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MG MGF Technical - Please can someone help - Regarding HGF

Two weeks ago my '98' MGF developed HGF. The car went into my local garage and £650 later i now have a new Head Gasket, Cam Belt, Skimmed Head and flushed Coolant System....however when i went to collect my car the garage told me that there was still some 'sludge' in my coolant system which was impossible to remove (even after they had used a flushing agent). i asked if this would cause me any problems and they told me that it could do in the future.

Two days after collecting my car i arrived home after a night out and when i pulled onto my drive i noticed steam coming from the boot vents, closer investigation found that the coolant bottle was once again completely empty. The garage have been back and collected my car this morning, but have now told me that the loss of water was caused by an air lock in the system which was created by some of this 'sludge' still being in there. They told me that this problem would keep re-occuring.

Does anyone know if there is any way of removing all of this 'sludge' from the coolant system....or whether my car is going to keep experiencing air-locks and losing its water (possibly leading to another cause of HGF).

Sorry this is a rather long thread but I would appreciate any help as i really do not want to have to sell my beloved MGF.

Thanks very much
L Orbell

Sounds like the garage dont know what they are doing, the system is quite difficult to bleed correctly but there is a lot of info in the archives on it and on here www.mgfcar.de/bleed/ Did the garage say where the sludge was?? it all sounds very iffy to me.

Wayne D'Andilly

I think they reffer to oil sludge left in the engine.
This is a known problem and it's said to be very difficult to remove.
May be flushing with water is to easy. This was experianced unfortunately already by Jon Fredheim (N) with his DIY repair two years ago. (see archives *Fredheim* search)

Isn't there any chemical stuff availiable to solve this trouble ?

Mind you on the coolant bleed instructions and affiliated websides regarding HGF causes and prevention. (check links at..)
http://www.mgfcar.de/hgf/index.html

In any way, get a new coolant expansion cap cause it may be damaged after your recent *blow off* and try whether the front fan works as it should.

HTH
Dieter
PS. go back to the garage, complain and let them repeat proper flush and bleed process .



Dieter K.

Thanks Dieter, sorry for giving out your website but its what i used cheers mate.
<still some 'sludge' in my coolant system which was impossible to remove>
impossible is an easy get out clause.
Wayne D'Andilly

I suspect that the only way to clear the sludge is to flush, flush and flush again the entire cooling system until all traces have been cleared. It's a labourious and time consuming job - and it doesn't surprise me that your dealership gave up.

If you don't fancy flushing the system yourself (messy business!) take your car to the mg specialists that always gets listed on this BBS: B&G/ MGF Centre/ Mike Satur/ Techspeed - whom ever happens to be the most convenient for you.
Rob Bell

The sludge remaining in the engine's cooling system consists of emulgated oil which has to be dissolved by means of a chemical solvent. I found this chemical at a Renault truck garage (sorry, don't remember the brand). I gave my system two or three treatments, then flushed thoroughly a couple of times (each time with thorough bleeding). This is now three years/6.000km ago. Apart from a couple of sloppy hose clips my cooling system has been totally trouble free during this time.
I currently drive with a 80deg thermostat with a 2mm hole in it.
Jon

"Alentra Cleaner" is the name of the cleaning agent used to clean out my cooling system. It came in a one litre can and it was made in Belgium.
Jon

Thanks for all of your replies, you're all being a great help and i really appreciate it.
I have just been and picked up my car from the garage, apparently they have flushed the system again and it appears to be working fine at the moment. They have told me that this may happen again soon, but there is no way that i will ever be able to remove every trace of this 'sludge' from the system!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm going to see if i can get hold of something to put in the system myself to see if that helps.
Luckily they did not charge me for this latest lot of work.
Thanks again
Lou
L Orbell

This thread was discussed between 09/03/2004 and 10/03/2004

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGF Technical BBS is active now.