ScottR400D

My business used to involve the sale of tyre changers and wheel balancers amongst other things. Retired now but still have a modern changer and balancer in my garage. That's just background. When I built my R400 last year, I rebalanced the 4 Apollo wheels (CR500) and the spare set of the same that are fitted with ZZRs. All 8 wheels had significant imbalance as received. I back coned them in the centre hole because that's how they appear to be located on the hub, not by the nuts with loose seats. After balancing, I slackened the clamp, rotated the wheel 1/2 a turn and clamped again. No significant change, which indicates an accurate mounting on the centre hole They're all fine on the car, no trace of vibration. There was a little run out on the rim but nothing significant. From memory there were a couple of biggish weights (50gish) but some were very small. In conclusion, I would say they need to be back coned, not reverse mounted or flange plate but need to be very clean on the back of the wheel centre, as does the face of the balancer spindle. I won't criticise KF but my balancer is better than most of the ones they have, unless things have changed recently, and in better condition, though to be fair they use theirs more than I do mine! I would suggest you seek out an independent with a good machine that he knows how to use.

I calculated 22mm drop in ride height and 7.5% speedo overread from those figures. Seems a lot but, of course, a 7 should run on those tyres.

Yes it does, as said earlier. The point is to get the bottom of each tyre at exactly the same height, more correctly the platform of each scale at the same height. IME garage floors often have a slight fall towards the door so I would carefully check that it's level in both directions before I just went ahead and set corner weights that way. As an example, if your garage floor sloped by 10mm across the wheelbase of your 7 you could end up with perhaps twice the rake that is recommended and too much weight on the front. If you don't have a perfectly flat floor, corner weighting will be a waste of time.

Except that if you don't have the car on a flat floor, the corner weighting is pointless. The term flat floor simply refers to what the car is sat on, but covers anything from a flat, horizontal floor to 4 separate scale mounts, set to exactly the same height as each other.

No problem Martyn. I was talking about the squealing but I'm quite intrigued by this thread and I've just had a look at my car, which has the newest 4 pots. The top pin doesn't come out because the stay is in the way. I thought it might wriggle past but I tried and it won't. As you say it's easier to move the caliper than remove the stay. I see what you mean but in my case the caliper is bolted on radially, not from the side so it would probably need both bolts removing and the caliper pulling straight out until the pin could be removed. In answer to the earlier question, with these brakes the pins can't be put in from the other side, they are held in by a split ring mechanism and will only go one way.

My R400 doesn't do it, never has. Is this thread more to do with the standard brakes, as opposed to the 4 pots?

Does this vary model to model? On my car it looks like the top pin will just clear the wing stay.

Just to finish this off, if anyone's interested, the replacement pcb, which solved the problem but suffered some cosmetic damage in shipping, was replaced again by CC. I fitted it on anti-vibration mounts, instead of it being fixed solidly to the bulkhead, so hopefully it will now be more resistant to road shocks. It now has the added advantage of being quickly removable from inside the car, as opposed to having to move the heater. Credit to CC, the response once the failure happened has been excellent, plenty of advice and replacement parts shipped overnight each time.

Does this help?

I guess you could take it back to the dealer but what Ian suggests often works. Which is easiest?

Which wire was at fault?

What condition are they in and how much would you want for them? I have an SV with composites and am thinking of buying some leather seats for road use.

Right. Changed the whole switch and you do need the little tool, or a couple of small cable ties but the tool is better, to separate the switch element from the push button. Didn't make any difference so, as I'd already change the flasher unit, I contacted CC and they sent me a new pcb. I plugged that in temporarily and all seemed fine after a couple of runs out so I fitted it properly this afternoon. Seems the whole system works with the switch, flasher unit and 3 latching relays on the pcb, one of which has been failing intermittently. Odd thing is that you have to remove the heater to get at the crews that pass through the bulkhead and into captive nuts on the pcb plate. Makes it a much longer job than it could be. When I have a bit of time I'm going to change the arrangement and make it removable from inside the car.

Thanks Aerobod. So you're saying that the tool is definitely for separating the switch element from the push button and not for dismantling the switch element itself, as I was led to believe. I think you're right. I'll wait until I have a whole new assembly before I change the switch, that way I can fully understand how it all works before I remove the old one.

I think I know what you mean. I can't do that in situ but can if I remove the switch. But doing that might disturb the switch element and name it seem OK. seems a very complicated mechanism for such a simple job. Form over function? May main concern at the moment is how I get the blue but off the rest of the switch. Thank for your quick response as usual JK!

Hi all. Well, I got a new push button switch from Caterham but haven't yet fitted it. As I reported earlier, It was all behaving as expected in the garage. However, I just came home from a few weeks away and pressed the hazard switch. They all started flashing but wouldn't stop. Disconnected the battery and they stop, of course; reconnect the battery and they stay off but they start againon the switch and again won't stop on the switch. Battery disconnected again. Now that seems to indicate, possibly, that the switch is faulty and isn't working when its pressed to turn off. Of course any other component in the circuit could be giving the same symptoms but at least I now have a repeatable symptom so I plan to swap the push button that Caterham sent me. Caterham tell me that the switching element simply pulls off the back of the push button, no special tool is needed. I infer that the 'switch element dismantling tool' available from EAO is for dismantling the switch element further once it's off the push button. Can anyone confirm this is correct or otherwise? As, it seems to me, the fault is just as likely to be with the switch element itself, I think I'll buy one of those and the little tool kit too so at least I'll be ready to change that part if the the replacement of the push mechanism doesn't work. I attach an image of the actual switch from the rear. It's the left one with 2 purple, 1 black and 1 green wire. The blue bit is the switch element. Its actually the upper switch in the image but for some reason uploading it rotates the image left 90.

I've got a 60/300Nm T/W and also a professional crimping tool for the hood/boot cover durable dot poppers. I found the basic 'hit it with a hammer' tool a bit inconsistent to say the least! Brake bleeding kits are quite inexpensive IMO. No home should be without one!

I'm 15 miles west of Norwich. Have engine hoist with balance bar, all special sockets etc; everything needed really, including pneumatic riveter. Happy to loan to club members.

I agree but didn't think £43 was too bad. I remember a few years ago I got stopped down in France without any,l; even though the roads were fine I was escorted to a local supermarket store to buy some. I never used them but they wouldn't fit my current car. From memory they were more than £43! I go down there most years so it's not too costly.

That makes sense. I'll check it when I put it back on. I've just put the full screen back on for the next few weeks or until the next track day.

Thanks guys. I did try Martyn's suggestion but the screen fits quite niceley as far as the ends and the hole alignment is concerned; there doesn't seem too much I can do there.

Thanks for that. I tried before but wasn't getting the main window where you choose the image.

Well, I fitted my new aeroscreen. No problems really, got the knee panels off easy enough, fitted the captive nut bars and bolted the aero on. As I've read with others, the screen, although fitting pretty well on the whole, has a gap underneath it on the RHS. If you look across the car it also sits a little higher on the RHS, at a slightly steeper angle. If you push the top down on the RHS, so that it matches the left, the gap underneath reduces but I cant see any way of making that shape change permanent. Any ideas? I'd post an image but cant figure out how to, it seems incredibly difficult?

By the way, though it's a .co.uk site it's a German company. My chains arrived in about 4 days though, free delivery, right on time.

I got a set for my 530D from Tyreleader.co.uk for £43 odd. My tyres (winters) are 225/55 17 but I think it's the same model of chain that you need. The quality is fine and given that they'll quite possibly never be used I wouldn't want to pay the price of some of the better, easier fitted ones. These are Weissenfels Tecna M30/13. https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/snow-chain/weissenfels/tecna-m30/13-101 You'd be welcome to borrow mine as long as you don't want them March 5 - 12th when I'll be using them but it hardly seems worth it at that price.