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MG MGF Technical - Starting / Posible Imobiliser Problem

Hi, I have an MGF 1.8VVC on an R plate, the car was starting with no problems at all untill one day I went to start it and nothing happened. The red lights come on on the dashboard in position 2 but when you turn the key to start the engine the red lights all dim down and the oil temperature warning light (above the SRS light) comes on.

This is an intermittent fault, sometimes I get in the car turn the key and it fires straight away, turn it off and try again and its fine, sometimes it will work for two weeks with no problems and another time it will not start at all.

It has been to a garage who has tried to fix it three times, it works for a while when it comes back but then goes wrong again. The mechanic has said that when it goes wrong there is no power at all going to the starter motor so the fault must be somewhere between the starter motor and the ignition system (immobiliser possibly ?).

One other thing to point out is that when the ignition is turned to the start position and held for approximately 20 seconds there is a white connection joint located beside the steering column directly below the instrument cluster which gets very very hot and at one point some smoke came out from the dashboard in the front right hand corner (drivers Side).

Does anybody have any idea what could be wrong ?????

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many Thanks

James
James Maxted

Engine earth cables have been known to fail. Would suggest checking / replacing this before you try too many other things.
Dave

This thread was discussed between 17/08/2008 and 18/08/2008

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