MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGF Technical - rhd to lhd

hi
any one out there converted right hand drive to left hand drive? i would like to know whats involved parts and work wise
m rickerby

I would think it would be very expensive and a great deal of work. The dash panel would need changing, the wiring loom changing or modifying, steering rack changing, heater box changing, headlamps, speedo to KMH and possibly lots more!
Dave

You'll get a fairly good idea of what is required from browsing the parts listing (EPC) in Dieter's excellent website - http://www.mgfcar.de/index.htm

It is a lot of work, certainly DIY-able but at workshop rates you'll likely find buying a LHD car is a much cheaper option. And less of an ordeal for the 'control technique' too ;o)
bandit

I would agree that satisfying the Control Technique may be your biggest problem if the Car is not already on French Plates. In fact, this may be the first job.
Geoff F.
Geoff Farthing

I live in a Switzerland with a right hand drive MGF. Causes quite a stir here especially with the mods and still on UK plates (naughty me)and no problem driving (no where to overtake anyway).

Julian
Julian

This job would actually be fairly easy - and not actually all that expensive so long as you use as many second hand parts.

Rover actually made the task of swapping over the steering wheel and major controls very, very easy. The car was designed so that one shell suits all! The pedel box simply bolts to the bulk head. Remove the air intake box on the other side, you can re-mount that same pedal box in the LHD position with little difficulty. Of course, you will need to make up a new clutch master cylinder to brake bias valve pipe, and similarly, a new set of brake pipes to the master cylinder, but none of this is rocket science. You may well need a new heater air intake box - but I suspect that this too is interchangeable.

The steering column mounts on the LHS are all there - they're used to mount the EPAS ECU on a RHD car - so these can simply be swapped over.

If you are intending to keep the original wiring loom, the major issue you'll face is that all the wires will now be coming out at the wrong place. Perhaps un-picking the main loom from all that insulating tape will enable you to mount the fuse panel on the opposite side, but I suspect that this could be a bit of a mare of a job. If you can get a good, second hand, LHD wiring loom cheaply, this is the route that I'd take.

I'd imagine getting hold of the dash panel, a replacement instrument cluster and a pair of headlamp diffusers (you could probably salvage these from damaged, otherwise scrap LHD 'lamps) would be straight forward enough - but if you were undertaking all this work yourself on your own without prior experience, I'd budget about two weeks work (ie 14 working days). And make sure you have space to store all the removed parts safely, and take lots of photos and notes - these may become invaluable when you come to put things back together again.

Hope this helps!
Rob Bell

You could get some lights off Steve

Steve, Lincolnshire
Have checked part numbers & headkights fitted are for a lefthand drive car so are incorrect. To correct I will need two new headlight units. Steve
CW Faux

This thread was discussed between 21/10/2008 and 10/12/2008

MG MGF Technical index

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