MG Enthusiast – July 2019

(^82) MGE AUGUST 2019 http://www.mgenthusiast.com
▲ The door trim panel can only be removed intact once the door is opened.
his report is something of a
team effort between myself
and MGE’s technical expert,
Roger Parker. A short while
ago, I loaned my TF to a colleague for a
week. He loved the way it drove and was
hugely impressed by the car in general
but, when it came back, the driver’s
door refused to open. My colleague
was at great pains to explain that the
only reason there were footprints on
the dashboard were because he’d had to
climb across to the passenger side to get
out and, having tried that manoeuvre
myself, I reckon I can believe him. To be
fair, I can’t see that this fault developed
on his watch because of anything he did
but I mention it because I don’t know of
any special circumstances either leading
up to the door’s decision to go on strike,
or at the time of the problem starting.
What happened was that the car would
T
2005 TF135
OWNED BY:
Simon Goldsworthy
OWNED SINCE:
January 2018
MILEAGE: 70,083
Potential disaster averted?
Superlocking was a great idea in principle but, as cars age, it can
lead to unforeseen and potentially rather expensive problems.
appear to unlock as normal, because the
door buttons would pop up, but neither
the interior nor the exterior handle
would open the driver’s door. I tried
playing with the key fob buttons and,
for a while, nothing happened in either
direction (locking or unlocking). Then, a
minute or two later, the doors unlocked
normally and the driver’s door would
open on the handle. However, the next
time I went to use the car I unlocked
it on the fob, the buttons on the doors
both popped up but, once again, the
driver’s door refused to open. The handle
would move freely, but it was clearly
not operating any internal mechanism.
Naturally, I turned to Roger for advice.
He replied to say: “This sounds like
an internal failing within the driver’s
side lock/latch mechanism. Try the