160,000 Mile TVR Chimaera
Discussion
Shed TVR said:
Hah I did read that story last week, I'm amazed they didn't have more issues! Wonder how many miles that car is on?
Hi!The Pub2Pub Chim was on about 50,000 miles at the start of the trip, so now it will have covered around 75,000...
However the sticking odometer has steadfastly refused to go past 57,000 - how very TVR!
Ben
fivetenben said:
Hi!
The Pub2Pub Chim was on about 50,000 miles at the start of the trip, so now it will have covered around 75,000...
However the sticking odometer has steadfastly refused to go past 57,000 - how very TVR!
Ben
Hi BenThe Pub2Pub Chim was on about 50,000 miles at the start of the trip, so now it will have covered around 75,000...
However the sticking odometer has steadfastly refused to go past 57,000 - how very TVR!
Ben
Brilliant all of my instruments actually appear to be working other than the rev counter which bounces all over the place with every gear change!
Congratulations on completing your journey, I'd love to do something like that some day
Shadow R1 said:
Great stuff, I look forward to updates on threads like this.
Mr Tidy said:
You're a braver man than me OP!
But it's good that someone takes up the challenge of keeping cars like this going - they are so analogue in every way.
And you're getting stuck in to fettling it too - I'm looking forward to the updates!
Good luck.
Thank you both, the car is indeed very analogue and I love driving it But it's good that someone takes up the challenge of keeping cars like this going - they are so analogue in every way.
And you're getting stuck in to fettling it too - I'm looking forward to the updates!
Good luck.
Well I made a lot of progress on the car today. The diff was filled up with new fluid using my patented diff and gearbox filler tool:
Exhaust and anti-roll bar back on with a new exhaust clamp for the front:
Unfortunately I think the exhaust has gotten a bit bent from not being supported properly for a while Not a major issue but one side does hang a little lower than the other.
A bloke came round and fitted some new rear tyres for me These were what were fitted to the car when I got it and seemed to handle the power fairly well even with not much tread:
New oil:
The top is looking very tired, looks like someone tried to stitch the window on by hand?:
Found a couple more bodges lurking in the engine bay:
One of the previous owners clearly had a lot of duct tape spare
She lives!
Went out for a test drive and the diff is still whining unfortunately, although I couldn't see any leaks and there is a lot less 'slack' in the driveline with the new mounts. It's possible I've miss-diagnosed the whine and it's actually a wheel bearing going, otherwise the diff will have to be replaced at some stage. I'll leave the car overnight and see if there is any oil on the floor tomorrow, hopefully not!
I thought I'd make a list of outstanding issues and jobs I want to do so I can keep track of my progress:
-Suspension knock n/s front
-Diff whining
-Fit fire extinguisher
-Fit battery isolator switch
-Offside mirror controls don’t work
-Seat bolt needs repairing drivers side
-Needs new aux belt
-Air intake pipe needs replacing
-MAF sensor wiring needs attention
-Top needs replacing
-Replace dash wood panel
-Replace radio wood panel
-Damping has gone on rev counter
-Investigate tick from engine
-Bell housing rubber cover missing
-Sleeve exhaust
It's a long list and some issues I've not mentioned on here but have noted before, I should have a half decent car once all of these are sorted
More updates soon I hope. I will be tackling the suspension knock, air intake bodge, aux belt, bell housing cover and fitting a fire extinguisher and battery isolator as suggested by Paul S4.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TVR-Griffith-Chimaera-S...
You may already be aware of this book but I seem to recall that it was well worth getting. When I had my Elan S4 I used to buy all the books/manuals/parts catalogues etc in order to understand the car. Some people are into books, some are not but it is useful to know as much as you can about the mechanics and the engineering IMO, especially as it seems you are keen to do work on the car yourself.
You may already be aware of this book but I seem to recall that it was well worth getting. When I had my Elan S4 I used to buy all the books/manuals/parts catalogues etc in order to understand the car. Some people are into books, some are not but it is useful to know as much as you can about the mechanics and the engineering IMO, especially as it seems you are keen to do work on the car yourself.
Paul S4 said:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TVR-Griffith-Chimaera-S...
You may already be aware of this book but I seem to recall that it was well worth getting. When I had my Elan S4 I used to buy all the books/manuals/parts catalogues etc in order to understand the car. Some people are into books, some are not but it is useful to know as much as you can about the mechanics and the engineering IMO, especially as it seems you are keen to do work on the car yourself.
Hi Paul, You may already be aware of this book but I seem to recall that it was well worth getting. When I had my Elan S4 I used to buy all the books/manuals/parts catalogues etc in order to understand the car. Some people are into books, some are not but it is useful to know as much as you can about the mechanics and the engineering IMO, especially as it seems you are keen to do work on the car yourself.
No I wasn't aware of that book, I found a place that sells new copies for around £40 so I'll probably get it from there. Thanks for the recommendation, it'll definitely be useful to me being new to TVR ownership
Douglas Quaid said:
Maximum respect OP I’ve always wanted a TVR and I’d love to do what you’re doing if I had spare cash and room to work on one.
Thanks, I'm fortunate to have enough time and space to work on it at the moment. Probably advisable to spend a bit more and get a better example than mine though Small update today, I gave the car a wash and got some more pictures as I said I would:
I don't think it looks too bad all things considered! More updates soon.
Brilliant job, car looks jolly good considering the mileage! I've had my Chim 3 years or so now and still enjoying the experience. It has had a few little TVR-ish issues as expected but nothing too drastic. At the end of the day it's some scaffold tubes and a Land Rover engine, not too much to go wrong really!
Did you have a close look at the exhaust when you were working on it? Mine had cracked along the little joiner bridge both sides where it joins into that bodged rear mount, also had one of the tailpipes break at the welds and fall off on a country lane
Did you have a close look at the exhaust when you were working on it? Mine had cracked along the little joiner bridge both sides where it joins into that bodged rear mount, also had one of the tailpipes break at the welds and fall off on a country lane
It's looking like a good buy and one which you are enjoying. I think I remember seeing this car up for sale.
It seems alot of the problems you have fixed so far look like common TVR niggles. My friend's Chim had that leak at the sump too.
The mileage would put alot of people off but not me. I'm going to go out there and say I reckon 30-40% of TVRs are clocked out there. After all the speedo cable is easy to disconnect and a low mileage policy kind of encourages you do to that. With it helping values too that's a final bonus.
It seems alot of the problems you have fixed so far look like common TVR niggles. My friend's Chim had that leak at the sump too.
The mileage would put alot of people off but not me. I'm going to go out there and say I reckon 30-40% of TVRs are clocked out there. After all the speedo cable is easy to disconnect and a low mileage policy kind of encourages you do to that. With it helping values too that's a final bonus.
SebringMan said:
It's looking like a good buy and one which you are enjoying. I think I remember seeing this car up for sale.
It seems alot of the problems you have fixed so far look like common TVR niggles. My friend's Chim had that leak at the sump too.
The mileage would put alot of people off but not me. I'm going to go out there and say I reckon 30-40% of TVRs are clocked out there. After all the speedo cable is easy to disconnect and a low mileage policy kind of encourages you do to that. With it helping values too that's a final bonus.
I wouldn't have thought they are clocked much. When you see how few miles TVR owners tend to cover each year (myself included) you realise just how they come to be so low!It seems alot of the problems you have fixed so far look like common TVR niggles. My friend's Chim had that leak at the sump too.
The mileage would put alot of people off but not me. I'm going to go out there and say I reckon 30-40% of TVRs are clocked out there. After all the speedo cable is easy to disconnect and a low mileage policy kind of encourages you do to that. With it helping values too that's a final bonus.
160k is nothing bad - it means it's been used and enjoyed. The chassis is the big obstacle, but then I've seen plenty of low mileage cars with rotten chassis' before too (I work on TVRs as a profession).
LewG said:
Brilliant job, car looks jolly good considering the mileage! I've had my Chim 3 years or so now and still enjoying the experience. It has had a few little TVR-ish issues as expected but nothing too drastic. At the end of the day it's some scaffold tubes and a Land Rover engine, not too much to go wrong really!
Did you have a close look at the exhaust when you were working on it? Mine had cracked along the little joiner bridge both sides where it joins into that bodged rear mount, also had one of the tailpipes break at the welds and fall off on a country lane
Indeed, I think the drivetrain is considered quite robust in these Do you have a thread up about yours? I did have a look at the exhaust up close, the joiner piece is bent but still strong and all the welds look fine. I'm told these come with a stainless exhaust from the factory?Did you have a close look at the exhaust when you were working on it? Mine had cracked along the little joiner bridge both sides where it joins into that bodged rear mount, also had one of the tailpipes break at the welds and fall off on a country lane
SebringMan said:
It's looking like a good buy and one which you are enjoying. I think I remember seeing this car up for sale.
It seems alot of the problems you have fixed so far look like common TVR niggles. My friend's Chim had that leak at the sump too.
The mileage would put alot of people off but not me. I'm going to go out there and say I reckon 30-40% of TVRs are clocked out there. After all the speedo cable is easy to disconnect and a low mileage policy kind of encourages you do to that. With it helping values too that's a final bonus.
Thanks, the sump is a really poor design imo with one gasket trying to seal across several surfaces. Didn't help mine was done with bathroom sealant either It seems alot of the problems you have fixed so far look like common TVR niggles. My friend's Chim had that leak at the sump too.
The mileage would put alot of people off but not me. I'm going to go out there and say I reckon 30-40% of TVRs are clocked out there. After all the speedo cable is easy to disconnect and a low mileage policy kind of encourages you do to that. With it helping values too that's a final bonus.
I wouldn't be surprised; Ben's car has apparently clocked itself according to his comment earlier!
Kitchski said:
160k is nothing bad - it means it's been used and enjoyed. The chassis is the big obstacle, but then I've seen plenty of low mileage cars with rotten chassis' before too (I work on TVRs as a profession).
A lot of my thinking when buying the car was that putting more miles on it wasn't going to make it depreciate much - a big plus for me as I want to drive the car as much as possible. Like you say I wouldn't think higher mileage would make a huge difference to rust on the chassis.I finished a few more jobs on the car in the last couple of days. I've been trying to trace this suspension knock with no luck (I'm hopeless at finding suspension noises) and ended up just ordering replacements for a couple of bushings that looked worn out. I tried replacing the anti-roll bar bushing first:
The bushing was definitely past it's best and appeared to be a part from a ford Not sure if that's some part only TVR owners know fit or just another bodge
A few more bits arrived:
The air intake pipe came off:
oh dear
If you didn't know, the air filter in these is actually inside the front bumper. I'm sure this sounded like a great idea on the drawing board, but in reality it has just ended up getting covered in mud and water. Hard to see from the picture but the filter material actually seemed to be rotting/disintegrating!
Not sure why someone decided to re-use this hose clamp...
Old vs new:
Back together:
The auxiliary belt was next on the list as it appeared to be cracking. The old one came off; these cars use an auto-tensioner which makes things a lot quicker:
Old belt was cracked but not too bad:
New belt fitted:
I had a look at the wiring on the MAF plug also, it looks like the duct tape is just there to stop the wiring rubbing on the bonnet:
Looks like this has been re-wired and not insulated properly at the end. I don't have the tool to remove the wires from the plug at the moment but I'll pick one of those up and heatwrap the end later on.
I did a bit of digging through the service history and found the original purchase receipt:
Looks like the water pump and radiator failed at 2 years old
And the dyno printout from the new engine:
More updates soon.
No I haven't I'm afraid, I believe you're right, from what I've heard the tubing itself is a fairly low grade stainless. Mine was starting to look well past best so as I didn't fancy buying a new system any time soon I just gave it a light wire brushing and gave it a coat of heat resistant silver paint all over, then polished the rear tip sections thoroughly with Autosol.
That anti roll bar bush definitely wasn't helping anything! Looking at the radiator it might be my eyes but that looks a bit crappy in places. During an engine out job on mine I noticed that due to stones and weather etc it'd absolutely hammered the radiator everywhere but behind the number plate, on touching it with a screwdriver all of the remaining fins crumbled away! Think I got it recored for about 80 quid, on the other hand there are posh ally ones available.
Keep thinking it'd be a good idea to sell it sometimes, but it's that wonderful burble that always stops me!
That anti roll bar bush definitely wasn't helping anything! Looking at the radiator it might be my eyes but that looks a bit crappy in places. During an engine out job on mine I noticed that due to stones and weather etc it'd absolutely hammered the radiator everywhere but behind the number plate, on touching it with a screwdriver all of the remaining fins crumbled away! Think I got it recored for about 80 quid, on the other hand there are posh ally ones available.
Keep thinking it'd be a good idea to sell it sometimes, but it's that wonderful burble that always stops me!
Well it's been a while! I've been working away on and off since my last post and haven't had much time to work on the car but I managed to get a few more jobs done lately.
I've been trying to tackle a couple of annoying problems on the car - mainly the ticking noise from the engine and the suspension noise from the front. I found a slight bit of play the lower ball joint on the nearside so that got replaced:
Unfortunately I didn't notice any improvement. Another day when I had a bit of time I decided to have a look at the battery connections to try and plan out fitting the battery isolator; I found my 'suspension' noise (video)
The battery box was completely loose, when I pulled it out I found that the ECU and wiring harness were also unsecured!
I didn't have the time to fix these issues so have just left it as it is for now while I think about how to mount the battery and ECU properly.
Whilst poking around the engine bay I found a suspicious looking bolt blocking off a port on the engine. I presumed it was a vacuum line and from experience I knew that this would never seal properly so removed it to fit a hose blank - turns out it was actually a coolant passage!
This was what it looked like inside , again not sure what someone was thinking when they fitted this... (at least use a stainless bolt?)
Hose blank fitted:
I noticed the tensioner pulley bearing was noisy when I swapped the alternator belt, unfortunately you can't buy the pulley on it's own so I had to replace the entire unit:
Gizmos arrived for me to re-wire the MAF sensor so that will be getting done soon:
During cleaning the car I noticed that the boot carpet was coming away in several places:
I also found this random metal plate in there - maybe it was some sort of attempt to reinforce the boot floor?
The carpet was glued back in place:
I took a trip to see JE engineering about the ticking noise from the engine - they were very helpful and investigated it for free
They were 99% sure it was just an exhaust leak from somewhere so I will be trying to find that soon, I also bought an updated metal tensioner pulley from them that has a replaceable bearing
Next I decided to take a look at the mot advisory 'drivers seat bolt pulled through the floor'. I found the bolt easily enough:
(don't worry I had loosened the nut off already!)
I decided to remove the entire drivers seat to get better access:
I found that the seat had actually punched through the fiberglass from the top, for some reason someone had drilled out the mounting hole massively and weakened the mounting point. I also found about 6 random holes drilled in the floor which I siliconed up.
The welds had broken on one of the captive bolts for the seat mounting:
This was cleaned up then re-welded (crap welding warning )
I used the random piece of mild steel plate in the boot to make some support plates for the rear 2 bolts on the seat mounting:
That lot got painted then the seat could go back in:
Done!
Next I'll be looking at securing the passenger seat the same way, and at the same time fitting my fire extinguisher and securing the battery and ECU. I've also ordered a replacement convertible top (it finally disintegrated on the M1 on the way back from JE) and a new dashboard.
More updates soon (hopefully).
LewG said:
No I haven't I'm afraid, I believe you're right, from what I've heard the tubing itself is a fairly low grade stainless. Mine was starting to look well past best so as I didn't fancy buying a new system any time soon I just gave it a light wire brushing and gave it a coat of heat resistant silver paint all over, then polished the rear tip sections thoroughly with Autosol.
That anti roll bar bush definitely wasn't helping anything! Looking at the radiator it might be my eyes but that looks a bit crappy in places. During an engine out job on mine I noticed that due to stones and weather etc it'd absolutely hammered the radiator everywhere but behind the number plate, on touching it with a screwdriver all of the remaining fins crumbled away! Think I got it recored for about 80 quid, on the other hand there are posh ally ones available.
Keep thinking it'd be a good idea to sell it sometimes, but it's that wonderful burble that always stops me!
That's a shame, feel free to post a pic of yours here Mine is rusting a bit in a few places but nothing too serious. You're right about the radiator - it's something I will look at eventually but for the moment the cooling system is working fine. That anti roll bar bush definitely wasn't helping anything! Looking at the radiator it might be my eyes but that looks a bit crappy in places. During an engine out job on mine I noticed that due to stones and weather etc it'd absolutely hammered the radiator everywhere but behind the number plate, on touching it with a screwdriver all of the remaining fins crumbled away! Think I got it recored for about 80 quid, on the other hand there are posh ally ones available.
Keep thinking it'd be a good idea to sell it sometimes, but it's that wonderful burble that always stops me!
I've been trying to tackle a couple of annoying problems on the car - mainly the ticking noise from the engine and the suspension noise from the front. I found a slight bit of play the lower ball joint on the nearside so that got replaced:
Unfortunately I didn't notice any improvement. Another day when I had a bit of time I decided to have a look at the battery connections to try and plan out fitting the battery isolator; I found my 'suspension' noise (video)
The battery box was completely loose, when I pulled it out I found that the ECU and wiring harness were also unsecured!
I didn't have the time to fix these issues so have just left it as it is for now while I think about how to mount the battery and ECU properly.
Whilst poking around the engine bay I found a suspicious looking bolt blocking off a port on the engine. I presumed it was a vacuum line and from experience I knew that this would never seal properly so removed it to fit a hose blank - turns out it was actually a coolant passage!
This was what it looked like inside , again not sure what someone was thinking when they fitted this... (at least use a stainless bolt?)
Hose blank fitted:
I noticed the tensioner pulley bearing was noisy when I swapped the alternator belt, unfortunately you can't buy the pulley on it's own so I had to replace the entire unit:
Gizmos arrived for me to re-wire the MAF sensor so that will be getting done soon:
During cleaning the car I noticed that the boot carpet was coming away in several places:
I also found this random metal plate in there - maybe it was some sort of attempt to reinforce the boot floor?
The carpet was glued back in place:
I took a trip to see JE engineering about the ticking noise from the engine - they were very helpful and investigated it for free
They were 99% sure it was just an exhaust leak from somewhere so I will be trying to find that soon, I also bought an updated metal tensioner pulley from them that has a replaceable bearing
Next I decided to take a look at the mot advisory 'drivers seat bolt pulled through the floor'. I found the bolt easily enough:
(don't worry I had loosened the nut off already!)
I decided to remove the entire drivers seat to get better access:
I found that the seat had actually punched through the fiberglass from the top, for some reason someone had drilled out the mounting hole massively and weakened the mounting point. I also found about 6 random holes drilled in the floor which I siliconed up.
The welds had broken on one of the captive bolts for the seat mounting:
This was cleaned up then re-welded (crap welding warning )
I used the random piece of mild steel plate in the boot to make some support plates for the rear 2 bolts on the seat mounting:
That lot got painted then the seat could go back in:
Done!
Next I'll be looking at securing the passenger seat the same way, and at the same time fitting my fire extinguisher and securing the battery and ECU. I've also ordered a replacement convertible top (it finally disintegrated on the M1 on the way back from JE) and a new dashboard.
More updates soon (hopefully).
Thanks for the replies Eddy I will check the manifolds at those joints today, appreciate the tip.
Well I went for a drive in the car yesterday and it had a bit of a TVR moment! First the oil pressure gauge decided I had 70psi of oil pressure, the horn stopped working, then it decided it wanted to idle at 3000rpm
I decided to fix the rev sticking issue and the loose battery first as I was more concerned about these. I had a look in the engine bay and immediately found the problem:
I'd say that was fairly unlucky! (bonnet trim was caught in the throttle linkage). I glued the trim on to stop this happening again:
[/url]
Next I had a look at the loose battery, fitting the fire extinguisher and securing the passenger seat. First the passenger seat was removed:
Don't think it'd been cleaned under here in a while also carpet trim on the battery box was coming apart.
Here's the battery inside the box, can't say I've ever heard of that make before but oh well
Next I removed the battery and found that there were already threaded inserts in the bottom of the box:
It looks like someone removed it and just never bothered to bolt it back in again as there were already holes drilled to mount it
Also some utter plank had drilled the mounting holes out massively again
The seat mounting holes looked fine fortunately with no signs of weakening or anyone messing around in there. I did replace the washers though as they had rusted to bits:
Next I re-glued the carpet on the battery box and cut down some bolts to the right length for fitting it:
Then the battery box went back in:
The ecu is just wedged by the side of it for now as I didn't want to drill more holes than necessary in the car! It's fairly secure there but I may come back to it if I think of a way to secure it properly.
All back together with the fire extinguisher fitted
(I did clean the carpet underneath but forgot to take a picture)
Unfortunately I missed the delivery for my replacement top so that'll be being fitted another time. Going back to the original list of problems:
-Suspension knock n/s front
-Diff whining
-Fit fire extinguisher
-Fit battery isolator switch
-Offside mirror controls don’t work
-Seat bolt needs repairing drivers side
-Needs new aux belt
-Air intake pipe needs replacing
-MAF sensor wiring needs attention
-Top needs replacing
-Replace dash wood panel
-Replace radio wood panel
-Damping has gone on rev counter
-Investigate tick from engine
-Bell housing rubber cover missing
-Sleeve exhaust :wink:
-Battery insecure
-Secure passenger seat
-Horn not working
-Oil pressure gauge lies!
-Coolant pipe loose o/s
-Drive-line shunt
-Roof rubber trim coming loose
-Seat belt does not pull back both sides
I've added a couple of small issues on here that I've not mentioned on the thread, I'll be sorting these as I go. I'll try and get another update out either today or tomorrow
Well I went for a drive in the car yesterday and it had a bit of a TVR moment! First the oil pressure gauge decided I had 70psi of oil pressure, the horn stopped working, then it decided it wanted to idle at 3000rpm
I decided to fix the rev sticking issue and the loose battery first as I was more concerned about these. I had a look in the engine bay and immediately found the problem:
I'd say that was fairly unlucky! (bonnet trim was caught in the throttle linkage). I glued the trim on to stop this happening again:
[/url]
Next I had a look at the loose battery, fitting the fire extinguisher and securing the passenger seat. First the passenger seat was removed:
Don't think it'd been cleaned under here in a while also carpet trim on the battery box was coming apart.
Here's the battery inside the box, can't say I've ever heard of that make before but oh well
Next I removed the battery and found that there were already threaded inserts in the bottom of the box:
It looks like someone removed it and just never bothered to bolt it back in again as there were already holes drilled to mount it
Also some utter plank had drilled the mounting holes out massively again
The seat mounting holes looked fine fortunately with no signs of weakening or anyone messing around in there. I did replace the washers though as they had rusted to bits:
Next I re-glued the carpet on the battery box and cut down some bolts to the right length for fitting it:
Then the battery box went back in:
The ecu is just wedged by the side of it for now as I didn't want to drill more holes than necessary in the car! It's fairly secure there but I may come back to it if I think of a way to secure it properly.
All back together with the fire extinguisher fitted
(I did clean the carpet underneath but forgot to take a picture)
Unfortunately I missed the delivery for my replacement top so that'll be being fitted another time. Going back to the original list of problems:
-Suspension knock n/s front
-Diff whining
-
-Fit battery isolator switch
-Offside mirror controls don’t work
-
-
-
-MAF sensor wiring needs attention
-Top needs replacing
-Replace dash wood panel
-Replace radio wood panel
-Damping has gone on rev counter
-Investigate tick from engine
-Bell housing rubber cover missing
-Sleeve exhaust :wink:
-
-
-Horn not working
-Oil pressure gauge lies!
-Coolant pipe loose o/s
-Drive-line shunt
-Roof rubber trim coming loose
-Seat belt does not pull back both sides
I've added a couple of small issues on here that I've not mentioned on the thread, I'll be sorting these as I go. I'll try and get another update out either today or tomorrow
EddyP said:
The ticking might be a cracked weld on the exhaust manifold where the 4 - 1 is, mine's done the same.
I was just about to suggest that too. Had it on mine back in the day when the dealers wanted the best part of £2k to fit a new manifold saying it was unweldable. It was the final nail in the coffin of the company car (together with a few other problems) and it was virtually economically scrap at 75k / 5 years old. Think we got offered £5k for it as a trade-in against a new one. That was 2001 though !Love this thread and wish I was as handy as you with the spanners.
Regards the holes that were drilled into the floor some owners do this because TVR's have a tendency to leak water in. My Cerbera always let water in if I left it outside in the rain, and it was something I considered doing to let the water drain out!
Love how you're fettling this TVR.
Regards the holes that were drilled into the floor some owners do this because TVR's have a tendency to leak water in. My Cerbera always let water in if I left it outside in the rain, and it was something I considered doing to let the water drain out!
Love how you're fettling this TVR.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff