Rob's 2001 TVR Tuscan
Discussion
If Sportmotive is your local specialist, then perhaps you may want to consider joining some of us in North Staffordshire on our outings (I’m over the border in Cheshire but the North Staffs group is very active within the TVRCC).
You’ll get excellent service from Sportmotive - mine goes there for its fettling too.
You’ll get excellent service from Sportmotive - mine goes there for its fettling too.
TR4man said:
If Sportmotive is your local specialist, then perhaps you may want to consider joining some of us in North Staffordshire on our outings (I’m over the border in Cheshire but the North Staffs group is very active within the TVRCC).
You’ll get excellent service from Sportmotive - mine goes there for its fettling too.
Excellent! And yes, I was going to go to some south staffs and north staffs stuff as we open back up You’ll get excellent service from Sportmotive - mine goes there for its fettling too.
Well Speed3's recent 12k bill is likely to be not that dissimilar from mine! Not seen the final bill yet but here's some of the things needed:
- 4 suspensions bushes knackered
- Crimped fuel line and fuel pump held on with only one of two brackets
- One of the Gaz dampers went pop when they jacked it up
- Gaz's at the rear had different spring rates set (!)
- Someone had cross threaded the oil sump plug but instead of sorting it, just screwed it in tight as possible
- Exhaust has done a number of the chassis paint, which they are sorting
So apart from the bushes and the damper, it's sorting amateur hour from previous servicing / work.
Silver lining though - engine is fine and tappets didn't need adjustment (rebuild was 15k ago)
The reason it drives like it's trying to kill you is now clear - bushes and spring settings which will be sorted (I was worried it was just Tuscans)
The chassis is in generally good shape. Few patches to get brushed off and painted which I can do - good for the mileage.
Enjoy some videos of knackered bushes:
https://vimeo.com/447926291
https://vimeo.com/447926244
https://vimeo.com/447926289
And here's a dodgy oil sump plug (glad I didn't attempt a quick oil change now when I got it!):
Will update once I've picked up on the wallet damage and whether it feels much better on the road. Must be better than Ian's comment "It's the worst handling Tuscan I've ever driven" - good to get it sorted then
- 4 suspensions bushes knackered
- Crimped fuel line and fuel pump held on with only one of two brackets
- One of the Gaz dampers went pop when they jacked it up
- Gaz's at the rear had different spring rates set (!)
- Someone had cross threaded the oil sump plug but instead of sorting it, just screwed it in tight as possible
- Exhaust has done a number of the chassis paint, which they are sorting
So apart from the bushes and the damper, it's sorting amateur hour from previous servicing / work.
Silver lining though - engine is fine and tappets didn't need adjustment (rebuild was 15k ago)
The reason it drives like it's trying to kill you is now clear - bushes and spring settings which will be sorted (I was worried it was just Tuscans)
The chassis is in generally good shape. Few patches to get brushed off and painted which I can do - good for the mileage.
Enjoy some videos of knackered bushes:
https://vimeo.com/447926291
https://vimeo.com/447926244
https://vimeo.com/447926289
And here's a dodgy oil sump plug (glad I didn't attempt a quick oil change now when I got it!):
Will update once I've picked up on the wallet damage and whether it feels much better on the road. Must be better than Ian's comment "It's the worst handling Tuscan I've ever driven" - good to get it sorted then
Thought this thread was worth an update!
Sportmotive did a good and thorough job with the bushes, kinked fuel line, 12k service including tappet adjustment, rebuild of the popped Gaz damper, helicoiled the sump plug, replaced the heat shield between the exhaust and the chassis as well as repainting the chassis in the area. Phew, so quite a lot of work to bring it up to mechanical health. Ah, and it had a 4 wheel alignment while it was there too.
Since the service I also see no error codes, even on start up, which is pretty cool.
The road feeling is way better than it was. It's still about 100% better as a car when the roof is off too. It still does 'sway' occasionally on certain roads/surfaces. It pulls one side, then back to the other. It's make me pretty nervous! So there's still something to do to fix that bit. I can't believe it's just 'Tuscans'. It's got new rear tyres - asymm 5s. The fronts are reasonable aymm 3s but I think I might change them just to eliminate it.
There's still a fair amount of cosmetics to do - interior a bit tired and so is the paint on the outside. That can come over time, should be an enjoyable restoration.
Pic of the new heatshielding:
Also a video of the exhaust, sounds very different bank to bank, one much quieter than the other:
https://vimeo.com/463969775
Any advice always welcome. Next steps are likely a bonnet conversion, some more interior tidy up and further suspension thinking.
Sportmotive did a good and thorough job with the bushes, kinked fuel line, 12k service including tappet adjustment, rebuild of the popped Gaz damper, helicoiled the sump plug, replaced the heat shield between the exhaust and the chassis as well as repainting the chassis in the area. Phew, so quite a lot of work to bring it up to mechanical health. Ah, and it had a 4 wheel alignment while it was there too.
Since the service I also see no error codes, even on start up, which is pretty cool.
The road feeling is way better than it was. It's still about 100% better as a car when the roof is off too. It still does 'sway' occasionally on certain roads/surfaces. It pulls one side, then back to the other. It's make me pretty nervous! So there's still something to do to fix that bit. I can't believe it's just 'Tuscans'. It's got new rear tyres - asymm 5s. The fronts are reasonable aymm 3s but I think I might change them just to eliminate it.
There's still a fair amount of cosmetics to do - interior a bit tired and so is the paint on the outside. That can come over time, should be an enjoyable restoration.
Pic of the new heatshielding:
Also a video of the exhaust, sounds very different bank to bank, one much quieter than the other:
https://vimeo.com/463969775
Any advice always welcome. Next steps are likely a bonnet conversion, some more interior tidy up and further suspension thinking.
Edited by Rob-c33sg on Thursday 1st October 20:55
Been a quite a while and I have been on a mission to have two new keys and transmitters (one unit, not a separate transmitter) and worked with the wonderful Dave at HF Solutions to get this done. Well known in the TV community for working withe meta alarms. I also wanted a Dallas key (the one you inserted in the dash if no transmitter is not working). My car only came with one key which is a worry! I also didn't have the little red code card for the alarm.
There are 5 slots for programmed transmitters in the alarm, and sadly, all 5 of mine were full, so I couldn't programme a Dallas key in the car using the normal procedure. So I unwrapped acres of black tape to extract the alarm and immobiliser and whisked them off to Dave who reprogrammed them. I also extracted the Dallas connector from the dash which wasn't working anyway, and also found a second (non working) Dallas connector taped under the steering column. The joys of many owner cars. Next thing I know I had two new transmitters, new Dallas unit and the boxes back. A short visit to a locksmith cut the blanks to my existing key. Put it all back together and viola - two working keys and two Dallas keys to boot. I feel better now.
Here's all the bits out the car:
Next job is the roof. The lining has dropped down over the driver's side and rests on my head while driving. Very annoying. A bit of heat gun has easily detached it. I'll use a bit of contact adhesive to get it back down this coming weekend. Doesn't need to be a perfect job if plans go as expected for a full redo next winter.
At some point in the past few months it ticked over:
and I also noticed the headlights come out the bottom aperture. Pretty sure they're meant to be the middle one - what are others like?
Thanks for reading
There are 5 slots for programmed transmitters in the alarm, and sadly, all 5 of mine were full, so I couldn't programme a Dallas key in the car using the normal procedure. So I unwrapped acres of black tape to extract the alarm and immobiliser and whisked them off to Dave who reprogrammed them. I also extracted the Dallas connector from the dash which wasn't working anyway, and also found a second (non working) Dallas connector taped under the steering column. The joys of many owner cars. Next thing I know I had two new transmitters, new Dallas unit and the boxes back. A short visit to a locksmith cut the blanks to my existing key. Put it all back together and viola - two working keys and two Dallas keys to boot. I feel better now.
Here's all the bits out the car:
Next job is the roof. The lining has dropped down over the driver's side and rests on my head while driving. Very annoying. A bit of heat gun has easily detached it. I'll use a bit of contact adhesive to get it back down this coming weekend. Doesn't need to be a perfect job if plans go as expected for a full redo next winter.
At some point in the past few months it ticked over:
and I also noticed the headlights come out the bottom aperture. Pretty sure they're meant to be the middle one - what are others like?
Thanks for reading
For those interested I have started on the road to removing the body off my Tuscan. There's not much video content on the Tuscan so I am doing videos for two reasons: remind me what I did and help others. No interest in building a channel or that kind of thing. So don't expect anything fancy, good camera work or any videos asking you to 'like, subscribe and share'
Edited by Rob-c33sg on Sunday 1st May 18:55
Rob-c33sg said:
For those interested I have started on the road to removing the body off my Tuscan. There's not much video content on the Tuscan so I am doing videos for two reasons: remind me what I did and help others. No interest in building a channel or that kind of thing. So don't expect anything fancy, good camera work or any videos asking you to 'like, subscribe and share'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU8h3jPIK7k&t=...
Subscribed! Good luck and look forward to seeing how you get on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU8h3jPIK7k&t=...
Part Two is up. In this one I remove the airbox, get all the bolts off from under the car and get the seats out.
The airbox was no bother.
The seats bolts were a little crusty and one needed some advanced removal.
The body bolts were all fine after I worked through a method of paint removal, degreasing / cleaning, scraping the threads clean, whacking with a hammer and adding some heat! The one behind the pedal box was a little bit of a giggle though as I did that without removing the pedal box, just getting it loose by angle grinding the bolts off (not chance of removing those!) - should of just removed the pedal box in hindsight but you live and learn.
Next I need to figure out what else is connected. So far I have the accelerator cable disconnected and the washer line. I believe there's the battery to disconnect, some earth cables and slide out the brake booster and the steering linkage. Not sure of there's brake and clutch lines to remove I'm sure there are as they're in the pedal box too.
The airbox was no bother.
The seats bolts were a little crusty and one needed some advanced removal.
The body bolts were all fine after I worked through a method of paint removal, degreasing / cleaning, scraping the threads clean, whacking with a hammer and adding some heat! The one behind the pedal box was a little bit of a giggle though as I did that without removing the pedal box, just getting it loose by angle grinding the bolts off (not chance of removing those!) - should of just removed the pedal box in hindsight but you live and learn.
Next I need to figure out what else is connected. So far I have the accelerator cable disconnected and the washer line. I believe there's the battery to disconnect, some earth cables and slide out the brake booster and the steering linkage. Not sure of there's brake and clutch lines to remove I'm sure there are as they're in the pedal box too.
Edited by Rob-c33sg on Sunday 1st May 18:55
Hello all, last part before I lift the body off. This is a long one because there’s quite a bit to disconnect. As said before these videos are acting as a guide I hope for anyone else who wants to do it as there’s not much out there. Thanks to the Facebook group for Tuscans - very helpful for advice on a couple of topics on this one
Comments welcome thanks all
Comments welcome thanks all
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