My 15 week nightmare... Coming to an end!
Discussion
Thursday 19th September I was heading to my local monthly club meet when half way there my car coughed & farted before developing a spine-chilling hideous rattle from the top of my engine. Obviously I pulled over immediately and proceeded to call the man in an orange van for assistance.
On his arrival, he concluded that it "doesn't sound good" before suggesting that he remove the cam cover to take a look as "it needs to come off anyway". Stupidly I agreed, only he failed to remove the speed six cover plate thus missing the bolts underneath. Obviously it was very tight (being still bolted on) so he hammered a flat screwdriver between the cylinder head and cam cover, got a crow bar in & tried to lever it off. Clearly this was never going to end well.
Sure enough, he pushed his luck too far & ended up snapping off a small corner of the front engine casing/timing chain cover, which pleased me no end.
A lengthy battle followed, 3 weeks to get them to admit liability & kindly offer to make a repair using 'quick steal' which I politely declined, then another week for them to offer to pay 2/3 of the cost of repair. Again I politely declined this offer & finally after a month they agreed to pay for the replacement of the damaged cover.
Work then finally started & the problem was found to be that 2 shims had been spat out. A lengthy investigation then followed & the issue turned out to be they were simply warn & came loose. I use the car everyday & was due for 12 month service anyway so no surprise really.
To replace the cover the engine had to be removed, which revealed some heavily warn cam lobes!!
Needless to say I've had these replaced for new & also had the half time bearings changed.
As I use a local garage (because they are amazing & have my complete and utter trust) they are not TVR specialists so are meticulous in their work & research on my car. This along with the fact they are very busy & limited on space & other complications with timing etc, means it takes a lot longer than taking it to a specialist so has taken a total of nearly 16 weeks to complete.
Before any of this happened I always thought it sounded a bit like an old tappy Ford engine, however I heard it running this morning & it sounds awesome!! So despite the long wait, I'm very much looking forward to driving her again & feeling like I've got a whole new car!!
On his arrival, he concluded that it "doesn't sound good" before suggesting that he remove the cam cover to take a look as "it needs to come off anyway". Stupidly I agreed, only he failed to remove the speed six cover plate thus missing the bolts underneath. Obviously it was very tight (being still bolted on) so he hammered a flat screwdriver between the cylinder head and cam cover, got a crow bar in & tried to lever it off. Clearly this was never going to end well.
Sure enough, he pushed his luck too far & ended up snapping off a small corner of the front engine casing/timing chain cover, which pleased me no end.
A lengthy battle followed, 3 weeks to get them to admit liability & kindly offer to make a repair using 'quick steal' which I politely declined, then another week for them to offer to pay 2/3 of the cost of repair. Again I politely declined this offer & finally after a month they agreed to pay for the replacement of the damaged cover.
Work then finally started & the problem was found to be that 2 shims had been spat out. A lengthy investigation then followed & the issue turned out to be they were simply warn & came loose. I use the car everyday & was due for 12 month service anyway so no surprise really.
To replace the cover the engine had to be removed, which revealed some heavily warn cam lobes!!
Needless to say I've had these replaced for new & also had the half time bearings changed.
As I use a local garage (because they are amazing & have my complete and utter trust) they are not TVR specialists so are meticulous in their work & research on my car. This along with the fact they are very busy & limited on space & other complications with timing etc, means it takes a lot longer than taking it to a specialist so has taken a total of nearly 16 weeks to complete.
Before any of this happened I always thought it sounded a bit like an old tappy Ford engine, however I heard it running this morning & it sounds awesome!! So despite the long wait, I'm very much looking forward to driving her again & feeling like I've got a whole new car!!
Firstly , glad your back on the road. Secondly, why the hell is the muppett recovery man trying to lift the cam cover? He should know better, and with you at your Witt's end thinking you engine has gone bang!??!. It happened to me on my RV8. Engine started to rattle on way home, lucky l was only a 20 second drive away!. Called the recovery and told them to bring the recovery truck, not the motor bike. Well The mechanic was excellent, listed to engine for 5 seconds and within 20 mins car was on the truck off to be fixed. Anyway end of my bleet 
. Glad you P and J is OK.
Mark
. Glad you P and J is OK.Mark
Reminds me if my own Tuscan nightmare.
34 miles after buying, realised the engine was knackered.
4 months of dreadful waiting and final back in my hands for running in.
Drove it to Germany a couple of weeks later and then only 4 more weeks later it threw a shim and had to be transported back to the UK.
That was sorted quickly and Jason (Srt8six) upgraded the throttle bodies at the same time.
5 of the first 7 months of ownership in the workshop.
I learned TVR patience in 2009.
34 miles after buying, realised the engine was knackered.
4 months of dreadful waiting and final back in my hands for running in.
Drove it to Germany a couple of weeks later and then only 4 more weeks later it threw a shim and had to be transported back to the UK.
That was sorted quickly and Jason (Srt8six) upgraded the throttle bodies at the same time.
5 of the first 7 months of ownership in the workshop.
I learned TVR patience in 2009.
Edited by so called on Wednesday 8th January 00:20
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