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Posted

As some might have noticed here I got new winter tyres today.

 

I have noticed a bit of a funny smell driving around today. Something that kind of comes and goes, but it does smell of something getting hot. At first I thought it might have been the temporary manifold patch DaveMorris was kind enough to apply to stop it blowing, but that wasn't blowing any more than usual. Then I wondered if it might be the oil getting a bit too thick with this below-0 weather. That's still an option, and I'm getting new oil in tomorrow, but I couldn't immediately smell anything fishy with the bonnet off. Then I considered if it might be something coming through the heater as with these temperatures I'm wimpy enough to have it on.

 

Anyway, I noticed the smell again when driving home so I thought perhaps it's the new tyres, as that's the only other new thing. I checked the rear and with my rear-exit exhaust the tyre is pretty close to the pipe. Maybe 5-10mm, tops. I never bothered looking how close the summer tyres were so I can't compare. The winter tyres do obviously have a thicker tread and the rims are not Caterham ones. How much space should I have there? Could it just be the little bits of rubber you get on new tyres touching the exhaust?

 

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Kristoffer Lawson

Posted

Hi again

 

Unless the whiskers from the moulding are actaully touching/melting onto exhaust pipe, or the hot gas is blowing directly onto the rubber (which it shouldn't be if you have rear exit), I just can't see enough heat transfer to get the rubber up to smelly-point. [especially with such low ambient temp].

 

The tyres are not rubbing or catching somewhere else, are they, eg under the wings or on a rear coilover? or... if exhaust is touching tyre only on a dynamic situation (bumps/cornering), there would be tell tale marks on the pipe.

 

Can you smell it when moving or standing in traffic?

 

P

 

6SpeedManual *smokin*

*tongue*There's no such thing as too much BHP per Ton 😬

Posted

The standard U bracket holding my rear exit exhaust touched the tyre on occasions; it melted a small track around the inside of the tyre. It only did this while driving; stationery, it looked fine. In fact, the tailpipe was very close to the chassis member. I changed the bracket for a stainless strap type that reduced the diameter by 3 or 4mm, and that's fixed the problem.

 

Plus, check your front flexi brake hoses; they can touch on near full lock too if they're badly set up. The steering rack with clams allows much more travel on full lock than cycle wings.

 

Alex McDonald

A loud 1700 SS

Posted

Setok,

 

I had this problem with rear exit exhaust and it eventually badly damaged the tyre even after changing brackets etc. The safer alternative was a side exhaust was James Whiting and was an easy fit.

 

 

Posted

Oil change done but still that smell. I just can't figure out where it's coming from, but it does now narrow it down a bit. I should try driving around without the heater to see if I get it then.

 

I notice it when I've stopped at lights or whatever, but that might not really help as when moving air tends to flow around quite a bit.

 

By offset do you mean the position it sets the wheel in relation to the sideskin? Like how close it is. To be honest, I don't know as the wheel change was done by a tyre shop. I know that the original Ford rim they tried was bad. It was too close to the exhaust. This is now a Peugeot rim.

 

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Kristoffer Lawson

Posted
Is the 'offset' on the new rims the same as that on the original ones?

probably not

 

Caterham rims usually have a much lower offset than most tintop rims

I wouldn't be surprised to discover that with the rims he is running the tyres are much closer to the sideskin/exhaust than they were with the original Caterham rims

 

however I have no clue wether this could actually be the cause of that smell

 

Enrico

My Caterham Seven's photo gallery *cool*

Posted

Scalper, do you run with the same rims summer & winter in the Alps or have separate ones for the winter? Beginning to wonder if I should've just put the tyres on the K&N rims ... Then again that would mean another trip to the tyre shop in the spring etc.

 

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Kristoffer Lawson

Posted

Kristoffer,

on my previous seven I had an old battered set of alloys that came with the car (standard Caterham width/offset) which I used for the winter tyres as this gave me the chance to quickly change from summer to witner tyres and viceversa. *smile* As I used the hakkapeliittas only for fun blats in the snow and skitrips this was a big plus. Unofrtunately here in Italy, contrary to Finland, the roads are clear of any ice or snow most of the time ☹️

 

On my current seven I still don't know what to do

I've managed to get hold of an old set of narrow alloys from a Ford Fiesta. But I'm afraid that while the alloys do fit ok, the tyres might foul the cycle wing stay. Unfortunately I have no way of finding out unitl the tyres arrive and I try them on. If as I fear the tyres don't fit I'll either have to get some spacers made, or fit them to my 6" summer alloys

 

Enrico

My Caterham Seven's photo gallery *cool*

new Yellow Banana pics here

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