MG ZS 120+ - aka "The Learning Experience"

[Smitters]

RazerSauber said:

Looks great, glad everything went well. I bet it's double the joy too since you know it's your handy work that put it there.

What plans are you making for cooling? Simple rad fan switch or bigger rad etc?

Thanks - there was a huge amount of satisfaction in knowing I'd done lots of work on it. and a fair bit of surprise too...

Cooling wise I need to read up. I have two holes in the stat, but it would have been fully open most of the time. The car has aircon, so from a weight and rad blocking point of view, it's worth removing, especially as it doesn't work. However, I think the best course may well be a bigger rad, a fan override and also a re-bleed of the system. It gets warm quite quickly, which may just be my system, or may be symptomatic of air, or another issue. I'll have to see.

I suspect we'll challenge my fab skills next, since I'll probably be cobbling in a rad that wasn't designed for a ZS. Still, it may also provide a slot for a cold air intake too, since I have a 52mm TB just sitting about, doing nothing much.

However, priority one is getting it an MOT. This was the list:

1 x bulb out DONE
Windscreen cracked but only an advisory IGNORE
Headlamps mis-aimed TODO
Engine Light and fault codes x 2 (charcoal canister and cam sensor) WILL RESET
1 x CV boot split TODO (parts now in hand)
Hand brake at lower limit (but a pass) DONE
Rusty Brake Hoses TODO

Will do the CV myself and apply some wire brush and kurust to the brake lines, then let the garage sort the headlights pre-test. The cam sensor EML hasn't re-occured, so probably threw itself because of removing and refitting. The charcoal cnister is repetitive, but I'll get there in time. It's SORN right now, so as long as it's done over June I can MOT in July and save a few quid on tax. The next trackday is Abingdon in mid-July, so there is some urgency.

[Smitters]

It's a good point, though I do need to consider other pipes too, since it heats up fast. I did flush it twice prior to filling with coolant but not much crap came out.

Given the previous owner and lack of any history, I would think radweld is a strong possibility.

[Smitters]

I've typed nothing for six weeks, because I've done nothing for six weeks! Life got in the way in the form of a very ill mother, then a recovering mother, then a family holiday. The MG's MOT expired the day after it's trip to Silverstone, so it rolled onto the drive and stayed there.

I had completed a quick check:

Smitters said:

For a very, very reasonable £22.97, the garage did a "NOT", just like an MOT, but not (geddit?).

TLDR, it'll fail. Not a shock, nor a disaster

Good news really, in that the list I got was:

Emissions pass (!!!)
1 x bulb out
Windscreen cracked but only an advisory
Headlamps mis-aimed
Engine Light and fault codes x 2 (charcoal canister and cam sensor)
1 x CV boot split
Hand brake at lower limit (but a pass)

And so clearly some effort is required. I walked out, plipped the remote and.... nothing. Ah. Flat battery. Get out the multimeter and 1.15V. Cue some checking to make sure I had it set right but yes. 1.15V. So fked then. Luckily I had a spare so popped than on the C-Tek overnight and come Saturday morning all was well.

I was Daddy Daycare this weekend, so while the OH enjoyed a well deserved hotel stay and spa with the girls, I got the kids to bed and then rocked Saturday night...


FML - that's rusty.



I broke out the wire brush, k-rust and Hammerite and then at 9am this morning, took it to the garage for them to resolve the CV boot and headlights prior to MOT as I'd run out of time.

So, now we wait....

[Smitters]

Wow.

[Smitters]

InitialDave said:

Doing better than me, then! My ZS handbrake is proving to be a right dick. Frustratingly, I've gone through it all again, and every individual part of the system seems OK! Caliper pistons move freely, slider pins move freely, handbrake mechanisms on calipers are moving fine, pads slide in carrier OK, cables move freely, handbrake lever doesn't have anything wrong with it... but it's still a bit rubbish!

No, mine's st, it's just on the limit st, as opposed to under the limit st. Even the slightest incline will have the car wanting to relocate. First gear/reverse and wheels angled every time.

[Smitters]

Jezza30 said:

Good skills at getting Heston Blumenthal to help out with the rust proofing - and a photo to prove

He's doing Duck a l'Orange, only the orange is a colour, and comes from my rust.



ETA - my handbrake was at 16%, with brand new pads and a lot of what s been described too - it feels like the lever simple doesn't place enough force on the pads.

Trackday on Friday, then a run to Blackpool for a stag do. Should be interesting.

Edited by Smitters on Tuesday 16th July 17:02

[Smitters]

RichardDastardly said:

What a great thread! Long may it continue.

I had a ZS the same spec, age and colour as this a few years ago until someone drove into me and wrote it off. Bizarrely I found it more fun to take on a twisty road than my tuned Focus ST or my mate’s Evo.

Good to see these cars are not being totally forgotten.

Thank you. I do enjoy this car. It's very predictable to drive, fun to hustle along, as you say and in the wet of Abingdon, an absolute hoot. Road tyres, commitment and a good demist of the windows and it was more than capable of keeping more powerful machines honest. I'll pop a video link up this week.

Minor issue though. It seems to have run out of electricity. 11.7V across the terminals when idling. It's be nice if it was wires, but I suspect razzing it at Silverstone in the heat may have cooked the alternator.

[Smitters]

In the spirit of honesty, I should point out that the garage did both outer CV joint boots before the MOT. I'd bought the kits, but run out of time. I only needed one CV boot to pass the MOT, but I'd said if it went easy, to do both please. Given I'd been prepping the nuts and bolts with penetrant for a week, I can only assume they spun off like new, much to their surprise.

So, with a lovely MOT in hand, I set off nice and early for another MSE trackday, this time at Abingdon. The MSE days are my favorite for lots of reasons, and added to that Abingdon is a bit under-loved, very keenly priced and forgiving on the limit, so I do like it there.

I'd say I packed the car eagerly, but I'd not unpacked it from Silverstone, so that was nice. A full tank of premium fuel for the extra BHP innit and off we set. Now given the UK had been doing a pretty good impression of the surface of the sun for a month, I was somewhat irked to find it was pissing down. Not because I don't like driving in the rain, but because the under-cover facilities at Abingdon run to the signing-on tent and a portaloo. Plus all my gear would get wet once I'd piled it on the grass. Ah well. I could always stay in work and tap keys all day...

I met with a mate in his Caterham - roof down for extra man-points - and we headed over. As we arrived, it was fairly fine, but during the briefing, the tell-tale pitter-patter started and all those with kit-cars started shuffling their feet and mumbling about covers and wet arses. By the time the sighting laps were underway, it was somewhat biblical. It was interesting keeping up with the diesel van on lightly treaded tyres apparently. I was faring somewhat better with my Nankang Sportnex NS-2s. I'd been told they were st in the wet, but I'd rather them than Avon ZZS or R888Rs. Even in the MG, I was wheel-spinning randomly in 4th under acceleration and aquaplaning left right and centre. I did a couple of laps once the van came in, but it was clearly going to be a day for learning about grip.

Wet you say?


In actual fact, they closed the circuit for 40 minutes or so as the rain eased and stopped before inspecting and opening up. It was much better, though still with lots of standing water, and a couple of small rivers! As with all these things, it's what you make of it and I was pleased I'd not trouble the cooling system as much as Silverstone, so I could focus on learning the car a bit and seeing where the brakes and tyres were at. I got a good few laps in and as per, everyone was well behaved, so no stress there.

My second stint was on camera, link below. It started poorly, as the passenger ripped the door handle off. TADTS. 20 year old plastic degrades it seems. That aside, all was well again, though I noticed my wipers had slowed a bit... and then the battery light came on. Piss.

A quick poke with the multimeter suggested the alternator was kaput. At least, I was only getting 11.8V when idling. Given I was 60 miles from home on a day when lights and wipers would be required on the road, discretion was the better part of valour. I packed up and went to a local mates house for beans on toast and some of Oxfordshire's finest electricity before rolling home ahead of the Friday traffic and mentally preparing myself for a sober stag do in Blackpool...

Enjoy the vid: https://youtu.be/rOPly6OkY3M

(for some reason the resolution seems poor for me - if I can make YT show HD, I will - the desktop version is nice and detailed and not shot on a potato at all)

Edited by Smitters on Friday 26th July 15:53

[Smitters]

Cambs_Stuart said:

Good work on getting the blue race car to (and from) its second track day!

Cheers. I do have a sense of pride in doing so. I'll be back to Abingdon on the 9th August so I'd better get the new alternator in tonight. I forsee hammers being required...

[Smitters]

RazerSauber said:

I bet after all the time and effort you've put into this, an alternator change will be a doddle! Can't watch the video in work but will have a look later!

You know what, I smirked when I read that, as I had read the Haynes book of lies and thought (as I typically do);

"There's no way I need to remove the exhaust manifold and power-steering pump belt to remove the alternator... is there?"

So what could go wrong? To be fair, I did also know that the alternator was fairly wedged in, but as it happens, loosening the upper mount from the engine block and swinging it over meant the swap was popping the belt off (auto-tensioner - yay), a multi-plug, a 10mm bolt on the cable, top and bottom alternator bolts and one bolt on the upper mounting bracket and hey presto, it was out. You were right. I was pessimistic and thankfully, wrong.

Old vs New


To be fair, the old one doesn't look that old, but it was definitely at fault. I had reconditioned the battery while waiting for the new one to arrive, so that was giving 13.5V on the bench, which went over 14V once the car was started. Success.

Confidence boosted, I swapped the cam sensor too. That's a one bolt job. How could that go wrong? Oh, by somehow stripping the thread. fk knows how, since the torque wrench was set to 5Nm. I have what I think is quite a good habit now of creeping up on torque, so I'll set several interim values, especially when going into aluminium. A new cam cover is not the end of the world in £££ or difficulty and frankly, gives me a chance to tart one up. So, eBay to the rescue.

Finally, I chose to investigate the irritating vibration that occurs at about 2800rpm. Turns out it's the exhaust buzzing on the rear ARB. In what may be my proudest moment working on cars. I set about adjusting the exhaust with a tool in each hand. In my right hand, a hammer. In my left hand... another hammer.

Not a success, but that's mainly because the cobbled hangar wire is way too thin and the weight of the exhaust simply drags it back to the buzzy position. I do need to remove, de-rust and rebush the rear arb, if nothing else, to try and contain the understeer a bit, so I'll attend to it properly then.

But for now, I've got a heatshield to make and some driving to do. Time to see if it continues to run ok, and if the misfire has gone.

[Smitters]

rickygolf83 said:

Nice read from start to finish!

Plenty of learning and fun achieved for not a lot of ££££!

Thanks very much. It's been massively enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone to be honest. Took my boy to nursery in it today. He's always delighted to go in "the racing car". In his Recaro child seat, obvs. He even likes the colour the best.

The "racing car" runs more smoothly and doesn't misfire under load. Colour me happy.

On the flipside, the brakes have gone a bit soft on the pedal and the throttle pedal sticks a bit on initial push. I'm hopeful the pedal issue is literally a manky pivot, but I'll get into the cable too - I'd rather not find it stuck at 90mph... with soft brakes.

[Smitters]

RazerSauber said:

Did the same sort of thing the other day on the mother's Mini (R50, before everyone gets excited!). Putting the rocker cover bolts back in, complete with new gasket and was putting a bolt back in the far corner (about 3rd to last one..) and *pop*. The cold sweat, the scramble to undo the other ~309 bolts and sure enough, half a bolt suck in a hole, perfectly level with the head. Nothing worse! lol.

Loving this project. It has inspired me to use my socket set and mechanical skills (limited to: A can do attitude) to do more stuff. More of the Race Car please!

I swear, there should be some sort of reverse cut drill bit, so you can put your drill in reverse, drill into your stuck bolt and then after 10-15mm, have some sort of bite where the bit stops rotating easily and it just torques the broken section out.

More to come this weekend. Need to a) find the knackered bit of heat shield material I rescued from the side of the road about five years ago and b) bash it into shape as an alternator heat shield. There's a good 10mm between primary #1 and the alternator. Not at all hot. No siree.

[Smitters]

Fml. Fmfl.

[Smitters]

The best luck of all would have been walking round to the other side of the car and finding the stream of liquid was coming from the van next to me. My luck wasn't that good.

However, it was pretty good. Turns out it was coming from a split in the heater hose just a few cm from the end, so instead of paying someone £50 for an odd shaped hose, I used my toolbox scissors/an angry badger (you look, then decide) to chew the offending bit off, then re-clamped it, topped up the coolant and ran it up to see what was what.



What was what was where water was whooshing, water wasn't whooshing, weeing, or weakly welling at all. (W)yay. TLDR: Fixed.

Flushed with success, I then had a go at the still sticky throttle pedal with spray grease and WD40, then adjusted all the slack out of it. Too much as it turns out, since the idle is now about 1500rpm. Ooops. Will wind that back a bit...

Finally, to rectify the broken door handle, I used some Sikaflex I had lying about. It was last used to attach cycle wings to a Caterham, so it's definitely up to the job and I'm pleased to say a tentative test this morning suggests we're back in action as a four door vehicle, instead of repeated comedy moments of pulling a handle and getting the handle, but nothing else.

Annoyingly, I can't find the old bit of heatshield. I do have a new bit, but Im sort of saving that for something. Dunno what, but it seems a waste to use it on a stter when I know I've got a roadkill bit floating round somewhere.

Also, I make no apology for the socks.

[Smitters]

Sadly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, I may be closing the book on this RC thread as HV04TNN is gonna be stuck up a gum tree. We'll see, we'll see.

[Smitters]

RazerSauber said:

Smitters said:

Sadly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, I may be closing the book on this RC thread as HV04TNN is gonna be stuck up a gum tree. We'll see, we'll see.

This is sad news. You got your need from it I suspect though, you did some learning and will be more confident in future. What's caused this decision?

An opportunity to have a crack at something interesting has popped up. Going to look at it this weekend and will update either way.

[Smitters]

So, quite a lot to update this weekend...

First up on Friday was a trackday with MSE at Abingdon. The weather had looked wet again in the run up, which didn't really bother me since I don't mind going slower and learning about handling, plus it's a bit easier on the car. However, the day really came together, with the most thorough briefing ever, followed by a mostly dry day with the occasional sprinkle to keep things interesting.

As is typical for me just after deciding to sell a car, there were some adventures. First, there was a light nudge of a tall cone with the front left. Know what a tall cone does when you nudge it? Tips away from you, then tips back with a vengeance to catch the rear left...

That'll buff out (no seriously, it will - it's all plastic smears)


Although, unusually for MSE, there was a small amount of dodgy driving it was all resolved quickly and amicably and the eclectic mix of cars worked well.

Better on the grass than off?


Yes, a McLaren. Being used well too.


I had a fairly scrappy day to be honest, and struggled as a misfire that was previously very occasional got a lot less occasional. So, I've got some investigations to do on cylinder 4. Will I be lucky enough to find a knackered spark plug? Watch this space for expletives...

I did enjoy the challenge of driving in a manner that controlled the car's temps well though - I found by going up a gear in places and short-shifting in others I was able to manage tyres and water temps to extend the stints for very little speed loss. Why? Because by stringing 10 or so laps together I got more free space and got a better rhythm. Plus you can pretend you're in LM24 and having to manage a car. Yes, I'm a sad, sad man.

But, even though I drove home questioning whether I should even look at the car I was planning to this weekend, the temptation was too great. Sunday afternoon therefore, in biblical rain, saw my long-suffering Dad/taxi-driver and I schlepping to Redditch and then a convoy home. For what?

This.


So, some spannering to do on the MG, though it's sporting a For Sale sign in the window already. I'm not expecting much for it to be honest. We all know that modifications and servicing rarely pays you back, so in this case my profit is all in the learning experience.

And as a postscript... kids kicked the MGs wing mirrors off for drunken fun. FML.

[Smitters]

It's been a couple of weeks, so minor updates required.

Firstly, the car is indeed going. It simply has to. I offered it to a friend for a discount, but he (his missus) said no, so I'll be braving FB Marketplace etc.

However, that doesn't mean I want to stop tinkering. Some of it enforced, some of it just overdue.

So, first was to sort the pesky misfire. I was feeling all woe-is-me, so asked if I could borrow a compression testing kit, but in fact the car kindly threw me a hint on the EML, showing a cylinder 4 misfire. I popped the plug lead and what would you know?



One new plug and hey presto, it's sorted. Now that's the sort of problem solving I can get behind.

As per the post above, there was a minor cone-related incident at Abingdon. All I can say is the underseal and chassis protection department could have learnt a lot from the paint shop at MGRover...

Before:


After:


Finally, those pesky youths with their ninja kicks saw me resort to some Duck tape action and then some eBay action.

£15 and 20 minutes with the book of lies saw this:


Become this:


And finally this:


All sorted - still adjusts electrically (and has the wiring for heating too - maybe I simply lack an in-car switch?)

So, I need to fit the last of the boot trim, fix the stereo aerial wiring, add a sunstrip, give it a good wash and hoover and it'll be on someone else's drive fairly soon, or I'll be in real trouble...

[Smitters]

Smitters said:

So, I need to fit the last of the boot trim, fix the stereo aerial wiring, add a sunstrip, give it a good wash and hoover and it'll be on someone else's drive fairly soon, or I'll be in real trouble...

Yeah. About that. It's still here...

In the mean time, we've become adept at shuffling cars in and out, annoying all our neighbours every time I have to start the Megane (thread coming soon) because it's bloody loud.

I had thought, perhaps foolishly, a car that had been comprehensively serviced would somehow be more attractive than the usual two month MOT and no paperwork st that's about for under a grand, but it seems most people simply look at the mileage and assume it'll break down before the end of the road.

So far, I've advertised it on the street, at a trackday, had the car on Gumtree, eBay auction with sensible reserve (paid for), Autotrader (free), Facebook MG groups, Trackday groups and local selling groups and while I've had some interest, it's generally been swaps, contingent on selling an existing vehicle, offers of paying off the price in stages (but taking the car on the day!) and one enterprising European gent who thought he'd leverage the poor Euro/Pound. However, a deposit wasn't forthcoming and when I said he'd need to change the Euros to GBP before I'd accept then he went suspiciously quiet. So, le monopoly money then.

Without wishing to curse myself, it should go on Sunday. A keen buyer, who offered a deposit, is coming. In my view, it's a massive bargain, but it's tricky to put a price on what I've learned and how much I've enjoyed working on it. A last little touch, just to smarten up the screen, was a sunstrip. The crack isn't an MOT fail, but is a bit unsightly, so this offsets that too. The crack's in the ad, so this isn't an attempt to hide anything either.

Tint-life innit.


Fingers crossed for Sunday.

[Smitters]

SloppyClock said:

Smitters honestly if you're selling, and the buyer on sunday falls through, let me know, be interested myself, always wanted a 120.

Cheers - sadly it went. Gutted really - I'd much rather it went to a PHer. It went to Brighton and to a mechanic, so I have hopes it'll live on for a while.

Cambs_Stuart said:

Good luck with the sale. I've really enjoyed the thread and it even helped inspire me to buy a clio 172 and blow the dust off my spanners.
Now i've wrecked my back and taught my children some new swear words by changing the engine mounts, but its all experience.

Thanks. Glad it got some spanners twirling. I have some new callouses and a first name basis relationship with a physio now. Probably worth it. My boy, who's four, now knows the difference between a wheel, a brake disc and a brake caliper. This is good news.