S*%@, F&@~ and Bo&$"?ks

[mycerbera]

Well that’s it then!
David Hendry has just confirmed that it has an internal engine problem.
Needs to be sent back to TVR and will cost about £3000~£5000!!
What should I do... Can't afford £500 let alone £5000!
Could flog it now or sell the house and fix it!
Thing I don't understand is that they say it will not pass its MOT on emissions and yet it was only done 1000 miles ago!
And I guess I have no come back from where I got it because it was a private sale!
Advice please.. Only helpful as I'm a bit upset right now!

[ap_smith]

When I had my Griff 500 the engine died after 21000 miles.

The best thing to do is talk to TVR about the situation. The dealership may help you and talk to TVR for you. You may find that TVR offer to cover some of the cost. Looking at the mileage of your car, it should not require a rebuild, but it's not brand new either. TVR offered to pay for all the parts for my rebuild as long as I covered the labour, you may find they'll do a similar thing with you?

Sorry to hear about the trouble, good luck with TVR..

Andy

[PetrolTed]

I'd echo that. Talk to them. If your car has a full main dealer service history (even if you bought it privately), they can be very sympathetic. I know of one owner on here that had a new engine out of them on the basis that it had a FTVRSH despite it being quite an old car.

[gazzab]

Obviously threaten to sue the prev owner but it is buyer beware.
Try other people to quote for the work eg Raven or Joolz. Apparently Raven can do lots of the work that only TVR do and they have a cheaper per hr cost that TVR.
Sorry to hear of your probs. What is the problem?

[MikeyT]

Mycerb

Sorry to hear about your problems ... must be heartbreaking.

As people have said, speak to the factory first. Depending on their reaction then maybe have a words with Joolz or Raven.

What exactly is the latest problem with the engine?

[currymonster]

Sorry to hear the probs mate. For what it's worth, if you need to stump up some cash, there are loads of really cheap loans about at the moment, what with interest rates being so low and all. That may be cheaper than the loss you will incurr trying to sell a cerb with a lunched engine. Good luck...

[jacko500]

Sorry to hear your bad news. I would definately try speaking to TVR first. If that fails you could credit card surf on the 0% offers. Failing that park it up on the drive of the bloke who sold you it....rag in the petrol tank.....you get the rest!
On a serious note I would check with the dealer that usually services it to see if the fault had been diagnosed before he sold it to you. Most dealers keep extensive history on computer which would probably help in a small claims court.
regards
Jacko

[mycerbera]

David Hendry say that the engine is burning oil on the near side bank, and suspect piston/rings wear.
Car has done 39000mls!

[gazzab]

I am sure that Raven are worth a call - they do do engine work (as far as I am aware) unlike dealers who arent allowed to do anything except ancillaries (or so I understand it). Have you got any warranty?

[mycerbera]

No warranty

>> Edited by mycerbera on Friday 1st March 11:46

[gazzab]

Good luck matey. It will all be a dim and distant memory in a short while. Cerberas are time bombs (or feel like that) and sadly you have been landed with a bad one cos someone has sold it on cos they were worried about it (I suspect). I assume you wont be advertising it on Pistonheads for sale.
Sounds to me that you are best to sell on or fix and sell on and just take the hit. You could then buy a cheaper to run £13K N reg Chimp!! (or not a TVR again I suspect). Then put it all down to experience.

[mycerbera]

Trying to get hold of Jason Oxley at TVR at the moment to see what he advices. Can't sell it... Just taken a guy from work out in it, he owns a 280bhp Impreza Turbo, and he was speechless! (And scared!)
Just have to look at 0% credit cards and put the house on the market I guess!!

[bilton_d]

You could try and get an after market warranty for it wait a month or two and try to claim ?? or maybe your local dealer could sort out a warranty for you ?

[gazzab]

Why was he speechless and scared?
The after market warranties from WH are limited to £1K per claim. This info is now in a public domain and so might be a bit fraudulant to take that approach?!?!

[mycerbera]

Because it's so F*£%ing quick of course!!

[bilton_d]

www.warrantywise.co.uk/ty2pe.htm

Warranty wise seem to cover cars upto 10 years old. Cars over 7 years old and under 70,000 miles have a £6000 limit ??? Haven't looked into too much as i have the TVR Sprint Warranty on mine but even if you pay to get this fault fixed could be worth will looking at for longer term ownership.

[Stig]

quote:
Because it's so F*£%ing quick of course!!

Errr... probably not the best idea in the world to thrash the knackers off it when you've got suspect piston/ring/bores mate.

[gazzab]

Agree with that. In fact I would ensure that I strictly adhere to the cold warm up recommendations for longer than normal. IT is probably cold thrashing (ie before it is 10 miles warm) that has done the damage!??!

[dannylt]

quote:
IT is probably cold thrashing (ie before it is 10 miles warm) that has done the damage!??!

I wouldn't assume that it's been thrashed from cold... seems a bit harsh to jump to that conclusion. Some engines are born better than others unfortunately. Replacing liners & rings isn't such a massive job, though they'll probably want to replace a bunch of other stuff while it's stripped, which is why it costs. Even when run in, engines seem to use quite differing amounts of oil.

[gazzab]

I just dont believe that every owner strictly runs them gently for first 10 miles everytime. This must be a contributor to early engine probs but not necessarily this one.