As some know I suffered a lower rear damper mount failure to my CSR on the F & C run, fortunately it failed on a 50mph dual carriageway as opposed to some of the faster twisties which could have led to a nasty accident. I have just heard from Simon at Meteor who is repairing the car for me that the other side was also cracked, so a potential double failure.
if you own a CSR I would recommend an immediate check of these mounts, it's only by luck that I didn't have what could have been a serious accident.
Its been discussed before - Team Leos make replacements far cheaper than Caterham!
Gareth, sorry to hear that but a lucky escape. SamC also noticed cracked damper mounts when he rebuilt his CSR this winter.
What mileage is your car? Do you have any photos of the failure?
Gareth - I am glad to hear of your lucky escape.
It was after my chat with @SamC that I checked my USA-based 2010 CSR this year. One side, a cast metal (looks like iron) part was cracked. The other side, in aluminium, was not cracked and was in good condition. The cracked part had evidence of corrosion being the cause. Both have were replaced this month with the steel replacement from Team Leos. Given my CSR is almost exclusively a track car these days, the consequences of a failure on track are frightening.
Why I had two different metal parts - one on each side led me to do some investigation. Its fuzzy but there was a CSR production line changeover point from the cast metal part to an aluminium part around 2010-2013. All CSRs after 2015 in the USA (that I am aware of - about 6) consistently have the aluminium part. My 2019 CSR build has the aluminium parts. Since my experience, a USA Caterham dealer has since detected two cracked rear damper mounts in a 2006 CSR.
The failure point on the older cars seems to be only happening on the older style cast metal part - but I would assume all are potentially suspect given we don't really know.
I echo Gareth - check your CSR rear suspension mounts as a matter of urgency.
Mike
#2 Its been discussed before - Team Leos make replacements far cheaper than Caterham!
It has indeed. And what a heartwarming tale it proved to be, with brilliant help from members and superlative support from Team Leos.
JV
Ben, it's got approx 8k miles on it, these are the photos Simon sent me, I haven't seen the failed parts, (I'm off at the Laon Historique this weekend, should have been in the CSR! Going by the size of my wife's suitcase I think she's glad we're in the Cayenne :))
Thanks Mike, that's really interesting, considering the potential consequences of a failure you'd think Caterham would offer the upgraded part.
Thanks, yes I'd been through the previous thread and theTeam Leo's parts are being fitted as we speak. I just wanted to highlight the issue to anybody who wasn't aware.
Both of these mounts were cast aluminium.
we have since cleaned the "still intact" side up and both holes are cracked right through. interestingly it would seem that this was not down to corrosion between different metals. Both the Stella collets were free to be phished out with fingers.
I think Sam Coates can provide the correct technical explanation of what is the root cause here. From memory, his conclusion is that it is not related to usage (excessive hoop stress caused by the tightened tapered fixing in a corrosive environment?) but mainly time based. So, as I recall, a potential issue for all CSRs, given time.
I'm sure Sam can elaborate.
James
Interesting feedback. Thanks for the info Simon.
I'll catch up with SamC tomorrow about this.
I wonder if as a matter of course, all CSR owners should be changing their mounts for the Team Leos ones. I have been checking mine this weekend as was blatting around Wales, so far nothing suspicious. Difficult to see the forward part of the clevis, but from the rear:
Not sure what spec this is, it's on a 2005 CSR200 but looks in reasonable condition. Would be interesting to compare to other CSRs out there, if people are taking photos...