Greasing Chimaera propshaft.
Discussion
And if like me you use a Garage to do your servicing there is often a sly comment when you drop the car off ' oh yeah its you who always makes us take the exhaust off and grease the UJ' .
To those who use garages , make sure they do it , when I got my Chim it had never been done, It had some horrible vibrations at speed , cured by packing the dry-as-a-bone UJ with grease.
To those who use garages , make sure they do it , when I got my Chim it had never been done, It had some horrible vibrations at speed , cured by packing the dry-as-a-bone UJ with grease.
Dodsy said:
And if like me you use a Garage to do your servicing there is often a sly comment when you drop the car off ' oh yeah its you who always makes us take the exhaust off and grease the UJ' .
To those who use garages , make sure they do it , when I got my Chim it had never been done, It had some horrible vibrations at speed , cured by packing the dry-as-a-bone UJ with grease.
^^THIS^^To those who use garages , make sure they do it , when I got my Chim it had never been done, It had some horrible vibrations at speed , cured by packing the dry-as-a-bone UJ with grease.
99% (if not 100%) of all TVR specialists delete this job from their list of service items, there's a grease nipple there for a reason.
TVR created a very comprehensive service schedule, and we should all stick to it.
Two other often overlooked jobs on the TVR service schedule are gearbox oil & diff oil changes.
When I got my my car the diff plug was so tight I'm convinced it had never been removed, the only way I could undo it was weld a big nut on the end of it.
You can probably get away with doubling the 12k mile diff and gearbox oil change schedule but many TVRs have never had these oils changes in over 70k miles, which is not good.
A power steering fluid change schedule was actually completely omitted, this was a shocking oversight as this should be done at least every 20k miles or every 10 years as a minimum, again there are many Chimaeras out there that still have their original PS fluid in there.
On a power steering car it's also a good idea to replace the flexi hoses as these degrade internally over time, all you need is one steel fiber or a bit of hardened hose to come free and the seals in your rack will be destroyed.
Poor preventive maintenance is nearly always the cause of premature failure, with time equal to profit it's no wonder so called TVR specialists are tempted to cut corners.
That's why it often pays to do your own servicing, you decide yourself what corners are cut (if any), you can then take it on the chin if your own laziness results in a bigger bill later on.
I choose to do everything on the list plus a few missing extras I feel are essential like the power steering fluid change, I do this work in stages over a few weekends to spread the time it takes.
That way I don't get bored or lazy and skip jobs, it also means the car is never out of action for more than a few hours.
A car (or any other machine for that matter) is in a constant state of degradation, servicing and general maintenance is just the process of keeping one step ahead of the inevitable failures.
If you do it right, comprehensively follow every element in the service schedule, in theory you should greatly mitigate the possibility of a breakdown and significantly extend the working life of your TVR.
The poor wiring and school boy immobiliser issues aside, it's pish poor maintenance that gives these cars such a bad reliability reputation.
Ask yourself.. "Did my TVR let me down?... or did I let my TVR down by not looking after it properly?"
Saying that and irrespective of good or bad maintenance, in my experience if you truly want an unreliable sports car from the 90's you really should be looking at something Italian..
ChimpOnGas said:
^^THIS^^
99% (if not 100%) of all TVR specialists delete this job from their list of service items, there's a grease nipple there for a reason.
TVR created a very comprehensive service schedule, and we should all stick to it.
Two other often overlooked jobs on the TVR service schedule are gearbox oil & diff oil changes.
When I got my my car the diff plug was so tight I'm convinced it had never been removed, the only way I could undo it was weld a big nut on the end of it.
You can probably get away with doubling the 12k mile diff and gearbox oil change schedule but many TVRs have never had these oils changes in over 70k miles, which is not good.
A power steering fluid change schedule was actually completely omitted, this was a shocking oversight as this should be done at least every 20k miles or every 10 years as a minimum, again there are many Chimaeras out there that still have their original PS fluid in there.
On a power steering car it's also a good idea to replace the flexi hoses as these degrade internally over time, all you need is one steel fiber or a bit of hardened hose to come free and the seals in your rack will be destroyed.
Poor preventive maintenance is nearly always the cause of premature failure, with time equal to profit it's no wonder so called TVR specialists are tempted to cut corners.
That's why it often pays to do your own servicing, you decide yourself what corners are cut (if any), you can then take it on the chin if your own laziness results in a bigger bill later on.
I choose to do everything on the list plus a few missing extras I feel are essential like the power steering fluid change, I do this work in stages over a few weekends to spread the time it takes.
That way I don't get bored or lazy and skip jobs, it also means the car is never out of action for more than a few hours.
A car (or any other machine for that matter) is in a constant state of degradation, servicing and general maintenance is just the process of keeping one step ahead of the inevitable failures.
If you do it right, comprehensively follow every element in the service schedule, in theory you should greatly mitigate the possibility of a breakdown and significantly extend the working life of your TVR.
The poor wiring and school boy immobiliser issues aside, it's pish poor maintenance that gives these cars such a bad reliability reputation.
Ask yourself.. "Did my TVR let me down?... or did I let my TVR down by not looking after it properly?"
Saying that and irrespective of good or bad maintenance, in my experience if you truly want an unreliable sports car from the 90's you really should be looking at something Italian..
Well said!99% (if not 100%) of all TVR specialists delete this job from their list of service items, there's a grease nipple there for a reason.
TVR created a very comprehensive service schedule, and we should all stick to it.
Two other often overlooked jobs on the TVR service schedule are gearbox oil & diff oil changes.
When I got my my car the diff plug was so tight I'm convinced it had never been removed, the only way I could undo it was weld a big nut on the end of it.
You can probably get away with doubling the 12k mile diff and gearbox oil change schedule but many TVRs have never had these oils changes in over 70k miles, which is not good.
A power steering fluid change schedule was actually completely omitted, this was a shocking oversight as this should be done at least every 20k miles or every 10 years as a minimum, again there are many Chimaeras out there that still have their original PS fluid in there.
On a power steering car it's also a good idea to replace the flexi hoses as these degrade internally over time, all you need is one steel fiber or a bit of hardened hose to come free and the seals in your rack will be destroyed.
Poor preventive maintenance is nearly always the cause of premature failure, with time equal to profit it's no wonder so called TVR specialists are tempted to cut corners.
That's why it often pays to do your own servicing, you decide yourself what corners are cut (if any), you can then take it on the chin if your own laziness results in a bigger bill later on.
I choose to do everything on the list plus a few missing extras I feel are essential like the power steering fluid change, I do this work in stages over a few weekends to spread the time it takes.
That way I don't get bored or lazy and skip jobs, it also means the car is never out of action for more than a few hours.
A car (or any other machine for that matter) is in a constant state of degradation, servicing and general maintenance is just the process of keeping one step ahead of the inevitable failures.
If you do it right, comprehensively follow every element in the service schedule, in theory you should greatly mitigate the possibility of a breakdown and significantly extend the working life of your TVR.
The poor wiring and school boy immobiliser issues aside, it's pish poor maintenance that gives these cars such a bad reliability reputation.
Ask yourself.. "Did my TVR let me down?... or did I let my TVR down by not looking after it properly?"
Saying that and irrespective of good or bad maintenance, in my experience if you truly want an unreliable sports car from the 90's you really should be looking at something Italian..
I know that it's 7 years ago, but how the hell are you doing the front one without dropping the exhaust, I can't even get my hand near it. I do the back one every year but I think the front one has now done 3k miles since I touched it. Seriously considering cutting a hole under the center console, taking the exhaust off just for this is a faff.
Back in the day when lots of cars still had prop shafts the UJ's were invariably "sealed for life" , no grease nipples.
UJ's with grease nipples are primarily for Land Rovers and such like that can have a very arduous life getting submerged in water etc., not the cosseted live most TVR's lead!
There are four bearings per UJ but one grease nipple, invariably grease will come out of the easiest one (two if you're lucky) never all four
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