Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 M3W failures.

This is a question for M3W owners who have purchased their M3W new since you know your vehicles entire driving history.

Are drivetrain failures like the Centa problems and cracks in the chassis occurring because these vehicles are being driven hard or occurring prematurely even with normal driving behavior? I think an honest consensus of experience by owners would be helpful to everyone and guide how these vehicles should really be driven. My suspicion is the M3W was not designed robustly enough to withstand excessive abuse either by aggressive acceleration or cornering, especially spins like we’ve seen on several YouTube videos.

So an honest tabulation of experience in this thread would be very helpful.

Have those people who have experienced Centa failures or other drivetrain failures or cracks in the chassis driven your vehicles aggressively or would you classify your driving style as more consistently normal? Certainly time and normal wear and tear will cause failures. I’m more interested in premature failures when you wouldn’t have expected the problem at this point.

I only have 8000-9000 miles on my 2015 M3W I purchased new and fortunately haven’t had any problems. I don’t drive aggressively simply because of my concern regarding the robustness of the drive train. Now watch, something’s going to break.

Thanks for your honesty.

I only have about 3600 miles and no drive train failures. The Centa seems to be holding up just fine, no chunks but just fine granulations.

I try to not spin the rear tire and I don’t like trying to corner the thing because of it cannot compare to the abilities of my hotrod mini cooper so why try.

It is just a cruiser.

I had lower wishbone chassis cracks at about 17000 miles, I replaced the fuel pump purely as insurance at about 22000 miles and did the Bleazey Centa mod at 27000 miles, the rollers were still in good condition. The only failure I have had was the CE rectifier, luckily I had a HD unit as a spare.

I drive generally steadily, but do have my moments. Have done several long trips.

Obviously excessively harsh use will take its toll but I would suggest the massive torque pulses in the drivetrain and severe vibrations handled by the chassis are the predominant causes of failures, both attributable to that big V twin. To a degree both these features are there irrespective of how the car is used.

Mine has only done 4k miles and have had no chassis cracks just some drive train issues. I do warm the engine up first but do like to use its full potential occasionally.
I have fitted the Bleasey Centa upgrade kit to eliminate a horrible rattle I was getting which turned out to be a poorly fitting Centa to crank spline which Phil’s correctly made splined hub has sorted. It would have gone on rattling away possibly for many miles before eating the crank splines though.
Other problems I’ve had are a snapped exhaust cam, new barrels and pistons due to scoring and some work to the valve springs and seats but can’t tell you what MMC did.
So apart from the Centa splines all my problems have been with the S&S engine and only what I would call tinkering stuff with everything else.

2013 M3W delivered two weeks before all 'free' upgrades announced for 2014.
Centa upgrade installed at my cost, rear sprocket upgraded at my cost in 2015.
Centa rollers lasted changed at c 15858km when clutch failed, they were all in one piece.
Replacement rollers only lasted 7000km before failing. Phil Bleazey Upgrade installed at 23,280km
Chassis cracked at c20,000 km - repaired rather than replaced.

And love every second in it - never regretted it for a second.

Oh the joy of ownership......

2012 M3W with about 57,000 miles. Stock compensator replaced at 19,000 miles. Centa unit doing fine. Total chassis replacement done about 3 years ago. Interim brace had been installed. The starting torque of the S&S is the main culprit there. One upper brace and two lowers had total failures. 3 aluminum sprockets, one SuperMax and now the stock steel sprocket which is a keeper. Cam belt at 23,000 miles. Fuel pump also went at around the same time. Sticking with ethanol free fuel from now on should help. On the 7th set of front tires and the fourth rear. I drive this thing hard at times but mostly just cruise.

2015 model, ~5K miles, driven "robustly" including hot climate trips (Spain in Summer)
No chassis cracks (found or discovered!)
No Centa failure (but bits of rubber tell me I need to ask Phil for a slot to sort the drivetrain mod this Summer if lockdown allows!)
Failures to date: 2 punctures - suspected due to inner tube / MWS wheel issues, still on original Avons

I have owned my 2013 car from new. It now has a post 2014 specification chassis but that wasn't because of cracking with the original. I think it is quite well documented on this forum that the pre 2014 chassis crack issues are not related to use but just poor design and manufacture, hence the post 2014 spec chassis. They didn't change it for nothing. It's not the way the customers use the car, it's the poor design and manufacture. You can drive it as gently as you like but it will still break.

It is a sad reflection on MMC that they are still producing the last M3W's with the same well known faults as the first ones, weak fuel pumps, fragile transmission, inefficient exhausts and air filters, poor quality shock absorbers, wobbly rear view mirrors....the list goes on. All this on a £45,000 + toy that requires another £5000+ spending on it from new to sort it out and make (almost) reliable. Several of the owners of the last few M3W's are replacing earlier cars, how many have got the standard, off the line product? All that said, I still love my M3W and wouldn't be without it. One day it will go perfectly....then I may sell it but I don't see that happening soon.