My car is dead.......................

My car is dead.......................

Author
Discussion

hatchn

Original Poster:

352 posts

286 months

Friday 16th August 2002
quotequote all
Hi Guys,

Bad news I'm afraid my Tamora left my house on the back of an AA truck on Wednesday morning bound for the dealers. It's now somewhere between them, the factory and TVR Power. It started to make a loud tappet type noise on Sunday evening and after speaking to the TVR Centre on Monday it was decided it would be best to get it back to them via the AA in case driving it did any more damage. After stripping it down at the dealer the diagnoses was "Premature camshaft ware" after only 2,800 miles !!!!!
Apparently the factory received a dodgy batch from their supplier. Um, sound familiar. So it was going back to the factory of an 8 - 12 week rebuild but now it's going back to TVR power and should be turned around in about a month. As my luck would have it TVR Power shut down for two weeks from this coming Monday so that's why it's going to take a month and not two weeks. So there you have it, they are not as bomb proof as we all thought. To say I'm pi55ed off is an understatement especially as summer has now decided to arrive. The dealer is trying to sort me out a Fiat Punto loan car, I just can't wait.

Has anyone every tried to get compensation of any sort from their dealer or the Factory for this kind of situation ?

Cheers,
Nick

hatchn

Original Poster:

352 posts

286 months

Friday 16th August 2002
quotequote all
It looks like my problem is not the only one. CanUck said "also had an engine problem - cam wear ("due to a bad batch of cam/followers"). This was uncovered at the 1000 mile service" in a previous thread.
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=14381&f=7&h=0

As for symptoms, there were none. It has always been a bit “tappy” but nothing more than a normal S6, or so I was told by the dealer. We were driving along the M25 at about 80ish on Sunday afternoon, roof down, music on. Got to our junction, slowed down and peeled off and the noise was there. Just like tappets but MUCH louder. I pulled over and took a look under the bonnet, the engine was still there and that's about were my knowledge ends. I did notice that the was some oil leaking from the front end of the long rail / rod that runs along the top of the engine. There is a metal bung in the end and a very small amount of oil seemed to be leaking out of this. We then crawled home. I got it out of the garage on Monday night in the vain hope that the noise had gone, it had not. I then noticed a small amount of oil on the garage floor just to the right of the passengers front wheel that had never been there before.

That's about it, don’t want to make you all paranoid. We collected our car on the 29th March so if you got yours around that time it might be worth getting it checked out. All I was told from the dealer is that there was a “bad batch” I don’t know how many were in the batch.

Cheers,
Nick

hatchn

Original Poster:

352 posts

286 months

Saturday 17th August 2002
quotequote all
Hi Pistolar,

Don't worry guys, he is a friend of mine, or should I say was.........................

Thanks for you kind words of support and advice.
As for the mail you send directly to me all I can say is, in a Shaggy style,
"It Wasn't me"...............……………………....

hatchn

Original Poster:

352 posts

286 months

Saturday 17th August 2002
quotequote all
I spoke to the Man at TVR Power last night, very helpful. He filled me in on what needs to be done and how long it will take and by the sounds of it it's engine out, new camshaft, lifters and followers and some other top end bits. Then engine back in. About a weeks work. The good news is that it's first on the line when they get back from shutdown so I should get it back by the 2nd week in September and it will not need running in again !!!
He was very sympathetic towards the factory and assured me it was a supplier problem and out of the control of TVR. He did agree that it does not help TVR's reputation. I tried to find out how many car it has effected but the guy was unsure he had a guess at 10's as opposed to 100's. But he said "it will be a fair few"

Just keep and eye and ear on those engines chaps.

Cheers,
Nick