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MG MGF Technical - steering problem

Had a new auxillary belt fitted last week. First time I drive the car speedo is not working and steering had gone very light I accelerated to about 50mph , the steering went heavy and a steering wheel warning light lit up on dash board, Long journey ahead What to do ?

(It felt like having over inflated front tyres & I assumed it could be because the car had been on a ramp to do belt and suspension needed to settle.but then steering went heavy)
AP Jones

Because the speed input to your epas is not there, the system is confused. If you find why and fix the speedo drive, the steering will return to normal.
Charless

Sounds like you have an original version car with the mechanical speedo drive. With this, the electric power steering gets its signal from the speedo head, so if the cable fails it thinks the car is stationary and delivers max assistance. After a while it thinks 'this can't be right' and turns the power off altogether. Happened to me last year, but the weird thing was that I checked the three cables and couldn't find any broken sections. Reconnected them all and hey presto, speedo worked, power steering worked and are still doing so. You could try separating the cables - one joint in the front boot, v. easy to reach, and the other underneath ahead of the engine, not too difficult. Pull the inner cables out a bit and check that they rotate, push them back and reconnect - maybe you'll be lucky!
Mike Cunningham

its an R reg car > early . 3 cables ???

one mech cable and 2 wires ? . I don't undertsand .


mech cable rotates and drives the speedo needle OK btwha , what do the others do ?. or are they 3 wires which bmight need the connections cleaned up ?
.
(I found driving quickly didn't need epas )
AP Jones

The speedo cable is in three sections and any one of these sections could be broken.

Check the archives for more information.
Ted Newman

OK I understand . one speedo cable made up of three parts.

Garage quoted £160 to fix - I will have a look this weekend. We simply noticed that the speedo was not working, there was no 'erratic flicking' of the needle and as far as I know it didn't shoot up to the stop before failing like a sticking or frayed cable would have done in an old (pre 80's) car.

So I hope it is just a joint come adrift.... thanks for the advice all.
AP Jones

New lower end part of the cable bought and fitted, 8mm socket required , quite a few links on the web to tell you how to do it. Car now back on road where she should be
(I must point out tis is my wifes car ! )
- cost about £45 thanks to MGOC sales who provided excellent service
AP Jones

This thread was discussed between 11/03/2011 and 09/04/2011

MG MGF Technical index

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