Home Servicing

Servicing Your MG T-Series

A basic home-service guide, task by task, written for someone attempting each job for the first time.

A basic service is well within the reach of a careful home mechanic, and doing it yourself is one of the best ways to get to know your car. This section breaks a basic service into individual tasks, each written for someone attempting it for the first time. None of it is complicated — but a T-Series is a 60–70-year-old car, so take your time, work safely, and where a figure matters, confirm it against your own handbook or workshop manual.

Service intervals

Indicative — your handbook's schedule is the reference.

Interval	Tasks
Weekly / every ~250 miles	Check engine oil level, coolant level, tyres.
Every 1,000–3,000 miles	Engine oil & filter change (with classic oils and low annual mileage, many owners change annually regardless of miles); check/top up gearbox and rear-axle oil; attend to the chassis grease points.
Annually / ~3,000 miles	Full basic service, oil & filter, clean/regap or renew spark plugs, clean and re-oil the air filter, check coolant strength, check ignition and tappets (see Tuning), check brakes.
Every 2–3 years	Renew coolant; renew gearbox and rear-axle oil; renew brake fluid.

Tools & consumables

Trolley jack and axle stands (never work under a car supported only by a jack); wheel chocks.
Oil drain pan, funnel, absorbent roll, nitrile gloves, rags.
Correct spanners/sockets — note the T-Series is largely Whitworth/BSF (and BA), not metric or AF, so the right spanners matter; screwdriver set.
Feeler gauges, spark-plug spanner, torque wrench.
Consumables: 20W/50 classic engine oil, oil filter element (or spin-on), correct gearbox/axle oils, spark plugs, air-filter oil, antifreeze, new drain-plug washers, SU damper oil.

Maintenance schedule

Each task mapped to a baseline interval, with an adjustment for how the car is used. Low-mileage, garage-kept cars can lean on the time-based column; cars driven hard, in wet weather, on salted roads or on long tours should follow the "harder use" column.

Task	Baseline interval	Harder use / adverse conditions
Engine oil & filter	3,000 miles or annually, whichever comes first	1,500–2,000 miles for short trips, dusty lanes, rallying or sustained high-rpm touring
Spark plugs, clean & regap	Every 3,000 miles	Read/clean every 1,500 miles if the car runs rich, is used for short trips, or lives on ethanol-blended pump fuel
Spark plugs, renew	Every 6,000–10,000 miles	Sooner if plug-reading shows fouling, oil-loading or eroded electrodes
Gearbox oil (GL-4)	Check level every 1,000 miles; renew every 2–3 years or 6,000 miles	Renew annually for high-mileage touring or trailered competition use
Rear-axle oil (EP 90)	Check level every 1,000 miles; renew every 2–3 years or 6,000 miles	Renew after any deep-water crossing or if the axle has been submerged
Air filter, clean & re-oil	Every 3,000 miles	Every 1,000 miles on dusty roads, gravel events or dry summer touring
Coolant, check strength	Every spring and autumn	Before any long tour, and before the first hard frost
Coolant, renew	Every 2 years	Annually if the system has been disturbed, topped up with plain water, or shows any rust bloom in the header
Chassis greasing	Every 1,000 miles	Every 500 miles in wet weather; after every rally or wet weekend; always after washing the underside
Brake fluid (DOT 4)	Every 2 years	Annually for cars used in humid climates, stored without a dehumidifier, or driven hard in the hills

"Harder use" means any of: frequent short trips (engine not reaching full temperature), wet-weather or winter use, salted roads, dusty or gravel roads, sustained high-rpm touring, rallying, or long periods of storage without a dehumidifier.