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.
The tasks
Engine
Changing the engine oil & filter
Warm-drain the sump, renew the filter (canister element or spin-on), refill to the dipstick with a classic 20W/50, and dispose of the waste properly.
Read the guide →
Ignition
Changing the spark plugs
Read the old plugs for a health check, gap the new ones correctly, and start each by hand to protect the alloy head — the simplest tune-up job on the car.
Read the guide →
Transmission
Changing the gearbox oil
Yellow-metal-safe API GL-4 only (never GL-5 in the gearbox). Level the car, open the filler first, drain, and fill to the level plug.
Read the guide →
Transmission
Changing the rear-axle oil
A hypoid EP 90 oil for the axle — different spec to the gearbox. Level the car, drain, and fill to the level plug.
Read the guide →
Induction
Cleaning the air filter
The oil-wetted wire-gauze filter is cleaned and re-oiled, not replaced. Wash in paraffin, dry, re-oil lightly — over-oiling richens the mixture.
Read the guide →
Cooling
Coolant — check, top up & renew
Only ever open the system cold. A 50/50 traditional IAT ethylene-glycol mix; renew every two years; toxic waste — dispose responsibly.
Read the guide →
Chassis
Chassis greasing
Trunnions, king-pins, propshaft, steering and handbrake — a few minutes with a grease gun every 1,000 miles keeps the running gear alive.
Read the guide →
Brakes
Renewing the brake fluid
Brake fluid absorbs moisture — renew every two years. Bleed furthest-from-master first, keep the reservoir topped up, and never mix DOT 4 and DOT 5 silicone.
Read the guide →
Related reading
Fluids
Fuel, Oil & Additives
Ethanol, ZDDP and the right grades for XPAG/XPEG engines.
Tuning Guide
The Tuning cluster
Ignition, timing, SU carburettors — where servicing ends and tuning begins.
From the Workshop
TF1500 health-check: overcharging & rich-running case study
A real-world example of what plug-reading, charging checks and a careful service pick up.