Important message from Southways

Important message from Southways

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Kitchski

Original Poster:

6,514 posts

230 months

Monday 25th April 2016
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(Mods - not an advert, please don't remove)

Hi all,

If you had, or own a car that once had a chassis refurbishment (or renewed fuel lines alone) carried out by us, please read the attached link and get in touch. There's a chance your car is affected, and we want to check it out as soon as possible:

Recall Notice

We don't think there's a chance many cars will be, due to the fact we purchase in small quantities, so if there has been a dodgy batch of hose, we didn't buy much of it to start with.

Not a post I wanted to make, and rest assured we're thoroughly pissed-off that something we had no control over is going to be something that invariably harms us as a business. And we're a very small business.

Please get in touch and let us check it out before you go bombing around for the summer. If your car is affected, we'll re-pipe it as a warranty job, regardless of mileage covered or time elapsed since the refurbishment. No cost to you.

Thanks

Rich

T66ORA

3,474 posts

256 months

Monday 25th April 2016
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This might seem like a lot of hassle to the company, but it is refreshing to know that Southways are doing something TVR them selves never did, a full recall on effective vehicles. Well done.

Maybe we could have this as a sticky until all owners have been informed?

mk1fan

10,507 posts

224 months

Monday 25th April 2016
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I have long stated that the level / effectiveness of customer service is best judged by how a company responds to problems.

Good one Southways.

Milky400

1,960 posts

177 months

Monday 25th April 2016
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mk1fan said:
I have long stated that the level / effectiveness of customer service is best judged by how a company responds to problems.

Good one Southways.
What he said......

Well done Southways

Kitchski

Original Poster:

6,514 posts

230 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
Cheers all. I also believe it's how you deal with problems that is important, hence the recalls. I try to think of each car as if it was my own, and one that I'm about to ferry one of my kids off to Scotland in. If I wasn't happy to do it, I don't think I'd want it to leave the workshop.

Stuff like this annoys me, because it slipped by the radar!

Kitchski

Original Poster:

6,514 posts

230 months

Monday 18th July 2016
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Just to update this:

  • So far we've have around 7 or 8 affected cars (including my own).
  • The hose affected has only been the SAE J30R9 hose, which is unbranded and uses block capital white lettering.
  • We've had an isolated case of a hose marked '400-series' fail, which was fitted to a single car. This is the only hose that has actually weeped any fuel and was only fitted to one car (and has now been rectified)
  • One of the hoses was stamped 10/2014, yet had failed already.
  • They're failing on the outside of swept curves, and around the bulges caused by the flares on the end of the copper/Kunifer pipes too.
  • When they have fuel in them, they feel soft. Drain them and remove them, and they go rock hard.
  • I've seen this type of hose for sale in Halfords, Euro Car Parts and on various online supplier's websites, as well as eBay and the like.
  • We're now using Continental, Goodyear or Gates Barricade, the later of which we're hoping to set up a supply for.
  • We *think* we've addressed all the affected cars now, but please double check if you're not sure, or even if you've done your hoses recently - one of our customers happened to mention he'd done it, and found his car was affected. He was only in for a service!
  • The hose isn't failing internally, or causing any contamination of the fuel system. It's the inner membrane absorbing the Ethanol (we think) which is then drying out the outer membrane, causing the fracturing.

Kitchski

Original Poster:

6,514 posts

230 months

Wednesday 31st August 2016
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Another update on the ongoing fuel hose saga:

Not a recall as we think we've covered all ours now, but more of a heads up. Took a Chimaera in for a 6k service, and it appears to have had the fuel hoses over the bellhousing renewed in recent years, as you do if you're working in that area.

While the engine was running, I could see something amiss with the hoses, so advised the customer we change them due to the ongoing issues, and the fact some minor cracking was visible in the engine bay.

When we removed the hoses, I was surprised to see they were not the usual type that fails (unbranded, block capital white text saying "SAEJ30 R9 FUEL INJECTION HOSE 7.6MM" and the like. This stuff is branded as (as read on the hose itself):

"UNIVERSALKRAFTSTOFF FLENNOR GERMANY 7.0MM MULTICARBURANT 7.0MM UNIVERSELE BRANDSTOFF MULTIFUEL MULTI CARBURANTE 0210110"

Sounds like a Welsh village, eh?

No date stamp on the hose, and a quick Google search has yielded no additional info. It's possible that it's not suitable as fuel injection hose, but if a garage has fitted this (we're pretty sure we know who's done it, looking at the history) then a retail customer could easily be mistaken and have fitted it too.

The images are lifted from our Facebook page, and I'd urge you to use that as the first port of call when looking for info as that is the most up to date online platform we have. The website is too much of a faff to work with!

You don't need to sign in to Facebook to view the page, or give it any of your details - it's public access.

https://www.facebook.com/SouthwaysAutomotive/posts...

This is the hose as it sits on my desk:



This is the same hose with 20PSI inside:



(Chimaera's fuel system runs at 38PSI)

We now only install Gates Barricade hose on any of our jobs (or regular Gates fuel hose if Barricade isn't available). Barricade is designed to work with Bio-fuels and Marine fuels, and is an R14 grade hose, only with increased working pressure limits (225PSI).
We've had a few people ask if we are actually able to supply the Gates hose, as it's notoriously hard to source. We're not at a point where we could be classed as a stockist, but we may be able to help if you get stuck or have an emergency issue such as this.

So if you've got the above hose, or this hose:



....then you need to act. Now.

Kitchski

Original Poster:

6,514 posts

230 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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Didn't want to break the bad news yesterday, as being Monday it was already bad enough! So, to Tuesday, and back to the thoroughly exciting, if not fairly important subject of fuel hoses. Today's less-than-positive news? Gates 3225 is not immune to the fracturing issue.





This hose was removed from a Griffith 500 last week, and was fitted around 10 years ago. TVR used to use Gates hoses when building the cars new, though it wouldn't have been 3225 spec as that wasn't (to my knowledge) available at that time.
Unlike the issues with the R9-spec unbranded hose, this fracturing was only visible on the high-pressure supply hose into the fuel rail. The return showed no signs of fracture, nor did any of the hoses underneath (though they may well have been the original TVR ones, which, to date do not seem to be as vulnerable to this issue).
Gates 3225 spec is equivalent to R7 spec, so it's possible that this spec is no longer suitable for modern fuels. We replaced these lines with Gates Barricade, which we believe to be the best option currently available. Once again, check your hoses, especially around cable-tie fastenings, hot dry areas (like above the exhaust manifold on a Griffith) and anywhere where the hose is being forced into a fairly tight curved shape.
In the case of this Gates hose, it's fared much, much better than the other hoses we've been having issues with, but it seems it's not immune, and if one of these blew, your pride and joy could be reduced to ash fairly quickly.

Kitchski

Original Poster:

6,514 posts

230 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
quotequote all
Just to add, I haven't been able to add to the identical versions of the threads in the S or Griffith forums as unlike the Chimaera one, they've not been pinned (and I'm at work, and don't have hours free to hunt through pages and pages trying to find them!)