how long can t350 stand?
how long can t350 stand?
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Discussion

bubblebobble

Original Poster:

381 posts

218 months

Thursday 1st January 2009
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Ok, have had my t350c standing in the garage for around 2-3 months now ( waiting for paint !)should i be worried when I kick her up again? and what proceedures should I follow apart from checking fluids etc. I am worried about damage because of lack of oil in the engine on intial startup.

grumbledoak

32,571 posts

262 months

Thursday 1st January 2009
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At three months you'll be lucky if the battery is still charged; you may need to charge, or even replace it. You shouldn't need new oil, but I'm not sure how to 'prime' her outside of turning the key and letting her get on with it.

J_S_G

6,177 posts

279 months

Thursday 1st January 2009
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Battery likely to be utterly dead. You quite often get the alarm kicking off at this point if you just try connecting a charger. Jump-starting's probably easier if you run into this.

Nothing you can really do about the mechanicals - it's going to need starting at some point. If you're REALLY fussy, you could wait till a warm day so the oil's a few degrees up. Not really going to make much difference, though.

Only thing I've found is that the slave cylinder seal on the clutch (always a weak point anyway) gives way even sooner if the car's been left standing for a long time. Had that twice on previous Tivs. Maybe pump the clutch a bit every week while it's still standing.

KillerJim

972 posts

232 months

Thursday 1st January 2009
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J_S_G said:
Battery likely to be utterly dead. You quite often get the alarm kicking off at this point if you just try connecting a charger. Jump-starting's probably easier if you run into this.
Jump starting is not a good idea, I know of a Sagaris that had to get a few ECU's fixed after being jump started.

I`d just replace the battery, bound to be fubar at holding a charge anyway.. The alarm will go off, not nice when you`ve your head in the wheel well smile

J_S_G said:
Nothing you can really do about the mechanicals - it's going to need starting at some point. If you're REALLY fussy, you could wait till a warm day so the oil's a few degrees up. Not really going to make much difference, though.
Yea, just know it's going to sound pretty "unhappy" for at least a few seconds and you might need a touch of accelerator to get it to idle around 900rpm.

I would also recommend checking all fuild levels and topping up, things can leak from TVR's in very suttle ways..

J

J_S_G

6,177 posts

279 months

Thursday 1st January 2009
quotequote all
Would pretty muchagree on all of those.

If you're happy to pay out on a new battery, definitely the best option. If the car's coming up on 4/5 years old it's time for a change, anyway. But I have jump-started mine after a couple of holidays without issues (before just buying a trickle charger!)... I did this by just wiring another battery in parallel, though, rather than hooking it up to another car. If the current battery is utterly dead, shouldn't be any issues at all in that; nothing going on there that should cause any electrical issues (assuming everything's earthed, etc). If you're jump-starting from any other dubiously built jump-start kits/if the charging point's being used and is corroded/etc, I'd be a lot more worried!

But make sure you have a set of ear-plugs to hand, either way - the alarm isn't all that far from where your head's going to be whilst changing things over there and it's louder than you'd think at close quarters!

And yup - check fluids... although oil's going to be hard to tell until it's running, and coolant won't be too much of an issue for the first few minutes - it's an easy one to check, though. Suggest rolling it back and seeing if there are any patches under it where anything's leaked.