David aka Blue7

IMHO it is a waste of time inspecting for cracks because you could inspect and find no cracks present and then go for a drive and the brackets could develop a crack and fracture while you are driving the car so I don't see the point of taking the risk. I suppose you could check the brackets before or after every journey, which seems to be what CC are suggesting but who wants to do that and it spoils the driving experience having a niggle in the back of your head that the suspension could fail at any moment. CC state: "If the inspection does not reveal any concerns, you may wish to continue using your CSR with regular checks." CC also state: "Mainstream road cars sometimes experience a similar issue in the form of a spring breakage and whilst unpleasant, it rarely causes a loss of control and the car can usually be limped home or to a garage for repair." I don' think Jimmy Stew would agree with that comment when he described his experience #9 as follows: "Interesting comments re the brackets, car was doing perhaps 60 ish, round a left hand bend, and it just let go, no collision or bump, was going backwards before I knew anything about it. As Blue7 says, not the best of days out but fortunately car did not roll over. The moor it ended up in was a good 10 feet below the roadway so count myself very lucky indeed." CC also state: "we may build a log of all current CSR owners and contact you as soon as a solution is available" There is only one solution for peace of mind and that is fitting the TL re-designed replacement brackets. At least CC are publicising this matter and I hope they are bringing it to the attention of all their official and unofficial service agents with a recommendation that the brackets should be replaced on every CSR they sell or service. Stefan Heth compiled a Register of CSRs, if he has any email addresses on a database maybe he could send out a batch email with a link to the CC "Calling All CSR Owners" page? David

Achtung Jochen, das Registrierungsblatt ist deutsch English registration sheet David

Achtung Jonathan, das Registrierungsblatt ist deutsch! English registration sheet David

#142 Thanks for the heads up on this Richard #144 Yes Sam, I was surprised at that statement by CC but at least they have decided to publicise the matter and as I suspected, the same brackets are still being fitted to the 485's David

#13 Jonathan, I contacted Tyneside Laminated Glass last year and they refused to sell me a screen, they only supply wholesale to CC, Redline etc. David

I'm with Footman James and they use National Windscreens. FJ were excellent but NW were a disaster, took nearly 3 weeks to get the screen from CC said they were out of stock but when I checked with CC they had plenty in stock as did Redline. When they eventually arrived to fit it there were two of them, one with one brain cell and the other with a few more but neither had fitted a 7 screen before so I had to keep an eagle eye on them both. They struggled with the rubber seal getting it to fit and sit flat and had to use a heat gun, which I was not at all happy about due to concern about damaging the paint. The last problem was cutting the ends off the seal but they eventually managed it. I said I would connect the two wires for the heated screen, which I did later on as they had taken well over an hour to fit the screen. CC say that they no longer supply glass only because so many people, fitters and DIY, were breaking the glass while trying to fit it to the surround. Finally, for some old yellow blatchat nostalgia, what has happened to the guy that used to reply to these threads by suggesting GO AERO! David

Update to say that CC now have both of my clevises the intact one as well as the broken one, I will update further with any feedback from CC. As I have stated before, only a small proportion of members seem to visit BC but every member has a copy of LF. I have therefore written a brief technical article for LF explaining the problem, indicating where the clevis brackets are located, where to source replacements, how to replace and urging owners to replace or at least check the brackets as a matter of urgency. Mike has proof read it and I made a few changes and hopefully it will appear next or the following month. Other than that I don't know what else can be done to alert CSR owners, there are 9 listed on PH at present, they all seem to be Trade. Ideally it needs CC to contact all their official Retailers to alert them to the problem but even then there are other specialist retailers, some of which advertise in LF, that will be unaware of the problem. David

I have only just noticed this thread and can't really add anything other than the diagram below showing the new dipstick with measurements. I used to use the catchtank method on my first two CSRs but my present one doesn't seem to spew any oil out so I have reverted back to engine up to temp. switch off and check with dipstick; I think my Garage checks with engine running. The first post by Nick above brought back an amusing memory, I was doing last minute checks on my first 2008 CSR prior to traveling to Outer Hebs., I had only recently bought the car and just checked the oil level as with previous cars with engine cold. I put a pint in, checked and nothing so added another pint and still nothing on the dipstick at which point I decided to start the engine up and it was like striking a new oilwell ... oil came out of the catch tank under pressure forcing it's way out through the two breather holes in the catch tank cap! The garage roof was dripping with oil and it took me the rest of the day to clean everything up. Another amusing event was when I collected the car from Nick Potter at Tebay Services. After signing various papers he handed me a dipstick and I asked why it wasn't located in the engine. He said there was a dipstick attached to the underside of the swirl tower cap but this was an additional one and didn't know why I needed two but he had been told to hand it to me. I joked that it was the first car I had owned with two dipsticks. When I got home I queried the matter with James Gibson and he said Nick should have explained it to me that the new dipstick had been issued because the old one attached to the swirl tower cap was incorrectly calibrated and had led to some engines being topped up with insufficient oil and had seized up! I eventually discovered on the old BC site a post by James Gibson providing additional Owner Notes 1, 2 and 3, James has posted No. 2 above. My 2nd and present CSR does not have a dipstick attached to the underside of the swirl tower cap, it was provided separately and I sheath it in a piece of heater hose attached to the scuttle. David

I'm not sure what the spec sheet is now but back in 2012 for Superlight R300 R400 R500 you could add lots of weight including full weather kit, according to how you spec'd the car. The only excluded items were spare wheel & carrier, cloth seats, c/f seats with alcantara trim, Motolita steering wheel, Supersport pack and academy race pack. I remember meeting one guy who had just bought a Superlight CSR and he arrived with windscreen, leather seats and a heater . I would say that the main weight saving items are spare wheel, seats and windscreen ... and the one that is always overlooked ... diet I attach a 2012 spec sheet but unless Jonathan can work some magic, the website usually reduces any uploaded images David

Sam that is interesting because that was the offside clevis and the bolt head was indeed on that side.

Update on my situation is that after discussion with Bob Laishley and CC Chief Engineer, CC are sending a Courier to collect my clevises, hopefully tests will establish the cause of the fractures. As an aside, when cleaning up the broken clevis, the thickness of metal on the broken section looks thinner than that on the intact section but it may have been drilled to a wider diameter for the bush, see photo below. David

Interesting reply Mark, I wonder if Gareth and Sam C have received similar replies from DVSA, in which case they will definitely have the failed clevis to provide CC with. I haven't contacted DVSA but I have been in contact with Bob Laishley who advises that he is investigating and will reply in due course once he has more information. I still have my failed clevis which I would gladly supply if Bob requests me to do so although I think CC should pay P&P. I agree with what you say in #121 in that CC should make the effort to contact all CSR purchasers and contact their Agents to alert them to the problem when they come to service or buy / sell a CSR. It is totally ridiculous that CC would not supply a clevis unless you ordered at least 10 but in hindsight you would just be buying 10 of the same design that are failing, unless Titan have redesigned their Clevises? Which brings us back to the 485, are CC / Titan still fitting this same clevis to their new cars? David

Fair comment. Unless driving at night or in adverse weather conditions, I think drivers at the rear probably notice the bright colour of the car before any lighting. I also think that the biggest danger nowadays is the mobile phone, drivers texting or using social media while driving, so even rear spotlights won't protect you from those people. One of the commonest sights I see is delivery drivers driving away from my house looking down at their phones and messaging back to base with a photo of the item left on my doorstep and confirming delivery. When I am a passenger I sometimes indulge in the game of "spot the driver on their mobile" and I recall one occasion when I counted 5 in a row!

>>"Caterham rear lights are quite poor (even with my JAL conversion" I find that statement puzzling, my JAL led conversion is incredibly bright both side and brake lights ... when did you last wash your car Paul?

I have just collected my car from the Garage having had both clevis brackets replaced and as can be seen in the photos there seems to be no damage to the nearside clevis, YET. I was told that the vertical studs and the other 4 bolts were removed quite easily but the damper bolts were a bast**d! I have contacted Mike Calvert to ask if he is agreeable to publishing an article in LF, attributing no blame but just highlighting the problem, explaining how the clevis brackets are replaced and where to source the parts and of course encouraging CSR owners to replace both clevises ASAP. Not many members visit Tech Talk but they all receive a copy of and read LF and personally I think we would be failing in our duty as a Club if we did not highlight this problem to members. I will have a go at drafting the article if the Club agrees. David

#125 Amended to add Eccles

Looking at the three threads I count 10 instances of clevis failure that we know of: Mark Jimmy Stew Gareth H SamC Croc (CSR260 2010) Steve sjmmarsh (CSR260 2007 54k miles) James shortshift: Just come across another identical failure on a CSR this morning Chris Hardman David Blue7 (2015 16k miles) Eccles An interesting remark by Mark 27/07/20 contacting CSR Race Teams, It turns out that for racing CSR's the part failing where mine has is relatively common. Anyway, as a consequence, Luke Stevens of Team Leos keeps the damper clevis in stock - he's had them remanufactured from a better quality material. David Edited to add Eccles

Has anyone been keeping a record of failures to date? Stefan Heth might be the best person given he compiled the register of CSR owners and I think his records showed that 482 CSRs were built in total. As far as publicising this matter, I seem to recall a past survey of members that indicated only a minority of members actually visit the website so the majority of members will not see this thread. In which case maybe an article should be published im Low Flying because all members receive and read it? David

I also agree with para 3 of #113 I must admit that reading all the comment, and there is a lot of it, to an extent I agree with SamC #114, in addition to a material failure, there is a distinct possibility that the bolt was over-torqued. These cars are so regularity played with and adjusted by enthusiasts and non Caterham approved garages, this failure could well be induced by over torquing that bolt, dampers necking out on the bracket etc. that it is very unlikely that it will be possible to conclusively prove a defective design. However, I have had my CSR since new, I have never touched those bolts and I doubt if the Caterham approved garage Dreadnought or my present garage would have touched them either. My car has never been tracked and only 16k miles in 8 years. So that reverts back to the build, which in the case of a CSR is always Caterham (with maybe one exception). So some Technicians at Caterham may have over-torqued the bolts on some cars and other technicians may have used the correct torque? Personally, I am not attributing blame to CC, I detest the "blame culture" and CC would not have intentionally designed a duff bracket, although looking at it, my opinion is that it is a sort of bolt on addition which should have been an integral part of the upright assembly. What I am really concerned about is getting the message out there to all CSR owners to prevent accidents which may result in not only death / injury to CSR drivers / passengers but also other car drivers / pedestrians that may be unfortunate enough to be involved. I seem to recall reading on one thread that Team Leos discovered the problem years ago when racing CSRs which is why they re-designed a better more robust bracket? It is odd that all the original OEM brackets seem to be failing now, ... please don't reply saying CLIMATE CHANGE David

I stand corrected, I have just received a reply from Bob Laishley as follows: Dear Mr Evans, Thank you for bringing this to my attention, please allow me some time to study with our engineering team and come back to you with a more formal and comprehensive reply. Regards Bob This sounds promising, if CC can acknowledge the problem they can at the very least advise all the Agents to check and advise owners to replace CSR clevis mounts when they are serviced. It sounds as if CC are not aware of the problem, which is surprising? David

I emailed Bob Laishley last Sunday 30 July but I have not received a reply. The email address I used was bob.laishley@caterham.com I assume that is his email, if anyone has a different email please let me know? To be honest I doubt if I will receive a reply but I am always hopeful given the Japanese First Bushido Code being Rectitude or Justice 正義か正義か。 Masayoshi ka Masayoshi ka. I don't want to cause Caterham any bad publicity as such but they should have some integrity and make an attempt to contact purchasers, they must surely still have names and addresses and it doesn't cost much to write and send an "advisory" letter. Not long after CSRs were first built, there were a number of Technical Updates so CC could take a leaf out of Microshaft book and issue a "Critical Update". SamC will have some valuable information, he had the parts analised in a Lab. here Mark seems to have been the first person to have experienced this problem back in 2020 so he will have some good information also here Also Jimmy Stew has some good information here: Car at Stuarts and has been examined. Insurer has reported as follows: " In the engineers opinion the 'Shock Absorber had broken away at its mounting point' and 'The damage to the fractured parts appears to be fresh with no evidence of previous fractures' and 'the fracture of the suspension part is possibly as a result of a latent defect in the component which has suddenly given way'." My Garage phoned yesterday to say the they had replaced both clevis brackets without problem but ... they had discovered hairline cracks in the steering rack which would require welding David

#101 Do I detect a touch of cynicism

Mine has never been tracked either and only 16k miles but as shown above, one mount is broken and part of it is missing. In my opinion it isn't a matter of IF but WHEN they go. My car is now at the Garage and they are amazed that Caterham have not recalled or at least contacted owners to make them aware of the problem. David

I think it may have to be a job for my local Garage because I just can't shift the damper bolt. Meantime I have emailed Bob Laishley drawing his attention to the matter and suggesting that CC should make the effort to contact all CSR purchasers of both new and second hand cars. David

John / Gareth I will report the matter as you suggest, thanks for the link. Sam, I was made aware of the issue September last year at a Car Show in Nairn when I met one of the CSR design team followed by another guy who had been a passenger in a CSR when the clevis failed after descending Bealach Na Ba, luckily no one was injured. At the time I thought I would just get the mounts checked at my next service which is next month. I opened a thread here you actually saw the car. I should have acted straight away but your recent thread spurred me into action David