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A short while ago, I became the owner of an MGF Trophy 160. I
have/have had many M.G.s, but this is my first new car. As it is supposed
to be all modern technology, I was glad to find the option of a power
hood in the accessories catalogue and I ordered this with the car. When
the car arrived, it was there, but not fitted and consisted of a kit in
the boot with a booklet with fitting instructions. I had previously stumbled
over the MGF sites via the MGCC-Germany sites and hoped to find something
on power hood fitting. As this is not the case, I will write down my experiences,
so they may be of use to others. It is easier for me to write in English,
but I can attempt a German translation, if you feel that would be better
than the translation provided by the translation software.
I also have a question. I got a load of extras with the car for free,
like first aid kit, warning triangle, flat tire emergency kit and also
a fire extinguisher. I have looked for a place to fit it inside the car,
but that seems difficult. The logic place for all these items is in the
front under bonnet area. But this can only be opened from the rear luggage
compartment, which in turn can only be opened with the ignition key. I
would therefore like to install a bonnet opening cable inside or even
on the outside front of the vehicle. Has anybody done that already? [I'm
sorry, no, but woold be nice to see. comment from Dieter]
So here we go with my comments on power hood fitting: (I will
refer to page and paragraph numbers of the English section, but it is
easy to find the corresponding pages/paragraphs for other languages)
- page 4
§5 These are difficult to undo, but the outboard ones are not being
reused anyhow, so they may break.
- §8 It is only suggested on page 6 §3 to take out the vertical section
of the centre console, but it is much easier to do this now.
- §12 It is not clear from the text or the image how to bend
the top bracket. I found that it is difficult to make it clear the hood
mechanism and ended up cutting half of the bracket off. That leaves
enough material to attach the ram covers as described on page15 §8.
- page 5
- §18 I found that the lower bolt slot needed to be extended about
3 mm and some bending was required to the horizontal part of the bracket
to get a good fit. The hole for the ram bracket needed to be made slightly
bigger. Try this now.
- §23 It is quite a fiddle to get this retaining strap
on. There is a supplement with the fitting instructions which refers
to this §, but it does not say much more than the original §. All I
can recommend is patience and some force.
- §27 If you are never going to fit a hardtop, leave the bracket away.
It will later be in the way of the bulkhead trim panel (see note C on
page 15 after §15)
- §25 In that case, you can retain the original bolt.
- page 6
- §2 As suggested earlier, remove the console right at the start.
- §7 It is not shown that there is already a hole to pass the alarm
sensor cables. This has to be enlarged sufficiently. The dimensions
are not critical, as long as you can pass the rams through this opening.
- page 7
§13 This is mentioned, but not shown. I oversaw it but something can
be stuck under the pump later, to stop it vibrating.
- §17 It is amazing, that the pump is only attached with those 2 tiny
M5 screws. Be careful not to overtighten them.
- page 8
§22 The supplement gives a better method to position the nuts correctly.
- page 9
§9 Of all the individual jobs to be done, this caused me the most trouble.
Not until reading the last bit of the first page of the supplement,
I understood what was meant. The micro-switch should only touch the
hood. Stick (meant is hoodstick) when the hood is closed. It shall not
touch the same stick with the hood down, as this will prevent being
able to close it. Anyhow, space is limited and some sideways bending
of the actuating lever of the switch may be necessary. The whole arrangement
looks rather improvised and I hope the cables will not get damaged with
continued use. I also found out, that even on LHD cars, it should be
fitted to the right-hand-side of the car.
- page 10
§17 the templates are not very precise, but positioning the dimmer switch
to the fuse box cover is not too critical.
- page 11
§3 On the harness are more connectors than just the purple ones. I
think the purple ones are for cars without ABS and should be connected
together on cars with ABS. For those there are some other white and
green wired connectors, fitting them correctly will not pose problems.
- §6 This earth wire is a bit short and several trials were necessary
to allow the connector to the ECU (page 12 §14) and the earth wire both
to be fitted without strain.
- page 12
§10 I have been puzzling what could be meant here, but in
the end have modified the bracket for the power steering fuse holder
to first take the power hood fuse holder, which will then have the relay
attached to it. This looks neat.
- §22 As during testing and adjusting it will be necessary
to open and close the T-valve on the pump many times (to enable to move
the hood manually), you better leave fitting this tray to the very end,
when everything is done and working correctly.
- page 13
§1 This is easy but it seems a big gap. With this gap the hood stops
also at quite a distance from the top of the window when closing it,
but one gets used to it.
- page 14
§13 There is no explanation given what these strips are supposed to
do, but I fitted them anyhow.
- page 15
§14 The template is of little help. I would have cut away way too much
material if I had trusted it. If you just cut away the narrow extended
part, as is shown on the left part of the drawing, the ram cover will
only just cover the cut-off edge. Better cut off a smaller section and
try it out a few times. The area C really needs to be cut away when
the hardtop bracket is fitted.
- §4 This seems nonsense. Anyhow all four retainers are used for the
insulation material, so there is nothing left over to block the hole
in the carpet, which is very unobtrusive anyhow.
- §8 These are flimsy and their method of attachment is even more flimsy.
I hope they will not tear and remain in place.
The package is listed in the accessory catalogue for £898.54, which corresponds
to some EUR 1500 and another £100 (EUR 170) for fitting. It has taken
me some 10 hours altogether, but I could probably do the next one in about
6 hours, so it seems cheap to have it fitted. But why can they not fit
it off factory? In some cars you can close the hood when sitting in the
car, but I tried to do it in the MGF and I could not do it. So the accessory
seems a worthwhile thing to have. I am sure the price when factory fitted
in larger numbers could be reduced substantially.
After some weeks use ...Not
to recommend is Tons hint, cause the parts bend easy !!!
See here the improvement hi made at his Powerhood
MGF power hood
bracket improvement.
© 2001 Ton Matthuis
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