Who says TVR's are unreliable and overheat,
Discussion
So yesterday we had 550 cars crawl round thre bowl in the hottest day of the year, and I saw just one cerbera with a problem, yet on the 150 mile drive home, still in the heat, past the queues at silverstone and down the M40, I passed a dozen Ford's returning from the Ford Fair at silverstone, parked up, bonnets up and over heating. So much for mass produced cars being more reliable!
Just out of interest for you guys... on my screen of 'Whats New' ... the thread immediately before this one is a chap asking about his TVR overheating problems.... 
I think the reason it is said a lot, is cos it does happen a lot proportionately for your kind of cars, which yes, do stand out a lot.
Any TVR driver who knows his TVR will have sussed out little problems like that, many who just buy them dont know the pitfalls, and they are the ones ya see on the side of the M25.
So my message is basically this......... Cars go wrong if you don't look after them. Newsflash eh!
I think the reason it is said a lot, is cos it does happen a lot proportionately for your kind of cars, which yes, do stand out a lot.
Any TVR driver who knows his TVR will have sussed out little problems like that, many who just buy them dont know the pitfalls, and they are the ones ya see on the side of the M25.
So my message is basically this......... Cars go wrong if you don't look after them. Newsflash eh!
Well.... as an ex-TVR owner I may be sticking my head over the parapet here but in the space of four years ownership of a Chimaera I went through three starter motors, several stepper motors and a couple of thermostats.
None of that was because of poor maintenance: I couldn't have lavished more care on the beast. I was quite simply because of poor design -- a fibreglass bonnet is a poor conductor heat so a pair of massive exhausts running through the engine bay simply fried the electrics over time.
YMMV, but that was my experience. Now, why did I keep it for four years? You guess....
None of that was because of poor maintenance: I couldn't have lavished more care on the beast. I was quite simply because of poor design -- a fibreglass bonnet is a poor conductor heat so a pair of massive exhausts running through the engine bay simply fried the electrics over time.
YMMV, but that was my experience. Now, why did I keep it for four years? You guess....
manek said:
Well.... as an ex-TVR owner I may be sticking my head over the parapet here but in the space of four years ownership of a Chimaera I went through three starter motors, several stepper motors and a couple of thermostats.
None of that was because of poor maintenance: I couldn't have lavished more care on the beast. I was quite simply because of poor design -- a fibreglass bonnet is a poor conductor heat so a pair of massive exhausts running through the engine bay simply fried the electrics over time.
YMMV, but that was my experience. Now, why did I keep it for four years? You guess....
Good point which certainly highlights some poor wordage on my part.None of that was because of poor maintenance: I couldn't have lavished more care on the beast. I was quite simply because of poor design -- a fibreglass bonnet is a poor conductor heat so a pair of massive exhausts running through the engine bay simply fried the electrics over time.
YMMV, but that was my experience. Now, why did I keep it for four years? You guess....
I guess what I mean is... the guys who really know their TVR and address the known problems dont have any issues with over heating, such as the 2 chaps who have posted here.
'Maintain' suggested that people who had problems did not maintain their cars and I didnt wish to make it seem that people treated their cars badly.
manek said:
Well.... as an ex-TVR owner I may be sticking my head over the parapet here but in the space of four years ownership of a Chimaera I went through three starter motors, several stepper motors and a couple of thermostats.
Equally, in four years of ownership of a Chimaera I've still got the same starter motor, the same stepper motor and the same thermostat!You're right in that there is a lot of heat in that engine bay, but I think the later cars benefitted from small but important design improvements -- as all cars do, in fact. The earlier ones do seem a little less reliable, but even so three starters, a box of steppers and two thermostats seems pretty excessive!
Hugh
spend said:
hugerr said:
The earlier ones do seem a little less reliable..
I think they probably wear out parts more often because they don't spend so much downtime awaiting 100a fuses 
Dave
I'm not sure about anyone else but my temperature went to 105-110 degrees and did think of pulling out of the line at one stage & switching off.
Thats with a newly re-cored radiator, otter switch, temp sensor, thermostat, water wetter, fresh coolant, twin fans, heat shields, heater blowing hot etc, although fortunately it seemed to do it no harm. The return jpourney home was very spirited over 2 hours & the temp didn't go above normal 85 degrees!!!!
Anyone else have any issues or temps this high ?
No criticism of the Rock organisation at all it was par excellent, but after the Saturday heated line up i thought a different approach for Sunday would have been more sensible, but i didn't see one car broken down.
Thats with a newly re-cored radiator, otter switch, temp sensor, thermostat, water wetter, fresh coolant, twin fans, heat shields, heater blowing hot etc, although fortunately it seemed to do it no harm. The return jpourney home was very spirited over 2 hours & the temp didn't go above normal 85 degrees!!!!
Anyone else have any issues or temps this high ?
No criticism of the Rock organisation at all it was par excellent, but after the Saturday heated line up i thought a different approach for Sunday would have been more sensible, but i didn't see one car broken down.
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