Introduction: If your door suddenly starts being awkward to shut and needing extra force to pull it closed then when you are outside the car take a look at the window's position. If it's on the outside of the rubber seal then the chances are that your window stop has broken.

The problem of broken window stops seems to be a fairly common occurrence on earlier MGFs, later models (MK2) and the TF seem to be uneffected. Since the F has now been in production long enough for lots of cars to be no longer covered under warranty I thought I'd write up how to replace them yourself rather than paying your dealer £40 to do this simple job.

MG are now on their third design of window stop since the car was launched which says something about the longevity of the first two versions. You can tell which you've got, the MK1 is white plastic, the MK2 is orange (apparently stronger - what, just by changing colour? ;-) ), and the MK3 is a completely different design. I'm not sure what the cut off points of the previous versions are but I got my MGF in January 1998 and it's got the MK2 version (well, it had until it broke and I replaced with the Mk3!).

Step 1: There are six screws that need to be undone before the door panel can be removed from your car. The position of each of these is shown in Photo 1.

Note: A good place to keep these screws safe is the ashtray, far better than losing them on the floor, seats etc.

The position of the screws are shown in more detail on the next five photographs...

• This screw is located towards the front of the car and is the most obvious. If you can't find this one, then you may as well book your MGF into the dealers now ;-)

• This one is slightly better hidden as it's in the width of the door which you don't normally see.

• This one's at the bottom of the door width so if you found the previous one, it's a doddle too!

• Quite well hidden unless you know they are there! I suppose you don't normally look in the "handle" you use to shut the door.

• This one is the best hidden yet and most awkward to remove, it's still fairly easy though. Just pull the handle to get access to the (smaller) screw that's hidden behind it.

Step 2: There are a few (5?) clips that hold the bottom of the door panel to the door itself. These require a bit of force to remove but not too much or you may break them.

The easiest way I've found to pull them free is to grab the back, bottom corner of the door panel and give it a quick tug (Photo 7). This should free the first clip. Then repeat the exercise all the way along the bottom of the panel until all the clips are free.

Step 3: Once all the screws are removed and the clips that hold the bottom of the panel in place are free, you're ready to remove the door panel. At this stage the panel is "resting" over the top edge of the door.

To remove the panel, simply lift it backwards and upwards slightly to free the front top corner from underneath the cheater (black plastic triangle thing!). It should slide out fairly easily. If not, then check you haven't missed any of the previous steps!!! (Photo 8)

And as if by magic...

The door without the door panel in place is a sight for sore eyes, well unless you're going for the stripped out racer look - and all the associated rattles, noise, etc. (Photo 9)

Step 4: The only thing that's between you and you're broken window stop is the door speaker. This is easy to remove and leaves a gaping hole to work through. Start by locating the three screws that hold it in place. There are two at the top and one securing the bottom. (Photo 10)

With the speaker removed, you'll now have access to the window and the inside of the door (Photo 11).

Now is a good time to rummage about in the bottom looking for the broken window stop. Make sure that you get rid of all the bits of it (mine was in two main bits) or they'll rattle about later on and really annoy you - after all, you wouldn't want to take it all to bits again would you?

The broken window-stop should look something like that as shown in Photo 12. This is the Mk2 version (from my January 1998 MGF). The Mk1 is virtually identical but made from white plastic. I'm not sure whether MG thought that changing the colour would improve things, surely they wouldn't have made is stronger as well as changing the colour would they?

P.S. Now's a good time to check the door drainage holes aren't blocked too!

Here are the three parts that make up the Mk3 version of the window stop. You should have bought before taking your door to bits so I hope for your sake you did, otherwise it's back on with the door panel and down to your local dealers parts department! (Photo 13)

The parts fit together in the same order as they are laid out in Photo 13. The hexagonal screw fits into the washer (the head really does fit "into" it too) which then screws into the biggest plastic bit. (Photo 14) When this is on the car, the window glass fits between the washer and the big plastic bit!

Step 5: First of all wind your window down until there's about 5cm of window still above the top of the door. This puts the glass in the correct position so you can see AND get your hand behind the glass.

If you look "through the speaker hole" (cue Lloyd Grossman) you will see a hole as indicated on Photo 15. This is where your window stop will be going.

• Put the allen key into the hexagonal screw and fit the washer over the screw. Now comes the fiddly bit, you've got to get the screw behind the glass and poking through the hole towards you. Once in place, just tighten the plastic nut by hand then further tighten it using the allen key which should still be in the screw!

I thought this went fairly smoothly, but some people have reported much swearing and frustration at this point. Photo 16 shows the new window stop successfully fitted.

With this done, test out that everything works a few times just to make sure that nothing snags, and that the window does actually stop!

Step 6: Now the jobs done, it's just a case of putting things back together, simple eh? First of all wind the window all the way down as it makes this next bit easier.

1. Place the top corner of the door panel above the top of the door and make sure that the re-enforced (with metal) lip fits over the inner lip of the door (Photo 17). Now carefully bring the back of the panel down making sure that this lip stays on the on the same side all the way along.

2. When the panel is "hooked" onto the door, it should slide forwards into the correct position with all the screw and clip holes lining up.

3. Now push all the clips along the bottom of the panel back in and put all the screws back into their correct positions (remember, the small one is for the opening handle!).

   
   

Step 7: Right, that's just about it. Just one thing to make sure and more than likely put right. There's a strange shaped rubber thing that fits at the top rear of the door, this should be positioned as shown in Photo 18 and the small flaps of rubber forced behind the panel.

You'll know what I mean when you come to do it!

Step 8: Well done, you've finished! You can now take pride in the fact that you've saved yourself £40 by repairing the window stop yourself and you've also learned just how easy it is to take the door panel and speakers out.

3th August 2002, Richard Eaton