Retro fit aircon/ too hot air

[virgil]

OK, now I'm probably going to get shot down as some kind of wierdo light-weight poof, but either I need to get rid of my Griff 500, or make it a little more 'comfortable' for passengers...

The main problem is the heat in the footwell thing...I have tried fidling with the control knob and the stepper motor, but ALWAYs get hot air...great in winter, but in the summer its so bad that no-one will get in the car for any length journey...

HELP...I want to be able to enjoy this thing and take the wife on a nice drive...

Can I bypass the heater matix easily in the engine bay and can Aircon be retrofitted? I presume the heater contol box is not bespoke to TVR, but taken from a normal production car...if so from what?

Was thinking of giving the dash a recover anyway, so if it has to come out, aircon could be fitted then?

Cheers in desperation...

[mongoose]

virgil said:

The main problem is the heat in the footwell thing...I have tried fidling with the control knob and the stepper motor, but ALWAYs get hot air...great in winter, but in the summer its so bad that no-one will get in the car for any length journey... Can I bypass the heater matix easily in the engine bay and can Aircon be retrofitted? I presume the heater contol box is not bespoke to TVR, but taken from a normal production car...if so from what? Cheers in desperation...

Are you sure you've syncronised the valve properly?If you disonnect the matrix pipes in the engine bay,and try to pass water through,you will prove this in cases where the white marks on the valve dont quite line up properly.Perhaps your valve is faulty and is passing?If it is fully shut when you want it to then it should be fine.Theres no real point in removing the matrix if you can shut the valve off properly. The valve can often move after being set,and i'm guessing this is due to heat migration affecting the pot resistance.One way to cure this would be to put a switch in series with the motor power supply,then switch it off when you first turn your heater knob to cold.The heater box is TVR's own by the way.
Lastly,yes you can have A/C retrofitted(i did on my first griff),and it works lovely,contrary to popular myth,but it is expensive>£3k.But i wouldn't be without it in any tiv now

[dnb]

The heater controls are specific to TVR - and they aren't all that good! (Well mine have never really worked...)

You can retrofit A/C, but it's probably a bigger headache than retrofitting PAS and fitting an aftermarket ECU simultaniously... The AC hardware is mostly rangerover parts, I think. And the heater controls **should** be able to cope with it. At least mine has all the controls in place for AC, but has never had the AC hardware.

Anyway, back to the hot air problem - if you pull the dash out, you'll see a black box with heatsink on. This is the heater control box. Inside it you'll find adjustment pots. These are used to shunt the motors that control the flaps and valves round a bit so that you can "fine tune" their positions. Of course, the motors may well have decided to die - the limit switches are quite flaky too.

There's a bit of info kicking around if you search the forum for "heater controls". (One day, I'll get around to making some heater controls that actually work...)

[mongoose]

dnb said:

Anyway, back to the hot air problem - if you pull the dash out, you'll see a black box with heatsink on. This is the heater control box.

Virgil,if you find that this is the fault let me know.I have a perfect spare that i might let go of

[virgil]

Thanks guys...Mongoose, thanks for the offer...did look at the heater pot/control last summer but to no avail...will try again.

Out of interest, why 3k to retrofit aircon...there can't be THAT much stuff to add in surely...presume that was all new parts and including labour etc.

Cheers,

Virgil.

[mongoose]

virgil said:

Out of interest, why 3k to retrofit aircon...there can't be THAT much stuff to add in surely...presume that was all new parts and including labour etc. Cheers, Virgil.

Yes,that was all new,and theres a lot of work to it-i still say it was well worth it though,i even got more for the car when i sold it,than what i paid for it(not 3k mind).

[markh]

mongoose said:

virgil said: The main problem is the heat in the footwell thing...I have tried fidling with the control knob and the stepper motor, but ALWAYs get hot air...great in winter, but in the summer its so bad that no-one will get in the car for any length journey... Can I bypass the heater matix easily in the engine bay and can Aircon be retrofitted? I presume the heater contol box is not bespoke to TVR, but taken from a normal production car...if so from what? Cheers in desperation... Are you sure you've syncronised the valve properly?If you disonnect the matrix pipes in the engine bay,and try to pass water through,you will prove this in cases where the white marks on the valve dont quite line up properly.Perhaps your valve is faulty and is passing?If it is fully shut when you want it to then it should be fine.Theres no real point in removing the matrix if you can shut the valve off properly. The valve can often move after being set,and i'm guessing this is due to heat migration affecting the pot resistance.One way to cure this would be to put a switch in series with the motor power supply,then switch it off when you first turn your heater knob to cold.The heater box is TVR's own by the way. Lastly,yes you can have A/C retrofitted(i did on my first griff),and it works lovely,contrary to popular myth,but it is expensive>£3k.But i wouldn't be without it in any tiv now

Hi Mike
this intersting mind telling me who did the A/C retro fit for you, everyone I have spoken to seems to be scared of the conversion.

Mark

[richb]

Mine was giving warm air on cold from new but after 10 mins fiddling with the position of the servo and valve I managed to get it to shut off ok. I get cold air now. Rich...

[virgil]

richb said:

Mine was giving warm air on cold from new but after 10 mins fiddling with the position of the servo and valve I managed to get it to shut off ok. I get cold air now. Rich...

Cold air...I can only dream of cold air...

[mongoose]

markh said:

Hi Mike this intersting mind telling me who did the A/C retro fit for you, everyone I have spoken to seems to be scared of the conversion. Mark

Hello Mark,the guys who fitted mine were Team Proactive,in the midlands.They've scince disappeared,but the main man from there is Adrian,who went on to set up Team Central.If i remember correctly,TVR MADS were also able to do it at the time.
Cheers,Mike

[richb]

virgil said:

richb said: Mine was giving warm air on cold from new but after 10 mins fiddling with the position of the servo and valve I managed to get it to shut off ok. I get cold air now. Rich... Cold air...I can only dream of cold air...

I assume you've had a good look at these? As has been said, make sure the little white blob of paint is aligned and it "should" cut off the hot water flow to the heater matrix Rich...

[virgil]

Will look tonight if I get the chance....

[richb]

virgil said:

Will look tonight if I get the chance....

Just thought, it's a 500 you've got is it? Anyway e-mail me if you want and I'll go into more detail. You need to ensure that the valve is fully closed when the alloy control knob is set in the cold position on your dash. What I did was remove the glove box to make it easier to see in there, then by turning the knob from hot to cold and back yo can easily get an idea of whats doing what. Then I saw the little white blob of paint which should mark the "off" position. Then I undid the little grub screw and set the valve to "off" and twiddled the control knob just to make sure it was all loose. Then before I re-tightened the grub screw I went for a drive to check that no hot water was getting by. Happy with that I set the knob to the cold position and tightened it up. It's been fine since. Rich...

>> Edited by richb on Tuesday 16th May 16:44

[virgil]

richb said:

virgil said: Will look tonight if I get the chance.... Just thought, it's a 500 you've got is it? >> Edited by richb on Tuesday 16th May 16:44

Yeah, '95 500...may not be able to do all the tinkering, but will get teh glove box out again and try and find the little white blob....will drop you a line tomorrow if I need more help...

thanks,

Virgil.

[mongoose]

virgil said:

Yeah, '95 500...may not be able to do all the tinkering, but will get teh glove box out again and try and find the little white blob....will drop you a line tomorrow if I need more help... thanks, Virgil.

Just a thought,on some,mostly later cars i think,there are no white marks!You need to be moving the tab around to the 7 o'clock position roughly,oh and there are often two tabs also,each at 180o to each other.Just makes it a little more interesting doesn't it

[LastLawyer]

hi folks,

as much is i know the 500 had aircon sometimes. meaning that they probably had it but it never really worked. what about the 430 ? please read this carefully ! i use mine as an everydays car an so got used to heat in the footwells and so on. interesting thing by the way: the faster i drive the more cooling i get. my cars inner fans work but only for the front window. seems that the pre-owner has did something but here in germany it´s pretty hard to find that out.

if there is anyone out there in GB who can assure me that he´s able to implmenet a really working AC into my griff then please feel yourselve really invited to mail me @ [e-mail].