Another Starter Motor Question

[Doyle]

I read the earlier message re a starter motor problem and tried to find the previous question on the subject; "ropey" from "daveP", as suggested by David Beer, but couldn't find it. I would very much like to know the answr to this problem.
I am looking to buy my first Chim and looked at a very nice example on Sunday at the Essex TVRCC. Extremely well presented and sounded good, but it had this very same problem. The seller told me this was a regular problem and was due to the offside exhaust manifold "cooking" the starter motor, which is situated right below. He said it would start once the motor had cooled, and this proved to be the case.
Is this normal? If so, can it be cured (cheaply)?
The car is a late 'P' 4.0 HC, and is up for £13,500, which is a bit older than I was originally going for, but has been so well kept that I am tempted.

Doyle

[shpub]

Yes. Get the motor reconned and a heat shield fitted. Costs around £100 so use as bargaining point.

Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk

[Doyle]

Thanks Steve, that's good to know. Any other regular niggles to look out for?

Doyle

[t4tiv]

Here's the thread

www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?t=114186&f=13&h=0

I have the same problem. Makes filling up with Optimax a bit of a challenge.
Good luck on looking for that Chim.
PH

[shpub]

Doyle said:

Thanks Steve, that's good to know. Any other regular niggles to look out for? Doyle

Buyer's guide in the FAQ section at www.tvrbooks.co.uk

Good luck.

[ropey]

shpub said:

Yes. Get the motor reconned and a heat shield fitted. Costs around £100 so use as bargaining point. Steve www.tvrbooks.co.uk

Doyle - if you buy the car, I would suggest you go the rewiring route first. At £10, it's considerably cheaper, and also only takes 5 minuites to install. If it doesn't fix it, then move onto the new starter motor.

Ropey

[shpub]

If it is failing now, then the solenoid is already cooked and the damage is done. It is a pain when it happens so it makes sense to get it sorted from day one. There is a criticality detector fitted that will cause the next failure to occur when you least want it. It has already been at work by failing on the demo

If the guy wants to sell, I'm sure a successful negotiation can be done.

[Doyle]

Thanks Steve & Ropey, maybe it's best to take both routes and get the seller to pay for and fit them!

Doyle

[manek]

Absolutely right. My Chim went through three starter motors in four years, all due to the same cause (essentially, cr*p design).

The problem starts by not starting, if you see what I mean, until the motor cools a bit. Then sometime in the next couple or three weeks, it stops starting altogether.

Be lucky you saw the warning signs...

[anonymous-user]

Mine did the same on Sunday (twice). Once in the middle of Maldon (rather embarrasing).

A new starter motor from Castle TVR is £250, fitting about an hour and a half.

It is a common problem unfortunately

[david beer]

t4tiv said:

Here's the thread www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?t=114186&f=13&h=0 I have the same problem. Makes filling up with Optimax a bit of a challenge. Good luck on looking for that Chim. PH

Hi Manek,
is this the crap design you speak of ? Supraman, you should ask Castle to try it, got to be worth it.

[manek]

I'm just glad someone's found a fix -- its just a pity there wasn't one during my TVR ownership. But I'd argue that the car could and should have been designed so it didn't happen in the first place.

[speedeight]

Is this 'Hot Start' problem something that affects newer cars only? Did they move the starter motor at some point?

The reason I ask is that my now writen off 1994 4.0 Chimaera never had a single starter motor problem in over 3 years.

Yet when I went to view a 1998 S reg 4.0Ltr one at the weekend I think we experienced the hot start thing. The guy assured me it had never happened before, which I believe, but it was a very hot day and we'd been on the motorway and busy city centre traffic just before it happened.

After about 5-10 mins of stratching our heads it did just start. Enough time for it to be the hot start thing? We had just pushed it a few yards to get it out of the way of a guy's driveway, could that have moved the brushes just enough to get it to start if the starter is on its way out?

[shpub]

No. Variation is probably due to the many different versions of starter motor used and who manufactured them!