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Old 11th June 2011, 19:08   #1
Hengist
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Default Poss How To - Bumper / fan / condenser removal + intercooler pipe O rings replace

Took some pics along the way whilst taking the front of the car off today. I know there are existing How To posts for this already, but it never hurts to have some more pics to refer to!

So ... off we go.
It's a good idea to jack up the front of the car a bit to give you access to the fasteners underneath.

Removing the bumper.

There are four attachments along the front underneath (not marked in the following pic), those twisty things. They attach to the big, heavy splash guard, which does not itself have to be removed.

Then there are two 10mm bolts above each headlamp unit, and five along the top of the grille. MG grilles are integral part of the bumper, unlike on the 75.



There are three screws along the outer lower part of the bumper that attach underneath onto the plastic undertray at each side. This undertray is not part of the big, heavy splash guard.

There is one 10mm bolt at the upper rear corner of the bumper, that screws into the wing.



Obviously, this is the same on the other side.

Having removed all these fixers, pull the sides of the bumper off by giving a sharp tug - they're held in place along the sides by a plastic runner, and by little popper "Christmas trees" where the yellow arrow in the pic is.

Carefully lift the bumper off, disconnecting electrical plugs as necessary.

(Alternatively, leave the outside temp sensor connection in place and move the bumper to one side. This will save it having to re-configure itself when re-connected later. If the sensor is left diconnected, your outside temp. display will show -30C. Otherwise, it may take up to a couple of hours to re-balance itself once reconnected.)

My car has headlamp washers, so I had to disconnect the water supply tube. This unclips at the pump - make sure you have a bucket to hold the water.



Get an assistant to make sure your container doesn't overflow. This plan also gives you a few minutes peace to get on with what you're doing ...



While you're there, drain the washer reservoir anyway, remove the windscreen washer pump, prise out the rubber grommet and clean all the gunge off the filter bits at the bottom of it. This will save you thinking your pump is knackered at some future point. You will lose all the liquid in the reservoir, so get a big bucket like that above ready.


Removing the bumper support / lights / slam panel

As has been said elsewhere, it's easy to remove this lot in one go.
This photo shows the attachment points. There are four 13mm bolts at either side of the bumper bar, and one 10mm bolt on the top outer edge of the slam panel at either side. The cooling pipe that sits under the bar is attached with two bolts. Remove these and carefully move the pipe out of your way.



You have to disconnect:
1. A/C line clamp at RHS (left as you look at the engine bay). Lever the clip apart with a small screwdriver.
2. Support bar that goes to the fusebox. Either an 8mm bolt on the slam panel, or a 10mm at the fusebox end.
3. Bonnet release cables. Do this at the junction box on the RHS wing. Pop the box off, pull the cables out. When re-connecting later, make sure the thing the cylinders slide into is inverted i.e. the open bit facing inwards) so they don't pop out.
4. Headlamp connectors which sit under the lamp, as shown here for the LHS unit:



Carefully remove whole unit (pull upwards to clear radiator upper pegs) and place to one side.



Now your car should look something like this:



Removing the radiator fan

Disconnect the two connectors in the LHS wing which run to the fan control box.

Fan shroud attachment points are shown here (petrol variants will be slightly different).



The arrow at the top points to a bolt which holds the coolant reservoir in place. Undo this bolt, and the reservoir will slide out to your left. It has two pegs which go into holes on the fan shroud.
Yellow arrows show where the a/c pipes attach to the condenser. If you don't wish to disturb the a/c, you will have to cut parts of the fan shroud here to allow it to be moved over these pipes.

The fan and shroud should now be easily removable.

Removing the condenser

I needed to change my condenser. If you need to remove it, it's held in place by two 8mm bolts at the top rear of the radiator. The two screws you'll see of the brackets on either side of the top of the condensor are used for adjusting its position when reinstalling.

The a/c lines need to be detached. Ensure that the system has been drained of gas before doing this. If you don't, when you crack one of these connections you'll get a pressurised jet of gas shooting about 10 feet in front of the car as it gets expelled. Not that I did that, you understand. If you know you'll be removing the condenser, remove these lines before taking the fan off - that way you don't have to cut the shroud.

Each line is held in place by a long 8mm bolt. Once removed, you may have to work the fitting a little to get it out, as there's a rubber O ring on each pipe. Clean mating surfaces of any corrosion before re-attaching, and replace the O rings.

Loosen the two top 8mm bolts enough so that the condenser is free to move.



It's then held in place only by slotting in to the two holders, shown with yellow arrows here. Pull it up and away.

Once the condenser is off, you have free access to the radiator. Replace, admire the fan pattern or clean bugs off as required.



For reference, here's my old condenser - the main reason I had the front off in the first place:




Replacing Intercooler pipe O rings

This is a pretty straightforward job now that there's nothing in the way. The worst thing is cleaning all the oily gunge that will have accumulated in the area. Here's the state mine was in.







Here's how my original O ring looked once I'd cleaned some of the oily stuff off:



As you can see, it's popped right out. The lower one was still in place, but broken.

The next photo is looking from above. There's on 8mm bolt holding the pipe on, and the jubilee clip will need to be loosened to allow removal of the pipe too. Pull the big hose off the end of the pipe, then pop the pipe out of the intercooler end. Spend half an hour cleaning up oily gunge.



Here's my old O rings along with the two lovely new ones I got off Jules. (Ignore the price sticker, that's not what he charges for them!):



... and here are the new ones installed in the correct positions on the intercooler pipe:



When replacing the pipe at the intercooler end, make sure it goes right in. The lower O ring will sit on a lip inside the intercooler, and you shouldn't be able to see the top O ring at all. It needs a bit of a firm shove to seat correctly.

The pipe with the new O rings does feel nice and snug, but no harm in whacking some Jubilee clips cable tied together on there for added security:



Putting things back together is easy enough ... just try to use up all the bolts you took out while taking things apart! And make sure you remember to route the bonnet release cables back to the junction box before re-attaching the slam panel.

Personal disclaimer:
This is probably not a full guide. Just what I remember after finishing the job. Search elsewhere for similar posts to help with aligning the bumper during replacement, for example.

Disclaimer:
You are responsible for any work or modifications carried out on your car and you undertake any such work at your own risk. The 75 and ZT Owners Club nor the original author of these How-To's can be held liable for anything that may happen as a result of you following these How-To's.
Any modifications should be reported to your insurance company

Last edited by Hengist; 11th June 2011 at 19:25..
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Old 12th June 2011, 17:25   #2
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Good work. No wonder your lower bolts came out ok. Well lubricated with all that gunk. Was that caused just by old rings.....
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Old 12th June 2011, 21:54   #3
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Just one point....

There is absolutely no need to take the bumper off to change the intercooler O rings. It can quite easily be done from above.
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Old 12th June 2011, 22:09   #4
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Another point, I would recommend ramps as opposed to jacks (which can fail).
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Old 12th June 2011, 22:51   #5
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Hi Angus.
brilliant how to and great pics thank you for taking the time to photo all your work and sharing it with us most appreciated. i hope you used viton rings when you replaced the old ones Arctic.
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Old 13th June 2011, 09:01   #6
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Harry is quite correct - the intercooler pipe can be removed and replaced from above, as shown in other How To posts. Might be a touch on the fiddly side trying to fit Jubilee clips, though - although it's said that this isn't necessary but more of a belt and braces approach.

Dragrad ... Ramps are obviously a better plan than a Lidl trolley jack , however I can never get the front of my cars to go up them. Must say I've not tried with the MG, but bumper clearance is often an issue when driving the car up ramps. Theoretically, you only need to jack the car up to remove the undertray fasteners and side screws anyway - the car could happily sit on its wheels the rest of the time. In fact, with a short screwdriver you could get the fasteners out with the car on the ground (rust allowing).

Arctic ... Cheers, man. Yep, I used rings supplied by Jules. Nice tight fit

Zony ... Yes, it appears the original rings aren't really "fit for purpose". My pipe had popped out at the front edge along with the upper ring (compare my pics of old O ring in place cleaned up, and last pic with Jubilee clips in place - the lip on the pipe should sit flush with the top of the intercooler).

You can see in my pic with the pipe/old ring still in place that the pipe had been forced upwards so that the upper ring was exposed. The lower ring had snapped, but was still in place at the inner lip of the intercooler.

That's why I consider the Jubilee clips/cable ties to be a good idea - it's obviously possible to force the pipe out, and it only attaches by that single 8mm bolt on a plastic bracket, giving an ideal hinge-point for movement.

Angus
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