Ben Fung

Original Caterham Composite Aeroscreen for an S3, SPA Mirrors and fittings also in the kit (RRP £340 on the CC site). All brand new in original packaging, because they're unused it mean mirrors have not yet been mounted to the aeroscreen (no holes drilled in it yet). You can have the lot for £240 +postage unless you're collecting.

If you're still unhappy with the idle I remembered that CC also mentioned to me the idle bypass screw which might also be worth you checking.

I had exactly the same problem with my Duratec R400 and adjusted the throttle stop as Angus suggested, it now sits happily at around 1100-1200 (it doesn't register anything under 1300), starts and stays running without problems it does sound a little lumpy but is sorts itself out after a minute or so of running.

Just walked in after finishing exactly this addition to an S3. I measured, on the inside of the bulkead, 12mm to the left of the bottom left screw holding the fuse box a standard 12v socket (got mine from Maplins) pops out in a nice clear spot on the otherside too. Doesn't obstruct the passenger and gives the battery plenty of clearance too.

Woohoo! They've resolved the issue and I just picked up the car this morning for a lovely sunny maiden blat. The fix was just tweaking the ECU so nought to be done by me. Glad it wasn't anything I missed. Thanks for all the suggestions. 😶‍🌫️

My kit only arrived with the two goats and Halfords were out of stock, I'll be sure to keep pick up an extra one next time they go on sale guess you never know when one might come in handy. Guess it'll save of the upkeep of the front lawn too. Now should I choke the chicken 😳 pre or post SVA? I want to make sure I get past emissions test.

Chris - Thanks for digging up that info for me, certainly sounds like quite a saga you endured. Glad to hear all is going well now. Akakubi - I hope not but I've mentioned it to them As for fuel had around 30L in the tank so we could rule that out too - plus fuel is getting into the cylinders quite happily. The other stuff I tried was - Checking for 5V on TPS - Starting without TPS - Sacrificing a goat - Starting without crank sensor - Starting while manually manipulating TPS spindle - Reversing TPS - Dancing a little engine start jig - Different idle bypass screw settings - Double checked the spark lead order (that took a while, wire colours didn't match) - Sacrificing another goat - Resetting ECU and crossing fingers in between all these steps Still no luck! After troubleshooting this over the phone with Chris Weston at Caterham he thought it best to just trailer it up and let them sort it out at post build this week. So CC have had it a couple of days now and still getting to the bottom of it. That means its out of my hands now but I'll be sure to update the post once they come up with the solution. Thanks for all the help guys, I've really appreciated all the suggestions. 😶‍🌫️

OK so adjusting the grub screw didn't work and neither did disconnecting the battery for a few minutes to reset the ECU. Would this coils in the wrong order generate these kind of symptoms? ie won't start without throttle application, won't idle and stalls? It's slso quite spluttery too when it starts with throttle applied) I looked at the wiring diagram but the colour of the wires don't seem to match what is attached to the coils. Is there another way I can confirm its firing in the right order? And this might be really obvious but and I haven't noticed which cylinder would be cylinder #1 on a Duratec?

Thanks for all the replies, unfortunately this is still going on. The R400 is running a plenum chamber as opposed to the throttle bodies so adjusting the butterflies wasn't really something i could do rather I could only really put more tension on the throttle cable, which didn't sound like the right thing. I missed the obvious method of resetting the ECU being to unplug it and leave it without power for a minute before reconnecting it so I'll have to try that. "Have you tried rebooting it?" Chris - thanks for the advice on the TPS/Loom problem, I saw your post earlier and checked the plug. It seems I've getting the 5V on the outer pin and just under 5V from the middle pin so connectivity to the TPS looks OK. Different positions of the spindle on the TPS didn't seem to make a difference either - not that it was even adjustable. Just spoke to Chris at Caterham and he's advise loosening the Idle Bypass Screw (a grub screw somewhere apparently) which is on the plenum but I don't seem to remember seeing one, guess I'll have another look tonight.

Any ideas on how to reset the ECU or if it's possible n the Duratec? I did a search and found this post http://blatchat.com/t.asp?id=147752 I tried the five prods of the throttle method but I didn't get the buzzing/clicking. Guessing there might be a different way to reset it.

Could it be a possible issue with the IACV/throttle position sensor? The sensor was replaced because the original ones retaining clip had snapped. Is there a position that the rotating sensor needs to be in other than just mated to the spindle on the IACV?

The engine has finally started but all too briefly. This is a new build with a Duratec and while it starts it wont fire without a little prod of the throttle and it stalls shrotly afterwards unless I keep the throttle in. Now for the newbie questions. Are we supposed to adjust the throttle cable till the throttle is open enough for the engine to continue to idle? I thought it should just start on its own and idle. Is it just an adjustment that needs to be made or should is this odd behaviour from the engine. Also there appears to be a little moisture being spat out of the exhaust, this is accompanied by quite a bit of black grit or soot. Is this normal for a new engine? Lastly the oil pressure seems to sit at about 6bar - is this normal? (the battery was discharged diagnosing an earlier fault but was left charging overnight, so while it is running a little low, I don't think this should be too big a deal unless someone can tell me otherwise).

Sorry to hear that Phil - was only just contemplating getting a set of wheel locking nuts last night and your post has made my mind up. Cagey, I'm guess the seat angle is angle of bevel on the washer for the wheel nut, but which side is it measured from? Is it from the vertical or horizontal? Or can someone save me the effort and tell me what the 15" wheels', which arrive with the current R400, seat angles are?

I recently had my boot carpet edges 'whipped' or overlocked by the local carpet and furnishing store and they charged me £2/ft and did a pretty good job of it. They just handed it over to whoever supplies carpets for them and I got the carpet back in a couple of days. Just ask your closest carpet retailer and see if they can help you out.

Mike sounds like you were right. The immobiliser was supplied intact by Caterham so I've no idea how it was setup - I believe it was a vendor install so possibly not even CC installed it. Having spoke to CC they seem perplexed about the behaviour too and think it may be a back to base replacement of the immobiliser. This means I won't get the joy of hearing it come to life for the first time after my efforts building the thing. So unless I want to trailer it back and forth, just to hear it running in my own garage for jollies, the first time I'm likely to see it running is probably post SVA. Absolutely gutted!

When I typed dongle I meant the transponder reciever (it's like an RFID type setup) as you can tell I'm not too clued up on the terminology of it. A mate suggested that the immobiliser may have been wired in incorrectly with the wire to the ignition circuit and the wire to the transponder being swapped around resulting in a few amps being pushed through the poor transponder reciever and a few mA through the ignition circuit. Does this sound plausible? I'm holding out (poss vain) hope because it still detects the key fob when it's brought near the transponder reciever with all the clicking of MFRU and change of LED status (albeit to off). Called CC but haven't had much luck getting through today

Cheers for the reply - we're looking at a Duratec R400. The oil pressure sender arrived already plugged in, are the connectors for the sender specific on polarity? I guess a manual pressure gauge might be handy to check whats really happening but that's not a toy tool I own. Anyone able to help out and lend me one?

Sure, I've brought it in today so any day this week is fine.

The first attempt to start the car has been a little disappointing. I've cranked for oil pressure and it register barely 1 bar, checking the dry sump tank the oil has moved from the engine and into the tank ok, there were also leaks from the inbound and outbound hoses on the dry sump so I'm pretty sure there's oil flowing in the system. So tightened the hoses, reconnected and reset the inertia switch then tried to start it up. Everything seems ok so far, unless I should be registering more pressure than this? In key position one all seems ok. In key position two, the immobiliser (Sterling Excel) light flashes rapidly then goes out when the fob is brought close to the dongle by the key barrel although the instruction manual says it should turn a solid red. The fuel then pump primes and MFRU clicks despite the LED switching off. Now here's where things get funky. The dongle seems to heat up quite rapidly (too hot to hold but no fuses are blowing) and while the engine cranks it's just not firing up. Removing a plug we checked for a spark - no love there and also not smelling petrol from the cylinder/exhaust. So it looks like I'm not getting fuel or a spark. The immobiliser reciever doesn't cool down until keys are removed, it actually could be getting hotter but I didn't want to leave it in and chance it. To top this off, when trying to start it up the oil pressure gauge whips up past 8 bar for a second or two then drops back to zero for a few (maybe 5 sec) seconds before whipping off the scale again for a couple of seconds repeating this bouncing oil reading. So looks like an immobiliser issue, any ideas on what might be causing it and a solution for the problem? Also is the erratic oil pressure an issue or am I safe in assuming it's just happening while trying to fire up? Edited to mention that the inertia switch is not being tripped when trying to start the engine up. Edited by - Ben Fung on 24 Feb 2009 09:39:27

To throw another hat in, I've also got one you can borrow. I'm over in Clapham Junction and working by Monument if that helps you.

Use some duck tape on the skin it'll give you a little more confidence when wiggling the thing out. Like Adam said once you get it you'll have that "Wow! that was easy" moment quickly followed by "hmmm how did this get in/out again?"

Not having much luck on the electrics on a Duratec R400 I've taken a guess at but there's the potential to be WAAAAAY out from what I'm actually supposed to do. So I'm hoping the POBC could come up with the definitive answer. Apologies in advance for the rather verbose background but I really am a newb well out of his depth here. According to the instruction manual the brown wire from the alternator is connected to the same terminal as the positive connection from the battery (no problems there). A brown/red wire from the chassis loom is then supposed to be connected to the solenoid, while I've found no such wire there is however a red/white wire already connected. Also there's no sign of a black wire, with a ring terminal, from the engine loom which is supposed to be connected to the bulkhead. Lastly there's a thick brown wire (8mm ring terminal) in black shielding which pops out from the transmission tunnel which the manual doesn't refer to at all. Now I think that the brown/red wire the manual refers to is the red/white one that is already connected and that the second brown wire is the positive lead for the chassis loom which needs to be connected to the starter motor as well. As for the black wire I thought thought the engine loom was already earthed from the wire popping out from the ECU so not worrying too much there. I'm not quite sure enough to 'take a punt' on it - images of sparks and the smell of burning already flashing in my mind, so anyone who can confirm or correct me on this one?

Nigel - sorry to hijack but I was looking around LED rev/fog lights too and wondering what LED's you're planning to use?

This is a nice little pair (ooh errr) I picked up last week which quite a bit smaller than the originals here E11 marked so they're also SVA compliant. Whether they cover the holes in the cycle wings I couldn't tell you since I never installed the originals and went straight to these small ones, so sorry I can't help with that but perhaps someone might be able to shed some light 😬 on the dimensions of the originals?

With a little more investigation it turns out the filter is in the fuel system recessed into the fuel tank. Didn't think there could be such a signifcant oversight in the design.