martyn

As mentioned above, standard automotive OBD readers wont read the MBE ECU. It is however very easy to do and should be your first step. Dont pay anyone to do it, plenty of people on here (myself included) have the necessary cable. Its a worthwhile investment if you run a car with an MBE ECU. It sounds though like you may have an intermittent wiring gremlin somewhere. But first you need to rule out a faulty sender.. plugging into a laptop will tell you that.

Have you had it plugged into a laptop while its exhibiting the problem yet?

Do you mean you have a continuous coolant flow from the small top hose? If I understand your linked post, you've used a banjo bolt into the bleed port to achieve the same setup that I already have? Giving yourself the same 'self bleeding' convenience?

In my case, there is a small tee in the yellow hose soon after exiting the upper expansion tank, connecting to the top of the radiator. I guess you don't have this otherwise you would have easily noticed it. You probably need a 16mm one. That is what everyone else has used and it is 5/8" hose after all. My car is a sigma 150 and has the modine oil-water heat exchanger connected after the tee. That possibly explains why mine is different. Easiest way to check it to measure the diameter of the visible part of the tee piece.

I've recently refilled the coolant in my Sigma and just want to double check everything is ok.. With the engine running, there is coolant continuously flowing from the top expansion tank hose. Is this normal? I've never noticed it before and assumed this was a bleed pipe removing air from the radiator. On a related note (and I suspect the answer to the above has something to do with this)... My sigma radiator doesn't have a bleed screw. Does it need bleeding or is it 'self bleeding'? For reference here is a picture of an identical setup to mine.. http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii19/320bimmerman/GARAGE/Caterham/IMG_5102.jpg

Yes it is keen. But like I said it really doesn't take any longer and the cost of the oil is negligible. The longest part is actually getting the filler plug in and out, which you've got to do anyway if just topping up. Gearbox oil should be good for life without changing, and you're right about there being no combustion byproducts. However, gearboxes do produce small metal fragments (especially when new). Personally, I'd prefer to drain those out if it means minimal extra effort.

Some reading through the archives here will show that Redline MTL is probably the most highly recommended oil you can get for the 6 Speed 'box. Mixing the oils isn't going to cause any problems. However, there isn't any reason not to drain the 'box and refill. Realistically, it wont take any longer than just topping it up. Then you've got the peace of mind of knowing you've cleared out all those metal shards that like to collect at the bottom. I change my gearbox oil every year. Edit.. Sorry, just re-read your post and realised you are doing a refill, but dont have enough oil! Personally I'd buy another bottle then keep it spare for top-ups or the next refill.

Tees changed over at the weekend. Really pleased I did this because it was a breakdown waiting to happen within the next 300 miles. Before I started I could see that on the larger tee the hoses weren't all entering it at 90 degrees to each other. Up until now I had just assumed this was because of the orientation of the hose. Actually when I took it apart, it was already split half way around its circumference. The remaining portion of attached diameter had bent slightly causing the angle that I could see. The other two connections were both deformed/crushed and the black plastic had turned white in these areas. If you still have the plastic tees then check them for any asymmetry asap. If you can see any then it is likely that the plastic has already split under the hose clip. Even better, change them out to brass ones at the first opportunity. My car needed an 8mm and 19mm tee piece.

Can someone help with with buying the correct size Tee pieces please. I have two plastic Tees that need replacing. The first small one, joining the radiator to the expansion bottle is connected with rubber hoses labeled "Fuel Hose 5/16". I have measured the outer diameter of this hose at 15mm. Can I presume then that 5/16 is the internal diameter of the hose at ~8mm? Which size Tee does this relate to on the Car Builder Soilutions website? 8mm presumably, or do I need to account for the internal diameter of the tee? The larger tee is connected with silicone hose that isn't labeled. I have measured the outer diamater of the hoses at ~26mm. I have no way of knowing the internal diameter of these, so which size tee should I buy? Thanks.

The MBE ECU doesn't implement the OBD standard. Yes it does have an OBD style plug on the loom but that is a red herring. So to answer your question.. No OBD scanner will work with your car. But that is a good thing, OBD is a pretty crude system that gives limited information. There is a better way.. You need to buy a cable direct from MBE themselves and plug it into a laptop. On a Sigma engine, the correct item is the MBE-MAP-KIT-3-CAN shown here: http://www.sbdev.co.uk/Engine_Management_Systems/ECU/Programming.htm That is probably the correct item for the Duratec as well but I cannot confirm. John Vine should be able to verify because I recently helped him get his Duratec connected. With this system, you'll be able to see any error codes, but also monitor every engine parameter in real-time. Much more useful for debugging problems.

Yep, thats exactly what you want. If you ever need to remove or replace your TPS you can use these values to position the new one exactly as it should be. One last test I forgot to mention is to rotate the throttle linkage on the bodies around to its stop by hand and see what Site you achieve then. If, for example you can get higher than 14.4 by doing this then your pedal stop is set too high. Its unlikely because that should have already been set, but its always good to check you dont have an extra few mm of pedal travel hiding under there Obviously have the engine switched off when you do this. Sorry to the OP, its gone a bit off topic

Shouldn't need a profile for brightness. The up and down buttons adjust the brightness on the fly. My control unit is by my right knee, so I'm constantly adjusting it up and down as I drive into the sun or away from the sun, or as it starts to get dark.

You can use easimap to check your TPS calibration as well. Call up a panel called "Throttle Site 1". It should read "0.0". The slightest touch of the throttle should move it off "0.0" If you can noticeably move the throttle pedal without the site increasing then you need to adjust something. Watch the "Throttle Angle 1" panel (already present on your home page) as you do this. If the throttle angle voltage is increasing but the site is not then you need to adjust your TPS. If neither the throttle angle voltage or the site are increasing then you don't necessarily have a problem with the TPS, but you do have too much slack in the throttle cable. Readjust the cable tension then try again. Its also interesting to see what site you get at wide open throttle, although this is mostly only useful as a sanity check to see if you're registering WOT when adjusting pedal stops.

If you didn't already know, you can set up multiple profiles. I have road and track profiles. The only difference is that the road profile has the shift down point set to 900 rpm. This stops that annoying light coming on and off as you drive. It only comes on when you really need it i.e. about to stall!

Nice work. That is interesting though and perhaps my understanding of how the MBE outputs the tacho signal is wrong. Maybe it does just pass through the pulse from the coil. Seems I got lucky on my sigma and the first setting I tried (4 cylinders) just happened to work.

Yes you can set both rake and corner weighting correctly. A car could have so much rake that the rear is 2 feet off the ground, yet still be corner weighted for perfect front distribution or cross distribution. Rake is used to control handling balance front to rear. It does this by raising or lowering the rear centre of mass and rear roll centre relative to the front. It can also make small adjustments to the weight distribution front to back. I wouldn't worry too much about what needs to be set or what values to set to. Discuss your driving with a setup specialist and they'll tell you the best values they've chosen for you personally. If you do want to do it yourself with the Caterham recommended values then all the instructions are in the Assembly Guide.

"Flat floor" I believe refers to the flat workshop floor that is needed to perform any kind of geometry adjustment or corner weighting. People have mistakenly started using that term believing it refers to making the floor of the car flat. Which obviously is never the goal. To me getting a car "flat floored" refers to the entire geometry setup and corner weighting process because you put the car on the flat floor to do it. Its not correct to say "flat floor" is another name for "corner weighting". But you're right, I dont like that term at all, and just prefer not to give it a name. Edit.. Beat me to it Scott!

Easimap can be downloaded from here: http://www.sbdev.co.uk/Engine_Management_Systems/ECU/Easimap6_Download.htm Plug it all in. Start the easimap software. Then turn on the ignition or even start the engine. You should see all these guages and numbers come to life. I believe the Soft Cut and Hard Cut are shown on the default home screen (you can see them here in the bottom right). If they aren't there you can add them by clicking Page > Add Panel.. You'll then find them under the "Engine Speed Setup & Limiter" section. There are literally hundreds of other parameters in there that you can view in real-time as the engine runs.

Yes it is exactly that.. by changing the height of each corner. By raising one corner up, you add more weight to that wheel, and it's diagonally opposite wheel. Think about the analogy of a wonky 4 leg table, where 2 legs are longer than the other 2. The two longest legs carry more of the tables weight than the others. You can aim to have equal weight distribution on the front wheels, which gives good breaking performance, but might mean the car has a slightly different balance when turning left vs right (because the rear will be quite uneven). Or you can aim to have the weight evenly distributed across the diagonal pairs of wheels. This will give the same balance when turning in either direction, but will probably mean that one wheel will always lock first while breaking. As you can see, setting the corner weight messes up the ride height at each corner. This is why its not really useful to get too fixated on each corner of the car being a certain height off the ground. Its all a compromise of optimum corner weight vs a balanced ride height all round.

Well there is one easy way to find out.... The MBE ECU has a soft cut limiter that is usually set one or two hundred RPM lower than the hard cut. It wont cause any damage to gently run into this limiter. As long as you don't do it every single gear change. If you really don't want to do that then you can plug into a laptop and use the Easimap software to see what the soft and hard cut limits are. You'll need some hardware or a cable of some sort for this though.

The sump height, and angle of the front wishbone are basically measuring the same thing. You cant change one without affecting the other. Specifying a measurement/parameter for both doesn't make sense because it will only be a huge coincidence if your wishbones actually are parallel at 80mm sump height. That will depend on many factors such as what wheel size and tyre profile you have. The actual depth of your sump etc.. It is a waste to go to an engineer and ask them to set the parameters you've already worked out. You can do that yourself one afternoon by simply turning the spring platforms. And anyway, how do you know your parameters are the correct ones for your type of driving? Instead find someone who is experienced in setting up Caterhams and go to them. They'll ask you how and where you like to drive, and what sort of behavior you like from a car. Then they'll decide and set the best parameters for you personally. As Revilla points out above, almost everything in setup is a compromise; there are no right or wrong answers. Anyway, there are other parameters you haven't mentioned that you certainly can't set at home. Toe Camber Caster Ride Height Corner weight - yes this should be included as part of the service.

I've been to a few driver briefings where they've said that all cameras need to have some kind of tether, regardless of the type and security of mount used. Seems like a sensible precaution and could be as simple as a piece of cord wrapped around the rollbar.

I just edited my reply above to remove an incorrect bit. I incorrectly said the tacho feed wire has an inline fuse. It doesn't, the fuse is obviously on the 12v line. So I guess you can rule that out. All lights coming on when you switch on the ignition - yes that's normal and rules out a wiring problem in the LED unit. "RPM ?????" is also normal when the engine is stopped. The question marks should be replaced with the actual RPM when you start the car.

In a normal Caterham factory installed setup, the shift lights aren't connected directly to the ignition coil. Instead they run from the tacho signal wire supplied by the ECU. This makes that confusing paragraph in the SureShift instructions largely redundant and a bit misleading. It all depends on what the MBE outputs as its tacho signal. I.e, does it output one pulse per revolution, or four, or whatever..? Because the MBE is a dedicated 4 cylinder ECU I presume it outputs four pulses per revolution. This is "sort of" verified, because 4 cylinders is the correct setting for the shift lights on my sigma which I believe is wasted spark. Your settings look correct and that they haven't changed since it was first configured. I'll presume your unit is receiving power and lighting up. Ruling out a 12v or earth problem.. Firstly, check that the display unit shows the RPM on its screen when powered up and engine running. If it doesn't the unit is either broken or you have a wiring fault on the tacho feed from the ECU. Next I would set all the values really low.. Shift up: 800 rpm, First up light: 600 rpm. Or whatever is the lowest values the unit will allow. This should cause all lights to flash continuously at idle. Then go through all the cylinder options. If you don't get any flashing then there is some other problem. With an RPM displayed on the control unit and all the parameters stupidly low, you're only really left with a wiring fault between the control unit and LED unit - probably bad soldering inside the LED unit. Open it up and check inside. Check for continuity back to the 7 pin connector that goes into the control unit and for shorts between the LED terminals.

I've got the AP 4 pots circa 2008. The wingstay does obscure the extraction of the retaining pin. It even makes that very clear in the assembly guide to ensure everything is assembled in the correct order. I can’t believe this is news to everyone. However you don't need to remove the wing. You simply undo the upper calliper bolt and loosen the bottom one. Then the whole calliper can be rotated rearward where the pin will then clear the wingstay. Sorry scott.. I thought you were referring to the wing / retaining pin thing and not the squealing. I guess there are many factors that determine the amount of noise a pad makes. Type of pad being a big factor. I've also had pads that have started squealing as they've got older and got continuously worse until they were changed. If they're making ridiculous noise then sure look into changing something to sort it out. But personally I'm happy to compromise and accept a bit of a squeak when cold and used lightly if I means I can fit the pads that I like.