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MG MGF Technical - What's all this on the Filler cap!?

Recently, a small amount of a foreign substance has been appearing on my coolant filler cap, see image here:

http://www.rotographic.co.uk/hosted/fillercap.jpg

The car is a 2001 (sep) VVC 'F and it has 20500 miles on the clock. I only bought it about 4 months ago, and it was serviced at that time.

If I poke around with a cable tie in the coolant resevoir there seems to be a little more of this brown stuff floating on top. Not a huge amount I must say, and the dipstock and oil filler cap are always spotless.

I'm obviously hoping that this is normal, or if it is oil, then that it's as a result of the head gasket inpection which I am told was 'tested' shortly before I received the car.

Any thoughts?
Chris Heinrich Perkins

I've not seen anyone post a photo on here of that before......impressive!

Looks just like mine did. I too had no sign of goo on the dipstick or in the oil....until one day I did notice a slight bit of mayo on the dipstick = HGF = sore wallet.

Hopefully thats not the case with you. Im sure somebody more knowledgeable than myself will come along with further suggestions. Lets hope its not anything serious.

Good luck anyway!

Fiona :-D
Fiona

Chris, your pic is exactly what mine looked like about 7 months back I'm afraid to say. The AA initially misdiagnosed it(the sniffer test was negative). A few months later the amount of "gunk" had increased considerably and when I called them out a second time they confirmed the head gasket was on its way out and I had it replaced in the nick of time.
Best get it checked. Fingers crossed...
Paul
Paul Bevan

Unless of course your car had already suffered a hgf before you bought it and the cooling system was not flushed very well when it was repaired.
Spyros Papageorghiou

Great picture of HGF signs.
Chris would you please give permission to use the picture on my HGF website ?
Dieter

Yes, please do Dieter. That's 40% of original size, if you need a bigger one let me know. My trade is selling coins, and I have a pretty good macro camera which worked great on my coolant cap!

Photography aside, it's not good is it!

It is possible there was gue there before I bought it I suppose. Looks like I'll just have to keep monitoring it and if it does get decidedly worse that I'll have the HG changed. I'll be seeing the chap that organised the sale (a good friend actually) and I'll ask him exactly what was done coolant/HG wise in the garage where he had some work done.

It's due a service around about now, I'll have to find an ex Rover dealer somewhere in Eastern Germany. Can you recommend one Dieter, I'd like the book stamped properly if that's possible. Should I get it changed now?

So, to summarise, it's bad, but it may last out for six months or more? And it's not yet likely to suddenly pop?



Chris Heinrich Perkins

Hi Chris,

I don't think it's a good idea to change the gasket as pre-caution. You need to speak with a speciallist who verifies with the _subject_.

Looked up for you at the German Rover Forum for a good MG Rover dealership near Chemnitz.
http://forum.mg-rover-freunde.de
User MEXTERS lives in Chemnitz and he wrote recently:

DON'T go to
Schnabel GmbH Automobile
They are cr*p

but he recommended
09116 Chemnitz
Autohaus Gering & Pfeiffer GmbH
Winkelhoferstr. 5
0371-281920 0371-2819222
email: DE1140 at mgrovernet dot de

Gering & Pfeiffer is listed as Service Station, so no MG car sales.
http://www.mgrover.de/dealer_db/frame_haendler.php
Please give them a call in any way whether they are still existing and registered to stamp the service manual with official MG service stamp.

Good luck and a low invoice

Regards
Dieter
PS. pic is OK for the site. Thank You.
Dieter

Just got confirmed

Gering & Pfeiffer GmbH
Is registered official workshop.

The other closed down. No wonder ;)
Dieter

This thread was discussed between 07/09/2005 and 08/09/2005

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