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MG MGF Technical - Poor performance - possible places to start lookin

A friend is having trouble with his F. Unfortunately he is away on holiday so I only have his SMS message to go on:-

"Idles fine, stutters below 2.5k rpm. Still get 40 mpg."

"Seems fine over 2500 rpm."

"Actually stutters at idle now, and above 2500 rpm."

"Runs fine cold, starts missing as soon as water temp up. Cruises ok
but no power to accelerate below 2500. Fans and idle speed seem ok. Not
getting worse."

A Sensor? Spark? VVC mechanism? Any bright ideas on where to start, folks?
Russell Parslow

Temp sensor?
Leigh

Thanks to Russell for the initial post, here are more details and a probable resolution to this issue, in case this turns up in any archive searches:

My car is a 1999 VVC, which ran fine in the lowlands of Hampshire, didnt miss a beat on the 300 mile jaunt to Cumbria, but then ran like a pig for our entire Lake District holiday. Ran fine until water warm, then would maintain revs ok but was very lumpy on acceleration especially at low revs. Wrynose pass was a particular issue, 0.5 miles at 3000rpm in 1st gear didnt do the water temp any good, but I couldnt drive at lower revs. The lumpiness reminded me of minis when the condenser is knackered or the points had closed up, and the fact that it was ok cold led me to hope that it wasnt *GF.

Run home from Cumbria was largely ok (in the wet) but played up again the following day.

Yesterday I replaced the spark plugs (since I hadn't changed them in the 4 years I'd had the car unless they were part of the 5 year service) and I'm embarassed to say that I think its fixed the problem.

Morals of the story? Dont assume 36000 mile platinum plugs last forever, and dont go on holiday without enough tools to get into the engine bay! If I'd had my socket set with me I could have replaced them while away, but I didnt fancy being fleeced by an unknown garage reading off fault codes which would no doubt lead to the replacement of various expensive bits of electronics without fixing the problem.

Pete
P Davey

This thread was discussed between 16/05/2008 and 21/05/2008

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