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Losing faith in my MGF (old thread)

5K views 27 replies 17 participants last post by  Julian Foulger 
#1 ·
Hey im newish to this forum, just a common question regarding the favourite topic of collant loss..grrrr!!

Ive owned my 1998 MGF for about a year and a half, i take great care of the old fella and for a female i think im rather knowlegable regarding the typical MGF faults. Last year i was having collant loss, overheating in slow moving traffic, but no other typical HGF symptoms such as milky oil. I took the old boy to an MG specialist in Burton, expecting the HGF. Had new water pump, manifold inlet gasket along with some other repairs not related to the heating system, and was informed that i already has a upgraded head gasket, and all was well.

For a few months after the car was fine, no more overheating, no collant loss. For the last 6 months the car loses collant and i have to top up, i do cover a fair amount of millage 52 miles a day to work about 3 times a week. I dont have any obvious external leaks and although i still have the steel collant pipes they are not corroded too allow a leak. The car had never overheated, but i never let the collant get too low. However occasionally only on the oil dipstick there will be a mayo residue, none under the oil cap just the dipstick and this does disapear. This has been happening in the warmer months, so cant even put it down to cold weather.

Ive reached a point where im lossing patience with my car, and i refuse to pay more garage fees. Any ideas on what this problem could be? I have been advised to put some sealing product into the collant incase there are any small leaks, but im a little sceptical to do so.

Any advice will be greatly apreciated,

laura
:mad:
 
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#2 · (Edited)
The jury is out on the use of sealant, maybe as a short term remedy, but in this case NO,

Have you had the system pressure checked, there have been cases of tiny holes in the hoses which only leak when the engine gets hot and you get a fine spray.

It is always said start at the cheapest first, Change your coolant cap, ensure you get an oem one. and carry your old one with you, by interchanging them you can tell if this is making a difference.

As to the mayo. If the car is not used a lot and got up to full operating temperature this will happen, the fact that it clears is indication that this is the problem. A good long run or an oil change will sort this, but it will return, short infrequent journeys are not good for these cars.

Looks like you are doing everything right, you just have to sort the coolant loss. So dont lose heart, On a dry day get her hot so the thermostat is open, and the system is pressurised, it will take a good drive to do it, then check all around the car completely from front to rear looking for signs of a leak, check in the cockpit behind the seats, and up under the dashboard for dampness. If you are able remove the engine inspection hatch, the parcel shelf and have a good look around the engine,

Although your pipes may look fine they could still be rusted under the paint and have a pin*****. also the clips are rubbish and could be allowing coolant to leak past the end of the hose.

If you have oat antifreeze look for orangy residue which could indicate the site of a leak. but remember a leak can start in one place and travel across wires hoses etc before dripping.

Keep the faith. Once sorted enjoy

Steve
 
#7 ·
As steve says the pipes may look fine, mine did and I never once saw any water under the car. However when, following an ongoing leak, I took it into the garage to have a suspect failed radiator replaced once it was on the ramp you could see a tiny amount of wet on the pipes.

If your car is 1998 and still on the original rad or coolant pipes I'd certainly be looking to get them checked over.
 
#8 ·
If your near Burton take it to Austin Garages and get Nick to check it over, he knows them inside out and would give you a reliable diagnosis, at least then you know where you stand with it.

I wouldnt recommend the leak sealing products, better to get the problem sorted. I had an Metro GTi that had been treated with leak sealer before I purchased it and it was a nighmare to get it out of the cooling system to fix the problem properly.
 
#9 ·
I had the same problem with mine for about 18 months. It was gradually getting worse. Eventually after a rather long drive on a hot day I pulled up at home and left the motor running to try to figure out once and for all what was wrong.
Turned out to be the radiator leaking, but only when hot and under load.
Replaced the rad and everything is now fine.
Pity I didn't notice 12 months ago before my head gasket went :(
 
#11 ·
It's always a good idea to replicate the overheating... so take it for a spin... let engine warm up and leave it on your driveway or garage idling and if there is a leak, it should show.

Other than that, how much are oyu topping it up with? Does it go under the minimum mark? Or do you just fill up to max? Sometimes due to expansion of the coolant it 'throws' any warm coolant back and if it does go above max level it will spit it out. That happens with my Triumph Speed Triple, it likes to be on the min mark ad if I top it up it will pee it out. Where as my other car, it's always on the max level and it's fine.

Mayo on your dipstick could just be condensation, so an oil change would get rid of that easily.

When you say Burton, is it Burton-on-Trent? That's where my English side is from, still have my grandmother living Streatham area. Good to knbow if there is a good garage there as when I do come to England with my MGF would be looking at spares and possibly a 'major' job to it.
 
#12 ·
Hey im newish to this forum, just a common question regarding the favourite topic of collant loss..grrrr!!

Ive owned my 1998 MGF for about a year and a half, i take great care of the old fella and for a female i think im rather knowlegable regarding the typical MGF faults. Last year i was having collant loss, overheating in slow moving traffic, but no other typical HGF symptoms such as milky oil. I took the old boy to an MG specialist in Burton, expecting the HGF. Had new water pump, manifold inlet gasket along with some other repairs not related to the heating system, and was informed that i already has a upgraded head gasket, and all was well.

For a few months after the car was fine, no more overheating, no collant loss. For the last 6 months the car loses collant and i have to top up, i do cover a fair amount of millage 52 miles a day to work about 3 times a week. I dont have any obvious external leaks and although i still have the steel collant pipes they are not corroded too allow a leak. The car had never overheated, but i never let the collant get too low. However occasionally only on the oil dipstick there will be a mayo residue, none under the oil cap just the dipstick and this does disapear. This has been happening in the warmer months, so cant even put it down to cold weather.

Ive reached a point where im lossing patience with my car, and i refuse to pay more garage fees. Any ideas on what this problem could be? I have been advised to put some sealing product into the collant incase there are any small leaks, but im a little sceptical to do so.

Any advice will be greatly apreciated,

laura
:mad:
does anyone ever mention the thermostatic cooling fans on those cars? 0ne up front hidden away with the raditor; the other one in the engine compartment one should hear them cutting in when on tick over for a while;never thrust the temp guage//
 
#13 ·
The engine fan rarely comes on as the engine compartment has to be very hot, normally after switch off after a fast and hot run (Pscan tells me this)

Regarding the front radiator fan, when motoring along it does not generally come on but if stuck in a traffic jam, it does cut in.

Using Pscan, I was initially amazed how little the fans cut in but the operating temperatures are within the workshop manual spec.
 
#14 ·
I am in the process of getting my TF back on the road after needing a new water pump, so with no MoT I’ve been doing some static tests and takes ages for the rad fan to kick in, with diagnostics software I can see the coolant gets to 90dig quickly but the rad fan doesn’t kick in until oil temperature gets to towards the 120deg mark.
 
#15 ·
Using Pscan and the workshop manual, the rad fan should and on mine does kick in at 102C and off at 96C (water temps) - The second fan kicks in at 108C and off at 103C.

The engine compartment fan kicks in at 75C (85C for the VVC) for 3 minutes unless it reaches 65C (VVC 75C) sooner.

If the engine compartment temp exceeds 130C (Death Valley?), the engine warning light will come on the instrument cluster.

Regarding oil temp, all fans are independent of the oil temp.
 
#16 ·
It gets pretty hot here in SW Ontario, Canada. The engine compartment fan comes on in our cars after a long run when the car is stopped and/or shut off and continues to run for a few minutes.

The only time I have heard the radiator fans come on is when the a/c is turned on, otherwise I am unaware of the radiators fan turning on.
 
#17 ·
Yes mowog, it is rare for the fans to come on. The workshop manual is very clear and certainly, my car operates per the workshop manual (although I have not tested it at 130C engine compartment temp.....)

As the car gets older, in my opinion, it is a must to have a workshop manual and Pscan, even if you only have a passing interest in understanding these cars. I would never rely on a forum to give you the right answer every time because they do not.
 
#18 ·
Hey im newish to this forum, just a common question regarding the favourite topic of collant loss..grrrr!!

Ive owned my 1998 MGF for about a year and a half, i take great care of the old fella and for a female i think im rather knowlegable regarding the typical MGF faults. Last year i was having collant loss, overheating in slow moving traffic, but no other typical HGF symptoms such as milky oil. I took the old boy to an MG specialist in Burton, expecting the HGF. Had new water pump, manifold inlet gasket along with some other repairs not related to the heating system, and was informed that i already has a upgraded head gasket, and all was well.

For a few months after the car was fine, no more overheating, no collant loss. For the last 6 months the car loses collant and i have to top up, i do cover a fair amount of millage 52 miles a day to work about 3 times a week. I dont have any obvious external leaks and although i still have the steel collant pipes they are not corroded too allow a leak. The car had never overheated, but i never let the collant get too low. However occasionally only on the oil dipstick there will be a mayo residue, none under the oil cap just the dipstick and this does disapear. This has been happening in the warmer months, so cant even put it down to cold weather.

Ive reached a point where im lossing patience with my car, and i refuse to pay more garage fees. Any ideas on what this problem could be? I have been advised to put some sealing product into the collant incase there are any small leaks, but im a little sceptical to do so.

Any advice will be greatly apreciated,

laura
:mad:
when it was discovered those cars mgf had major design faults/ no dealers/ mg rover could ever admit it to prospective customers, so people bought them,thinking ,rightly so, that one sat in drove serviced and forget/ hindsight is a great thing; we all are experts now but will never be able to overcome those faults/mid mounted engines were troublsome at best/ add a "frail" engine/ all alloy unit /alloy being a tempermental metal at the best of times; poor cooling system they were never going to be long livers. they never had a hope of competing with the maza mx5 / enthousiasts; collectors/ will hopefully keep them alive/ in another 9 years they could be vintage/ but they will never be cars for touring the wicklow hills or the scottish highlands
 
#19 ·
Genuine questions:
1) If you are not a fan, do you have or drive an MGF or TF?
2) If no to question 1), why are you posting in this section of this MGR forum?
 
#20 ·
I suggest a read of this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rover-K-Engine-Maintenance-Modification-ebook/dp/B078HNXSHCA

The HGF issue isn't as big as a lot of people seem to make it and is often a secondary to something smaller like a failed coolant cap, the mistake that MGR made was not to install a low level coolant alarm sooner. I say this not as k-series fan-boy but as someone who has owned a TF for the last 16+ years, the first 10 as my daily car the (the first 8 as my only car), been all-over the UK and Europe in it.
 
#24 ·
But you are not stating facts; just spouting rubbish.

A lot of us on this forum have many years of experience with the Rover K series, and the forum already contains a massive amount of posts from people with real world, first hand experience: there is a huge amount of information, and it is of no benefit to anyone when a 'new face' appears posting misleading and erroneous information.

Coming fresh to any enthusiasts forum and starting by making deeply critical and ill-informed sweeping statements is very much the hallmark of a troll.

There is a massive amount of information and knowledge already here, and we are all well aware of the head gasket weakness of the K series, and also well aware that fitted with the newest gasket design, the K series is a very solid and reliable engine. Your suggestion that the engine itself is "frail" is quite frankly, risible.
 
#27 ·
Your facts, not necessarily anybody else's though.

Bye.
 
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