T350t

[stag]

I have tradedin my 4,2 cerb for a 350, Has anyone on here had any trouble with said car? It is a new one and most people I have spoken to said that the engine probs are all sorted out on recent ones. I hope so.

[TimW]

You dont hear much at all of T350's for rebuilds.. same with tamora's..

>> Edited by TimW on Saturday 28th August 22:34

[bogie]

is that not because no-one has done over 10K miles in one yet? ...dont mean to be a doom monger...but its easy to not to have probs when no-one really uses them daily for like 12K miles a year...a guy I know has just had a new engine in his brand new Tamora after 7K miles..I think the problems are still there - its just going to be a while before they show themselves

[martinp]

I'm hoping they're sorted too - I have a T350c on order.

The threads on the Tuscan forum for those who've had engine rebuilds and those who haven't give a lot of info. I haven't added up the stat's for a week or so, but the last time I did, if you remove those engine rebuilds that are linked to the finger followers (on the basis that one is claimed to be fixed - some poor people had to have two rebuilds for those...) then the percentage of blown engines drops significantly. The valve guides look the next weak spot, but an order of magnitude less than the followers and after that its the odd head gasket and piston but I reckon you'd expect a handful of them from such highly tuned, hard driven engines.

That's my optimistic interpretation of the situation anyway. That said I'm not going into Speed 6 ownership with my eyes shut and will be making sure I've something put aside in case the worst happens...

[GCerbera]

Stag, is your car being built or have you bought from the showroom? If it is in
production, when is it due to be delivered?

MartinP - You say yours is due in January - by choice or earliest build date?

[anita]

TimW said:

You dont hear much at all of T350's for rebuilds.. same with tamora's.. >> Edited by TimW on Saturday 28th August 22:34

Oh, if only that was true! Our Tamora has been off road over 2 months whilst the head is sorted.

Judging by the other threads around 12k is the danger time for engines to go bang. And they do - the posts in the Tuscan column indicate around 30% of Speed 6 owners have had rebuild work. Just wait until the 350s start to approach those mileages.

[Exx]

anita said:

TimW said: You dont hear much at all of T350's for rebuilds.. same with tamora's.. >> Edited by TimW on Saturday 28th August 22:34 Oh, if only that was true! Our Tamora has been off road over 2 months whilst the head is sorted. Judging by the other threads around 12k is the danger time for engines to go bang. And they do - the posts in the Tuscan column indicate around 30% of Speed 6 owners have had rebuild work. Just wait until the 350s start to approach those mileages.

Have you been following the history of the Speed 6 at all? The reason I ask is that the majority of the problems suffered so far have been caused by issues now corrected in the later batch of engines and by that I mean the T350,Tamora, Cerbera and Tuscan.

You response is scaremongering at best. Bare in mind that the responses on this forum are not indicative of the WHOLE situation, merely the situation as reflected within the PH forum.

Oh and quite a few T350's, Tamoras and the newer Tuscans have exceeded the 12000 mile mark already...

[GCerbera]

anita said:

TimW said: You dont hear much at all of T350's for rebuilds.. same with tamora's.. Oh, if only that was true! Our Tamora has been off road over 2 months whilst the head is sorted.

Sorry to hear this Anita.

However, would I be correct that your car is a 2002?


In best Police Squad style, the word on the street is the engines produced from 2003
onwards are the 'sorted' ones.

Time will tell of course, but in theory the T350's all fall under this 'alleged'
safety net - I hope so!

[donatien]

Exx said:

anita said: TimW said: You dont hear much at all of T350's for rebuilds.. same with tamora's.. >> Edited by TimW on Saturday 28th August 22:34 Oh, if only that was true! Our Tamora has been off road over 2 months whilst the head is sorted. Judging by the other threads around 12k is the danger time for engines to go bang. And they do - the posts in the Tuscan column indicate around 30% of Speed 6 owners have had rebuild work. Just wait until the 350s start to approach those mileages. Have you been following the history of the Speed 6 at all? The reason I ask is that the majority of the problems suffered so far have been caused by issues now corrected in the later batch of engines and by that I mean the T350,Tamora, Cerbera and Tuscan. You response is scaremongering at best. Bare in mind that the responses on this forum are not indicative of the WHOLE situation, merely the situation as reflected within the PH forum. Oh and quite a few T350's, Tamoras and the newer Tuscans have exceeded the 12000 mile mark already...

If you take PH "voting" as a generic indicator then I would assume the figures are actually worse. Most people (like us) do warm up the engine, take care of it, have it serviced correctly, etc.

I have no idea of numbers of people who own a Speed 6 car who don't post here and only use the car as a fun thing (assuming it's on the road) - in which case the 12k mentioned could take well over 2 years to accumulate. Which now rather unfortunately puts it outside warranty and probably beyond the "good faith" rebuilds.

I do hope that the Speed 6 is now sorted but we've been there, done it etc. Shame TVR don't make t shirts or we'd be wearing those too.

My Griff has done 30k without anything major, it's had the usual stuff done - exhaust gaskets, starter motor, various ancillaries. Lets see how many Speed 6's reach that without needing surgery. It shouldn't be a boast that many have done over 12k - it should be a requirement! If a dealer told you you had a 30% chance of the engine needing major attention within 12k would you still be interested?

Dave (Anita's other 'arf)


>> Edited by donatien on Monday 30th August 11:35

[Exx]

donatien said:

Exx said: anita said: TimW said: You dont hear much at all of T350's for rebuilds.. same with tamora's.. >> Edited by TimW on Saturday 28th August 22:34 Oh, if only that was true! Our Tamora has been off road over 2 months whilst the head is sorted. Judging by the other threads around 12k is the danger time for engines to go bang. And they do - the posts in the Tuscan column indicate around 30% of Speed 6 owners have had rebuild work. Just wait until the 350s start to approach those mileages. Have you been following the history of the Speed 6 at all? The reason I ask is that the majority of the problems suffered so far have been caused by issues now corrected in the later batch of engines and by that I mean the T350,Tamora, Cerbera and Tuscan. You response is scaremongering at best. Bare in mind that the responses on this forum are not indicative of the WHOLE situation, merely the situation as reflected within the PH forum. Oh and quite a few T350's, Tamoras and the newer Tuscans have exceeded the 12000 mile mark already... If you take PH "voting" as a generic indicator then I would assume the figures are actually worse. Most people (like us) do warm up the engine, take care of it, have it serviced correctly, etc. I have no idea of numbers of people who own a Speed 6 car who don't post here and only use the car as a fun thing (assuming it's on the road) - in which case the 12k mentioned could take well over 2 years to accumulate. Which now rather unfortunately puts it outside warranty and probably beyond the "good faith" rebuilds. I do hope that the Speed 6 is now sorted but we've been there, done it etc. Shame TVR don't make t shirts or we'd be wearing those too. My Griff has done 30k without anything major, it's had the usual stuff done - exhaust gaskets, starter motor, various ancillaries. Lets see how many Speed 6's reach that without needing surgery. It shouldn't be a boast that many have done over 12k - it should be a requirement! If a dealer told you you had a 30% chance of the engine needing major attention within 12k would you still be interested? Dave (Anita's other 'arf) >> Edited by donatien on Monday 30th August 11:35

I don't think you can take PH voting as a general indicator. In fact it's in these sort of situations where votes on forums are made by those with the most motivation i.e. those that have had a problem and maybe have an axe to grind. Accordingly those with no problem don't vote - maybe due to apathy, who knows.

As for looking after the car, then it's not only PHers that do that....

The 30% failure rate is based I assume on the information within this forum and is I believe historic i.e. engines sorted = far fewer problems = same as any other marque, mass produced or not.

So as a plea to prospective TVR buyers, be sensible and reasonable. If you quote a failure rate support it with facts whose source is wider than PH.

Ian

Edited to say: Just checked the Poll 6 pages of no rebuilds, 3 of rebuilds. Bearing in mind the weighting factor that I mentioned at the start of this post, I think that just about seals it.

>> Edited by Exx on Monday 30th August 12:47

[donatien]

ok - in that case PH does not represent a view on TVRs. There are obviously beter informed people out there, just not on here. I must meet some of them day.

For what it's worth I've actually seen a Speed 6 stripped to bits (ours), spoke to mechanics at the factory and also well reputed independents. I am NOT in any way an engine specialist but I obviously draw conclusions from what I see and am told. I won't publish these here.

I'll shut up or Mrs Fish will put me to bed!

Dave

[Exx]

donatien said:

ok - in that case PH does not represent a view on TVRs. There are obviously beter informed people out there, just not on here. I must meet some of them day. For what it's worth I've actually seen a Speed 6 stripped to bits (ours), spoke to mechanics at the factory and also well reputed independents. I am NOT in any way an engine specialist but I obviously draw conclusions from what I see and am told. I won't publish these here. I'll shut up or Mrs Fish will put me to bed! Dave

For general examples of the unreliability of such polls see:

1. Any JD Power survey - they are the worlds experts apparently.
2. Street Polls run by MORI or any of the like organisations.

Do you have any evidence of recent engines with the same problems as those the poll points out?

[GCerbera]

donatien said:

For what it's worth I've actually seen a Speed 6 stripped to bits (ours), spoke to mechanics at the factory and also well reputed independents. I am NOT in any way an engine specialist but I obviously draw conclusions from what I see and am told. I won't publish these here. Dave

Hmm, would these comments include 2003 - 2004 spec engines?


Could you email me privately with what you have been told?

[Mrs Fish]

donatien said:

I'll shut up or Mrs Fish will put me to bed! Dave

You wish

our t350 did 18,000 miles no probs

[Mrs Fish]

Get back in your box, we are talking about TVR's here.

[TimW]

Like ur car mungo

[martinp]

GCerbera said:

Stag, is your car being built or have you bought from the showroom? If it is in production, when is it due to be delivered? MartinP - You say yours is due in January - by choice or earliest build date?

Kind of by choice - I was told the resale value will be much better if the car is first registered in 2005. If I'd wanted the car at the very earliest date it would only have been ready a couple of weeks earlier anyway...

[Mrs Fish]

And I'm sure our car would have done many more miles (that's what I was talking about) if we had kept hold of it. Your car didn't have a speed 6 in it did it, thats what the thread is about, not an established Rover V8 or whatever was in your car? And how do you know when I first heard about TVR's, a bit presumptious and condescending I think, just because I am a woman?

I think TVR are seeing the light at the end of tunnel regarding the Sp 6. Considering they designed it for TVR without the millions available to them to develop it properly I don't think it is doing too badly at the moment. Only time will tell on how many miles they are capable of doing. Now NS has taken hold and can afford to develop it more, I believe it will be a stonking engine in years to come.


>> Edited by Mrs Fish on Tuesday 31st August 13:30

[Mrs Fish]

I don't ever remember saying that.

[Mrs Fish]

Well I can't be bothered arguing with you.