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MG MGF Technical - Starts when cold, but not when hot ?

Hi,

Is there anyone who can give me even the faintest idea what might be wrong with my F, its a 97 1.8i.

The car initially started cutting out and losing revs, but strangely only when i tried to accelerate, if i was cruising at 70mph, and tried to give it a bit more, it started juddering and losing speed, then catching again, and going fine until i next tried to accelerate.

I left it overnight, started it in the morning, and drove about 5 miles when it just died completely, tried to start it again but it just wouldn't catch.

The guy who came out to see it reckoned it was the fuel pump, leaving me getting a 130 mile tow home. After inspection the fuel pump is fine.

The car will start from cold, but if the engine has been running for a while, it will cut out and won't start again until it has cooled right down !?. When trying to start it warm there is a strong petrol smell coming from the car.

Has anyone else had a similar problem to this, or just got any ideas as to what it might be ?.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Louis
Louis Brown

Might be the brown temp sensor, feeds the ECU info.
Will Munns

Mine did this, it was a faulty relay on the ECU for the fuel pump :(
J Price

Thanks for the quick replies,

I'm about to have an electrical engineer come out with his gear to test it, will either of these possible faults be traceable via Testbook ?.

I'd rather have them checked first if they aren't, before he comes out and charges me !.

Louis
Louis Brown

Louis

Not sure, when mine did it I took it to the garage I got the car from (not a rover mg garage) so they sent the ECU off to Rover. 2 days later got it back working.
J Price

Another potential candidate is the ignition system: could be the leads/ spark plugs or perhaps just as likely the distributer head and rotor arm.
Rob Bell

Mine had this. I had issues starting when hot [ mainly after i had given it some serious stick :)))) ] , and it used to splutter if i changed gear too quickly [ anyone see a pattern here? ]

Rover eventually changed the ECU, after which it was fine.

As a side note ( and rather amusing one ) i took it to the garage 4 times complaining about this, each time they had the car for the day and " couldn't repro" the fault..... and basically told me i was making it up. Muppet. So i took the car for a 10 minute thrashing, parked up sideways RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the sales court, chucked my keys to the engineer and said "Start it".

After 10 seconds of turning over with no joy I politely asked " Is there a problem..... because I thought it always started ". I love being smug :)))))
Garry

Thanks everybody for being so helpful,

It was the Temp sensor that "Will Munns" suggested, it was reporting that the engine was at -29. So it was a pretty easy fix.

I've rather strangly become very emotionally attached to this car, and now I can't stop smiling !.
Think I'll have to take it for a very very long drive at the weekend, just to make sure its working ok of course.

Many thanks
Louis.
Louis Brown

Nice one Louis - thanks for letting us know what the problem was finally, and for confirming Will's excellent diagnosis! :o)

Enjoy the weekend drive!
Rob Bell

hmmmm, juddering and temp. sensor ??
aaaaahhhhh !!!!

sorry it's just me.
Erik

Cool.

If you start doing the work yourself you'll find you get really attached to it, like you impart some of your soul (and a little of your blood).
Will Munns

I just had the same problem and as Mr Munns said it was the Temperature Sensor.

Had it fixed yesterday and it works wonderfully. Starts first time, everytime.

For anybody in the Bristol area, the garage I took it to that fixed it was the Injection Centre on Longwell Green. An independant garage that employs a couple of guys who used to work for Rover and have many credits to their name.

I'd definitely recommend them and I'll certainly be taking my MG back, should anything else need doing.

Sally (Gwent/Bristol) Not Lothian.
S L Casley

This thread was discussed between 04/06/2003 and 06/06/2003

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