Cam Shaft

[kriss5154]

Have strange question, I have been told that the Chimera is prone to dropping cam shafts, have 96 model with 37000 miles on her any comments from other owners, had previous Chim same age similar mileage that dropped a shaft

[Tony91]

Deja vu

[lancepar]

If you were closer I could show you a camshaft that has done 75K and without measuring it I rekon there's a tiny bit of wear on one lobe.

[caduceus]

May I ask, why you are asking questions about cam shafts? This and the other one..
If you told us more about your car and thoughts as to what is eliciting this route of query, we might be able to help more.

[kriss5154]

It’s really simple to be honest it’s being suggested to me that with Car age despite low mileage cam shaft is more that possible needing replacing as this is TVR issue having had TVR in the passed that dropped its shaft I am concerned, please understand I don’t live in U.K. so need as much information as I can gain thanks

[Belle427]

I've recently removed mine which looked good at 78000 miles, no evidence to suggest it had ever been changed.
I think it depends on how the car was used previously and if the oil changes were carried out on time, with a quality lubricant of the correct viscosity.

[wuckfitracing]

Forgive me but what does dropped in camshaft terms mean. I've never heard of that expression.

[kriss5154]

Dropped means failed

[black_potato]

kriss5154 said:

Dropped means failed

I think camshaft failure is pretty rare what is inevitable is camshaft wear. what is probably more likely is a rocker failure.

The question is how do you detect that wear. one mind set is if you are happy with how its running dont worry. The challenge is on a car thats 20 years old you dont know for sure unless you have a good look. You could just do a dyno run but as you have no baseline that will probably just tell you it doesnt produce the book figure which wont be a surprise to any here.

[markcoopers]

I think you are referring to the situation where some Rover V8's had a tendency to flatten off the lobes on the cam. An actual cam shattering is very rare. I am by no means a Rv8 specialist, but I believe the 5L engine is more susceptible to this and I can only assume due to the cam design that was added that perhaps has more of a ramp angle coming off of the base circle and thus exerts more force on the followers.

[Sardonicus]

Belle427 said:

I've recently removed mine which looked good at 78000 miles, no evidence to suggest it had ever been changed.
I think it depends on how the car was used previously and if the oil changes were carried out on time, with a quality lubricant of the correct viscosity.

This ^ too many variables to say they go at **** miles or after **** years, this is lobe wear not total failure as in breaking this does not happen on the RV8