New Chim owner and sticky 5th
Discussion
Firstly, hi to everyone. I've been reading this group for a while, according to the "lurk before you leap" principle, and I've learned some useful stuff. Thanks to all for that.
Secondly, yikes! I've just bought a Chimaera. Well, so far I've just got a steering wheel, but the rest will be following later this week. It's a '98 S-reg 450 in traditional Starmist blue/Magnolia, 29500 miles by one owner. Price £14500, inspected and recommended by R. Ingleby esq.
The car has been pretty well looked after, including regular waxoyling so the outriggers and wishbones are in top condition. Body and interior excellent, bar a few stone chips. It's just had a £1200 service and MOT at Enginuity.
Sounds like a good deal ? I hope so. There are some details, though, one of which is making me sweat a bit.
The radiator needs replacing, which doesn't bother me. The central locking might not work. That doesn't bother me either.
Here's the worry: it's very difficult to get in 5th gear. All the other gears are OK, although the gearchange action in general is much less crisp than others I have driven. There's also a tiny little little clonk going into reverse.
What kind of problem could I be looking at here? There's no clonk into 5th - it goes in quite happily when you find it. There's no zippy feeling in the stick like worn synchromesh. And whoever heard of a 5th gear synchro going anyway ?
It does seem to respond to a lazy double declutch, i.e. raise the clutch while in neutral then present the gear again. Could it be the clutch dragging? Certainly I've heard clutches only last about 30000. But if it were the clutch, wouldn't it be sticky in all gears and impossible in reverse?
Rob noticed all this and said it's probably worth taking a flyer on, but I'm the one who's paying, so I'd like to know exactly what kind of flyer :-)
One or two posts say the T5 gearbox is "like that", but I want mine (if it is the T5) to be as crisp as the other ones I drove.
Short of a new gearbox, is there anything I can do?
And the nuclear option: how much would a new gearbox set me back ?
Any advice would be gratefully received and would help me sleep nights this week :-)
Secondly, yikes! I've just bought a Chimaera. Well, so far I've just got a steering wheel, but the rest will be following later this week. It's a '98 S-reg 450 in traditional Starmist blue/Magnolia, 29500 miles by one owner. Price £14500, inspected and recommended by R. Ingleby esq.
The car has been pretty well looked after, including regular waxoyling so the outriggers and wishbones are in top condition. Body and interior excellent, bar a few stone chips. It's just had a £1200 service and MOT at Enginuity.
Sounds like a good deal ? I hope so. There are some details, though, one of which is making me sweat a bit.
The radiator needs replacing, which doesn't bother me. The central locking might not work. That doesn't bother me either.
Here's the worry: it's very difficult to get in 5th gear. All the other gears are OK, although the gearchange action in general is much less crisp than others I have driven. There's also a tiny little little clonk going into reverse.
What kind of problem could I be looking at here? There's no clonk into 5th - it goes in quite happily when you find it. There's no zippy feeling in the stick like worn synchromesh. And whoever heard of a 5th gear synchro going anyway ?
It does seem to respond to a lazy double declutch, i.e. raise the clutch while in neutral then present the gear again. Could it be the clutch dragging? Certainly I've heard clutches only last about 30000. But if it were the clutch, wouldn't it be sticky in all gears and impossible in reverse?
Rob noticed all this and said it's probably worth taking a flyer on, but I'm the one who's paying, so I'd like to know exactly what kind of flyer :-)
One or two posts say the T5 gearbox is "like that", but I want mine (if it is the T5) to be as crisp as the other ones I drove.
Short of a new gearbox, is there anything I can do?
And the nuclear option: how much would a new gearbox set me back ?
Any advice would be gratefully received and would help me sleep nights this week :-)
Something about this just doesn't sound right - perhaps it's just me, as I know RI comes highly recommended. £14,500 sounds well cheap if it is in as good a general condition as you say, with that mileage.
Also the £1200 service is worth investigating - what was done to get it to that level? And why, if such an extensive service was done (presumably by an independent - don't know Ingenuity) is there a gearbox fault. Talk to Ingenuity and ask them about the fault.
Had it HPI'd yet - a must-do before committing yourself.
Hope it works out - welcome aboard!
Also the £1200 service is worth investigating - what was done to get it to that level? And why, if such an extensive service was done (presumably by an independent - don't know Ingenuity) is there a gearbox fault. Talk to Ingenuity and ask them about the fault.
Had it HPI'd yet - a must-do before committing yourself.
Hope it works out - welcome aboard!
Thanks all for the info/advice. To answer the questions first:
1. the price I gave does not include Rob's fee. Rob has looked at several cars for me, and talked to several more sellers, so I'm quite happy to pay that on top.
2. the £1200 service was the 30000 mile but included a new battery and coil, plus a new pair of SO3's on the front.
3. Rob's service includes the full HPI.
And the good news is: the gearbox fault is almost definitely the linkage. The good Mr Batty says he had a Griff with exactly the same problem last week, and it's caused by some missing or broken spacers in the gear selector.
This rings true for me, as it behaves exactly the same way as my Peugeot 304 did when the gear linkage struts worked loose, and not at all like my Triumph Herald did when the synchro went.
The even better news is that this will probably only cost about £100 to fix. After that it will change with the precision of a Swiss watch, like the one I drove on Saturday.
I've also got a great quote from A&J Exhibitions to bring it down from Derby in a covered van. As luck would have it, they're sending some vans to Derby on Thursday anyway, so they can bring my Chim to Devon for £195+VAT, which isn't much more than it would cost me to go myself.
Anyway, so now my fears have pretty much been laid to rest. All I have to do now is work out how to shoehorn it into my pathetic excuse for a garage. Or persuade the wife we need to move house...
>> Edited by steveiy on Monday 13th September 21:58
1. the price I gave does not include Rob's fee. Rob has looked at several cars for me, and talked to several more sellers, so I'm quite happy to pay that on top.
2. the £1200 service was the 30000 mile but included a new battery and coil, plus a new pair of SO3's on the front.
3. Rob's service includes the full HPI.
And the good news is: the gearbox fault is almost definitely the linkage. The good Mr Batty says he had a Griff with exactly the same problem last week, and it's caused by some missing or broken spacers in the gear selector.
This rings true for me, as it behaves exactly the same way as my Peugeot 304 did when the gear linkage struts worked loose, and not at all like my Triumph Herald did when the synchro went.
The even better news is that this will probably only cost about £100 to fix. After that it will change with the precision of a Swiss watch, like the one I drove on Saturday.
I've also got a great quote from A&J Exhibitions to bring it down from Derby in a covered van. As luck would have it, they're sending some vans to Derby on Thursday anyway, so they can bring my Chim to Devon for £195+VAT, which isn't much more than it would cost me to go myself.
Anyway, so now my fears have pretty much been laid to rest. All I have to do now is work out how to shoehorn it into my pathetic excuse for a garage. Or persuade the wife we need to move house...
>> Edited by steveiy on Monday 13th September 21:58
hut49 said:
Something about this just doesn't sound right - perhaps it's just me, as I know RI comes highly recommended. £14,500 sounds well cheap if it is in as good a general condition as you say
I would beg to differ it sounds about right to me
>> Edited by M@H on Tuesday 14th September 08:42
Gassing Station | Chimaera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff