weird indicators..

[rick111s]

on sunday i washed the tuscan by hand (not a pressure washer) and then went for a small drive.

the nearside indicators light flashed really really quickly when on - like a bulb has blown on a normal car but all the bulbs were ok. the offside is flashing normally.

i keep the car in a garage and it was cold in the morning.


any idea?

thanks

[R555SSH]

When you turn left next time, do it very very quickly. The rapid flahing will look suited to that movement.

[andyvdg]

Of course some water might have got in somewhere. Check your fuses. If one of those go, they can cause the indicators to flash flast as well.

Cheers,

Andy.

[rick111s]

thanks for that.

[R555SSH]

Any time.

[rick111s]

i love the car. only had it a few months but i seem to have collected a load of niggles that a main dealer cannot fix and to be honest i've began to think that i made a mistake in getter the tuscan.

so on sunday i decided to start afresh. gave her a clean etc even in this cold weather then the indicators go funky...

so off to a specialist to see if they can fix the niggles and get me back in my love affair...

where are the fuses???

[UpTheIron]

rick111s said:

i love the car. only had it a few months but i seem to have collected a load of niggles that a main dealer cannot fix and to be honest i've began to think that i made a mistake in getter the tuscan. so on sunday i decided to start afresh. gave her a clean etc even in this cold weather then the indicators go funky... so off to a specialist to see if they can fix the niggles and get me back in my love affair... where are the fuses???

Specialist?
Tell us your niggles first, we might be able to fix them for free!
I'm not sure about this washing the car business though, it appears it causes problems so I'm going to leave mine in its current filthy state.

[G9eg]

Mine does this now and then on the nearside,all I do is give it a little tap on the pod under the rear screen and it sorts itself out.Not that you should have to,but thats all part of the fantastic fun of owning a Tuscan.

[R555SSH]

G9eg said:

...,but thats all part of the fantastic fun of owning a Tuscan.

[G20RG B]

Hi Rick,
Have a look ander the dash betrween steering wheel and drivers door there's some fuses under there..
maybe one has blown.?

Rgds
Geo

[J_S_G]

rick111s said:

i love the car. only had it a few months but i seem to have collected a load of niggles that a main dealer cannot fix and to be honest i've began to think that i made a mistake in getter the tuscan. so on sunday i decided to start afresh. gave her a clean etc even in this cold weather then the indicators go funky... so off to a specialist to see if they can fix the niggles and get me back in my love affair... where are the fuses???

If you've only recently bought it - with a warranty - from a dealer (I'm assuming you did given it's an '04 plate), I'd make sure they sort it out for free rather than paying a specialist. Would check with everyone on here first to see if they can't help out, mind.

[thndr]

If you've got the LED pod style indicators then the problem may be one of the resistors loose or blown. The LED's don't have the same resitance as a normal bulb, so there are additional resistors in the indicator circuits to fool the relay into thinking its seeing the right load. You'll find the resistors behind the trim panel covering the drivers side seat belt, plugged into the wiring loom and (in typical TVR fashion)velcroed to the nearest bit of bodywork. Just ease off the door seal which holds the trim panel in place, slip you hand in the crack and you should be able to get in to them. Lovely shiny gold items, about an inch long. Both mine were loose which caused very frantic flashing.
Hope this helps.

[rick111s]

J_S_G said:

rick111s said: i love the car. only had it a few months but i seem to have collected a load of niggles that a main dealer cannot fix and to be honest i've began to think that i made a mistake in getter the tuscan. so on sunday i decided to start afresh. gave her a clean etc even in this cold weather then the indicators go funky... so off to a specialist to see if they can fix the niggles and get me back in my love affair... where are the fuses??? If you've only recently bought it - with a warranty - from a dealer (I'm assuming you did given it's an '04 plate), I'd make sure they sort it out for free rather than paying a specialist. Would check with everyone on here first to see if they can't help out, mind.

Yes the car came with the reminder of the TVR engine warranty and also 1 year warranty from the main dealer i bought it from. To be totally honest i dont really have any faith in the main dealer.

they tried to fix the bonnet issue twice.
i asked them to look at the fact that it stalls when cold twice.
They did sort out a fuel contanination problem but charged me £50 labour to tune the engine but the car still runs at approx 700rpm when cold which drop down to about 500rpm and then stalls. I spoke to them to talk about these issues and they seem genuinly worried that they have tried on several occassions to put it right. But they are 120m round trip where as the specialist is about 10mins and used to work for TVR.

I dropped the car off to him today and he seems to know what he is on about. At the moment i'm more keen to get the car back and running 100% but paying for it (100% for a TVR anyway) then giving it to a main dealer, getting it for free but still having problems.

Had they sorted these out in the first place then i would not have gone elsewhere but two attempts seem alot in my opinion.

[shnozz]

rick, dont become disillusioned mate. You often find that a new owner has a whole series of annoying niggles to sort out, after which the car becomes far better behaved than when new. Its odd going the opposite way to you and thinking just how well screwed together the Lotus is! chin up, persevere and you'll have a stonking motor

[J_S_G]

rick111s said:

the car still runs at approx 700rpm when cold which drop down to about 500rpm and then stalls.

In my (amateur) opinion, 700RPM's too low an idle speed; especially in Winter. I had similar problems until I adjusted it to about 800 or so. I think it's technically supposed to be 750, but the Tuscan related stats in my brain are all getting fuzzier by the day! I can't believe they couldn't alter this; assuming it's nothing major, it's a 2 min job to bodge it yourself with a screwdriver in the short term. If you take the main bonnet off, inbetween number 3 & 4 throttle bodies (from the air box side), there's a small allen screw with a lock nut. Screwing it in raises the idle speed.

And, longer term, it sounds like the tappets need adjusting, which should have been done as part of a pre-sales service. That's assuming it's nothing out of the ordinary, and I'm sure the garage knows better than me.

What other niggles need sorting?

There's a no naming and shaming policy on here, but if you mail certain people where you're having the problems with, I'm sure they'll tell you if they're usually any good or not. Likewise whatever Indy you go to will hopefully know.

[rick111s]

J_S_G said:

[quote What other niggles need sorting? There's a no naming and shaming policy on here, but if you mail certain people where you're having the problems with, I'm sure they'll tell you if they're usually any good or not. Likewise whatever Indy you go to will hopefully know.

niggles - i hope all will now be sorted. The indy i went too used to work for TVR so knows the product and had reasons why things were happening not just we'll look at it.

i've no intention of naming the main dealer - they know that i was unhappy as i spoke to the saleperson, then the business manager and then finally the service manager. they did want to have another go at fixing the issues but as said above it's a 120m round trip and i know of another 1 tvr that's had things not right when the car returned that were fine before hand.

Everyone makes mistakes - i certainly do but i just want the car running the best it can so fingers crossed.

thanks for all the positive comments above.

[Mustang Baz]

Rick - as per JSG's comments, hold on in there. After 6 mths of research, I thought I had covered most of the bases by buying as new as I could (03), but in the past 7 mths, I have had

- new engine (rebuilt 3.6)
- new clutch (after 11k) - tappets and throttle bodies adjusted twice
- new seals - new speedo transducer
- new oil pressure and water temp sensors
- new bonnet catch - new interior trim in certain places (rear shelf)

These have all tried my patience and wallet, are WAYYY more than "niggles" in my view, and at times I have seriously questioned why I purchased the Tuscan. These are generally brief moments however, and I am now of the opinion that I have spent enough time and money getting things sorted that the future should be brighter

And even after all of this, once the car is warm and on song, sheer brilliance. Character in anything is tough to find nowadays....