...30 mph...fifth gear.

Engine warning light starts flashing...flashed for about 20 seconds then went out...not seen for remaining 10 miles. Didn't stop immediately, cos in traffic PLUS didn't know what the light was (I know, I know...I'm "a dopey twat"...(imaginitive, hhunh??))

Should I be panicking, guys??????

(Oh sh*t, you don't think it's the exhaust mod do you??) ;-D
SimonKE

Why 30mph in 5th ? could have been something to do with alternator at that speed in that gear!! see what the boys think Dave.
DC Morris

...well 1500 rpm in fifth...just over 30mph...car's always been happy before!!!
SimonKE

I cannot conceive of driving at 30 mph in 5th, I prefer to be in a gear that gives me a chance of accelerating away from trouble.

At the least I try to drive at an engine speed where the alternator output would exceed the electrical drain of heated mirrors ... headlights on ... CD player playing ... probably heater fan on, electric shaver and hair dryer on etc etc and put back the amount used in operating the starter motor.
JohnP

Pretentious prat..........
SimonKE

SimonKE

You asked for assistance on this BBS even though your posts indicate a very high level of stupidity on your part.

Don't call me a prat - you have no idea who I am or what I am really like but at least my reply indicates that I have driven a car at some stage of my life rather than just dreamt about it like you.

If you have many more wet dreams you will probably notice your feet slipping off the pedals and getting caught up in the strings of your dummy.
JohnP

>> you have no idea who I am or what I am really like...

ditto JohnP

>> that I have driven a car at some stage of my life rather than just dreamt about it like you...

...and I have been driving for 36 years..which is a darn sight longer than you, no doubt...and driven MORE cars than you've had wet dreams...

SO JUST GROW UP, you pretentious, self-opinionated oik.



(BTW, you OBVIOUSLY have no idea how an alternator works...)
SimonKE

Simon....maybe it was that 130mph thrash with the headlights flashing, that you mentioned elsewhere? :-)
Blue Max

SKE, seeing as you keep trying to lower the tone of this board, f u ck off back to playschool will you , there's a good little boy...
David

>>Engine warning light starts flashing...flashed for about 20 seconds then went out...<<

Simon, which light are talking about here? I doubt that disconnecting the noise-abatement valve will have caused a problem.

IIRC, the TF has three (?) lamps to warn of 'engine problems' - engine bay overheat, catalyst failure (MIL), oil pressure.

Are you able to identify which one it was?
Rob Bell

Rob...AT LAST, thanks, mate, someone prepared to help sensibly.

It's the light on the left of the panel, third down fom top, amber, picture of an engine, called "Engine Indicator" in the handbook when it's amber, or "Engine bay overheat" when it's red.

As I said, it only flashed (Amber) for a few seconds, but I was in a stream of traffic (doing 33/35 mph!!!) on a narrow stretch of the A2 in Faversham, so couldn't stop without causing major chaos. I would've expected the battery light to have shown, if there was an excess drain on the battery and, anyway, if the first two respondents had been right, why doesn't the warning ligh flash EVERYtime I come to a standstill with the engine turning over at less than 1,000 rpm. At the speed I was doing, the engine was at 1,500+ revs.

Just about to leave for work now....let's see what happens.

>> Blue Max...Hmmm might've been...but MGR say it can go faster!!!

>> David...lower the tone??? Who used the f u ck word...YOU or me???
SimonKE

Lets not throw out toys out of the pram now...

>(BTW, you OBVIOUSLY have no idea how an alternator works...)
Go on, I'd love to hear why engine rev's make no diffrence


>I would've expected the battery light to have shown,
>if there was an excess drain on the battery and, anyway
Nope, in fact quite the opposite, the light sits between the battery +ve and the alternator +ve out.
When you start the car the light goes out as the alternator voltage rises to meet the battery voltage, note untill this happens there is no current flow from the alternator and so there is effectivly no load on it, so this happens fairly fast (and easily). As you incresse the rpm the power you feed into the alternator generates a higher voltage, this voltage is capped by a regulator and the voltage diffrence causes the battery to charge.

If you load up the battery then the voltage seen across the battery falls, ironicly this means that the alternator has to do less work to reach the battery voltage, the light still goes out even if the battery is dischargeing.

Will
P.S. I drive at 30 in 3rd, but most of my 30 driving is thru villages where I expect to slow to 20 a lot and speed to 60 as I exit the village, but I would swap down to 4th even if in 30mph motorway traffic, anything less than 2000rpm and the engine really suffers.
Will Munns

take care Will - if you give him rational explanations he will shout at you.
JohnP

Just out of intrest, what rpm is 20pmh in 5th? I find it difficult to imagine. If it's 1500 rpm, then I'm surprised you don't stall.

Btw, I discovered last week that pulling away in 3rd is a fail-safe way to avoid wheel-spinning on ice!
David Bainbridge

David

I did the same and was amazed at how well the F behaved in the snow & ice. It was much better than a 911 that I saw struggling to find any grip at all.
JohnP

>>It's the light on the left of the panel, third down fom top, amber, picture of an engine, called "Engine Indicator" in the handbook when it's amber, or "Engine bay overheat" when it's red.<<

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a post-2001 hand book, but I wonder whether this is an emissions related 'warning'

Remember that all cars registered after Jan 2001 has another lambda sensor after the catalyst (with the exception of the SVA type approved Trophy 160).

I wonder whether driving along so slowly in a high gear caused the emissions profile to go out of 'spec' - and hence the transient illumination of this light (the Elise boys refer to it as the 'MIL' lamp)

Might be worth reporting it to your local MG technician when the car next goes for a service (or sooner if you see it again) - a quick look at the MEMS log on Testbook will quickly inform you of what the problem was.

In the mean time, it may be wise to drop a gear when cruising at speeds of less than 30 mph.
Rob Bell

>Remember that all cars registered after Jan 2001 has another lambda sensor after the catalyst

Bizzarely, when speaking to a catalyst scientist person last week, she said that the catalysts they provide to the motor industry are not as good as they could be because the regulations require them to be detectable _WHEN_ they fail. They have catalyst which don't fail but they can't use these because the regulations require them to fail. Madness?

Will
Will Munns

Simon - Think you just misread Johns post, which was meant to be a light-hearted comment and not a dig.
Will - drop that big chip off your shoulder and chill out!

If you lok through an evil lens, only evil you shall see....

Shake hands and let peace reign!

Russky
R Goodman

MuST sPEll coRReCTly
R Goodman

Thanks Russky

Simon my hand is out if you return to this thread :-)
JohnP

>Will - drop that big chip off your shoulder and chill out!
I wasn't aware of one, please could you point me at where you read one and I'll try to avoid it in future.

Will
Will Munns

Hey, I was under pressure! IT GOT TO ME OK!!!!

So I put the worng name in, I hang my head in shame....

Should have read John, not will - apologies.

Trying to bring a little peace.....

Russky
R Goodman

OK, I thought I had got caught in the crossfire, my (1st) replay was because of the way that JohnP had been replyied to (which I thought was well out of order).
Generally we work better if you don't respond to trolls, if you thought that John was trolling then ignore him (I don't think he was, but thats how misunderstandings grow isn't it?)

Will
Will Munns

Who Knows!
R Goodman

>>JohnP...my hand's there too...where d'you hang out?? A beer might clinch it!!

And to a lot of the others....I was travelling at OVER 30 mph...not LESS!!

What I was objecting to was the manner of reply to a perfectly INNOCENT (all right SOME of you might consider it "stupid") concern that my car was about expire on me and I had no idea why. I gave you all the circumstances, in case anyone had any idea WHY the light came on. Instead I felt I was being berated for travelling at a constant speed in a free-flowing stream of traffic in (what I consider to be and still do) an economical gear. There was no impeding reason to accelerate rapidly and, if that had arisen, OF COURSE, I would've changed down a couple of cogs. And the engine was not under strain.

BTW, at 1,500 rpm, a well run in TF160 is quite happy and nowhere NEAR stalling!! And, David, I said 30+mph not 20.

Anyway, all that is by way of explaining my reaction and, thankfully, despite most things being the same (except the ambient temperature) the light remained OFF!!!

>> Will...but, why has it only happened the once??? I travel in similar style every weekday and it has occurred before (or since, see above).

>> Rob...thanx for the advice...I think I WILL get it checked over. BTW, as explained above, I certainly wouldn't be in 5th at less than 1,500 rpm, or any gear, if accelerating.
SimonKE

Ooops, sorry, didn't ask this bit...

But IF the problem was a discharging battery....do you think this would have triggered the Engine warning light???
SimonKE

Simon

I'll have a beer tonight and dedicate it to you. If we meet up at some future MG do we could toast the BBS.
JohnP

This thread was discussed between 06/02/2003 and 07/02/2003

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