http://www.mgenthusiast.com MGEAUGUST 2019^79
TECHNICAL Q&A
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Neither MG Enthusiast nor the MGOC can accept liability for loss, damage or injury resulting from replies to readers’ queries.Testing the cars with the lower
‘Sports’ suspension option against
‘standard’ suspension cars showed that
there was no discernible ride difference.
Years later, the reasons above explained
why this was so. It is clear that this hard
ride scuppered many sales of TFs to
MGF owners, although I changed my
MGF to a TF but chose to have my hard
ride with the lowered suspension spec.
A similar hard ride scenario had also
applied to the MG ZT range, launched
six months before TF, to provide a
clear separation from the Rover 75, but
owner feedback ensured that there was
a softer ride introduced by mid 2002
and the original hard spec moved to
become an extra cost ‘Sports’ option.
This same route was not followed for
the TF until the arrival of the 2005
cars, in January 2005. Only a few were
built before MG Rover collapsed.
Many fail to realise the quite detailed
differences there are between harder-
riding 2002-4 TF and the new softer
suspension option for 2005. In 2005
I listed all the changed suspension-
related parts for the new spec and this
then came to over £1250 worth of parts
to convert an older car to the full 2005
spec. Clearly this was not going to be
viable so I approached the recently
redundant MG Rover suspension guys,
who had formed Vehicle Handling
Solutions, and they were immediately
able to offer the Bilstein conversion
route, developed during their MG Rover
days. Bean counters had sunk what
ironically was a simple and cheaper
conversion for a better ride, due to high
individual damper costs! This has since
become a very popular and effective
single-item change for a better ride,
whilst retaining the original springs.
The 2005 softer ride suspension
headline parts changes are:
● Softer front and rear springs
that have 20% and 30% lower rates
front and rear respectively.
● Dampers are re-valved but
fall somewhat short of the
performance of the Bilsteins.
● The front anti-roll bar was thickened
by 2mm (19mm to 21mm).
● Amongst the many other detailed
changes, the fitted position of the front
steering arms to the hubs was altered.
This soft-suspension spec was carried
over to all the MG Motor TF models
except for the 85th Anniversary models.
Whilst converting to a full 2005 model
year suspension spec is complex andexpensive, taking just the spring and
damper units from a soft-suspended
2005 MG Rover car, or the MG Motor
LE500 or TF135 mainstream models,
does provide a softer ride but, without
the other complimentary changes,
there is slightly poorer handling and
slightly less responsive steering.
Most owners going this route do
so purely for the softer ride and
do not drive their cars hard, so do
not see the other shortcomings.
You have almost all of the later
softer suspension spec, with softer
rear yellow-band springs (part number
RKB000670) but fitting the current
hard spec front springs with these is
not recommended. I suggest that you
buy a pair of MG Rover or MG Motor
softer-spec front springs with a green
band (part number REB001220PR).
For a new boxed pair, XPart price
is £64.99 plus VAT, and they are
available from any XPart stockist.
Fit the springs and dampers as a
set. As your car has covered nearly
70,000 miles, a change to much less
worn dampers should provide an
improvement, as well as you benefitting
from the improved ride quality.improvement, as well as you benefittingAn MGF VVC fitted with adjustable
dampers which had been set too hard,
causing the rear body around the
damper mounting to shatter. A large
piece of body, where the local electrical
earth point is located, is coming away.The MGF VVC with the shattered rear body around the damper mounting. The area
highlighted shows the hole (red) where the large loose metal piece had come from
and serious radial cracks (yellow) in the body, from around the site of the lost metal.