9th Mar 2013, 17:41
Time for another update.
I still have the car. I've had a succession of second cars, but this has been the keeper.
My annual mileage over the last three years has been around 5,000 miles driven at 30MPH, and the car seems as happy doing that as it was doing 30,000 at 70MPH.
Total mileage on the car is just shy of 150,000, and it is now 8.5 years old.
But the luck is starting to run out. 9 months ago the front right brake caliper seized. 2 months ago the rear right, and last week the rear left. Coincidence, age or mileage, I don't know. I replaced the front right, but the rears were disassembled and cleaned at minimal cost. Beyond that and normal servicing, over the last 3 years I've replaced the brake discs, put a couple of exhaust boxes on, fitted the "Sheddist" clutch hydraulics and a new battery. That's it really: the car is still overall reliable.
There's no visible rust on the car's bodywork, but underneath there is now some forming. Mostly on the suspension components and brake calipers, but also there is surface rust on the underneath of the driver's side footwell.
I guess that's it - the car is still fast and handles great, and provides uneventful motoring for year after year to boot.
15th Mar 2015, 00:37
Two years on, another update.
I still have the car. I can’t see myself letting go any time soon. I’ve run two cars since 2010 (because I can) and S/C V8 since 2012. The ZS still puts a smile on my face when the 3,000 RPM VIS hits, despite less than half the power of the other cars.
Work done since 9/3/2013:
* Replaced one rear brake caliper. Corrosion on the cylinder causing seizing. £45.
* Annual servicing - extras being coolant and gearbox oil changes. Spend about £50 a time.
* Rubbed down surface rust on the underneath of the driver’s side footwell and repainted.
* Fresh underseal over the whole of the underside of the car and inside the wheel arches.
The luck that was running out a couple of years ago seems to be back, though the car is doing just 2000 miles a year now. The ZS shares mileage equally with my second car. The ZS is still the car I choose if I want to guarantee getting to my destination. Approaching my 10th year with the car, my confidence in it is higher than ever and it continues to perform like an MG should.
20th May 2018, 18:53
Three more years! 162,000 miles on the clock now.
Still drives fantastically well. Apart from normal maintenance, one failure to mention - the oil cooler lines rusted through so it sprung an oil leak. Fairly cheap to fix, but they are in an awkward place so it had an oil and coolant change as part of it.
Not doing many miles these days. Mostly local driving, but have done a good 6 hour trip to Edinburgh (on winter tyres during the New Year snows!).
24th May 2019, 16:11
Another year! Just reached 165,000 miles.
It's been an expensive year. I found a rust hole in the chassis which needed welding. Since it was going into a garage for that and it needed some parts dropped on the front for access, I spent a small fortune on replacing all the rubber components around the front suspension.
Then:
Two caliper problems - one with a sticky piston, one with a failed handbrake cam. I decided 'what the hell' and fitted new calipers, discs and pads all round, and treated it to braided brake lines while at it.
Front bank lambda/O2 sensor failed.
Both CV gaiters split, about 8 months apart.
Sticky throttle - gunk in the throttle body AND a sticking cable.
Bulb behind the mileage display in the dash failed.
Replaced the reservoir pipe on my Sheddist clutch kit after the old one perished.
Cam position sensor failed, on the M6, on a bank holiday! The first ever time that the car stranded us. EuroCarParts came up trumps with a replacement.
One front suspension spring broke at the bottom-most loop, so replaced both sides.
Another set of VIS motors! And a modification - an oil catch tank, which hopefully will avoid these motors getting dirty and failing.
So, it's needed some time and investment, but it's back to rude health and ready for another cross country trip this coming bank holiday weekend!
13th Dec 2021, 15:04
Two years on and still going strong with around 172,000 miles now on the clock. I'm not afraid to jump in and drive 300 miles in a day - the car's one and only breakdown is the one described above.
The last two years have been fairly uneventful. My main worry is surface rust - it is turning up underneath all over. I've been treating it as and when I can.
Other than that, it's been CV gaiters that have given me trouble - I'm on the 3rd replacement set in 3 years. Just low quality new items, sadly.
It has been normal maintenance otherwise - though that included the cam belts! While under-mileage, they were a number of years overdue, and the main belt had the start of a crack in it. I did this myself over the 2020 lockdown - I'm not afraid to pick up a spanner, but it is a fairly involved job.
6th Mar 2024, 20:48
Back again! Two more years. 176,000 on the clock now, a mere 2,000 miles a year.
I've had to do some work for that 4,000 miles though!
1. Refurb of the rear suspension - mostly done due to rotten, broken trailing arm bushes, but resulting in a few other miscellaneous bushes and bolts being changed along the way. The trailing arm bushes were a problem for years and finally getting them changed transformed the handling back to how it should be.
2. Coil packs. Had an occasional misfire, changed all six.
3. Rust... jacking points, bit of the floor, inner wing - annoyingly several of these were re-patching dodgy fixes in previous years (MoT welding - welding directly onto the old rust). We had to cut out the old patches and cut back to clean metal.
4. Rear wheel bearings - rear right was humming so got both sides sorted for minimal cost.
5. While doing the above, fresh discs and pads on all four corners.
Here's to the next two years.
12th Jun 2009, 15:15
I'm the original author of this review.
I still have the car. It is now on 114,000 miles, approximately 28,000 miles per year.
The car has had no serious faults. There have been two issues:
1. I've replaced the VIS motors due to two failures. A failed motor causes a loss of power, noticeable if you drop a gear and floor it.
2. The positive cable to the starter motor worked loose, so I had trouble starting the car one day around 50,000 miles. I wasn't stuck, but it was a moment of unnecessary worry.
Otherwise flawless. I really am very happy with the car.
Some other comments I have based on four years running the car:
1. Good choice of tyres is essential. If you drive a high mileage, use hard wearing tyres such as Continental SportContact 2 (lasting 25,000 to 30,000 miles per set).
Softer tyres do offer better performance, and if you drive less motorway mileage I'd recommend Bridgestone RE040 for some cornering fun (at a cost of 15,000 to 20,000 miles per set).
Some tyres, such as Pzeros, wear on the inner or outer edges in a pattern looks a lot like tracking or alignment problems. I spent a fair bit of money of this without cure until I switched back to SC2s - at which point all those problems disappeared. SC2s on my car wear down perfectly flat across their surface.
2. Replacing all three cambelts on both ends of the engine is very expensive, and is required every 90,000 miles.
3. Changing the near side headlight bulb is awkward and needs nimble fingers. But at least not Mondeo-awkward (on the Ford, the whole headlight assembly needs to be removed).
4. It's worth spending a little extra for quality components. The only mechanical parts replaced on the car have been brake pads and it is really quite obvious that I've skimped on them. The performance has lost the edge that the OEM pads have.
5. You can get good MPG if you can drive motorway journeys at a constant 60MPH. I can get a consistent average of 39MPG (peaking at 41.5MPG). Expect 33MPG in mixed driving.
6. Resale value of the car is very little now, but then it's getting on a bit and the mileage is beyond the psychological 100,000 mile barrier.