David aka Blue7

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

Thanks Ben. I have just removed my offside wheel to discover HORROR, part of the clevis bracket is broken and missing and all that is holding the damper in place is the pressure of the bolt against what remains of the broken clevis eye! Caterham should really be getting their finger out and try to contact owners of CSRs ASAP. My CSR is one of the last to be built, 2015 16k miles. David

Anodised? Do they need to be anodised? I was going to just fit them as they are bare ally, which is what Ben seems to have done in the photo he posted but I was toying with the idea of painting them black before fitting. David

Have you managed to remove the sheared bolt Pete? I was thinking it may be worthwhile using Sam's technique (#41) and heating the clevis in the oven to soften the glue and expand the bracket so it may unscrew easier? David

I see what you mean now, you only have a threaded depth of 13mm in the new clevis whereas mine have a depth of around 19mm. So your 35mm bolts are 2mm too long unless you put a couple of washers on the bolts but 13mm isn't very deep and it would be preferable to use the full depth by tapping the bottom 6mm. I assume that all four holes are only threaded for 13mm and it's not just a mistake made by TL on one hole? If it wasn't for the fact that Luke is on leave I would be inclined to ask for replacements or get him to re-tap the brackets. It looks like tapping the remainder is the only way to go which is a real hassle. Best option may be the one suggested by Sam, get a local guy to remove the broken bolt and tap the remainder of the holes ... I was going to say tap the bottoms but Kevin Spacey got into a lot of trouble doing that Good luck David

The more I read the more I lean towards getting it done at the Garage. Thanks for the info on the damper bolt Pete. When you say "don't have stainless bolts" do you mean don't use them, if so what bolts are you going to use ... once you get that one out? Pete, you say: "So with <7mm of shims and 13mm of ally on the upright i'm looking at 10mm of thread in the bracket". I don’t quite understand that, if 7mm shims + 13mm upright and you said earlier you measured a depth of 19.7mm in the new clevis, that is 39.7mm in total and if you add a washer then a 35mm bolt should fit and possibly a 40mm bolt? From my normal stock of odd bolts, I can screw an M6 into the new bracket to a depth of 19mm, the shims are about 7mm wide and the rear casting is 13mm which is 39mm in total so a 35mm bolt would screw in to a depth of 15mm into the clevis block. This is without using a washer, I don't see any washers on my existing bolts but in the photo below supplied by Ben there is a washer. If a washer is used (approx 1mm thick), that should allow a 40mm bolt to be used? Given that TL fit these clevis brackets to their cars, surely the depth to which they have drilled and tapped the bolt holes is adequate? The brackets supplied to me are bare metal as in Ben's photo but the bracket in your photo Pete is black, have you painted it or was it supplied like that? I haven't looked at the off side yet but the existing clevis bracket on the near side shows no signs of cracking whatsoever. David

Ben, how easy / difficult is it to remove the damper bolt shown below, I assume you slacken off the nut to the end of the bolt and then hit the bolt with a hammer to push it out but there isn't a lot of room between bolt and wing to swing a hammer? Once it has moved and flush with the wishbone I assume you grip the other end with a mole wrench to pull it out? David

Ben that's a very useful photo you posted and surprisingly low 7NM torque for four of the bolts. My very old bar type torque wrench is lb/ft so I thought I would treat myself to a new reasonably priced torque wrench but very few go as low as 7NM, the nearest are bike torque wrenches at 5-25NM, and a Draper one at 10-80NM but I'll keep looking. David

Yes I just heard that also. Who did you order your bolts from? I don't trust Amazon for quality so I would normally use Demon Tweeks or Car Builder but neither have M6x35mm hex bolts only 30mm or 40mm 8.8 High Tensile Steel so I would probably get the 40mm and cut them to size but you must have purchased them elsewhere?

Thanks Pete, that maybe explains why Luke hasn't replied when I asked him to supply two. David

#53 Pete, did you buy two new studs, if so where did you buy them? I don't see them in your photo so maybe you intend to remove and reuse the existing studs? Does anyone know where to buy these studs? For avoidance of doubt, these are the studs I am referring to David

You have the posh arm rests fitted to your doors The only fix is to just use a bit of brute force to align the stud on the arm rest. Most cars have the standard strap and popper fitted at the rear of the door but it can be a hassle turning in the seat to secure it. David

Caterham use their standard black silicone, which they use for everything including front wheel stays. Any strong silicone should do eg Gorilla but I drilled a hole at each corner of the plate and used 4 small bolts to secure it to the cover. David

Alan, just unscrew the circular nut at the rear of the dash, you are correct in what you say (see below). However, I would agree with Jonathan, the fault may be the horn in which case consider upgrading to twin snail klaxon horns as recommended here somewhere, a vast improvement over the Caterham "beep". David

For Information, the "very nice fella north of the border", still has another pair left if anyone wants to buy them. David

Thanks Sam I assume the oven softened the glue rather than expanded the bracket, did you clasp the stud with a mole wrench? Only problem will be putting it in the oven for 30 mins, I feel a big clash coming on with SWMBO unless I do it while she is playing golf David

How easy / difficult was it to remove the studs? David

Thanks Ben, given what you say I think I will let my Garage do the work, they are very reliable and well respected for Caterham work. Below is a photo of my Team Leos bracket plus a photo of a broken bracket. The new TL bracket stud hole is threaded so I had assumed that the stud would screw in and out but if it is glued in also it could be a devil to remove with say a mole wrench so I think I will get back to TL and ask them to supply me with a couple of new studs and maybe also new mounting bolts, David

#32 BenF, my Team Leos brackets arrived last week, my intention is to get my local Garage to fit them but I see that you intend to replace them yourself, is it relatively straight forward? I would imagine that the main difficulty would be removing existing bolts. I discussed the problem with a fellow CSR owner a few weeks ago and he was of the opinion that his car was low mileage and would be ok but in reality it does not seem to be related to mileage. I think CC built 482 CSR's and there have only been a small number of bracket failures reported here to date but given Team Leos experiences, it would seem to be prudent to replace the brackets asap. I suppose CC could write to all owners highlighting the issue but they may not want to do so for legal reasons / litigation and many original owners will have sold their cars. I wonder if the likes of CC Agencies, Cars & Classics, Turn 7 etc. will replace the brackets before selling their cars? David

FURTHER UPDATE: Caterham Technician arrived this week to investigate the problem, here is what I have been told: "Had a Caterham technician up today from the factory giving my car some minor repairs of cam cover gasket, new plugs, seal the bolt hole water path that led to rusty plugs and check the cooling mod by Jim King - all good. Lambda sensor fecked though hence the flat spots - unplug, sweet as a nut." So still no explanation as to how the water ingress occurred and I am not sure what is meant by "bolt hole water path" but I will try to find out more. By "cam cover" I assume he means coil cover, in which case there seems to be a gasket fitted on his 620, unlike my CSR which has no gasket. That is pretty good service from CC sending a Technician up here to Aberdeenshire, I doubt if that former CEO would have sanctioned that. David

Update after discussions with Bob Laishley, is that CC are sending a Technician up to Aberdeen to inspect the cooling modification and also change the "cam cover" (I think he means coil cover?), which may have a leak path. The coil cover on the 620 looks the same as the one on my CSR and as pointed out on this and one of the previous threads, the coil covers don't have a seal, unless the 620 version does? In any case it seems to be accepted that water entered from an external source rather than condensation and I think that is pretty good service from CC sending a Technician up to Aberdeen, I doubt if Mr McDonald would have sanctioned that. Here is what my friend said: "I can report that I spoke to Bob the Caterham CEO today and they are sending a technician up soon to look at the cooling mod and change the cam cover as apparently they have identified a screw area which is a leak path hence only two of the 4 plugs got wet at some point - when(?) no one knows but quite a while ago. " In answer to #12 7 wonders, the last time I changed plugs is many moons ago on MkI Mexico with 1600 GT crossflow engine and from what I recall the plugs had washers. David