A good, comprehensive appraisal, Craig. Your seats are indeed half-Alcantara, half-leather (the thin leather bolsters always wear badly). A few other things to look out for (based on my experience having owned three F/ TFs for over 20 years and still the happy owner of a 2004 TF-160 like yours): alternators are weak and will go, but reconditioned examples are cheap; emissions issues are often related to exhaust leaks or lambda sensors rather than cats (the original cats are very good in this car); most common leak from the roof actually happens because of a poorly aligned cheater (the little black triangular-shaped panel that the door mirror is attached to) which can be adjusted; suspension parts like ball joints and bushings go quite regularly but are cheap and easy to source, lower wishbones rot and unfortunately are a bugger to replace; starter motor connections can corrode and be the cause of a non-starter - easy fix; SRS warning light usually attributable to faulty cable connections under seats or broken rotary coupler behind steering wheel; door locks/actuators can fail. Only other thing I'd say is, go easy with the gear-shifter 🙂The two linkages are quite fragile and are tricky to replace, requiring disassembly of the centre console. And also go easy with the boot lid when closing, as the wiring loom on the nearside will eventually split and there are quite a few microwires that will need soldering when that happens. Agree with your central point though: buy one while these are cheap and enjoy restoring/maintaining and driving it. They are fantastic fun with bags of endearing character. Keep up the great and informative videos. Jonathan
still love mine, only had it 15 years! starting to need a little work but she deserves it! one other thing id add to the check list is the subframe mounts! thease rust pretty badly,! just replaced ine front and rear, could be a mot fail and even possibly a write off so worth checking... great vide, thanks for showing some love to the tf!
Great little cars, I've had my TF 160 over 12 years, fitted stainless steel under pipes, Toyo s/s exhaust, Bilstein shocks, big rear brakes...well looked after car
Great buyers guide. I would just add to look for a high handbrake leaver, yours is a bit high but any more and it usually mans that the rear callipers are on the way out and can seize either on our off. The issue is that owners have a bouncy handbrake leaver so they use the adjuster at rear of the brake lever to take the slack out of the cable, however slack isn’t from the cable stretching but the callipers not working properly.
Love your videos pal. I’m my line of work we would not use stainless steel outside because when it gets cold it becomes more brittle where carbon steel is better. Stainless steel will fail instantly without warning where carbon steel will fail over time. I replace my coolant pipes every few years. You can get thickness probes pretty cheap to keep an eye on thicknesses. You can also paint the carbon steel ones to protect from environmental damage mechanisms.
👍 should be helpful to potential owners. I've still got my TF but got a Z3 at the beginning of the year if you're looking for a new project you cant go far wrong with a Z3. All best Gra J.
Good video craig, very informative. I would urge anybody looking to buy the TF to watch and take in what you are quite rightly saying. My own car has been a hobby waiting to happen and when I started the recommissioning I thoroughly enjoyed the spanner work and would be loathed to sell it .. I feel I still haven't completed mine and am still more to do to make it good for me. Keep up the videos I like the content . All the best.
Very good review / buyers guide of the model, done from your personal ownership, which means you can back everything up from experience. Had my TF-135 for 2½ years now & love owning it. Think I've got away lightly considering what you've battled with. Given it a full service, replaced timing belt+tensioner, front discs+pads, rear pads, had Pektron relays replaced as rear fog & intermittent wipe didn't work and tidied up a few scabs on paintwork. It's very tidy but not immaculate, not low mileage (94,000) and pretty base spec, cloth seats, no front fog lights & no ABS. But it starts first turn of key every time, sounds very sweet , goes well and sticks like 5h1t to a blanket. All for the princely sum of £1200. What other car will give you so much fun for so little money???
Thanks for the nice comment.... I think that'll be on ice until next year now, as I really need to find sometime to get back into the B installing the supercharger... I hope you'll stick around to watch that.
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A good, comprehensive appraisal, Craig. Your seats are indeed half-Alcantara, half-leather (the thin leather bolsters always wear badly). A few other things to look out for (based on my experience having owned three F/ TFs for over 20 years and still the happy owner of a 2004 TF-160 like yours): alternators are weak and will go, but reconditioned examples are cheap; emissions issues are often related to exhaust leaks or lambda sensors rather than cats (the original cats are very good in this car); most common leak from the roof actually happens because of a poorly aligned cheater (the little black triangular-shaped panel that the door mirror is attached to) which can be adjusted; suspension parts like ball joints and bushings go quite regularly but are cheap and easy to source, lower wishbones rot and unfortunately are a bugger to replace; starter motor connections can corrode and be the cause of a non-starter - easy fix; SRS warning light usually attributable to faulty cable connections under seats or broken rotary coupler behind steering wheel; door locks/actuators can fail. Only other thing I'd say is, go easy with the gear-shifter 🙂The two linkages are quite fragile and are tricky to replace, requiring disassembly of the centre console. And also go easy with the boot lid when closing, as the wiring loom on the nearside will eventually split and there are quite a few microwires that will need soldering when that happens. Agree with your central point though: buy one while these are cheap and enjoy restoring/maintaining and driving it. They are fantastic fun with bags of endearing character. Keep up the great and informative videos. Jonathan
still love mine, only had it 15 years!
starting to need a little work but she deserves it!
one other thing id add to the check list is the subframe mounts!
thease rust pretty badly,!
just replaced ine front and rear, could be a mot fail and even possibly a write off so worth checking...
great vide, thanks for showing some love to the tf!
Great little cars, I've had my TF 160 over 12 years, fitted stainless steel under pipes, Toyo s/s exhaust, Bilstein shocks, big rear brakes...well looked after car
Great buyers guide. I would just add to look for a high handbrake leaver, yours is a bit high but any more and it usually mans that the rear callipers are on the way out and can seize either on our off. The issue is that owners have a bouncy handbrake leaver so they use the adjuster at rear of the brake lever to take the slack out of the cable, however slack isn’t from the cable stretching but the callipers not working properly.
Absolutely loved my TF, had it for many years with very little problems and lots of fun but needed a bigger car so had to sell it!
great advice video, you now have a great deal knowledge of these cars.And present it in a very engaging way, well done.
Love your videos pal. I’m my line of work we would not use stainless steel outside because when it gets cold it becomes more brittle where carbon steel is better. Stainless steel will fail instantly without warning where carbon steel will fail over time. I replace my coolant pipes every few years. You can get thickness probes pretty cheap to keep an eye on thicknesses. You can also paint the carbon steel ones to protect from environmental damage mechanisms.
👍 should be helpful to potential owners. I've still got my TF but got a Z3 at the beginning of the year if you're looking for a new project you cant go far wrong with a Z3. All best Gra J.
Good video craig, very informative. I would urge anybody looking to buy the TF to watch and take in what you are quite rightly saying.
My own car has been a hobby waiting to happen and when I started the recommissioning I thoroughly enjoyed the spanner work and would be loathed to sell it .. I feel I still haven't completed mine and am still more to do to make it good for me. Keep up the videos I like the content .
All the best.
Very good review / buyers guide of the model, done from your personal ownership, which means you can back everything up from experience.
Had my TF-135 for 2½ years now & love owning it.
Think I've got away lightly considering what you've battled with. Given it a full service, replaced timing belt+tensioner, front discs+pads, rear pads, had Pektron relays replaced as rear fog & intermittent wipe didn't work and tidied up a few scabs on paintwork.
It's very tidy but not immaculate, not low mileage (94,000) and pretty base spec, cloth seats, no front fog lights & no ABS. But it starts first turn of key every time, sounds very sweet , goes well and sticks like 5h1t to a blanket.
All for the princely sum of £1200.
What other car will give you so much fun for so little money???
Smart little car! Definitely looks like fun. It's a shame we never saw these in Canada.
Nice video, you should definitely keep the TF. Never going to sell mine.
Please get a good microphone though ;)
Great video as always 🎉
Great video please keep them coming any plans to video the boot release switch install as need to do the same to mine 👍
Thanks for the nice comment.... I think that'll be on ice until next year now, as I really need to find sometime to get back into the B installing the supercharger... I hope you'll stick around to watch that.
Alguien sabe cuál es el fusible del ventilador del compartimento del motor?.Si tiene fusible y donde está.El ventilador no funciona.
Why do you think the fan isn’t working?
Esta trabado no se mueve.Creo que no llega voltage.Queria comprobar fusible y sacar ventilador para repararlo.
My Dear, Your Video dosen”t get views and subscriptions. Because your title, keyword, rank tag, and Thumbnail are not properly SEO, so your video is not getting views and subscribers
if you Solve this problem and Best SEO Score to rank your video then your channel will grow organically very fast.