Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing General service

Hello all, I am a first time Morgan owner. I have just bought a 1998 plus 4, in France where I live. I want to get a garage to give her a once over. I have already had an expert report prior to pourchasse and everything seems ok. She does not rev as smoothly as I would have expected and I want a garage to sort it out. Rover T16. Do you suggest a specialist Morgan dealer, a Rover Garage or simply someone generally decent? Thanks in advance. Graham

Graham. Not sure where in France you live. Check out Garage Andreas. Andreas looked after my +8 for 25 years when he lived in the UK, has over 40 years Morgan experience. His garage is in Castelnau D'Auzan in the South West

Again , dependent upon where you are based in France , several French owners make the trip across the Channel to get their cars serviced at BHM near Sevenoaks in Kent (about 40 minutes drive from the ferry/tunnel terminals)

Keith , and others there, have a lifetime of experience with Morgans, so I am sure they can sort your car, however I accept this is not legal for you to leave the country under the current lockdown rules , and you probably want it done before the easing comes along.

Just a few ideas about the reluctant revving :-

1 Has the car been standing for some time prior to the sale? If so the fuel may be old, and can sometimes give rise to peculiar issues of rough running. A refill with some fresh fuel is sometimes all that is needed. Try the "Italian Tune Up" once on new fuel, hold onto the gears rather than changing up early , get the revs to clear anything.

2 Do the rev rises cleanly when in neutral , or only under load? If the former then I suspect you will need someone with Rover diagnostics as the T16 engine is fully integrated computor (ECU) controlled. If the latter I would be looking for intermediate misfire issues, I think I read recently of a UK member whose T16 engine ignition leads were breaking down under load. You can look for this by running the car in a dark garage , spraying a fine mist of water vapour over the engine , and looking for any electrical tracking. The Rover diagnostics will throw up any fault codes which can be followed up.

3 Have a look at the service records , when were the spark plugs last replaced? Do the coil packs look OK?

Welcome to TM Graham and I’m sure you will enjoy many new adventures.
meabh on here has lived in SW France for a long while and ran a Plus4 out there for a number of years before he swapped over to a Roadster, he must have made some useful Morgan contacts out there so maybe send him a personal message, I’m sure Ian will help if he can.

Good luck.

Hi Stephen, I’m in the south east about six hours drive from him. If I have no luck nearer to me, it’s a lovely drive, so why not. Cheers

Thanks Richard, i will get in touch

Hi Andy, I’ve only just bought the car so I’m going through a lot of paperwork as you can imagine. The last owner did less than 900 miles in over two years. During which time he tried, unsuccessfully, to sort the shimmy, which I think is excessive so I’ll be back on here to ask about it. I imagine the fuel is old since I insisted he drove the car to me, the tank level is quite low and he lives 140 miles away. The judder is only under load and in each gear at a variety of revs so I think it’s going to be a Rover garage. I will take the plugs out and have a look. I went from a Crossflow Caterham to a Morgan so I could be less hands on. Oh well.

Hi Grahame,
I am the member mentioned earlier who had a similar problem to yours, yes I was told to spray the ignition system with a fine mist of water in a darkened garage and to look for signs of arcing across from the leads to earth. This I did but no arcing was evident, however I did change the plugs and ignition leads which cured the problem and it now runs just fine. My car is a 1997 +4 with a Rover 820 T16 engine. I was passing Brands Hatch Morgan when this problem occured and Keith suspected that the leads and plugs were probarbly the original ones fitted all those years ago, so this replacement was long overdue.

Just for your information if you decide to change the plugs and leads, the plugs are directly under the bonnet hinge in the centre and space to work is very limited. The plugs are quite deep to reach, although I was told that this can be achieved I found it easier to remove the bonnet as the plugs were quite tight and getting purchase to remove them was frustrating, so off it came. Removing the bonnet is easy just the two bolts at the front and slide it out with some blankets over the wings etc for protection, putting it back is not too hard but better with a friend to help guide the rear fitting under the retainer.


Look for Rover 820 1997 ignition leads on Ebay and they are available for about £15.00 GBP.

Hope this helps.....


Rob...

Change the fuel. Remove & check the plugs and leads. The T16 ECU has a pipe from the manifold to the ECU to measure the inlet manifold pressure check it isn't cracked & replace as needed.
900 miles in 2 years is nothing. Give it an Italian service by driving at speed for a while.

Any decent garage should be able to service it. The Gomog site has a lot of info on that.

Thanks all, tomorrow has a plan.