sjl1

Using a dash switch to flick between water and oil temps is a cheap and easy job which works surprisingly well, saves having to but an expensive replacement dual gauge and doesnt spoil the look of the dash.

Well i recently sold my decat pipe and reverted to the cat. Reasons? I had upgraded from 180bhp Duratec to 210 cams and the car started to fail the brands hatch drive bu noise tests, secondly, got fed up with the increased noise during normal driving, just too loud, im getting old and don't want to damage my hearing. Also had to refit the cat for the MOT so decided to declutter and get rid (sold £150). Havent noticed any changes in performance but the exhaust noise is less harsh and a little more room in my shed :-)

Its worse on sigma engined cars than Duratecs and probably related to fuelling and lightweight flywheels. Sigma engine cars are more prone to kangarooing and i suspect this has a lot to do with it, i think RnR mentioned that to me. Strangely louder from passenger seat than drivers seat also? Just wear earplugs :-)

Yes, they do rattle on overrun, worst in 4th gear i think, have driven 3 that all did/do it

If this was a normal tintop obvious suspect would be clutch?

Duratec decat pipe for the 360/420 engine, not polished and in good condition £150 + £10 royal mail or local pickup from Blackheath SE3 thanks Simon

I have a similar problem in that with the standard leather seat and headrest my race helmet gets pushed forward on trackdays. Have tilted the seat back a bit which helps but was planning on carving out some of the foam from the headrest and moving it to the back of the rest so the leather cover is still filled. Looks like this will make a bit room headroom cant reverse headrest on this car (S3), there isnt room, that worked on previous SV though

There has to be a better solution than the old fashioned key which only switches on the ignition and is in an knee injury creating position in case of accident. You can literally pull the leads out of the black and connect them very easily. Would be interested to hear of insurance friendly solutions? this is all assuming recent car with immobiliser

I have an as new metric roll bar S3 if you are interested? please PM me for details

I bought a new spray bottle at the weekend specially for this job since the one that comes with the bottle of acf50 wouldnt atomise the fluid. Unfortunately neither would the new one. Realised that keeping the acf50 in a cold garage probably not a great idea, too cold and gloopy for a cheap spray bottle to atomise it. Next time will try warming it up in some hot water first. i reverted to a rag soaked in acf50 and wiped it over everything, seems to work well enough, filthy job

When i upgraded my 360r to 210bhp i also looked around but realised that the cost of a non Caterham upgrade wasnt going to be any less and wouldnt have a guarantee so plumped for Caterham in the end. As you mention, the later engines dont need injectors or springs and a small discount was achieved. The upgrade works well and the throttle response was improved albeit not perfect. My car is nearly new so getting the Caterham guarantee (and resale value) made sense in case i decided to sell it Someone else on hear has had this upgrade and then later gone onto the two Steves for a remap (which uses throttle position) and reported an improvement in response and this is something i may consider doing in the future Alternatively you could just try getting your 360 remapped if the throttle lag is the main issue. Whilst the 420 feels more urgent, the 360 doesnt feel much slower, they are both very fast

Carpet now sold - thanks

Just noticed ‘six speed box’ topic next to yours with pictures of said lever and bush!

There is a plastic bush on end of gear lever underneath gear lever cover where gear lever selects inside box, this bush is known to deteriorate, suspect this should be your first port of call? good luck

A few things for sale to male some room, all items plus pp or collect from blackheath london S3 metric standard cages roll bar from 2016/7 £100 as new condition S3 carpets tunnel sides and boot floor, brand new £50 Car Cover sv/s3 storrmshield high quality outside breathable waterproof silver car cover with bag and straps, used once £100 Duratec standard cams from 360 engine 2000 miles, £50

Pretty sure caterham specced a titan lsd with carbon plates (which fail) on 2016 sigma’s Have you called caterham cars directly, they can tell you exactly what the car was sold with (they are very helpful)? Am guessing this will contradict your dealer ...

The six speed box is paired with a 3.6 rear diff. 6th is 1:1 so final drive is 3.62 compared with .82(5th) times 3.92(rear diff ration for a 5 speeder) = 3.21 so a bit lower by 12% but not hugely i think the cc 6 speed is loosely based on the ford box and they are a straight swap (good news) but you do need to change the rear diff ratio (bad news). You should be able to cheaply source a 5 speed box but consider upgrading with a BGH gear kit which raises 1st gear to make it more useful (standard 5 speed 1st gear is quite low) You will recover a decent amount for the 6 speed box and diff to cover the costs good luck simon

Having owned a 270/310 and a 360, recently upgraded to 210bhp i would also looking at the sigma engined cars, whilst not as powerful or torquey as Duratec’s, aside from trackdays they feel just as fast, and you can keep your right foot planted for longer, Duratec means younhave to back off sooner. Also sigma engined 310 is a sweet motor, similar to old K series, likes to be revved. Duratecs have much more grunt but for road work they arent as sweet. Duratec comes into own on track when power sees you through for passing more powerful cars. 360 and 420 (i upgraded from 180bhp to 210bhp) is noticeable but not that significant, both are VERY fast and more than enough for road work, you will always have to back off. 360 has wet sump and moa oil/water cooler which works well. When i enquired with engine builders about upgrading to dry sump i was told that plenty of people race wet sump cars and they are fine. Having tracked car quite a few times now, i am not worried. Main advantage of dry sump is improved ground clearance but at £2.5k i can live with this. You mention going for an SV, my 310 was SV but 360 an S3, i am 5’11” and 90kg. For touring and road use would recommend SV just for comfort and convenience, especially if taking a passenger. S3 is a tight fit and good for track days, but unless you are lightly built ultimately uncomfortable. I would recommend leather seats over tillets, way more comfortable ans still supportive. R or S pack?, main difference is LSD which i suspect most drivers dont need, you really need to cane it for this to start mattering, even with a duratec on 8” rears. Noise wise they bang a bit but nothing bothersome. R doesnt come with weather gear as standard, S does. S also comes with a heater which is a MUST have. Point being S is a lot cheaper and mote practical Something else to bear in mind is that Caterhams are usually a 2/3rd car and get very lightly used, if you spend big money on overspeccing car you might find yourself deciding to sell it sooner, whereas if it doesnt owe you too much, more likely to keep it longer? Dont overlook a nice 310 SV with a 6 speed box, could be the sweet spot of the range? (Think this is what i would go for next time)

Rob, Guy, Simon sounds like we have all hd similar experiences, i also agree its likely using 2nd round Druids did the damage. Will try adding the cat pipe back in for next time.

Scott its just a plenum and standard side entry air filter so not much induction noise which is the crazy thing i have seen a few 420’s with the rear race exhaust and may have to consider it just realised i have a decat pipe fitted, wondering if i should revert to the cat as a noise reducing tactic, seems the obvious next step :-(

After doing a few track days at brands last year in 360r spec i upgraded car to 420r spec (210bhp) earlier this year. This week i did the brands gp track day which was great until i got black flagged for noise on last session, probably because i started using 2nd round druids. Perhaps i shouldn't be surprised since i have seen other standard 420r’s have the same problem at Brands Would appreciate any advice on how to prevent this happening again since easing off isn't something i am keen on (static noise test was 96db) many thanks simon

I had exactly the same problem with same car and year, bmw titan lsd diff had carbon plates (intended to reduce noise) which disintegrated causing diff to fail. Apparently a common issue which caused Caterham to switch back to sintered plates caterham accepted responsibility but since car was a kit had to pay for removal and refitting which i thought was fair enough, they replaced carbon plates with sintered and all was well

This does sound completely normal from my experiences. Current 360r with bmw titan diff is very noisy and whines. Have just finished carpeting the rear bulkhead and boot using 6mm neoprene sound absorber behind carpets. It hasn't eliminated noise but much reduced it, quite pleased with results. i think the best way to stop the noise bothering you is to drive it like you stole it

The mazda box caterham use doesnt have a gear kit yet, apparently there is talk that Quaife may introduce one?

On the plus side, will this encourage firms like Quaife to develop mazda 5 speed close ratio gear kits? This would be an ideal solution, better than the CC 6 speed IMHO