160,000 Mile TVR Chimaera
Discussion
Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:
Oops...
Sorry - the recipient doesn't permit emails.
If you could either allow, or my company email is on the website in my profile. Cheers.
Should be working now, cheers.Sorry - the recipient doesn't permit emails.
If you could either allow, or my company email is on the website in my profile. Cheers.
mwstewart said:
That has been regularly serviced for sure.
Shed TVR said:
Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:
Oops...
Sorry - the recipient doesn't permit emails.
If you could either allow, or my company email is on the website in my profile. Cheers.
Should be working now, cheers.Sorry - the recipient doesn't permit emails.
If you could either allow, or my company email is on the website in my profile. Cheers.
You have mail.
Edited by Fermit and Sexy Sarah on Monday 4th November 14:54
Bit more progress today, decided to paint my doritos and rear control arms. They looked bad, but actually turned out to be mostly surface rust. It gives me hope for the rest of the chassis anyway!
I just used some fairly random spray paints I had lying around
Think it looks good now, wait until the rust comes back through 
Also, thanks to my new hero, the person who put copper grease on every fastener on the rear suspension. Not a single seized bolt!
Lower control arm next to one that's been cleaned:
Also got the gearbox oil changed, old stuff had a good colour but the level seemed quite low. More to come soon.
I just used some fairly random spray paints I had lying around
Think it looks good now, wait until the rust comes back through Also, thanks to my new hero, the person who put copper grease on every fastener on the rear suspension. Not a single seized bolt!
Lower control arm next to one that's been cleaned:
Also got the gearbox oil changed, old stuff had a good colour but the level seemed quite low. More to come soon.
Right then, some more updates.
The rear suspension got rebuilt after everything was painted:
Driveshafts also got new CVs but I forgot to take pictures.
I replaced some destroyed suspension components:
Replaced the anti-roll bar mounting plates as they were quite cheap and rotting:
Oil pressure sender got replaced, here's the old one:
Removed these dodgy wheel spacers from the front. Somehow it only just clicked after nearly 2 years of ownership that these are generic spacers and should never have been used! The wheels don't rub on full lock and brake clearance is fine, so I'm not sure what the purpose of them was anyway. It feels like I'm getting rid of the last of the bodge jobs on the car finally
Found this nut insert pulled out on the washer fluid reservoir while I was in there, looks like someone just forgot to compress it? New insert ordered anyway.
Took it for a drive and all seems well! It even coped fine with a couple of floods Oil pressure gauge is now working, and the brakes feel good again.
The car is off to RT Racing on Monday for a wheel alignment, chassis inspection and general check over. They did mention that it was "one of our old cars" so it should be interesting to find out some more history.
Next up I'm going to get the chassis treated and repaired if needed, and I've found a place to buy replacement carpets for the interior which are sorely in need of replacement.
The rear suspension got rebuilt after everything was painted:
Driveshafts also got new CVs but I forgot to take pictures.
I replaced some destroyed suspension components:
Replaced the anti-roll bar mounting plates as they were quite cheap and rotting:
Oil pressure sender got replaced, here's the old one:
Removed these dodgy wheel spacers from the front. Somehow it only just clicked after nearly 2 years of ownership that these are generic spacers and should never have been used! The wheels don't rub on full lock and brake clearance is fine, so I'm not sure what the purpose of them was anyway. It feels like I'm getting rid of the last of the bodge jobs on the car finally
Found this nut insert pulled out on the washer fluid reservoir while I was in there, looks like someone just forgot to compress it? New insert ordered anyway.
Took it for a drive and all seems well! It even coped fine with a couple of floods
Oil pressure gauge is now working, and the brakes feel good again.The car is off to RT Racing on Monday for a wheel alignment, chassis inspection and general check over. They did mention that it was "one of our old cars" so it should be interesting to find out some more history.
Next up I'm going to get the chassis treated and repaired if needed, and I've found a place to buy replacement carpets for the interior which are sorely in need of replacement.
So I took the car over to RT racing who were very knowledgeable, and informed me that the outriggers do need doing (but the main body is fine). I'm considering my options at the moment but it will most likely be body off, outriggers done, and some kind of corrosion protection on the rest of the chassis.
A couple of little jobs have been done on the TVR this week, I finally got the headlight covers sorted! Not sure if I ever mentioned this earlier in the thread, which might have been out of embarrassment
Suffice it to say that they both had to be removed to adjust the headlight aim for the MOT in 2018, and one of them is now somewhere in the peak district
It's been driving me mad having the car without them fitted as it's just a mess of silicone underneath:
So I finally ordered a new cover and had them both repainted:
Looking much better with these re-fitted.
I noticed the car had developed a slight flat spot at 3,000RPM. I first had a go at cleaning the distributor cap and arm which didn't seem to make a difference, so both of these got replaced which did improve things:
Then on to the next new problem - overcooling. When I took the car to RT racing the temperature was struggling to get past 50c on the M1 so something was obviously wrong. I assumed a stuck open thermostat and ordered a replacement. When I went to take of the thermostat housing I discovered something interesting...
There is no thermostat fitted
I assume one of my favourite previous owners removed it as it was faulty and simply never bothered to replace it, who knows. Regardless, it's been without a thermostat for at least 2 years
Thermostat fitted:
After this, the car came up to temperature so much faster than it's ever done before and just stayed at a little over 80c.
I also noticed the charcoal canister wasn't plugged in. Again, not really sure why someone's done that? There haven't been any mods done on the fuel evap system so the tank has just been pressurising all along. I did wonder why the car would sometimes spit fuel back at me from the filler
I gave the plug a clean as it was quite corroded and plugged it back in. Went to fill the car up after and it wasn't trying to spit fuel back at me with the pump fully on like it normally does, so I suppose it's working now?
And lastly, a new nut insert for the coolant reservoir:
Current mileage 164,500
A couple of little jobs have been done on the TVR this week, I finally got the headlight covers sorted! Not sure if I ever mentioned this earlier in the thread, which might have been out of embarrassment
Suffice it to say that they both had to be removed to adjust the headlight aim for the MOT in 2018, and one of them is now somewhere in the peak district
It's been driving me mad having the car without them fitted as it's just a mess of silicone underneath:
So I finally ordered a new cover and had them both repainted:
Looking much better with these re-fitted.
I noticed the car had developed a slight flat spot at 3,000RPM. I first had a go at cleaning the distributor cap and arm which didn't seem to make a difference, so both of these got replaced which did improve things:
Then on to the next new problem - overcooling. When I took the car to RT racing the temperature was struggling to get past 50c on the M1 so something was obviously wrong. I assumed a stuck open thermostat and ordered a replacement. When I went to take of the thermostat housing I discovered something interesting...
There is no thermostat fitted
I assume one of my favourite previous owners removed it as it was faulty and simply never bothered to replace it, who knows. Regardless, it's been without a thermostat for at least 2 years
Thermostat fitted:
After this, the car came up to temperature so much faster than it's ever done before and just stayed at a little over 80c.
I also noticed the charcoal canister wasn't plugged in. Again, not really sure why someone's done that? There haven't been any mods done on the fuel evap system so the tank has just been pressurising all along. I did wonder why the car would sometimes spit fuel back at me from the filler
I gave the plug a clean as it was quite corroded and plugged it back in. Went to fill the car up after and it wasn't trying to spit fuel back at me with the pump fully on like it normally does, so I suppose it's working now?
And lastly, a new nut insert for the coolant reservoir:
Current mileage 164,500
PurpleTurtle said:
Great thread.
One wonders if some of these botches were at the hands of a hapless previous owner, or down to a supposed ‘specialist’.
Thanks! There's a member who commented earlier pwd95 who used to own this car. I've not found a problem with any work he did on the car, but it was owned by a couple of questionable characters after him. I think it was one or both of these owners that's responsible for all the bodges, there's receipts from a garage for some work that's been done when one of them owned it and I can't tell where they've been which is usually a sign of a good job. One wonders if some of these botches were at the hands of a hapless previous owner, or down to a supposed ‘specialist’.
The guy I bought it from was obsessed with fitting 16" wheels all round to the car, instead of actually fixing any problems with it
So, bit of an update again. First off, I have a bit of an admission to make: I am terrible at looking after the paint on my cars! I have never once polished or waxed a car, it's just not something that has ever really interested me.
With the paint in a bit of a sorry state on the TVR, I recruited a friend with some fancy wax/polish and went over the entire car. After a few hours, I was really happy with the results:
After this, I decided I needed to put some more miles on the car as it had hardly been used this year. So I decided to attempt the north coast 500, in December, with summer tyres
Bought these as I was a bit paranoid about snow, I was a bit disappointed I never got to use them in the end!
John O'Groats
Somewhere on the west coast
The car performed brilliantly, although a couple of faults did develop. I honestly think it's a perfectly reasonable idea to daily drive these cars year round, yes there are no driver aids but you really have to be a bit of a plank to get it sideways by accident. Even in the cold and wet, there is a huge amount of mechanical grip before the car will start to let go.
Somewhere near John O'Groats the car started making a slightly alarming creaking noise from the steering, having inspected it and not seeing anything obviously wrong I suspected this to be caused by the new powerflex bushing I'd fitted to the ARB. Will follow up on this later. I also found that, as I'd never actually used the sound system in the car before, only 3 speakers worked and one of them was blown On full volume, it's just about audible over the exhaust!
Another interesting discovery was that there is negligible difference in running on 99 to 95 octane fuel. I'm wondering if the timing has been adjusted to run on lower octane fuel, and whether to re-adjust this so as to get more power since the car is always run on 99 octane.
With the paint in a bit of a sorry state on the TVR, I recruited a friend with some fancy wax/polish and went over the entire car. After a few hours, I was really happy with the results:
After this, I decided I needed to put some more miles on the car as it had hardly been used this year. So I decided to attempt the north coast 500, in December, with summer tyres
Bought these as I was a bit paranoid about snow, I was a bit disappointed I never got to use them in the end!
John O'Groats
Somewhere on the west coast
The car performed brilliantly, although a couple of faults did develop. I honestly think it's a perfectly reasonable idea to daily drive these cars year round, yes there are no driver aids but you really have to be a bit of a plank to get it sideways by accident. Even in the cold and wet, there is a huge amount of mechanical grip before the car will start to let go.
Somewhere near John O'Groats the car started making a slightly alarming creaking noise from the steering, having inspected it and not seeing anything obviously wrong I suspected this to be caused by the new powerflex bushing I'd fitted to the ARB. Will follow up on this later. I also found that, as I'd never actually used the sound system in the car before, only 3 speakers worked and one of them was blown
On full volume, it's just about audible over the exhaust! Another interesting discovery was that there is negligible difference in running on 99 to 95 octane fuel. I'm wondering if the timing has been adjusted to run on lower octane fuel, and whether to re-adjust this so as to get more power since the car is always run on 99 octane.
Nice write up and mechanical skills, a great read. I enjoy buying a well used performance car and bringing it back to its best. There is a great sense of satisfaction and the time behind the wheel is even more rewarding. Plus you're pretty sure nothing is going to fall off, as you bolted it on............properly, always puts my mind at rest when cornering at big speeds on track!
Ok so the time has finally come for the chassis refurb. I've been putting it off for far too long, and with the free time I now have I don't have any more excuses!
I finally got inspired to do this after watching Toolsntrack on youtube, who took the body off their Chimaera in a small garage unit. I'm going to be taking the body off the car myself and stripping it down to a bare chassis which will then be sent to RT racing for a full refurb. I'm also going to be tackling a number of other annoying issues on this car:
1. Converting to megasquirt engine management. The 14cux system on this car is now 22 years old, and wasn't tuned very well from new. Lately, I've had issues with the car running very rich on cold starts, rich enough to leave black lines of carbon on the driveway from the exhausts! I'm also having a lot of issues with driveline shunting at low revs, which is partly due to the timing and mixture settings on the old ECU. With reports of other Chimaera owners gaining 10mpg on a cruise and 20-30bhp just from changing the engine management, I thought it was definitely a worthwhile investment.
2. Replacing the seats. The seats in this car are the worst seats I've ever experienced in any car, let alone a performance car! The bolstering is virtually non-existent, and the seats are so small that my back doesn't fit inside them. Also on long journeys lately they have been giving me really bad back pain so these are going in favour of buckets, purists look away!
3. Replacing the radiator - as someone I believe pointed out a while ago on here, the cores are rotting out. This will get replaced with an alloy unit.
4. Replacing the clutch - no issues with it but it was last changed in 2009 and I might as well while I have the access!
5. Fixing the ride height and suspension settings - this car is in my opinion far too stiff for the road and bashes and bounces off potholes leading to broken suspension components, and possibly contributing to the cracked welds seen earlier on. Since the coilovers are adjustable I'll be reducing the stiffness as much as I can, and also fixing the ride height at the front which is still set for the 16" wheels the car used to have.
6. Exhaust leaks. So many exhaust leaks.
7. Fixing the sound system. At the moment I think 2 out of 4 speakers work, and the radio sometimes randomly switches from aux to radio 2 and simultaneously maxxes out the volume which scares the sh*t out of you
And there's an endless list of small jobs that need doing. I will post pictures of my progress when I have time, here's a teaser pic for now:
I finally got inspired to do this after watching Toolsntrack on youtube, who took the body off their Chimaera in a small garage unit. I'm going to be taking the body off the car myself and stripping it down to a bare chassis which will then be sent to RT racing for a full refurb. I'm also going to be tackling a number of other annoying issues on this car:
1. Converting to megasquirt engine management. The 14cux system on this car is now 22 years old, and wasn't tuned very well from new. Lately, I've had issues with the car running very rich on cold starts, rich enough to leave black lines of carbon on the driveway from the exhausts! I'm also having a lot of issues with driveline shunting at low revs, which is partly due to the timing and mixture settings on the old ECU. With reports of other Chimaera owners gaining 10mpg on a cruise and 20-30bhp just from changing the engine management, I thought it was definitely a worthwhile investment.
2. Replacing the seats. The seats in this car are the worst seats I've ever experienced in any car, let alone a performance car! The bolstering is virtually non-existent, and the seats are so small that my back doesn't fit inside them. Also on long journeys lately they have been giving me really bad back pain so these are going in favour of buckets, purists look away!
3. Replacing the radiator - as someone I believe pointed out a while ago on here, the cores are rotting out. This will get replaced with an alloy unit.
4. Replacing the clutch - no issues with it but it was last changed in 2009 and I might as well while I have the access!
5. Fixing the ride height and suspension settings - this car is in my opinion far too stiff for the road and bashes and bounces off potholes leading to broken suspension components, and possibly contributing to the cracked welds seen earlier on. Since the coilovers are adjustable I'll be reducing the stiffness as much as I can, and also fixing the ride height at the front which is still set for the 16" wheels the car used to have.
6. Exhaust leaks. So many exhaust leaks.
7. Fixing the sound system. At the moment I think 2 out of 4 speakers work, and the radio sometimes randomly switches from aux to radio 2 and simultaneously maxxes out the volume which scares the sh*t out of you
And there's an endless list of small jobs that need doing. I will post pictures of my progress when I have time, here's a teaser pic for now:
Apologies for the lack of pictures during this, I tend to get a bit carried away and forget to take photos. So, first of all to lift the body off a Chimaera, the bonnet needs to come off.
Unfortunately I'd never taken this off before and the fasteners were not in a very good state. One of the allen head screws rounded off, and the entire bonnet seemed to be loose on it's mountings.
This will have to be addressed later on. Next, the seats came out.
That doesn't look so good! Good job I'm replacing them.
Next, the radiator came out (forgot to get pictures whoops) but you can see how rusty it is in the first photo. I removed the rad fans, these will need to be refurbished as the cables have corroded.
After the radiator has been removed, you can access the front 2 chassis bolts. Unfortunately the fibreglass has cracked around both of mine so that will need to be repaired.
Hmmm. I think looking at this damage, the car has been in a shunt at some point.
Then I tore out the entire wiring loom, as I'll be fitting a brand new loom with the new ECU. I'm really glad I did this, as the loom was shockingly poor and I'm surprised I never had more issues with it.
Why cut the battery cable to length when you can just bolt two together lol
More stuff removed
Floor chassis bolts removed, I just cut most of them out as they were siezed.
Then I managed to spill most of the fuel in the tank over my garage floor, oops! Turns out the bottom hose for the fuel tank was totally loose and just slipped off
This was actually probably the most dangerous bodge I've found on the car yet:
Fuel hoses held on with duct tape and silicone sealant... wow.
Also someone removed this chassis bolt and just never re-fitted it?
Then I cracked the body loose, was surprisingly easy actually just took some patience. From looking at it, it's fairly solid and I think it's the original chassis amazingly. I did manage to poke holes in the outriggers in one spot though, so it's definitely due replacements.
Next I was waiting for 2x engine cranes to lift the body (don't try this at home), so I got on with some other jobs. First, I put new cables and plugs on the 2 fans.
Old circuit boards removed:
Cores had corroded on the cables:
New plugs and cables installed, the new plugs should keep the water out much better.
Circuit board installed, the windings and core were cleaned, both bearings were fine.
Completed! Just waiting on some new stainless bolts to fit them to my new radiator.
More updates soon, just need to actually start taking pictures!
Unfortunately I'd never taken this off before and the fasteners were not in a very good state. One of the allen head screws rounded off, and the entire bonnet seemed to be loose on it's mountings.
This will have to be addressed later on. Next, the seats came out.
That doesn't look so good! Good job I'm replacing them.
Next, the radiator came out (forgot to get pictures whoops) but you can see how rusty it is in the first photo. I removed the rad fans, these will need to be refurbished as the cables have corroded.
After the radiator has been removed, you can access the front 2 chassis bolts. Unfortunately the fibreglass has cracked around both of mine so that will need to be repaired.
Hmmm. I think looking at this damage, the car has been in a shunt at some point.
Then I tore out the entire wiring loom, as I'll be fitting a brand new loom with the new ECU. I'm really glad I did this, as the loom was shockingly poor and I'm surprised I never had more issues with it.
Why cut the battery cable to length when you can just bolt two together lol
More stuff removed
Floor chassis bolts removed, I just cut most of them out as they were siezed.
Then I managed to spill most of the fuel in the tank over my garage floor, oops! Turns out the bottom hose for the fuel tank was totally loose and just slipped off
This was actually probably the most dangerous bodge I've found on the car yet:Fuel hoses held on with duct tape and silicone sealant... wow.
Also someone removed this chassis bolt and just never re-fitted it?
Then I cracked the body loose, was surprisingly easy actually just took some patience. From looking at it, it's fairly solid and I think it's the original chassis amazingly. I did manage to poke holes in the outriggers in one spot though, so it's definitely due replacements.
Next I was waiting for 2x engine cranes to lift the body (don't try this at home), so I got on with some other jobs. First, I put new cables and plugs on the 2 fans.
Old circuit boards removed:
Cores had corroded on the cables:
New plugs and cables installed, the new plugs should keep the water out much better.
Circuit board installed, the windings and core were cleaned, both bearings were fine.
Completed! Just waiting on some new stainless bolts to fit them to my new radiator.
More updates soon, just need to actually start taking pictures!
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