Bonjour from rainy France.

[Tasng4]

Bonjour a tous,
Nous avons achete.......that's enough of that!
We live in France, about 50kms south of Grenoble and have been here for 12 years. I've been into old/classic cars for quite a while and during our last trip to England decided it was time we had an MGF.....I mean they're just so cheap and the value can only go up....although that's not the reason we buy them. We searched around on Ebay for a good 'un and decided £850 was a fair price for a 2000 MGF with 93k miles. It had a couple of problems, the passenger window doesn't open, the high level brake light doesn't work and there are a few stone chips but it has MOT until March 2020.

Money changed hands and it was ours and what a lovely piece of kit it ia, was and hopefully is again. The problem was on the way home to France, we'd already driven about 500 miles, there was an overheating problem, a radiator hose had split in a spectacular fashion - a 2" gash. When it went the car exploded in a cloud of steam but we we rolled into a service station. The fix was simple, I cut off the split portion of the hose and re-attached it, refilled with anti-freeze and off we went. We managed about another 200kms and then.........nothing, no power. Again we rolled into an emergency lay-by and got the tools out. The cambelt had snapped.........or had it. The car was recoved to a garage and we comtinued on our way in our Rover 75, a few days later the 'F' was delivered home and the investigation started.

It turns out the cam belt hadn't snapped, the over heating had caused the plastic cam belt covers to melt and sag onto the cam belt tensioer, the plastic 'tyre' on the bearing had separated losing cam belt tension and the belt jumped a few teeth. Long story short, new tensioner and restart the car....noooo no such luck. IT ran but not at all well. So head off to reveal bent valves but no piston damage, recon head fitted, inlet cam pully fitted 180 degrees out - didn't start, refitted correctly and after a bit of coaxing it spluttered back into life.

I've bought a new hose, distributor cap, oil filers, plug leads etc ready for a service. I even managed to find replacement cam belt cowling.

An interesting initiation into MGF ownership. But all in all I think it was just one of those things that could've hapenned to anyone at any time. The only issue I have with the 'F', and all modern cars, is the sheer number of hoses and they're expensive. The one hose I bought was £50 and I'm now concerned that others may go.

[colintf]

Bonjour and welcome. Good luck with your F

[talkingcars]

Hi and welcome to the forum, and to the joys of ownership.

Once you have it sorted you will get great pleasure from it.

James

[nigelandjo]

Hello and welcome.

[Charless]

Don't fret too much about the hoses:-
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25265

[Tasng4]

Nigel - I've tried to register but the 'capcha does seem to be working. I get the following

The reCAPTCHA wasn't entered correctly. Go back and try it again.(reCAPTCHA said: incorrect-captcha-sol)