Typical just typical!

skippy2421

skippy2421

skippy2421

Associate
Joined
23 Mar 2009
Posts
2,014
Location
Peterborough
In a cruel twist of fate, immediately after defending mg zrs on this forum my car has decided it needed a new exhaust and new clutch. Now the exhaust i was expecting as it was still on its original I also had provisions for a hgf which i used for the clutch. What I didn't expect is for a possible hgf to follow a month after. Now i say possible as I can't be certain. Here is my question to the rover bods on here. I have oil in my coolant tank but no other signs of hgf. I still suspect it to be hgf just with me catching it early but I'm no mechanic. Levels are ok bar the contamination and oil hasnt turned to chocolate. Plus there's no sign of overheating. So am i likely to be right in my assumption? I'm trying to sort a mobile mechanic for wednesday to get it done. I had been toying with getting rid but i put my "fox" hat on and decided it would probably be better (financially and logically) to stay put under the circumstances.

However for the sake of discussion if i was to ignore logic and get something new, what could i get for 4k plus my car (fixed)? My only reqs being quicker than zr, less rattles, hopefully more reliable and not horrendously expensive to run. ohhh and must be more comfortable day to day as the misses wouldn't be impressed if it was less.

apologies for any mistakes, im posting from phone.
 
What age and is it a 160? You're talking what, 1-1.3k unless its very new and even that is assuming its a 2004+ car. Sounds very much like a hg failure to me.

The 160 is alright really, the rest of the are range is pretty terrible other then handling though so there are many vastly superior cars out there.
 
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03 plate 105+. Figured its probably only worth 1k. Only cost me 2.5k when i bought it and since then I haven't given it an easy life. Been two years of trouble free motoring until recently. True the build quality is dire but other than this quite frankly it's better than most comparables that sit in its price range hence me considering with sticking with it until me and the misses work out what the future holds and if said future features a house. However if the house isnt to feature for another couple years ive been toying with the idea of a fiesta st or possibly stretching for a 207 gti bit that may be stretching a little far. I can't seem to find anything in the class above (focus etc) that really takes my fancy.
 
I had a Rover 214 with HGF, Paid £1800 for it with 42,000 miles. in the 60k mark it started to go, I took it a local garage where they are ex rover mechanics and did the whole skim and fixed it up for £500. Sold it last year with almost 120,000 miles on the clock still running fine, not bad considering I spent most of my youth with my foot welded to the floor.
 
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I cant agree that they're any good, horrible inside and rubbish to drive other than being fairly chuckable. That's by the by really though it matters not whether I like it or not (I do like the zs as it happenszt too)if its fixed properly then there isn't a a whole lot more to go wrong really.

If spending 3-4k you'll get a far better car in the form of say the fiesta st you mentioned or a 182 but dont touch a 207, rotten to drive again.

For me getting some cash in the bank for a house is a far bigger priority than messing about with cars that at the end of the day only cost more money to run. Save spending thousands for when you have your own place. About a grand could get you some interesting stuff anyway you just need o be prepared to do a bit of diy mechanics on it.
 
Assume this is the first time the HG has gone ? Since your in Kent, get this chap round the better diagnose whether its HGF or not. He comes highly recommended from the MG Rover forums.

http://www.mgroversolutions.com/

I used him on my ZS that suffered HGF and his prices and quality of work are extremely good.
 
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DiscoKandy said:
Assume this is the first time the HG has gone ? Since your in Kent, get this chap round the better diagnose whether its HGF or not. He comes highly recommended from the MG Rover forums.

http://www.mgroversolutions.com/

I used him on my ZS that suffered HGF and his prices and quality of work are extremely good.
Click to expand...

chad116 said:
Could get a civic type r for that money, in my opinion there not bad motors
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Way ahead of you there old chap. Got to ring him back up tonight but he may be too busy but there's a couple of other mobile mechanics I'm trying as all my good lcals are busy for atleast a week. Heard good things about that guy on the mg-rover forums too so he was my first port of call.

Not a fan of the civic I'm afraid. Think they have actually managed to age worse than the mg. Not really to my taste but cheers for the suggestion. Plus the misses hates them too, not that her opinion should particularly matter but she may inherit whatever I have after I'm done with it so she does have a little say. i dont doubt they're very good cars but personally find them quite ghastly to behold.

EDIT: Got RAC to tow me back from Swindon but they did a "sniff" test too which the car passed. So perhaps it's not the head gasket. What else could cause oil to enter the coolant?
 
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I used to have a ZR160 and it was the most unreliable piece of junk ever.

Mine had its hgf irritatingly about a month after I'd had the cambelt done. Also had the exhaust fall off, the drivers seat fall apart, the central locking fail, overheated three times due to various sensor faliures, snapped clutch cable, screen washers fell apart, alternator failed, all in twenty months. It also ate front tyres and brakes at a furious rate, and was a nightmare to insure.

Not sure how that helps, but I still feel the need to vent about it occasionally :D
 
lol what silly idiot gets a 160 :P. Only had consumables fail until now. I say that but I don't even know what's wrong with it this time. Funny you mention seats as my drivers one is dying now too and my rear washer is dead too (it's not the little flexi pipe thing either). Perhaps I'm not as unlucky as I thought. A new car does appeal but I can't really get rid of this until it's fixed.
 
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