1996 MGF VVC

1996 MGF VVC - P996 KVX

General images

	January 2004.
	Just after purchase in May 2003.
	P996 KVX HKR 113D

Technical

Replacing heater blower resistor

	Remove glovebox (2 screws underneath to be slackened off and 2 on the door shut to be removed). Disconnect 2 spade connectors to glovebox lamp and 2 to catch switch. This is what you will see; note the bright yellow sheath around the SRS cabling for the passenger airbag and the slotted bracket for the bottom screws of the glovebox.
	Remove 10mm bolt holding fresh air inlet duct to front bulkhead. Remove duct with a firm tug. The cabling hanging down on the left is from the glovebox lamp and switch.
	View from left footwell looking towards centre of car - the heater blower impeller is visible at bottom of picture. Disconnect wiring multiplug from heater blower resistor, just above round impellor, and remove 2 screws securing resistor pack.
	Resistor pack after removal from heater box. Refitting is the reverse of removal. :) Be careful refitting the rigid fresh air inlet duct, if it's not firm up against the bulkhead foam seal you'll end up with a footwell full of water next time it rains.
	I discovered the real cause of the lowest speed on my heater blower not working whilst investigating wiring for a MK2 T-bar - when I removed the radio, I discovered that this green wire had been worn through on the edge of the metal bracket behind the dash and had burnt out.
	A clearer view can be obtained by removing the top centre air vents. The wire has obviously been pinched between the rear of the head unit and the metal angle, wearing through over the past 7 years and eventually burning through. No fuse had blown because this wire is an earth return - presumably the wear had gradually reduced the number of strands of wire and eventually the current draw from the blower motor was enough to heat and burn through the remaining wires. Some insulation was melted onto nearby wiring. I have since repaired the wire using a double crimp and secured all wiring to the left of the metal angle. I have also put insulating tape around the edge to make it less sharp.

Head Gasket Failure

The dreaded HGF hit me on, of all days, Friday 13th! I was extremely lucky, in that I caught the failure early and all that happened was that I lost an expansion tank full of coolant. The car was relayed to Brown & Gammons by the AA, and fortunately I had taken out AA Parts and Labour insurance. This covered the entire cost of the replacement, less the £25 excess - £466. Since the head was coming off anyway, I took the opportunity to get both cam belts changed since there would be no additional labour charge. The photo shows the point of failure of my gasket - the rubber seal has lifted and allowed coolant to escape.

As a curiosity, these are my old cambelts which were replaced at the same time as the head gasket. They are 2 years old (belts should be replaced after 5 years) and look brand new - which is reassuring!

Crossmember Creak

A very common problem with early Fs is an irritating creak or clicking noise from behind the dash when driving on uneven roads. Dieter has some excellent photos of the problem area and the solution here. My car has started to suffer from the creaking noise over the past year and it's got particularly bad recently. I decided to try the fix suggested on Dieter's site - pictured left is the 57mm exhaust clamp I used from Halfords (part number HEX308, £1.49).

The clamp needs to be placed around the tubular crossmember behind the dashboard as close to the side of the car as possible, but over the larger of the two tubes close to the welds. My creak was clearly from the driver's side, so I only clamped this end of the tube.

Access is extremely limited! Open the fuse box cover and remove by loosening the two crosshead screws underneath. The cover then slides towards the rear of the car and can be moved out of the way.
Carefully cut the cable tie securing some cabling to the crossmember. This is to allow the clamp to go between the crossmember and the cabling instead of trapping the cabling between the clamp and the crossmember and damaging it.
Undo the two bolts securing the fuse panel bracket to the support attached to the crossmember.
Carefully move the fuse panel towards the front of the car and down to maneuver it out of the way. Be careful not to damage or dislodge any of the fuses or cables, paying particular attention to the yellow SRS cabling. You might try missing this step out, but I found it impossible to get a decent sized ratchet onto the nuts without moving the fuse panel.
Place the U shaped part of the exhaust clamp around the crossmember (ensuring no cabling is trapped) and using your double jointed hands attach the bottom part of the clamp. Tighten the nuts as much as possible using your fingers.
Ensure the clamp is in the correct position and torque the nuts to "f-ing tight".

Here's a closeup of the clamp in position - you can also see one of the two bolts securing the fuse panel to the crossmember which are referred to above. The nuts on the exhaust clamp need to be as tight as you can possibly get them! Eat some spinach before starting work.

Cable tie the loose cabling back onto the crossmember.
Carefully replace the fuse panel and bolt back into place.
Replace the fusebox lid and tighten the screws underneath.
Go for a drive down your favourite pot-holed road and see if the creak has gone!

This seems to have worked for me! I suspect that the nuts may need to be tightened back up again in the future. In the meantime, I have a lovely creak free dashboard - just all the rest of the squeaks and rattles from the T-bar and hood to sort out now...

Detail of air intake pipe

	Detail of air inlet pipe connection to resonator box (standard MK1 VVC). The pipe runs to the centre of the rear subframe in order to source relatively cool air for induction. If this pipe become disconnected from the resonator box (as on mine) it is virtually impossible to reconnect without serious dismantling! Leaving like this is unadvisable, since the engine will be breathing hot air. Solution - take the easy option and install a K&N 57i induction kit! :)
	Fitting a K&N involves removal of the old air filter housing - and this is it. On the left of the picture is the rubber hose which attaches to the throttle body; on the right is the rigid plastic elbow which attaches to the resonator box (still in the car).
	And this is what the standard air filter element looks like after just 2000 miles of city driving. Yuk!

Detail of uneven taillight seals

	Detail of left and right tail light seals - note that left taillight (top picture) is further from the body than the right taillight (bottom picture). The seal is clearly visible, and in very wet conditions can become saturated and allow water to enter the boot.
	Tighten this bolt from inside the boot to draw the taillight further towards the body, compressing the seal and covering it in the process.

Detail of exhaust system - possible sources of rattling noise

A rattle was evident on my car from cold, which disappeared after a mile or so and also under light finger pressure on either tailpipe.

	Possible source #1 - "flexipipe" forming part of the exhauast downpipe. View from left...
	...and right. This looked to be in excellent condition.
	Possible source #2 - Sheared bolt on right hand mounting bracket of my SP Supersports exhaust. However, exhaust is still firmly mounted and temporarily packing the brackets did not alleviate problem.
	Possible source #3 - Internal baffles. In common with many other examples, my SP exhaust shows evidence of buckling on both the left side...
	...and the right side. However, shortly after beginning investigation into this possibility the rattle stopped!

Split Tailpipe

	Just under a year after the noise disappeared, it came back. It's been getting gradually worse for a week or two and this morning I noticed the exhaust blowing. I decided to try putting gently pressure on the tailpipe to see if the noise stopped - to my astonishment the entire tailpipe moved!
	The right hand tailpipe has fractured all the way round and is held on by a piece of metal no more than 2mm wide! It hasn't gone at the weld, but right next to it. I drove home gingerly avoiding every pothole hoping the pipe wouldn't fall off!
	Where the tailpipe has moved, it has rubbed and melted the plastic rear bumper. :( At this stage, much colourful language was in evidence.
	Hopefully, a temporary fix until I can fit another exhaust. The white gunge is "Aquastick", a waterproof high temperature epoxy putty. There is a jubilee clip around it - I hope that it will hold the tailpipe and stop it falling off! I have also tied the pipe to the exhaust mount with wire to take some of the weight. Fingers crossed!
	After 100 miles, the tailpipe finally parted company with the silencer box. :( Nice noise - until the headache kicked in!
	I bought a new cat > rear exhaust gasket - 87p, part number WCM100480...
	...and failed miserably to shift the bottom cat > exhaust nut. :( "Oh bother", or words to that effect. Gave up and decided to take it to RSR Tyres in Bromley to fit the spare exhaust so that I could weld up the SP.
	The guy at RSR said he could weld the tailpipe back on with the exhaust still fitted to the car - this cost the princely sum of £47 including VAT! :) Ah, relative silence again!

Converting to smoked indicator lenses

	MK1 'Fs are equipped with orange indicator lenses which (arguably) spoil the clean lines of the car. MY2000 cars use smoked lenses which can be easily retrofitted to an early car.
	The new smoked indicators units are actually sold by MGR as a kit, part number VUB105950 - the kit contains new front and side indicator units, orange bulbs and (incredibly) mine even came with 2 spare bulbs as well. But wait for the best bit - due to what appears to be a misprint in the MGR parts catalogue, the complete kit sells for £30.24+vat. You will not find these cheaper anywhere else; in fact, if you were to buy the units on their own from MGR, the front lenses alone cost more than the entire kit!
	One side of the car has the old orange lenses; the other side has new smoked units. Which do you prefer? Fitting is a genuine 5 minute job. The front lenses are retained by a clip on one side, with a cutout to allow a small flat blade screwdriver to lever the unit out. Use a cloth to avoid scratching the paint. The side repeaters simply slide to one side and pull out.
	Compare with the first picture - the new lenses really clean up the appearance of the car.

Hood modification

I recently fitted the TF hood recall straps to my MK1 hood to solve the hood lockup and "scissor action" problems - see here for details.

Last Updated: 23/05/2004 19:39