Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Roadster

Maybe. Mine's got a Quaife ATB diff, that might have had an effect.

The LSD greys the diff oil. The gearbox oil in my Roadster after 3 years and 5000 miles was discoloured.

I thought LSD was all about colours?

I'm with Jays, if you've got proof off servicing by an independant, specialist or enthusiast with the right skills and equipment you should get a good car.
My 2011 came out of a very well known dealers after part of the deal was to have suplex set up instaĺed up front. I took delivery with a brand new MOT and did a 300 mile run home with one headlight out (didnt realise this until i was on the road without any tools equipment etc. Checked out next day, not a bulb problem, not a fuse problem,,,,,during the suspension mods the mechanic had clearly disconnected some wiring for the headlights possibly accidently and reconnected the headlight to the pre installed fog/driving lamp wiring which of course is not fully wired in as standard.Had i not been an enthusiatic amatuer i could have got a large bill from somebody local to trace and rectify this one!
The franchized morgan dealers cannot become experts overnight with gearboxes and power trains that Morgan decide to use, even less so morgan themselves as they merely get the kit in on pallets and nail it in.
Consider the later +4 , mazda/duratec engine, mazda gearbox, most service bits readily available, oil and fuel filters from your freindly ford dealer, rear brake parts are ford transit, think i paid 50 quid for 2 cylinders and a set of linings for when they're needed from brake parts international. I have the mulbery/hi-spec front discs and calipers as per the AR4 they use a jaguar/aston pad readily availble anywhere.i've dumped the plastic radiator in favour of the Mulberry ali work of art, should last a lifetime!
Caerbont sort all your instruments out very efficiently if you hit a problem. I think that the only oddball in the woodpile are the cantancerous high maintainance king pins and i think that there are some horror stories on this forum regarding replacement by franchised dealers. Anyway must end my rant there but i've had some shoddy work and service served up by main franchised dealers for bmw, volkswagen and caterham. I toured europe once in a caterhame 7 that had the diff replaced by a franchised dealer the week before i went.....it had approximatly .25 pint of oil in it instead of the required 1.5pints or so.
By the way i dont know this company with the Morgan for sale but thay are located approx 5 miles from me i think so any body interested, i could some initial tyre kicking on your behalf.

It was the last time I tried it Bob

Last week?

Thanks Jay & Lowflyer for providing further confidence on the non-official dealer maintenance.

Indeed when it comes to the engine, it would even make more sense to go to Ford.

Right hand drive is not easy in Belgium .Suppose you have to take a ticket with the hood up ?

Im not so sure that a Ford agent will accept to do something on the car

As the son of a "dealer principal" as they are now called, I would always prefer a car home serviced by a competent home mechanic, the sort of guy who is a maintenance fitter at work. Mechanics in dealers are as reliable as any british worker which is to say pretty variable. You get excellent and you get awful. But the nature of the work is that the dealer has to rely on his mechanic doing a good job because no way can he be 100% monitored.

To give you an example, my mothers Mini arrived home after a service with a funny rattle from the front wheels. Off with the hubcap to find that three nuts were in the hubcap and the remaining one was loose on its stud. If they take that level of care with the bosses wife's car, how can you be confident in what they do?

I had another example with my own BMW which went in for a service and came out after a recall mod to the steering. Half way from the garage to the southampton boat show travelling briskly the steering started to become real stiff. Called in the Ford dealer in Salisbury and the mechanic there found that the steering UJ that had been replaced under the recall was missing all but one nut and was half twisted off.

And you think of all the drivers who dont know a camshaft from a conrod and have no mechanical sympathy! Would they ever know something was wrong until too late?