Hi,
I recently inherited my late father's MG TF 135.
After 2 years of sitting in a garage in Spain it would not start. The garage changed the fuel pump, performed a general service and took it to be tested for the Spanish version of an MOT which it passed sin defectos.
When driving it to the ferry port to bring it back to the UK last week it performed beautifully with plenty of power for the first 4 hours then stopped without warning on a motorway. It was about 40 degrees C that day and I may have noticed the water and oil temperatures rise slightly above where they had been sitting up until that point but there were no other obvious signs of overheating. The car completed its journey on a lorry and it hasn't started since.
After a weekend of poking around I have found the following:
- on turning over the engine will occasionally cough and maybe turn over once or twice under its own power but never start
- no connectors obviously disconnected or wires damaged
- a cheapo ODB reader shows no fault codes. I have yet to buy a Pscan.
- Fuel reaching the rail but whether the rail is at 3.5 bar is yet to be proven
- to test for spark I removed spark plugs 2 and 3 (which you all know share a coil) but left them and the coil connected so I could see the spark. The engine started immediately, idled perfectly and revved.
- I replaced 2 and 3 and removed 1 and 4 and kept the plugs and coil connected in the same manner. Again the engine started immediately.
- With all spark plugs and coils replaced - back to the beginning with the engine not even trying to start.
I have replaced the coils, leads and plugs but that changed nothing.
So this one really has me scratching my head. As it appears to me, the fact that the engine starts and runs fine on each pair of cylinders indicates that there is a correctly timed spark and fuel and no compression issue. Have I missed something obvious? I am convinced this will be a simple fix once I determine the problem.
I shall be grateful for any suggestions anyone may have.
Thanks!
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