160,000 Mile TVR Chimaera
Discussion
Thanks for the email Shed... 
My old steed. I'm responsible for taking the engine out & taking it to JE. I don't own any Duct tape though.
Someone must have driven over something in the last 2 yrs or so. The sump & zorst were straight when I had it. My list was very similar to yours, I just didn't have the time in the end so let her go.
That engine is fully balanced & an absolute peach... enjoy!
My old steed. I'm responsible for taking the engine out & taking it to JE. I don't own any Duct tape though.
Someone must have driven over something in the last 2 yrs or so. The sump & zorst were straight when I had it. My list was very similar to yours, I just didn't have the time in the end so let her go.
That engine is fully balanced & an absolute peach... enjoy!
pwd95 said:
Thanks for the email Shed...
My old steed. I'm responsible for taking the engine out & taking it to JE. I don't own any Duct tape though.
Someone must have driven over something in the last 2 yrs or so. The sump & zorst were straight when I had it. My list was very similar to yours, I just didn't have the time in the end so let her go.
That engine is fully balanced & an absolute peach... enjoy!
Thanks for the reply and the pictures My old steed. I'm responsible for taking the engine out & taking it to JE. I don't own any Duct tape though.
Someone must have driven over something in the last 2 yrs or so. The sump & zorst were straight when I had it. My list was very similar to yours, I just didn't have the time in the end so let her go.
That engine is fully balanced & an absolute peach... enjoy!
I didn't think you were responsible for the bodge jobs; it's very telling that there are no receipts in the service history from the next owner after you!
The engine is great - do you know if the exhaust has been modified at all?
pwd95 said:
Bin racking my brains about the little coolant pipe. Found this pic from the day I had the motor back.........
Interesting, I did mention it to John when I took the car to him and he said the pipe is blocked like that from the factory apparently 
pwd95 said:
Just read this from the start. Quite a long list of jobs. Just goes to show how cars can deteriorate if not maintained well. You’re doing a grand job though, systematically working through each task and it’s good to read how you’re tackling each in turn. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, I think TVRs deteriorate a bit worse than most cars 
A lot of the problems have been caused by previous owners (not pwd95) working on the car without really knowing what they're doing also.Shed TVR said:
Thanks, I think TVRs deteriorate a bit worse than most cars A lot of the problems have been caused by previous owners (not pwd95) working on the car without really knowing what they're doing also.
Indeed. As an ex-owner myself I know that even a younger car with less miles takes a good deal of ongoing ‘tinkering’ to keep them in fine fettle. I would like to own another one day, but funds are limited. Maybe doing it like you is a way of getting another one on the drive. I’m not afraid of some spannering and there is a lot of satisfaction to be had putting right all those niggles. A lot of the problems have been caused by previous owners (not pwd95) working on the car without really knowing what they're doing also.pstruck said:
Indeed. As an ex-owner myself I know that even a younger car with less miles takes a good deal of ongoing ‘tinkering’ to keep them in fine fettle. I would like to own another one day, but funds are limited. Maybe doing it like you is a way of getting another one on the drive. I’m not afraid of some spannering and there is a lot of satisfaction to be had putting right all those niggles.
Go for it I say! Another reason (other than initial cost) for me buying a high mileage example is that I'm not worried about putting a lot of miles on it which I plan to do once it's where I want it to be mechanically. Something like this would be worth a punt surely? cheap wedge
I did see a 4.2 cerbera for 12k a while ago if you were feeling really brave
pwd95 said:
'Bin racking my brains about the little coolant pipe'.........
That pipe on the original Range Rover application fed water to the underneath of the throttle body to warm up the incoming mixture. In fact in the pic. below you can see the grey spigot that it would have attached to. On the TVR engine it makes a very useful bleed point as the hose is the highest point of the engine so perhaps it would have been better not to have removed it. The bolt blanking off the end is pure TVR!
If your ticking noise from the engine is a well defined 'tick' it is very likely, as said before, to be one or more of the eight manifold gaskets.
Your To Do list mentions getting a cover for the hole in the clutch housing. I don't think that this was ever originally fitted and would serve no purpose anyway.
Good luck with the refurb and I look forward to more of this interesting post.
'Bin racking my brains about the little coolant pipe'.........
That pipe on the original Range Rover application fed water to the underneath of the throttle body to warm up the incoming mixture. In fact in the pic. below you can see the grey spigot that it would have attached to. On the TVR engine it makes a very useful bleed point as the hose is the highest point of the engine so perhaps it would have been better not to have removed it. The bolt blanking off the end is pure TVR!
If your ticking noise from the engine is a well defined 'tick' it is very likely, as said before, to be one or more of the eight manifold gaskets.
Your To Do list mentions getting a cover for the hole in the clutch housing. I don't think that this was ever originally fitted and would serve no purpose anyway.
Good luck with the refurb and I look forward to more of this interesting post.
Well it's been a while, but I still have the TVR! I've fallen behind with updating the thread, but let me get it up to date.
The car is on SORN at the moment, but I will be looking to put it back on the road next week. Many things have broken and some of them have been fixed
So to carry on from my last post, I purchased a new dash board to replace what was fitted as it looked horrendous. I went for the original walnut as I thought it suited the car.
Uh-oh, what's that lurking in there?
Ah yes, my favourite previous owner has been in here before
Radio panel was cracked but not too bad, it got replaced anyway:
New vs old dash, the one that came out of the car had some sticky back fake wood from B&Q
Radio panel in:
And a slightly rubbish photo of the interior
It made it!
Then the car almost overheated in traffic due to the fans not kicking in. Luckily I spotted it before it boiled over! This was the beginning of the wiring issues on the car...
The corrosion to the wiring was bad enough that just pulling the connector caused the wires to snap off in my hand! I did manage to clean the cables up enough to get a good contact again but the plug and wires will probably need replacing at some point.
After this, I took the car camping to Cornwall:
It even coped with the dirt track to the campsite surprisingly well!
Then we skip forward a bit to the MOT and it wasn't good news. The tester discovered two hairline cracks in the chassis along the welds which was causing the "suspension" noise I was struggling to find earlier on! Obviously I was frustrated for not spotting this earlier, but in my defense with the road grime on the car it was hard to see.
In the end I decided to weld it up myself as I simply didn't have the funds for a new chassis at the time. Not the best solution but better than taking it off the road! The test center was happy enough with that, and I was rewarded with an MOT. The plan now is to limp the chassis along for another year or two while I save for a replacement.
Then the differential became very noisy. Time for a new one!
I went for a used BTR mechanical unit as these are supposedly better than the hydratrak.
Then, due to work circumstances, I ended up living in the US for around 7 months and the car went on to SORN. When I got back, I'd developed a worrying fondness of automatic barges and bought this:
I may or may not make a thread on it, but since there's hardly anything wrong with it I doubt I'd be able to add much content!
I eventually built up the energy to work on the TVR again which was in a bit of a sorry state on axle stands with no differential. The new diff went in, but now the car won't start. hmm. I had a look underneath and discovered the fuel pump wire had rusted in half:
More updates soon.
The car is on SORN at the moment, but I will be looking to put it back on the road next week. Many things have broken and some of them have been fixed
So to carry on from my last post, I purchased a new dash board to replace what was fitted as it looked horrendous. I went for the original walnut as I thought it suited the car.
Uh-oh, what's that lurking in there?
Ah yes, my favourite previous owner has been in here before
Radio panel was cracked but not too bad, it got replaced anyway:
New vs old dash, the one that came out of the car had some sticky back fake wood from B&Q
Radio panel in:
And a slightly rubbish photo of the interior
It made it!
Then the car almost overheated in traffic due to the fans not kicking in. Luckily I spotted it before it boiled over! This was the beginning of the wiring issues on the car...
The corrosion to the wiring was bad enough that just pulling the connector caused the wires to snap off in my hand! I did manage to clean the cables up enough to get a good contact again but the plug and wires will probably need replacing at some point.
After this, I took the car camping to Cornwall:
It even coped with the dirt track to the campsite surprisingly well!
Then we skip forward a bit to the MOT and it wasn't good news. The tester discovered two hairline cracks in the chassis along the welds which was causing the "suspension" noise I was struggling to find earlier on! Obviously I was frustrated for not spotting this earlier, but in my defense with the road grime on the car it was hard to see.
In the end I decided to weld it up myself as I simply didn't have the funds for a new chassis at the time. Not the best solution but better than taking it off the road! The test center was happy enough with that, and I was rewarded with an MOT. The plan now is to limp the chassis along for another year or two while I save for a replacement.
Then the differential became very noisy. Time for a new one!
I went for a used BTR mechanical unit as these are supposedly better than the hydratrak.
Then, due to work circumstances, I ended up living in the US for around 7 months and the car went on to SORN. When I got back, I'd developed a worrying fondness of automatic barges and bought this:
I may or may not make a thread on it, but since there's hardly anything wrong with it I doubt I'd be able to add much content!
I eventually built up the energy to work on the TVR again which was in a bit of a sorry state on axle stands with no differential. The new diff went in, but now the car won't start. hmm. I had a look underneath and discovered the fuel pump wire had rusted in half:
More updates soon.
So the fuel pump ground wire got repaired:
But the fuel pump still won't prime. Hmm. The power wire was a bit ropey, so that got some "refurbishment". I would have loved to just replace this but didn't have a crimp the correct size and wasn't able to source the weird black capacitor anywhere.
Fuel pump still won't prime. I also can't measure 12V at the pump wiring
There's still infinite resistance on the ground cable to the chassis. hmm. I traced the ground wire into the boot where it disappeared. I tried to open the boot and... nothing My battery was charged, so unfortunately the boot solenoid seems to have given up.
TVR in their infinite wisdom decided it would be a good idea to have no emergency boot release and no facility to open it with the key, so time to break into it. I won't post any photos of this, but suffice it to say it was very worryingly easy
I traced the ground wire all the way through the bloody car, only to find that someone had wired the power wire up to the ground, then disconnected the ground Not sure how my fuel pump ever worked, but anyway...
New ground wire run to the chassis:
The fuel pump primes now!
Time to take a look at the boot lock. I took it apart, unfortunately the motor had gone in the solenoid.
Fortunately it was a Ford part, so £12 later I had a new solenoid from a KA.
Put a proper plug and socket connector on it instead of the random crimps the last person had wired it with:
The boot lock worked again!
The exhaust also got sleeved finally:
More updates soon!
But the fuel pump still won't prime. Hmm. The power wire was a bit ropey, so that got some "refurbishment". I would have loved to just replace this but didn't have a crimp the correct size and wasn't able to source the weird black capacitor anywhere.
Fuel pump still won't prime. I also can't measure 12V at the pump wiring
There's still infinite resistance on the ground cable to the chassis. hmm. I traced the ground wire into the boot where it disappeared. I tried to open the boot and... nothing
My battery was charged, so unfortunately the boot solenoid seems to have given up. TVR in their infinite wisdom decided it would be a good idea to have no emergency boot release and no facility to open it with the key, so time to break into it. I won't post any photos of this, but suffice it to say it was very worryingly easy
I traced the ground wire all the way through the bloody car, only to find that someone had wired the power wire up to the ground, then disconnected the ground
Not sure how my fuel pump ever worked, but anyway...New ground wire run to the chassis:
The fuel pump primes now!
Time to take a look at the boot lock. I took it apart, unfortunately the motor had gone in the solenoid.
Fortunately it was a Ford part, so £12 later I had a new solenoid from a KA.
Put a proper plug and socket connector on it instead of the random crimps the last person had wired it with:
The boot lock worked again!
The exhaust also got sleeved finally:
More updates soon!
Well it's been a while again! Trying to fit in working on the TVR between working offshore has been a little difficult.
I had the TVR booked in for an MOT, but was called away for work at the last minute
I got back from a 3 week trip on an oil rig at 2am the night before, and the MOT was booked in for 9am...
Not even having time to check the tyre pressures or bulbs, the car started first time after being sat for over a month! I noticed the horn wasn't working, but managed to get it going again with a bit of scotch brite on the contacts
I dropped the car off at the test centre, and waited for the call to say it had failed... I got a call a few hours later "the car is ready for you to collect" - passed with one advisory for a rusty brake disc!
Amusingly, this has still been one of the most reliable cars I've owned...
I've decided to get a full chassis refurb done on the car, to fix my dodgy welding and probably get the outriggers done. I've got a bit attached to the old TVR, so I've decided to keep it for the foreseeable future.
For the moment though, a couple of minor fixes:
Sorting out the power mirrors, turned out to be a bad connection on this little plug. The wiring was corroded to bits inside the plug, so the only option was to solder directly to the PCB:
Power mirrors are working on both sides now! The only electrical thing on the car that doesn't work now is the oil pressure gauge.
A little top end inspection, everything looks fine:
Took the car up north:
I've got new CVs, new rear brakes, and an oil pressure sender in the post. Headlight covers are getting re-sprayed next week hopefully as well.
More updates when I have time
I had the TVR booked in for an MOT, but was called away for work at the last minute
I got back from a 3 week trip on an oil rig at 2am the night before, and the MOT was booked in for 9am...Not even having time to check the tyre pressures or bulbs, the car started first time after being sat for over a month! I noticed the horn wasn't working, but managed to get it going again with a bit of scotch brite on the contacts
I dropped the car off at the test centre, and waited for the call to say it had failed... I got a call a few hours later "the car is ready for you to collect" - passed with one advisory for a rusty brake disc!
Amusingly, this has still been one of the most reliable cars I've owned...
I've decided to get a full chassis refurb done on the car, to fix my dodgy welding and probably get the outriggers done. I've got a bit attached to the old TVR, so I've decided to keep it for the foreseeable future.
For the moment though, a couple of minor fixes:
Sorting out the power mirrors, turned out to be a bad connection on this little plug. The wiring was corroded to bits inside the plug, so the only option was to solder directly to the PCB:
Power mirrors are working on both sides now! The only electrical thing on the car that doesn't work now is the oil pressure gauge.
A little top end inspection, everything looks fine:
Took the car up north:
I've got new CVs, new rear brakes, and an oil pressure sender in the post. Headlight covers are getting re-sprayed next week hopefully as well.
More updates when I have time
Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:
Your car history is pretty similar to mine. My first car was a VTR, followed by a 172 Cup, and after that I had a (none turbo) Mk2 MR2 at some point!
As an aside, if you're around the Midlands, or can get them to Notts I could restore your leather seats.
I've noticed a lot of Saxo owners in particular end up in TVRs. I think it's something about liking lightweight, simple cars.As an aside, if you're around the Midlands, or can get them to Notts I could restore your leather seats.
Would you mind giving me a PM with the rough cost of that? I'm considering my options with the seats. I want buckets really, but I feel it'd spoil the look of the interior.
Shed TVR said:
I've noticed a lot of Saxo owners in particular end up in TVRs. I think it's something about liking lightweight, simple cars.
Would you mind giving me a PM with the rough cost of that? I'm considering my options with the seats. I want buckets really, but I feel it'd spoil the look of the interior.
Oops...Would you mind giving me a PM with the rough cost of that? I'm considering my options with the seats. I want buckets really, but I feel it'd spoil the look of the interior.
Sorry - the recipient doesn't permit emails.
If you could either allow, or my company email is on the website in my profile. Cheers.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff