New Chimaera 4.0 owner
Discussion
So I finally bit the bullet and picked up this beauty a few weeks ago following the sale of my Camaro to make way for some further V8 crazyness. Only this time, there is a new MO in town. It must always be road legal and running. Too many projects, not enough fun. Cue, the Chimaera...
Full MOT, tax, and running. Not without niggles, but that is how I managed to get it, frankly. My Civic Type R was traded in on the basis of me knowing the TVR's issues and there being no quibbles. Fine by me.
The first weekend was spent almost entirely with the roof off, on back roads, finding out if the aforementioned "niggles" were all that was wrong with it.
Well, yes and no. There was one very obvious niggle that I will discuss first. Namely, I couldn't get in it. Thats maybe a touch melodramatic, but the drivers door would not open with the outside button. Probably something really stupid, but its had a knock on effect on a few things. Namely, when opened from the inside, it had a tendancy to not shut again until I manually fiddled with the mechanism to reset it.
There is a flashing red LED in the dash that simply will not stop flashing. My first online check here proved it was not engine related, so that's good, but it is something to do with the alarm. I personally think its more to do with the door, again tying into the alarm and being obviously FUBAR.
The engine is misfiring though. There is a very definite hesitation on part throttle, causing it to jerk on occasion. I'm betting the fact that it has sat for over a year unused, and is in dire need of a service probably has something to do with it.
The next night I braved the weather and had a tinker on the TVR. First on my list was addressing the drivers door. At present I was resetting the catch every time I got in as the door simply will not shut once opened. This is after being opened from the inside...
Credit to the originator of this following picture. I could barely fit my hand in there, never mind a camera...
The rubber booted cable is the "big knob" release pull. This was functioning fine. Above it is a rod that reaches up to the button push on the outside of the car. This... was not. The button was not acting on the rod, and the rod when manually actioned from inside did nothing.
I removed it, then drenched the outer button in WD. Found a fairly large amount of alloy oxidation in here. Reattached the rod ... no joy.
Long story short, I eventually sourced a sticky central locking solenoid, which was jamming the lock shut (obviously! Why else would the inside release work but the ourside not? Duh!)one wiggle later, good as new. One working door!
Problem is, now that it works I've just stumbled on my next obvious fault that I hadnt considered... No locks. :/ Time to examine the fob.
The following night seen some more progress. In an effort to address the idle issue, some forum scouring for possible causes of the hesitation resulted in this being added to the hit list..
The stepper motor (or idle control valve to us mere mortals) was cited as a possible culprit.
Pulled out, decoked and reinstalled with PTFE seal. Free fix?
Time will tell. It fired up fine, although the heavens were still unleashed so i never took it out.
In other news, old head unit out, new iPod compliant unit in.
No sign of an ignition live back there so will need to make do with remembering to power it off manually for now. This was following the tidy up of some mingebagging of the old loom. I see you there, bananaplugs..
All soldered and heat shrunk now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29vwprtAsNk
Of course, y'all wanna hear it...
Full MOT, tax, and running. Not without niggles, but that is how I managed to get it, frankly. My Civic Type R was traded in on the basis of me knowing the TVR's issues and there being no quibbles. Fine by me.
The first weekend was spent almost entirely with the roof off, on back roads, finding out if the aforementioned "niggles" were all that was wrong with it.
Well, yes and no. There was one very obvious niggle that I will discuss first. Namely, I couldn't get in it. Thats maybe a touch melodramatic, but the drivers door would not open with the outside button. Probably something really stupid, but its had a knock on effect on a few things. Namely, when opened from the inside, it had a tendancy to not shut again until I manually fiddled with the mechanism to reset it.
There is a flashing red LED in the dash that simply will not stop flashing. My first online check here proved it was not engine related, so that's good, but it is something to do with the alarm. I personally think its more to do with the door, again tying into the alarm and being obviously FUBAR.
The engine is misfiring though. There is a very definite hesitation on part throttle, causing it to jerk on occasion. I'm betting the fact that it has sat for over a year unused, and is in dire need of a service probably has something to do with it.
The next night I braved the weather and had a tinker on the TVR. First on my list was addressing the drivers door. At present I was resetting the catch every time I got in as the door simply will not shut once opened. This is after being opened from the inside...
Credit to the originator of this following picture. I could barely fit my hand in there, never mind a camera...
The rubber booted cable is the "big knob" release pull. This was functioning fine. Above it is a rod that reaches up to the button push on the outside of the car. This... was not. The button was not acting on the rod, and the rod when manually actioned from inside did nothing.
I removed it, then drenched the outer button in WD. Found a fairly large amount of alloy oxidation in here. Reattached the rod ... no joy.
Long story short, I eventually sourced a sticky central locking solenoid, which was jamming the lock shut (obviously! Why else would the inside release work but the ourside not? Duh!)one wiggle later, good as new. One working door!
Problem is, now that it works I've just stumbled on my next obvious fault that I hadnt considered... No locks. :/ Time to examine the fob.
The following night seen some more progress. In an effort to address the idle issue, some forum scouring for possible causes of the hesitation resulted in this being added to the hit list..
The stepper motor (or idle control valve to us mere mortals) was cited as a possible culprit.
Pulled out, decoked and reinstalled with PTFE seal. Free fix?
Time will tell. It fired up fine, although the heavens were still unleashed so i never took it out.
In other news, old head unit out, new iPod compliant unit in.
No sign of an ignition live back there so will need to make do with remembering to power it off manually for now. This was following the tidy up of some mingebagging of the old loom. I see you there, bananaplugs..
All soldered and heat shrunk now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29vwprtAsNk
Of course, y'all wanna hear it...
Edited by overdriveeng on Monday 27th October 08:33
So the following weekend was a good chance to get stuck into some of the stupid niggles. First on the list was the non functioning dash lights. I decided to do a bit of research first for some common faults and... well, long story short, I swtiched them on:
Turns out there is a stealthy little kill switch hidden under the dash on the left hand side. Seriously. TVR give you the "distraction free" option much like the old Saabs so that you can drive at night and focus on the road better.
It gets better. I then started to question the dim speedo...
That's no mistake. TVR feels that the most important gauge should be brightest. Another niggle that needs no repair. Naturally, the best way to make sure dash lights work is to take it a night blast...
This just highlighted that the misfire is still very much there. OK, onwards to the engine.
Checked the oil first. Still opaque and light brown. No idea on history so it will be changed regardless, but positive signs so far. Next up, plugs...
Tight access, naturally, but all 8 plugs changed with little drama. Not so much the leads, but I'll come to that ...
Sadly, one casualty was this last spark plug suppresor. They go between the plug and lead to (I presume) angle them away from the enormous tubular manifolds. Good news though, TVR parts bin nabbed them from a Vauxhall Cavalier. Bad news, I only managed to find 2 on ebay. Turns out old Cavvy's are getting pretty rare now, judging by the lack of spares kicking around now. Nonetheless, I can replace this buggered one and have one up the sleeve, then probably order the remaining six from Vauxhall.
In my defense, the suppresor had to come from here:
...a gap that is tighter than a ducks
. Sorted now though. I checked out the old cap and arm once off. Not the worst by any stretch, but very little shiny copper. Suggests to me there is very little contact happening, with a good chance of arcing needed here rather than at the plug. Meh, worth a change!
So, all back together...
Hoses that were removed have been cleaned and refitted...
And a few other bits tidied up...
So... did it cure the misfire? No.
Turns out there is a stealthy little kill switch hidden under the dash on the left hand side. Seriously. TVR give you the "distraction free" option much like the old Saabs so that you can drive at night and focus on the road better.
It gets better. I then started to question the dim speedo...
That's no mistake. TVR feels that the most important gauge should be brightest. Another niggle that needs no repair. Naturally, the best way to make sure dash lights work is to take it a night blast...
This just highlighted that the misfire is still very much there. OK, onwards to the engine.
Checked the oil first. Still opaque and light brown. No idea on history so it will be changed regardless, but positive signs so far. Next up, plugs...
Tight access, naturally, but all 8 plugs changed with little drama. Not so much the leads, but I'll come to that ...
Sadly, one casualty was this last spark plug suppresor. They go between the plug and lead to (I presume) angle them away from the enormous tubular manifolds. Good news though, TVR parts bin nabbed them from a Vauxhall Cavalier. Bad news, I only managed to find 2 on ebay. Turns out old Cavvy's are getting pretty rare now, judging by the lack of spares kicking around now. Nonetheless, I can replace this buggered one and have one up the sleeve, then probably order the remaining six from Vauxhall.
In my defense, the suppresor had to come from here:
...a gap that is tighter than a ducks
. Sorted now though. I checked out the old cap and arm once off. Not the worst by any stretch, but very little shiny copper. Suggests to me there is very little contact happening, with a good chance of arcing needed here rather than at the plug. Meh, worth a change! So, all back together...
Hoses that were removed have been cleaned and refitted...
And a few other bits tidied up...
So... did it cure the misfire? No.
Edited by overdriveeng on Monday 27th October 08:28
No real progress since then for 2 reasons.
1. Daily hack needed a coolant flush and fresh antifreeze, and no one wants to see a V6 Camry.
2. I need money.
Nonetheless, some snags were addressed, namely trying to maintain all that lovely black leather...
Nomnomnom. Leather food.
1. Daily hack needed a coolant flush and fresh antifreeze, and no one wants to see a V6 Camry.
2. I need money.
Nonetheless, some snags were addressed, namely trying to maintain all that lovely black leather...
Nomnomnom. Leather food.
Edited by overdriveeng on Monday 27th October 08:22
Final update for the moment, the 2 new suppressors arrived so I chucked it on...
I also got the 2 oddball batteries needed for the alarm fob. After a bit of fiddling they seem to work! Car alarm activates on and off. The added bonus is that it has finally disabled that flashing red LED in the dash... RESULT!
Not so good is the fact that it has locked the doors and nothing will now unlock them. Hmm...
I also got the 2 oddball batteries needed for the alarm fob. After a bit of fiddling they seem to work! Car alarm activates on and off. The added bonus is that it has finally disabled that flashing red LED in the dash... RESULT!
Not so good is the fact that it has locked the doors and nothing will now unlock them. Hmm...
Edited by overdriveeng on Monday 27th October 08:38
s p a c e m a n said:
Welcome, looks nice and clean and a good colour combination although half of the photos haven't loaded for me. When does the misfire occur, tried changing the ignition amplifier yet?
Take it that you're not locked out of it at the moment? Door locks can be one of the more temperamental things on these cars when all of the parts are not perfect.
Misfire occurs on light throttle when on the move. Plant it and it quickly disappears!
No, the car is garaged with the roof panel off, so no lock outs luckily!
Guys, thanks for the warm welcome!
Yea, I thought the oil writ was a bit odd. It will be due a change next month anyway so some research will be done.
With the misfire, I know shunting well. It seems to be big engine cars as mk3 Supras suffer this too. I think I best check again, but nonetheless I consider all that I have changed so far to be basic servicing, so no harm no foul!
I do have one odd query: does anyone have a picture if a removed gear gaiter? Mine is in tatters, and on removing it looks like some universal eBay effort. Having seen the parts bin scouring TVR usually do, I'm not 100% this isn't the genuine design. I only ask as I was going to get a duplicate stitched up.
Yea, I thought the oil writ was a bit odd. It will be due a change next month anyway so some research will be done.
With the misfire, I know shunting well. It seems to be big engine cars as mk3 Supras suffer this too. I think I best check again, but nonetheless I consider all that I have changed so far to be basic servicing, so no harm no foul!
I do have one odd query: does anyone have a picture if a removed gear gaiter? Mine is in tatters, and on removing it looks like some universal eBay effort. Having seen the parts bin scouring TVR usually do, I'm not 100% this isn't the genuine design. I only ask as I was going to get a duplicate stitched up.
phazed said:
Seems odd, do people consider the Chim to have a shifter too far back?QBee said:
The rubber one underneath - is that still intact? If not, it can be replaced with a mid-late 90s Ford Fiesta one, but you will need to remove the centre panels that hide its fixings. Not difficult, just PM me if you need details.
If you want a photo of the leatherette gaiter just say and I will take mine off and photograph it - its simply a conical shape made out of four panels. Get them to make it a bit long (say 12 inches) and then you can cut it down to fit. I assume you know the gear knob unscrews?
Yaa, i got my current one off, which sounds like a match for the one you have. I just assumed it would have been more tailored. Wouldnt mind the guide for removing the centre panel anyway mind you, as I have a feeling my central locking switch on the door knob may be faulty...If you want a photo of the leatherette gaiter just say and I will take mine off and photograph it - its simply a conical shape made out of four panels. Get them to make it a bit long (say 12 inches) and then you can cut it down to fit. I assume you know the gear knob unscrews?
s p a c e m a n said:
And as for the shunting, download rovergauge and buy/make a cable. You'll probably be forever swapping bits and guessing trying to sort a misfire and even if the program can't tell you what's wrong it's always handy to have.
Oh that IS handy! I didnt think the RV8 ECU was as accessable as that. So does it produce fault codes too?BeastMaster said:
Just to add regarding your locking / unlocking problem, you may wish to give the system a reset by disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. Have the fob handy as the alarm may go off.
I did try that last weekend. I'll have a go at it again tonight, along with checking the door plungers. Granted, I am a tinkerer so rarely see things in the non homebrew light. Having most of my experience in the world of jap performance, you can pick up rather beastly down pipes as complex as this for 2-300 quid. Problem is that they are ten a penny usually, so massive batch runs can reduce the overheads!
speedtwelve said:
Diagnostic on the ECU always a good idea, but pull the passenger footwell panel and check the integrity of relays, fuses and ECU connector anyway. Is your car a mobile jacuzzi? Water in the ECU from the footwell? Check HT coil & ignition amp. Vacuum pipe to ignition advance OK?
Relay integrity - Good, although loose. Do these get mounted in anyway?Fuses - Nice and dry, no issues
ECU Connector - Off the floor, OK.
Cockpit integrity - Good. Car is always garage, no moisture evidence at all.
HT Coil - Next on my list, Bosch replacement in the post.
Ignition amp - See above
Vac pipe - Actually, never thought to check that. One for the to do list.
Weekend! Time to tinker. I've managed to get the dash off...
All that pain to establish that this:
Is goosed. Half the LEDs have been pulled off. eBay fix kit beckons.
This I gather is the intermittent control for the window wipers. As these don't work on intermittent, I guess this is the root cause. Another repair tbc, but is there a specific orientation these must have?
Next up, trying to work out why the doors won't unlock. Central locking button is activating the solenoids to lock, but not releasing them. Any ideas on common faults?
All that pain to establish that this:
Is goosed. Half the LEDs have been pulled off. eBay fix kit beckons.
This I gather is the intermittent control for the window wipers. As these don't work on intermittent, I guess this is the root cause. Another repair tbc, but is there a specific orientation these must have?
Next up, trying to work out why the doors won't unlock. Central locking button is activating the solenoids to lock, but not releasing them. Any ideas on common faults?
Edited by overdriveeng on Monday 27th October 08:18
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