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MG MGF Technical - Time to change HT leads or worrying over nothing?

This morning I managed to embarress myself by stalling my '96 VVC whilst stuck in traffic. I must have looked dead cool. I quickly went to restart, expecting it to fire virtually instantly like normal, and it didn't. I had another go and it took a good few seconds of cranking before it would start.

The weather was pretty wet, so I instantly thought "HT leads". They were changed by the previous owner with normal Rover black leads about 2 years ago to cure damp starting problems. Since then, the car has only done a few thousand miles. I've had the car for a couple of months now and it's always started with no trouble at all. So:

1 - Do the leads go off with age as well as mileage and if so, are they likely to be OK at only 2 years old?

2 - Is there a technique for restarting after a stall, eg. do you have to wait a couple of seconds for servos to reset etc before trying?

3 - Are magnecore leads really guaranteed for life?

Thanks,
Tim.
Tim Jenner

Hmm! You could be suffering a big problem on the BBS to do with the cars not being very happy on wet mornings and the revs being erratic!

Was the engine cold?

Secondly, the cars can take a few seconds to fire if stalled.
Rover explained this to me as ..
the engine management chucks a load of extra fuel into the engine when starting. If there is already a load of unburnt fuel, then you are effectively flooded. Once the engine turns over a few time it will sort itself out.

Thirdly and finally.. try and analyse the problem before going down the HT route. I have heard many stories of people changing the HT leads.., then the coil.., then realising that it was neither..
On an MG, they're both dear parts.
Neil H

Thanks for the reply, Neil. The car has otherwise behaved perfectly - no erratic revs, no reluctance to start when I first got in it this morning (after a heavy overnight downpoor - nice wet seat!). The reason for the stall was me being too busy singing along to a CD and not giving it enough revs - the engine was fully warmed up, about an hour into my journey. Interesting what you note about flooding after a stall - somehow I'd expected MEMS to be a bit more clever than that but maybe not!

Cheers,
Tim.
Tim Jenner


I would recommend changing to performance leads as a matter of course and the plugs at the same time, I have recently changed both - Black diamond leads from mike satur -you can really notice the difference. After last nights down pour - no problems at all.
Simon B

Tim,

It's also my experience that after a stall the car won't start as it will normally. This would seem to be a 'feature'. If this is your only 'starting problem' then I certainly wouldn't worry about it.

Dave
Dave

This thread was discussed on 23/06/2003

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