Hi all, proud owner of a 1.4 MG ZR here, I love it, but it's given me a LOT of grief since owning it in December '16.
I'll preface this by saying, I don't really know cars, so I do appreciate your patience if you have to re-explain something using simpler terminology. I did work on my bike and I know more or less the contents of an engine bay for a car so I'm not a total layman.
Problems are listed in order of severity:
1. Driver window started making a grinding sound when the button was pressed and it was already at the top. I had the window wound down and now it won't go up or down. Because of this.... (2.)
2. The alarm is always going off when the car is locked as the wind is activating some sensor or another. I have to leave the car unlocked.
3. Water leak and a Mechanic suspects the water pump. However I think this is a cowboy mechanic and he did it by visual inspection instead of taking anything apart. This was "diagnosed" by him noting "the engine bay around that general area looked a bit wet" Basically I had to top up the water every week as it had dropped from Max to Min, every week. This has now stopped. I'll tell you what changed, like an idiot I drove 30 miles with the expansion tank cap off (I forgot, cut me a break) the water obviously boiled away until it was almost gone. Since refilling, in over 4 months, I've had to top it up just once. I can't explain it.
4. Engine light comes on and off intermittently. Sometimes it's on for a week, other times it's on for just the journey. Sometimes it stays off for months. The dealer plugged a computer in and it gave some error message, when googling something to do with an O2 sensor?
5. Slowww oil leak. Had an experienced mate look at it and he determines it's probably the Rocker Cover Gasket as there's a lot of fresh oil in the seam where the top plate meets the engine block.
6. Passenger side door grinds when locking / unlocking. Very loudly. I did take the door card off but didn't have the glue substance to put the weather sealing back, so didn't want to take it off to investigate the motor.
7. Whistling sound on driver side door when driving over 60mph. Very annoying, I think this may be caused by a small hole in the rubber seal on the top corner of the door, there's a few small holes there actually.
8. Speaker issues - On CD changer, the left speaker is very crackly and I have to balance audio to the right. On CD player, the right speaker intermittently cuts out. Suspect re-wiring needs to be done but I am looking to replace the Stereo with one that accepts Bluetooth and/or Auxiliary input. On this front, how do I know what is and isn't compatible? Is there a size or type I need? Thanks.
9. CD player sometimes plays all songs in fast forward mode.
10. SRS light pops up intermittently. Fiddling around with the cable under the driver seat the restarting the engine fixes this.
11. Front Licence plate has a stain that is an advisory. I will get this replaced I just wanted to include it to make the list look huge and of course any recommendations on where to go?
12. Seal is coming off around the bottom of the boot door and the rear passenger side door.
I realise a lot of these solutions are stickied somewhere or another, but any general advice that can be given would be appreciated, thank you so much!
I'll preface this by saying, I don't really know cars, so I do appreciate your patience if you have to re-explain something using simpler terminology. I did work on my bike and I know more or less the contents of an engine bay for a car so I'm not a total layman.
Problems are listed in order of severity:
1. Driver window started making a grinding sound when the button was pressed and it was already at the top. I had the window wound down and now it won't go up or down. Because of this.... (2.)
2. The alarm is always going off when the car is locked as the wind is activating some sensor or another. I have to leave the car unlocked.
3. Water leak and a Mechanic suspects the water pump. However I think this is a cowboy mechanic and he did it by visual inspection instead of taking anything apart. This was "diagnosed" by him noting "the engine bay around that general area looked a bit wet" Basically I had to top up the water every week as it had dropped from Max to Min, every week. This has now stopped. I'll tell you what changed, like an idiot I drove 30 miles with the expansion tank cap off (I forgot, cut me a break) the water obviously boiled away until it was almost gone. Since refilling, in over 4 months, I've had to top it up just once. I can't explain it.
4. Engine light comes on and off intermittently. Sometimes it's on for a week, other times it's on for just the journey. Sometimes it stays off for months. The dealer plugged a computer in and it gave some error message, when googling something to do with an O2 sensor?
5. Slowww oil leak. Had an experienced mate look at it and he determines it's probably the Rocker Cover Gasket as there's a lot of fresh oil in the seam where the top plate meets the engine block.
6. Passenger side door grinds when locking / unlocking. Very loudly. I did take the door card off but didn't have the glue substance to put the weather sealing back, so didn't want to take it off to investigate the motor.
7. Whistling sound on driver side door when driving over 60mph. Very annoying, I think this may be caused by a small hole in the rubber seal on the top corner of the door, there's a few small holes there actually.
8. Speaker issues - On CD changer, the left speaker is very crackly and I have to balance audio to the right. On CD player, the right speaker intermittently cuts out. Suspect re-wiring needs to be done but I am looking to replace the Stereo with one that accepts Bluetooth and/or Auxiliary input. On this front, how do I know what is and isn't compatible? Is there a size or type I need? Thanks.
9. CD player sometimes plays all songs in fast forward mode.
10. SRS light pops up intermittently. Fiddling around with the cable under the driver seat the restarting the engine fixes this.
11. Front Licence plate has a stain that is an advisory. I will get this replaced I just wanted to include it to make the list look huge and of course any recommendations on where to go?
12. Seal is coming off around the bottom of the boot door and the rear passenger side door.
I realise a lot of these solutions are stickied somewhere or another, but any general advice that can be given would be appreciated, thank you so much!