What is 'normal'

[TomB]

I have had my 1.4 K supersport for a few days now & I need advice as to what are the 'normal' operating characteristics of this car.

 

Is the following anything to worry about? its has just been bought from caterham midlands with a 6000 mile service.

 

1. Should there be a quiet clunk as I bring the clutch up on gear change? Is it just the clutch bearing doing its job?

 

2. Are shakes & rattles from the rear end on crap urban roads a normal de dion characteristic?

 

3. Although the exhaust is not smokey, it is quite smelly. Is this normal, or is running too rich?

 

4. Squeeky brakes.

 

Where is the temp sender? My temp gauge is being strange & I have had a fiddle under the dash & not rectified it.

 

Any bright ideas why the fogs wont work? Fuse & bulbs seem OK.

 

Cheers in advance,

Tom

[scooby dooby doo]

1) the diff and drive train will clunk etc, and as there is so sound-deadening you'll hear it. as a general point the lightweight of the car seems to make quick, solid changes feel smoother. compared to a tin top which likes the opposite

 

2) the car is VERY light but still has a relatively heavy suspension. so yes - it'll get upset by bumpy roads. in the same way as a big bentley rides better than a mondeo.

 

3) smelly? how do you mean? when you're sitting idling you'll breathe it in more than in a normal car. but it doesn't smell as such... if its too rich the exhaust would get blackened and the spark plugs will be blackened as well. there's no way to adjust the fueling so i'd be surprised if it was out...

 

4) have you got uptrated brakes? ie are the fronts and rears different? they do squeak a bit sometimes.

 

5) water temp sender is on the black metal pipe (water rail) on the left side of the engine as you sit in the car. one goes to the ecu and one to the dash. ah! do you have an apollo tank? (big aluminium old style fairly liquid bottle in front of the engine) you'll have an oil termperature sender as well then. there should be a switch to select the temp gauge to oli or water under the gauge.

 

6) they can fill with water and corrode overtime.

 

to be honest if you've bought it from a dealer as just serviced then 5 and 6 are a bit shocking. they are just wear and tear items but a service should see/rectify them.

 

Dave Hooper - North London

dmch2@lineone.net

[ashaughnessy]

What brakes do you have? Some people remove the anti-squeal shims from the pads (to get possibly better feel) and it seems likely that if you have no anti-squeal shims you will get squeal :-) I don't have the shims fitted and my front brakes squeal.

 

As already said by hoopy, the fog light connections can get corroded. Remove the lens and you'll see the connections. If they look messy, unscrew them and clean them up with fine-ish emery paper or similar.

 

Do you have a wiring diagram? If so, it's relatively simple to check the wiring using a cheap multi-meter and touching various points in the circuit. The fog lights won't come on unless the side or head lights are on though.

 

My car makes a different funny noise every time I take it out. Part of its character. Mine's quite old though (1987).

 

Can't comment on the exhaust, temp sender, or clunk. My car stinks, but it's a crossflow and they all stink. If I had a clunk when releasing the clutch I'd think there was something wrong, but my drive train isn't like yours. Search the archives, there are often threads about clunking noises when taking up the drive and various suggestions have been made.

 

What do you mean by your temperature gauge is being funny? Describe the funniness. There have been enough stories about K-series cooling that you want to make sure it is just funniness and not a real problem. What exactly are the symptoms?

Anthony

[Ray Pearce]

Fog lights will only work when you have dipped headlights on.

[tony isherwood]

And go off when the headlights are on full beam. (Or is just my car ?)

[Paul Ranson]

If the car has a catalyst then that might account for the smelly exhaust. A standard SuperSport shouldn't really have other engine smells since there is no breathing to the atmosphere. I suppose an oil leak could whiff when hot. So is it a bit rotten egg or hot oil?

 

Paul

[F355GTS]

If you get brake squeal with or without shims smear a very thin layer of copperslip grease on the rear of the pads....always works for me

 

Mark

[TomB]

Had a good fiddle with the car tonight & got the fogs & temp gauge to work. Fuse had gone on the fogs. I took the temp sender off & cleaned the contacts & wrapped a fragile looking wire in insulation tape. Is there only one wire from the temp sender? Thats all I've got on mine.

 

The little niggles i have seem to be intermittent electrical problmes that in themselves are not hard to fix, just a bit puzzling at first!

 

Cheers guys

[F355GTS]

One wire is correct!

 

Mark

[CHRIS CLARK]

Tony I.

 

The fog light(s) should be 'on' with switch when dipped H/lgts are in use, but go out (even though switch is still in 'on' position) if main beam is activated.

Your fog light operation is correct!

[Alias]

Hoopy / Chris

 

Don't suppose you know the approx weight of a 1.4ss (with fluids but without driver). How much difference would some Carbon Fibre make.

 

Apologies for changing the tack of the thread slightly!!!

 

 

 

Edited by - robf on 10 May 2002 00:30:56

[scooby dooby doo]

carbon is an expensive way to lighten things. if you look at the prices on the caterham website it'll cost (ish, from memory):

nose 700 2kg off

frong wings 180 ea 500g off

rears 320 each 1kg less

you'll save 5 kg tops.

 

in comparison the seat runners are 2kg per seat, wiper motor is another few, leather seats are more than tillets, 13" wheels are lighter, magnesium 1kg lighter again, ACB10s are 1.5 kg lighter than anything else, windscreen is 10kg or so.... spare wheel and carrier at least 10kg, roof bars 1kg, roof 2 kg, doors -> half doors saves hmmm.. 3 kg each. going to a lightened flywheel can save another 5kg.

 

I run all of those lightning measures except for i still have seat runners (they'll go in the rebuild) and yoko 32s cos they don't tramline and are better in the wet. only now am i doing carbon wings. but 700 for a nose!!

 

going on a diet is cheapest of all!!!! :)))

 

Dave Hooper - North London

dmch2@lineone.net