CA Sevener

Thanks to Miltec who prompted me to go and search options again. I had discounted bulb upgrades due to filament/LED location issues and now complete LED lamp replacements are a reasonable price. I made the switch last weekend & for those interested in the details, they can be found here: https://csr175.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/better-viewing-led-headlights-on-the-7/ Mark

Here in the US we have to modify a Duratec to Caterham spec without instructions - makes life interesting. And of course the wiring is not obvious. So this might help: https://csr175.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/water-electrics/ Mark

Per a Cosworth CSR260 build manual I have - M8 bolts for alternator bracket to block torqued to 20Nm. Depending on the bracket the top alternator bolt to bracket connection might be with an M10, in which case this can be torqued to 40Nm. Otherwise M8 bolts alternator to bracket 20Nm. I hope this helps. Mark

Oz, there is likely minimal true aero effect, and you would need to be going well above legal speeds to benefit, but that is not the point - they look cool! John, I think this is what Blue7 was suggesting something along these lines

John, Not as far as I know. I bought mine from CC and they are fractionally under 20cm along the straight edge that get affixed to the nose. Mark

John, Here is some information about the whiskers I fitted to my CSR, so same as an SV. I hope this helps. Mark

Looks like CC has this size on sale today, per their online store, £136 Mark

Expat, thanks for the battery lead description. That sounds like a much neater plan to the one I have. I have a spare thicker lead too. Another thing to try. Nigel: I also had thought that it was something to do with power to the ECU. I thought it was the ignition switch being intermittent, so put a new one on thanks to Derek at Caterham. However, no change. Perhaps this second ignition switch is also intermittent? It's possible... I may try some hard wiring. Mark

Expat, interesting. Do you have the main battery negative attached to the engine? I am assuming that this connection is the earth for some of the loom points to ground? good news on the starting. I have not resolved my version of the problem. By the way, do you always get to hear the fuel pump priming on the final ignition position before cranking the engine? Mark

JK, I wish I could, but it happens intermittently and mostly when I am actually out and about. I am going to think about the best way to be able to monitor the voltage on the battery and on the fuel pump. The temp and oil pressure are not directly connected to the sensors on the EU5, but I believe are controlled by the ECU. The process to get it to start is simply to switch off the ignition, wait for the immobilizer to kick back in (~30 secs) and then try the starting process again. So far it always has started, with a worst case of perhaps 5 of these switch off and wait cycles. The engine always cranks solidly, so I was not suspecting a battery issue.you can always tell if it is going to start before it does because you either hear the fuel pump or not. i moved the ECU connections directly to the battery yesterday afternoon, but have not had time to test it, except to verify the car would start, and of course it did first time then...but I have learned that that this is not an indication of a real fix, yet. Mark

Expat and others, Had a day off work today, so I put the car on axle stands and slid underneath. I undid, sanded and retightened the rear earth point and the earth points at the front of the loom near the ECU (these are attached to a bolt that holds the ECU to the top of the aluminum bulkhead beneath the battery. After all this...no change. One thing I did notice after some extensive start/stop testing was that when the car did not start the oil pressure and water temp gauges behaved oddly and instead of their usual move to their correct positions, when the engine was cranked, they swung hard over to maximum. Does this point to anything? It leads me to believe that perhaps the front ECU loom earth points could be better placed. Does anyone have some ideas here as to what might be better? Here's a picture of the earth tags bolted to the ECU tab, between the battery & heater here. Mark

JK: thanks for the idea, putting a monitoring connection on the fuel pump will be my next approach. Simon_h: I appreciate the Evora lead. Some quick searching did indeed turn up the right kind of photos...I will do some more digging. Do you happen to know any of the following that has been intriguing me: 1) Is the Lambda sensor wideband or not? 2) Is the ECU locked or is there some way to link in to this ECU over and above an OBDII monitor? 3) How does the immobilizer work? The fuel pump seems to use the earth at the rear of the car. It is at the back of the transmission tunnel. While the bolt is tight etc., your comments are going to encourage me to actually take it apart, clean and reassemble. What is really getting at me is that this problem was not present for the first 2k miles and when the car is running, there is not hint of it. Ah well, the joy of 7 ownership.

Expat - thanks for starting this thread, I came across it this weekend and can attest that my car has exactly the same symptoms. I have an EU5 spec CSR175 which ran perfectly for the first 2k miles and then started exhibiting difficult starting. Hot or cold, you never know whether it will start first time. Generally if it does not, you can wait a minute or so and it will eventually fire up. Once running it is perfect, and checking the plugs, color is text book, so no fuel starvation etc. I have posted details of all my diagnostics on my blog here, and there are several entries that I am sure you will find useful: Here, here (including links to wiring diagrams), here, here and here. You have the same Lotus branded 3 plug ECU that I do. It is an OEM version of an Italian made EFI unit and it says it should be good down to 7v supply voltage. I think the pin outs are on their web page. As Simon_h stated, electronic throttle. I have the immobilizer LED on the dash, although my dash is a standard one, and it certainly pulls in per the other comments made here. The starting sequence I have noted is as follows: 1) turn key to position II - immobilizer LED goes from slow flash to on, main and fuel pump relays click in, buzzing from electronic throttle and if all good the fuel pump primes (if the fuel pump does not prime, then the car will not start later) 2) switch off immobilizer - you can hear the click and the LED shuts off. If the immobilizer is not switched off the car will not crank 3) crank the engine by either turning the key to position III or pressing the red start button (there is a recent Caterham workshop note disabling the position III cranking action, but I have not implemented this as I do not think this is the cause) 4) if fuel pump primed engine catches right away. cranking voltage ~10.3-10.6V (I am using an Odyssey PC680 battery) So, I have narrowed this down to the fuel pump not priming. I have checked all the wiring, swapped relays, checked the ECU diagnostic codes, but found nothing. As earlier, once the engine fires, it works great. Since the fuel pump is controlled via the relay with the ECU, it could be an ECU issue. I do not know why the ECU would work perfectly one trip and not the next. Perhaps the wait period resets it in some way. I had an intermittent ignition switch, but have replaced that, thanks to Derek. Or there is some connection issue with the immobilizer. I have checked the earth and it is connected firmly to the windscreen wiper motor bracket. But it would be useful to know how the immobilizer is wired in. I do not think it is easy to bypass however, since I believe it works by recognizing the tear drop key fob, then sending a matched code to the ECU allowing it to operate. But the engine cranks when it is switched off, so it seems to be working OK. I hope this will help the discussion, because, like you, I am looking for a solution... Mark

Louis, CBS as stated. Here is the link to the relevant blog page https://csr175.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/high-level-brake-light/ I did drill the roll bar. Well it is not the FIA approved one and if I roll the car I figured 4 small holes (one for the wire) were not going to make any difference! (I hope that does not invite open season on all the reasons one should not drill a roll bar - just my choice). No in-line resistors required, just plugs right in. The light was spaced off the roll bar with 3 small spacers so everything lines up square. Works great and shines nicely though the clear rear panel on an SBF7 half hood. So far none of the giant trucks/SUVs that are common here have rolled over me... Mark

Rob, Thanks for correcting, glad it was useful. No idea how that happened as I copy/pasted from the browser. I have been reading more posts on Blatchat related to noise levels and limits on track. Not something that is currently being pushed in the U.S. This rear exit approach seems to be the cleanest approach to achieving lower noise levels without some much fancier, and costly exhaust/silencer configuration as seen on Caterham's 485 export model. Mark