MG ZS 120+ - aka "The Learning Experience"

MG ZS 120+ - aka "The Learning Experience"

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Smitters

Original Poster:

3,995 posts

156 months

Wednesday 29th August 2018
quotequote all
I am now the proud owner of this awesome beast.



I've been having two trains of thought over the last few years, which have collided in a haze of imminent baby induced panic (MiniSmitters2 is due Monday at the latest - I have excellent timing and a massively tolerant OH).

The first is that there is a sweet spot of power and handling for entertaining everyday driving. I increasingly think that it needs a lot more compliant suspension and a lower bhp/tonne than perceived wisdom would suggest. Who here hasn't reminisced about the halcyon days of three wheeling a woefully underpowered car round a bend on it's ditch-finder shod 155 biscuit tins? Of being able to floor a throttle and recite quite a lot of Shakespeare/Vanilla Ice/??? (delete or insert as appropriate) before arriving at license losing territory?

I loved my 1.0 Fiesta van. I enjoyed the 1.1 Saxo that followed. I loved the Turbo 2000 Impreza that came after that, but that was also the first time I realised I had to be properly careful with my right foot. With great power came a tiny bit of responsibility.

The second is that I really enjoy working with my hands and in the right mood, love tinkering, improving and modifying cars. But that I have very limited skills. Thus, I find it quite stressful working on a car that has to be running again by Monday, or when there is a defined window to complete a job before we need to go to swimming lessons/shopping/buy yet another pair of child's shoes.

Have another pic - that's a lot of waffly text.



Hmmm. Hit submit instead of preview. Next post along in a minute. Am not a genius.

Smitters

Original Poster:

3,995 posts

156 months

Wednesday 29th August 2018
quotequote all
Right, where was I. Oh yes. Being a tit and hitting the wrong button. Excellent.

My solution to these two train (crashes) of thought is the above. A car to just tinker with, which needs some(*) work doing to it. So in buying this I get the satisfaction of working on my own car, but without the pressure of having to get it running for work/a trackday/a show. I also get to learn to do lots of basic things on a well known, well understood car with a wealth of knowledge and a big fan base. Finally, I get to know that if I massively cock it up, it's far from the end of the world. Spares are cheap, eBay is a hive of second hand parts, knowledge and time are plentiful. And if it all goes well, I'll have a nice little fast-road/trackday car I can take out in the pouring rain and not care (much) about if it gets some gravel rash or a ding.

So, I have an MG ZS 120+, 124,000 miles, MOT to May '19, no history, some MOTs and a massive ding in one wheel. Talking of which, that there eBay just gave me these for the princely sum of £70. For four (probably) straight wheels. Once it gets to that stage, I'll try a home refurb and see how I go.





(*)OK, fk-loads. No really, the list is endless.

miken2k8

362 posts

82 months

Wednesday 29th August 2018
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great cars I had a 180 for a few months this year. just about the best handling car I've driven and easily quick enough. petrol killed me though so in a 1.4 citroen xsara now which again has taught me about keeping momentum

James76G

345 posts

183 months

Wednesday 29th August 2018
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Nice project and I personally always favoured the pre-facelift ZS (as yours is) to thr facelifted version. I looked for a ZS 180 for a while but ended up in a ZR 160 instead, which turned out to be a far better car than the internet folk lore would have you believe.

Good luck with it.

Usget

5,426 posts

210 months

Thursday 30th August 2018
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I think they look great, but (your thought process around lower powered cars notwithstanding) I'd probably have gone for the KV6. Still, the 1.8 K series makes a nice noise even though it doesn't go anywhere very quickly.

Bobberoo99

38,365 posts

97 months

Thursday 30th August 2018
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Yep agree with the above, not remotely interesting until it gets over 4k rpm then it's quite good, but my 1.8 Club SE has all the stopping ability of a super tanker!!!! It actually handles ok considering most of the suspension is knocking but it's awful in the wet!!!!

Smitters

Original Poster:

3,995 posts

156 months

Thursday 30th August 2018
quotequote all
Well, I picked the car up last night. To answer the inevitable question, is cost me 0.4 Sheds. I feel like this is quite a lot of car for not a lot of pounds and, as I will say repeatedly to my missus as she gets increasingly irate, it's impossible to put a price on the education I will receive from it. I'm 99% sure that line will work. Probably.

I went straight to the local petrol station to top up the comically low fuel level and to use my 12V pump to get the tyres to sensible and equal pressures. This is 0.4Shed motoring people. I don't have the funds to pay 50p for air! I thought I'd push my luck and park next to the local copper who was in for a snack and a coffee, but he didn't raise an eyebrow. Clearly, I'm past it!


Stickers add 100 cool points and 25bhp. Copper long gone by this point, presumably having got bored of watching a middle-aged bald man taking photos of a sheddy MG that's been crashed through Halfords.


I left the car idling while I did the tyres to see what the temp gauge did. I had paid it no attention on my test drive - the litany of car buying errors I made makes for painful/amusing reading. It is essentially a "how not to buy a car guide".

  • It was the first one I saw.
  • It has a smallish engine but a towbar.
  • I still don't know if there are locking wheelnuts on the car, or if I have a release key.
  • I forgot to open all the doors and windows, check the various electrics or if the sunroof works.
  • There's a random aftermarket switch. 50% of me wanted to click it while driving along. 100% of me feared at a minimum, the car would die, or I would be somehow ejected from the seat a la James Bond.

Only two of the three lights go out when driving... oh.


Happily though, while idling nothing was spewed, ejected, dripped copiously or ran dry. I had an impromptu photo shoot, then I hopped in to drive home. As I drove, I considered which injection booster shots I would need and how many hours I may need to spend in the shower.


All of the grot.

My son was still awake when I got home. His lovely mam had allowed him to stay up so he could see the car, so I carried him down in his pjs. There was actual excited jumping up and down in the kitchen while I put some shoes on. He had a sit in the front and pronounced it "very fast".

Next steps are to get it on tarmac, put some cardboard under it to see if it leaks anything and when time allows, get it on stands to look at the rust. I've got as far as buying some new protective glasses, because stuff is definitely going to fall on my face with this one.


Smitters

Original Poster:

3,995 posts

156 months

Thursday 30th August 2018
quotequote all
Usget said:
I think they look great, but (your thought process around lower powered cars notwithstanding) I'd probably have gone for the KV6. Still, the 1.8 K series makes a nice noise even though it doesn't go anywhere very quickly.
It's a fair point, but I have another car with a 1.8K, so there are transferable skills here and essentially spare engine parts. Also, at my budget, most 180s were out, as were almost all the 160 ZRs with the 1.8 VVC. Plus every 180 I saw needed belts, which for my meagre skills, was probably asking a bit much. At least this has a straightforward arrangement!

To stretch the end-goal a bit, in future I would consider a home-port attempt and some hotter cams, plus the associated inlet and exhaust bits, but it'd have to be all cheap/secondhand and way down the line. I'd never take it to the point of needing a strong bottom end, but somewhere around 150 bhp and a bit more midrange torque ought to be doable. The five speed box is woefully long second to fourth, then undergeared in fifth, giving 3000+ at motorway speeds, so putting all the power up top is a fools errand anyway and this will never be "hot", only gently warm.

Usget

5,426 posts

210 months

Thursday 30th August 2018
quotequote all
Sounds like a plan, and who am I to argue with your lad! wavey

Smitters

Original Poster:

3,995 posts

156 months

Thursday 30th August 2018
quotequote all
Usget said:
Sounds like a plan, and who am I to argue with your lad! wavey
I think he just likes the spoiler, but that in itself is a good thing. He's not managed to read the reviews of the 180 yet. I dug up a few from back in the day and they seem to go something like:

"I arrived at Brands Hatch for the launch of the ZS and wanted to hate it, but I just couldn't. The 180 was hands down an amazing surprise."

I think the decent chassis tuning MG did and the relatively light V6 did the car a lot of favours. I think it may have had a better set of ratios or even a six speed box, which would help enormously.

I wonder if one retrofits a 120...

Smitters

Original Poster:

3,995 posts

156 months

Sunday 2nd September 2018
quotequote all
James76G said:
Nice project and I personally always favoured the pre-facelift ZS (as yours is) to thr facelifted version. I looked for a ZS 180 for a while but ended up in a ZR 160 instead, which turned out to be a far better car than the internet folk lore would have you believe.

Good luck with it.
Cheers. I looked at a few mk2 cars, but from the back they, and I'm being charitable here, are fk ugly.

I did fancy a 160, but as above, budget vs condition caused issues. Rusty rust based issues.

Talking of rust, I've been in three corners so far without real horrors. If I find any bad rot, it probably spells the end of this car for me as I have no metalwork skills, nor time and space to acquire them.

When not on my phone I'll add a bunch of photos showing what I've done so far, but due to imminent arrival of miniSmitters2, in about 16 hours, I'd better focus on other things for now...



SloppyClock

144 posts

95 months

Monday 3rd September 2018
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Great purchase and good write-up, will be following this keenly.

I chose to do the same learning curve thing with an MG TF 115, which uses the 1.6 variant of the k-series. Always lusted after one of these however, but cannot convince the lady to go along with my vehicular based desires.

Top tip - don't just rely on the cardboard, coat the HG seal with talcum powder. Also do under and around the inlet manifold seal. These are the common leakage points, which I'm sure you know about already - the talcum powder just allows you to trace it much easier, and also helps with the cases where the coolant is a slow leaker or gets burnt off.

Would also suggest double checking the alternator belt, as if that snaps its been known to take the cam belt out with it.

Finally, if you ever need mechanical help, contact MG Rover Solutions. Mark is very, very well known in the MG/Rover/Lotus crowd as a mobile mechanic that does very good quality work at very reasonable prices. Downside is he gets quite booked up.

Smitters

Original Poster:

3,995 posts

156 months

Monday 17th September 2018
quotequote all
SloppyClock said:
Great purchase and good write-up, will be following this keenly.

I chose to do the same learning curve thing with an MG TF 115, which uses the 1.6 variant of the k-series. Always lusted after one of these however, but cannot convince the lady to go along with my vehicular based desires.

Top tip - don't just rely on the cardboard, coat the HG seal with talcum powder. Also do under and around the inlet manifold seal. These are the common leakage points, which I'm sure you know about already - the talcum powder just allows you to trace it much easier, and also helps with the cases where the coolant is a slow leaker or gets burnt off.

Would also suggest double checking the alternator belt, as if that snaps its been known to take the cam belt out with it.

Finally, if you ever need mechanical help, contact MG Rover Solutions. Mark is very, very well known in the MG/Rover/Lotus crowd as a mobile mechanic that does very good quality work at very reasonable prices. Downside is he gets quite booked up.
Ha - just replied to your Fiat thread then realised I'd be replying to you here too!

I do have some updates coming, so no spoilers, but in the mean time, thanks for the talc tips. Alternator belt is new and well tensioned thankfully. Cam and other belts will be renewed shortly when the head comes off.

Duly noted on MGRS. I'm hoping to do all spannering myself, but it's good to know of a recommended guru if I get stuck. I believe MGJohn and I reside in the same county too, so if I really screw up, I may end up putting out some sort of MG distress signal via powerful lamp shining on the clouds above...

At the mo though, newly arrived baby stops (or at least slows dramatically) play. That and several jobs on our camper and Beetle that are more urgent.

paulyv

1,017 posts

122 months

Monday 17th September 2018
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I admire anyone getting into a ZS. I had the 2.5 and loved my time in it. The chocolate ancillaries killed it in the end, and I suspect the 1.8 to be little different, but it is a car I would like to return to at some point. Best of luck with it and as far as smiles-per-pound go I think you are onto a winner.

Do try it around a track - you'll get eaten on the straights but in the twisties you may well be able to hold your own against surprisingly more accomplished cars, especially given that you might well be willing to commit far more to the corners given the low sticker price.

Have fun being both thrilled and frustrated in pleasantly unequal measure (just).

paulyv

1,017 posts

122 months

Monday 17th September 2018
quotequote all
Oh and a word of advice. Look under the bonnet at the metal steering fluid hoses running from the fluid reservoir. On the driver's side, if I recall correctly. You may well notice one is pushed up against the metal of the engine bay. if it is, put something between the hose and the car body as the engine vibrations mean it will eventually wear through and leak copiously at that point which is entirely avoidable.

Steve91

489 posts

119 months

Monday 17th September 2018
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Good stuff!

I'm in the market for a ZR at the moment for very similar reasons to you - I want to learn how to fix it when I break it on track!

I'll follow this with interest smile

Congrats on baby as well smile

Bobberoo99

38,365 posts

97 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
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paulyv said:
Oh and a word of advice. Look under the bonnet at the metal steering fluid hoses running from the fluid reservoir. On the driver's side, if I recall correctly. You may well notice one is pushed up against the metal of the engine bay. if it is, put something between the hose and the car body as the engine vibrations mean it will eventually wear through and leak copiously at that point which is entirely avoidable.
yes mine chafed through a couple of months ago, steering started making some interesting noises at low speeds so I thought i'll check everything, virtually no power steering fluid left and a large gash in the pipe which only had a small pinprick hole, new pipe, fluid and a bit of a bodge pipe nice and secure now!!

Smitters

Original Poster:

3,995 posts

156 months

Wednesday 19th September 2018
quotequote all
Thank you all for the advice and congrats. I've subscribed to the Shedding with a Rover 45 too - so interesting and helpful to read and also see pics of the issue - I'll definitely take a look when time allows. Hopefully I'll get under it this weekend and also take some pics of the "handiwork" so far.

mattyprice4004

1,327 posts

173 months

Wednesday 19th September 2018
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Welcome to ZS ownership! I've had about 10 so far, lovely cars.
There's a few reasons to pick a 1.8 over the KV6 - it's a lot more 'revvy', cheap to own and run, and handling is significantly better as the weight is more evenly balanced.

KV6 radiators aren't available new, cambelt changes are £500+ and inlet manifolds are over £1000 new too.
I'd much rather have a K4 1.8 these days - I've got a diesel at the moment, but the engine weighs the front end down quite heavily.

You're always welcome to pick my brains if needed - I own and run Discount MG Rover Spares and have a worryingly OCD level of inside-out knowledge of these motors and the K Series engine.

Mr Tidy

22,065 posts

126 months

Thursday 20th September 2018
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Great thread OP. thumbup

4/5 years ago I went to look at a ZR 120 with my niece when her Polo got written off. I loved how it drove, but as it fell into the higher of the 2 road tax bands applying to pre-2001 cars she ended up with a Corsa 1.4 16V.

Keep enjoying your ZS. thumbup (And learning, of course). laugh