The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Basically this just me ranting about the French and how they seemed determined to torture home mechanics. Had to replace the radius arm bearings in the xantia, fair enough, it has done 210000 miles. The problem was little design decisions that made the job harder.

A good example is the gaitor retainer. It is held on by a circular clip held in by a a screw you remove with a socket. Perfectly sensible design. Then why hide it in a place no spanner an reach? If they put it on the other way round, it would have been easy. The damn car is full of bolt, clips, and screws placed in the worst possible place for access. Honestly, for all its faults, the Dolly is easy to work on in comparison.

So what is the hardest car to work on? My guess, the French made it.

A friend and I had problems replacing the rear brake shoes on his Renault 5, for similar reasons.

You will struggle to find cars worse than the French ones!
Pug 205, if you want to remove rear seat the bolts are too long and go through floor and start to undoe.............until you get to the rusty bit that was too long, so they break off.
Try sorting the fuel pump out and you will find the earth wire.................in the back light????
Even a simple job like brake bleeding alloy calipers and tiny bleed nipples = broken nipples

Buy Jap or German.

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track action maniac.

The lunatic is out................heres Jonny!

Latin - french and italian - cars are rather like their women...

You wouldnt want to get old with one....(with a couple of notable exceptions like the Lambo Miura)
But the I guess that's talking film stars. Your commodity waitress or barmaid is a different thing altogether
and that's where your Reanut 5 and 205 Laguna and Xantia etc come in - barmaid cars.

German and Swedish cars are a different thing altogether....much like their women who dont seem to go down hill
any faster that dolomites do.

Jonners

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Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.

....much like their women who dont seem to go down hill
any faster that dolomites do.

You mean they are not trying to run away from you as they might have done when they were a bit younger? Not teasing you any more? Not wearing their mini skirts? The mind boggles.

The Renault Laguna I serviced earlier on this year wasn't too bad apart from the sump plug. I had to borrow a special socket to get it undone. As for the fuel filter, forget it. It is integrated with the fuel pump.

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Toledo Man

West Yorkshire Area Organiser & forum moderator
Meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month at 8.00pm at The Old Brickworks, Wakefield Road, Drighlington, Bradford, BD11 1EA

1972 Dolomite 1850 auto (NYE 751L - Now for sale)
2003 Volvo XC90 D5 SE (PX53 OVZ - The daily driver)
2009 Mercedes-Benz W204 C200 CDI Sport (BJ58 NCV - The 2nd car)
1991 Toyota Celica GT (J481 ONB - another project car)
Former stable of SAY 414M (1974 Toledo), GRH 244D (1966 1300fwd), CDB 324L (1973 1500fwd), GGN 573J (1971 1500fwd), DCP 625S (1977 Dolomite 1300) & LCG 367N (1975 Dolomite Sprint) plus 5 Acclaims and that's just the Triumphs!

Check my blog at http://triumphtoledo.blogspot.com
My YouTube Channel with a bit of Dolomite content.

"There is only one way to avoid criticsm: Do nothing, say nothing and BE nothing." Aristotle

Every French car has "Remember Waterloo" inconspicuously stamped on the underside!
We made the b****rs bleed there and Renaults are their revenge! All French cars are a design nightmare but IMO Renault are the worst. I recently had to remove the engine and gearbox completely to change the sump gasket on a Clio and the alternator is almost as bad.
My theory is that they get the bare block installed in the engine bay, then get all the ancillary bits in a big cardboard box, upend it over the engine and bolt everything on where it falls!!! That's why you always have to take something else (or several somethings) off to get at what you want!

Steve

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'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.

You're not joking there! My friend has a 2007 Megane convertible - the fuse box in the is upside-down (as the previous model used to fill with water) and to replace a fuse in it you have to remove the battery, ECU and tons of ducting, wiring, etc. terrible!

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1978 Triumph Dolomite Sprint (project thread)
1966 Volkswagen 1300 (project thread)
1962 Austin Mini (project)
1962 MGA 1600 Mark II
1965 Mobylette SP50 (project)
2001 Rover 75 2.5-litre V6

MGF
I hate working on the damn things. Everything is difficult.

Ah yes, the wiring. Had to replace a door, got the scrap yard to take the old one off. He confessed he cut the loom, he couldn't find the multiplug for the door, it was like they plumbed in each wire seperately.

My father has one of those, the engine looks like a nightmare to work on. You have to access everything through what is basically an oversized letterbox.

You can flip the hood forward, and theres a bolted in access plate beneath to access the top of the engine. Adds half an hour on to anything needing decent access to the engine. Theres another plate on the cambelt side of the inner wing to get at the belts, but, yes, its basically like working through a slot. Alternator and clutch swops are especially horrible. And being a 90s Rover product every fixing and fastener will be rusty, siezed.... Then theres the ridiculous hydrogas suspension, ok on a 60s family car but a 90s sports car? Yuk. The whole car is basically a bodge up made from components that were obsolete i.e. Metro subframes... The rear end still has trackrod ends and a towing eye from when the same setup was used in the front of a Metro. I shudder when when of these things comes to me for work, try and avoid them if i can..

If you think an MGF is bad, you should try a Lotus Elise! Its just like an F, (some even have the K series engine)
but not as well put together and with even worse access! And if you think engine access is bad on an F, don't even think about trying to change the heater matrix. I did one that was necessitated by the ubiquitous head gasket failure, it took me 4 days and involved removing EVERYTHING from the cockpit from the board behind the seats to the entire dash and steering column.

Steve

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'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.

My mate took on an MGF, it broke him!! Don't get me wrong, he wasn't an experienced mechanic, but he's not a cack handed hammer wealding clown either. You need three hands with foot long rubber fingers to work in the guts of those things. Love it!!!

Never touched an Elise, but i owned an Excel for a while, and have worked on Esprits and M100 Elans fairly often. Some jobs can be awkward - Esprit cambelts are especially "fun", but at least you can get some enjoyment working on it from it being a "special" car. Not something you can say about an MGF. I always enjoyed working on Lotuses, even supposedly awkward jobs like door beams on the Excels, which need shimming in every direction. Would take on any job on an old Lotus over the same job on an MGF any day!
Matt.