MG ZR 1.8 mg vvc..... thoughts people ?

Mr. May · 1 Jul 2012 at 05:00

My mate has just picked up one of these with about 50k on the clock. He was saying its had the headgasket changed already and a fair few other parts.

I said to him if its head the head gasket replace its probably been ragged to death. then he says arh they normal fail around 45k. Surely this isnt a quality product ?

Thoughts people ?

PhillyDee · 1 Jul 2012 at 05:03

HG can go at any time 'ragged' or not. A common cause is lack of maintenance or putting your foot down on a not fully warmed up engine.
Plus, HG must be fixed correctly, otherwise you might as well not bother!

ShakenNstirred · 1 Jul 2012 at 06:32

it not a given that they fail at 45k or at all
my old k series engine had done 111k when i sold it and was still on original HG
i did have a pipe split at a t piece once but even then the HG survived lol.

this upgrade meant to help stop it going in the future along with a new style HG
http://www.elise-shop.com/oil-ladder-kseries-engines-p-611.html

rodenal · 1 Jul 2012 at 09:17

If its been done right and with the new gasket it'll be fine. I'm guessing he paid pennies for it, quite a reasonable amount of performance for the money, disgusting inside mind you but you cant have it all

JonnyGeee · 1 Jul 2012 at 09:34

Mine failed on my mg around 40k, my water pump had failed which then caused an issue...
Had it out skimmed new gasket in for £350. Didn't fail again for 12 months then I sold it..

Fr0dders · 1 Jul 2012 at 10:34

Mr. May said:
My mate has just picked up one of these with about 50k on the clock. He was saying its had the headgasket changed already and a fair few other parts.

I said to him if its head the head gasket replace its probably been ragged to death. then he says arh they normal fail around 45k. Surely this isnt a quality product ?

Thoughts people ?

He's right in that headgasket failures on the rover engines are very common, and nothing to do with being ragged :

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17944270

Skilid · 1 Jul 2012 at 13:41

My mum has a Rover 25 (basically the same car) and it is bloody horrid. Nothing fits together properly, wind and road noise is intolerable, it's cramped... The list goes on.

Liquidfox · 1 Jul 2012 at 13:46

Had my ZR for 2 years and did about 40K in it. Sold it with 55K on the clock on the original gasket. As long as you warm it up properly, they're fine.

Fr0dders · 1 Jul 2012 at 14:59

Liquidfox said:
Had my ZR for 2 years and did about 40K in it. Sold it with 55K on the clock on the original gasket. As long as you warm it up properly, they're fine.

its not as simple as that.

Different cars will last different lengths of time before going pop. The quality control and tolerances at the factory were poor, meaning that plenty of engines were just never made as well as the design, and thus had a HG fail on them for no good reason.

The ones that haven't failed, were just one of the ones they managed to build right.

CaptainUnlikely · 2 Jul 2012 at 20:10

HGF is quite common on the K series engines, mainly down to lack of maintenance. The K series doesn't have a large coolant capacity, so if you don't check the level fairly often (as you should do on any engine) a relatively small loss of coolant can quite quickly lead to head gasket failure.
Having said that, if the root cause of the failure - whether it was a leak, failed water pump, or something else - was identified and fixed properly (not bodged with K-Seal or similar) then providing the head gasket change was also done properly, it's unlikely to fail again as long as routine checks and maintenance are carried out.

Dogbreath · 2 Jul 2012 at 23:06

Regardless of the potential head gasket issues, the VVC ZR is a pretty quick machine.