New second hand car must dos

Here are some things a new owner of a second hand car should do.

1. Check earth lead to body; clean and rub of rust/corrode.
2. Get new battery.

A bad earth can damage a battery. Then a bad battery can make thing work poorly. EG The engine temp sensor (maybe being far from battery) don't work, so the engine fan is on all the time. Being new to MGTFs, didn't know this was wrong until I got new battery.

Nice tip!

Agree with number 1, but would not replace the battery unless it needed replacing.

I agree about cleaning up the earth lead, but surely there is absolutely no need to change the battery unless it is duff?

Further to this, for me anyway a major must do job is to get underneath and thoroughly check the underside for any signs of the dreaded tin munching monster that is known to love eating so many areas of these otherwise beautiful cars, such as the subframes, door sills, wings and most important of all the suspension. Check for it and be ready to do a total clean off, wire brushing, treatment and then a nice and thorough coating of a suitable high quality coating such as https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bilt-Hamber-Dynax-Anti-Corrosion-750ml/dp/B007FR4124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514275286&sr=8-1&keywords=dynax+s-50

The brakes, do a thorough check of these and by that I mean the removal of the brake pads to check their condition and a thorough inspection of the discs.
OK different type and make of car, but only yesterday my Brother in Law asked me to go along to a garage that had MOT failed his quite low mileage (35,000) just 4 years old Skoda Octavia VRs, they had failed it because of poor braking performance.
To be honest I was utterly gobsmacked with what I saw as all 4 discs were so badly rusted and pitted they were scrap and as for the pads, despite still having a lot of meat on them, they were so badly damaged that I had to give clearance for the discs and pads to be replaced along with the reconditioning of the calipers etc. that had been sticking.............. In total it ended up costing him an eye watering £700 for the work to be done!!
So, most especially on low mileage high day and holiday cars, make sure you thoroughly check the brakes if you can before you buy your car, or if that isn't possible, make it one of your must do jobs immediately after purchase.

Hear hear on the brakes. I've found that the TF brake discs can get really bad on the blind (inner) sides. When we first got ours I changed the discs and pass all round despite v low mileage. Have repeated the exercise last year. Lucky they're cheap as the proverbial.

As our car had only done a couple of hundred miles the year previous to us buying it I changed all the fluids too. I then knew all was good and also the start of the change intervals.

Hi and welcome to the forum

psfree50 wrote: ..........The engine temp sensor (maybe being far from battery) don't work, so the engine fan is on all the time. Being new to MGTFs, didn't know this was wrong until I got new battery.

The system on the K series ECU is set up so that if the ECU detects low voltage it will run the fans. It is also set up so that if it doesn't receive a signal from the ECU coolant temp sensor (Brown on early cars, black on MEMS 3 cars) it will run the coolant fan, this is nothing to do with the state of the battery.

James

Whilst you lot are cleaning your battery terminals I'd be making sure I could get the spare wheel out.

Airportable wrote: Whilst you lot are cleaning your battery terminals I'd be making sure I could get the spare wheel out.

Nah, I leave the heavy lifting to the Missus....:whistle:

I was thinking more of the siezed bolt syndrome, but now you come to mention it - - - - - - -.

Couldn't really think of anythinge to add to this thread untill I went out today..In my mazda.6.coverd 55 miles and then we stopped at a country location...pipegate shropshire...the car is keyless...on entering the car which was no problem untill the dashboard read...key not found...right ..logic says that's a flat battery on the key fob. ...and without a fully charged battery the car does not go....luckily I had my mg keys and fob with me....Did a transplant of batteries even though they were a different number and off we went......well this can happen on the mg aswell...low power will allow you to open and lock the door ...but on the mgtf...low power on the key fob will just make a alarm sound from the dash and the car won't start.........so my advice is renew key fob batteries and carry a spare....wouldn't of liked to of been sitting around today for to long...think about it next time you go out in your car and imagine you have this sena rio. ..those without spare batteries will be horrified how it can turn a nice day into a nightmare....mind you at least the tf has the eka code system?

A spare battery lives in the glovebox of all my cars.

On the MGR service sheet fob battery replacement is an annual item.

I swap ours at MOT time. Maybe overkill but peace of mind!