And in the case of the freelander, once you've freed off the lock, you realise the shaft between the lock barrel and the door lock has sheared off.

I'd be a bit cautious about using spacers, the point raised above about knackering wheel bearings, this is true in principle. Remember that by adding distance away from the bearing you are increasing the moment of any loading - meaning that shocks, bumps and bounces will all be massively...

I wonder if anyone tries stealing cars without the keys any more? It's become mandatory to use transponder chips so I bet no one ever attempts it, taping your transponder to the receiver is probably not very risky.

I'd be a bit careful with what you flush the system out with, I think the dishwasher option is fine so long as you don't leave it in there for a day or two and clean it out thoroughly afterwards. The head gaskets and alloys are very twitchy about having corrosive substances up against them :)...

An mg725 is rated at 1000NM standard torque and 1600NM overpressure - mine is fitted with wide bore hose to stop restriction losses so I know it actually produces the stamped torque. Still wouldn't shift the damn bolt. I suspect that most of the problem is garages massively overtorquing the...

Occasionally the hubnuts on these do stick, its an absolute b*****d when it happens. My drivers side recently wouldn't come off, I spent hours hammering at it with a snapon mg725 (on overpressure) and it just refused to shift. Nearly broke a 3/4 inch breaker bar using the jacking trick, the...

Gearbox oil change: Oops, almost: Check out the shoddy filling apparatus: Did the balljoints: And paid the landrover tax: Also, today I learned that PG1 boxes are all interchangeable - all of the MG/Rover editions have the same mounting points on the cases that the IRD adaptor bolts...

So long as you've hit the point of elasticity in the bolts you'll be fine. Because of the way these head bolts work, once you've hit a certain point they don't actually apply any more force to the head, they just stretch like an elastic band. Adding 1/4 turn on these won't actually make much of...

Hasn't this question popped up like three times in the last two days?

They seem particularly bad under the bonnet where the chassis runners go through the firewall. There's a natural water catch bucket in them, mine have started rusting so are going to get walloped with hammerite.

Used to be able to get away with something like 40% petrol in diesel - but in the modern ones petrol kills the pumps and injectors. £2 will probably give you the same effect as if you'd put redex in.

When you do the torques remember to go around three times. A lot of people cock up head gaskets by only taking the bolts to a torque stage once which doesn't work. The correct three step process is actually 5: 1: Torque all bolts in sequence to first stage torque 2: without slackening bolts...

Sounds like the tyre pressure loss has done in the diff, IRD or both. So, question, is the shaft moving in the joint, or is the joint (and the bit that goes into the gearbox) moving? Critical distinction - if the shaft is moving in the joint, it's not so bad, if the joint is moving in the...

Could be a vacuum leak, the turbo isn't spooling or both?

Ok awesome. One thing when you do the rebuild, remember that the cam ladder MUST be sealed down with anaerobic sealant and not silicone sealant. If your liner protrusion is at least level I'd highly recommend the SAIC N series head gasket kit too, its much more solid than most of the others.

MGF's have a very, very wide range of heads. There are two major different types: VVC (variable valve timing) and NON-VVC VVC types are very common, so watch out - I believe the vast majority of the later cars were VVC based engines. There were three major non vvc variants: Standard 135 VHPD -...

Holy thread revival batman.

Good point, but thinking about it the block is more likely to survive for two reasons: 1) remember that the block is alloy, but none of the combustion gasses touch it. The exhaust flowing through the head and against the face of the head super heat the thing in no time at all. and, possibly...

Thought about this some more, try to avoid using scrap K series if you can - 95% of the ones in scrap yards will be there because their head gaskets have blown and people perceive them as not worth the effort repairing. "Runs well, no issues, 70k" will be for the 90 seconds they started it up...

The K petrol is actually really easy to work with. I'd start by pulling the head off the roasted one - you can buy complete replacement heads for about £250-£300 on ebay brand new. Check the liner protrusion and the bore walls - if they look good just slap a new head on it and be done with it...