The MGF Register Forums

Evening all

Yesterday I bought my first F, a 1.8 VVC W reg - rescued it from the scrappers in Sheffield and got it back to its birth place, well, Sheldon anyway but that's close enough

Drove like a dream the 80 odd miles down the motorway, but when getting onto the slower roads it threw a padding and over heated. Got it the remaining couple of miles home in short stages to keep temp as low as poss and I believe I've managed to save the HG. I left it to cool for a hour or so and then topped up the coolant and bled the system as described on UlimateMG, let run for 30mins, it warmed up to the right temp and stayed there. Took it for a few spins around the block and all seemed ok.

Now what could have been the cause?

The fan fuses are fine and it seems to be operating as should. I can't find any coolant leaks.

I've trawled through the forum and from other's experiences have ordered a new thermostat, ECU temp sensor and I've noticed the Rad was in a poor condition so I've ordered a new one too. I'll give the coolant system a good flush when changing the rad.

What else is recommend I should check.

Cheers

Welcome to the MGF Register forum

EDD24 wrote:Evening all


Now what could have been the cause?

Cheers

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I would recommend the first thing to do is change the coolant bottle cap (with genuine MG part). They are only a few beer tokens and have been the cause of many overheating problems. I keep a spare on in the boot and change it yearly

Gary

Thanks Keith.

And nice one Gary. I'll get one ordered ASAP!

Edd

No Problem Edd, I get mine from Brown & Gammoms and was going to send you a link to the cap but i couldn't find it on their website
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j ... _WuAzrqApg
I know others like Rimmers
http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/ ... ros.co.uk/
also supply them. both will post.

Thanks again Gary

I'm familiar with Rimmers - I'm a big Tomcat fan and have had a few of them in the past - the rimmers website was a regular hangout and they've have never done me any wrong.

Nice one

Did you have any problems with rising coolant level in the tank, Edd?

Hi Mykel

At first yes - it was bubbling away like a kettle and after it had been left to cool, the level was still pretty high.

But after I bled the system, it evened out and now seems to be ok.

Why, what are your thoughts?

Cheers

Two possible things, Edd, one is nasty and the other one’s worse.

I had this scene on my Wedgie last year, in fact almost exactly a year ago, it turned out to be a sticky ’stat which refused to open. This can be easily solved by driving with the heater on full, as the heater matrix is well able to keep the temperature down, at least in colder times of the year. This will also get you puzzled look from passers-by sitting in a convertible in winter with just a t-shirt. I kept driving like this for about three weeks before the ’stat was changed. An awful job, as it sits underneath the inlet manifold and the engine coolant rail has to come off. And doing it with an alloy manifold (VVC!) is just the icing on the cake.

The other possible cause would be a soft cylinder head with indentures around the head gasket’s fire rings. This would allow combustion gases to enter into the coolant, blowing the whole system up like a pressure cooker. A good friend of mine had that (twice), in the end he had to scrap the old cylinder head for a good one. You could find this out by having a sniffer test done on the coolant. But try the heater trick first, if the problem reappears.

Thanks again Hykel

All my fingers are crossed that its not a soft head.

From other posts on this forum, it seems to point to the same problems others have had with driving ok at speed on motorways, but overheating when on slower roads. I've done the fan test and they are working, so I'm hoping it is either the sticky stat as you suggested or a bad temp sensor. I've got both parts on order so we'll see. Fingers crossed they'll work - this car is far to nice to scrap.