flickering lights, dying alternator?

Hi all,
sadly the TF is in the garage most of the time due to the weather, but tonight i took it for a short drive and noticed that all lights in the care are flicking a bit, also there was a wining noise that i could hear.

then the radio stopped working, restarted, failed again, restarted failed again after a few minutes and when i parked it in the garage again i noticed the lights still flickering. 

didnt do any check yet, but maybe it is a known issue? 

You need to identify if the cause is a fault with the alternator or the battery. Best to start by charging the battery for a few hours. Leave it an hour then check (and make a note of ) the voltage across the battery. Start the car and with the engine running now check the battery voltage again. It should be over 13 volts. Turn the headlamps on full beam and note if the voltage drops. Now leave the car with everything turned off for 24 hours and note down what the voltage is now.

It sounds a bit like your electrical system is struggling to deliver power. the whine is a an indicator that the problem may lie with the charging system, but lets not get ahead of our selves just yet, and do things methodologically! Also the fact that faults are found across different unrelated circuits indicates that the issue is likely to have a common cause upstream and not lie within the individual circuits.
 
I'd start with the simplest and cheapest thing to fix 1st, check your battery terminals are clean and tight, then check the other ends of the battery leads.
I would then do a load test on the battery, then start the car and do another load test on the alternator. get hold of a load tester to do this, they can be found from cheap and cheerful to ruinously costly these days, a cheap one should do you. ( remember tools are an investment not a cost, once you have it you will use it again as the need arises......and it will!)
Check the drive belt for the alternator os tight and in good condition, all pulleys, idlers etc in the system have good bearings, (they should turn freely and smoothly without noise when the belt has been removed, they also shouldn't be loose and wobble about like a dick in a shirtsleeve!)

If all of the above checks out, then you should spend time and effort checking grounding points are tight and clean as well as the power distribution and the fuse boxes etc.
It's not unusual in cars that aren't used often to have corrosion on the fuses and fusible links causing trouble. Any hint of trouble here and I replace the lot! and make sure the terminals that hold the fuses are clean.

Report back with your findings and we can go from there!




 

Thanks guys i have not yet had time to investigate further but i did discover something weirder. 

so while driving nothing much happened but when backing up in my garage i could trigger (dying radio, also part of the dash "restarting" by turning the steering wheel, when over half turned left or right it seems to happen. so i will also have to dive under the dash to see if there is physicially some cables are not right, disconnected or maybe shorting?

Does it happen every time you turn the steering lock to lock ?
Can you clarify what you mean by parts of the dash are restarting ?

The EPAS draws a fair bit of current when steering the car at parking speeds. This will certainly highlight any intermittent electrical supply problem.
As Cobber has said you should set to and track this down, starting with checking the tightness of the battery terminals.

Checking the battery terminals should only take a few minutes, it will take much less time than all the buggerising about done to date. Whats more it's free!

Forum regulars are happy to pass on the benefit of their experience but with the best will in the world its going to be of very limited benefit unless the person carries out basic fault finding to narrow down the cause.
Help us to help you

due to house renovations i dont have much time to check the MG, but i took it for a drive about a week ago and it worked fine, but on the way back from my appointment it started again. I did remove the battery switch as i'm now suspecting that thing. i will keep you posted in a few weeks. currently traveling for work and i hope when i come back i can drive the MG for a bit and if necessary further investigate the issue.

what i meant with parts of the dash "restarting" is that when it happens my ABS Light comes up and some other "test" lights just like they would when you just turn on the car, also what happens is that the RPM indicator drops to zero and pops straight back to life, radio also stops at the same time and my headlights are also flickering then. but i have not driven without it yet.

Have you checked the battery terminals yet?

the battery terminals seem fine , also no corrosion on there i did however see some wobbeling on the battery switch thats why i removed it.

What about the other ends of the battery cables are those terminals tight and clean?

Have you removed the engine cover to check the soundness of the earthing strap between the engine and body. Whilst there check the positive connections are tight on the starter motor and alternator.