Ult-jim7

Thanks for all your advice. Yes, lots of paper towel and gloves at the ready, and the battery was removed completely. The blue piece on the braided hose is a nice fitting piece of silicone hose acting as a chafe guard as it sweeps around close to the oil pump, etc. The other end of the hose comes off easily.

Many thanks for the quick reply

Hi all, have a leak in my braided fuel hose, believe it's the return leading from the front end of the fuel rail back to the fuel pipe to the fuel tank. I'm pretty basic with a spanner, so do you take off from the forward end of the throttle body where my fingers are pointing or from the connection marked with a red arrow? Any advice is much appreciated.

I raise the car off the ground (I use two long thick planks) that helps to avoid any damp on the floor of the garage. I use a Hausen Electric Tubular Heater (available from Amazon) that fits easily under the car. Under a loosely fitting cheap Halfords car dust cover it produces enough convection to prevent any condensation or dampness. It keeps the chill off the chassis & my R500 K series engine and being warm it starts easier. Don't forget to over inflate the tires as others have suggested. Use wheel chocks, let off the handbrake so not to stretch the cable. If in the UK the Banner battery does not like the cold, so I take it out of the car and store it in the the house. I use a trickle charger once a month or before I want to use the car for a 24 hour period to give it a top up charge only. I don't keep any type of charger ,trickle or not trickle on for long periods of time. That has worked for me for over 10 years now.

Put an electric fan heater under the car, its probably the dampness, considering you state that you washed the car before storing in the garage. I have a K-Series, went to start it the other day and nothing! Fan heater for 2 hours under the cover, made it all toasty snug and warm and it started on the button first go!

Many thanks for all your thoughts, advice and contributions. Dom, PM sent! I am starting to understand even though the tech is available it still a time consuming costly business. Ult-jim7

I am interested in digital scanning some objects from my Caterham to produce a CAD file to give to a machine shop to produce in alloy. That can then be used as a mold to remake the parts in carbon. I would be grateful if anyone can provide any pointers on digital scanners and CAD software for a Mac computer to accomplish this. Many thanks, Ult-Jim7.

Hello All, Recently had an online discussion about ceramic coating the exhaust headers so thought I would ask here also. Anyone done this? Good or bad. Have heard the view that it retains heat in the engine head, etc, however may help to reduce heat soak? Have Zircotec exhaust on my V8 Ultima GTR where it is a must & works extremely well. Sharing your thoughts & pictures here on this topic are much appreciated. Ult-jim7

I would Chris if building is your thing and its going to be a keeper, add it to the job list. Plus it depends on the look your after. Caterham are building to a tight budget, but there are plenty of bits & bobs that can be anodised, polished, powder coated, clear coated & made lighter out of carbon, Mg Alloy or titanium or to add some bling. I believe these types of cars being very low to the road soon look tatty even if you manage to never get them wet. So any extra laquer coating, modern day nano or ceraminc sealant protection, armourfend stone chip protection is a good idea before you start blatting hard.

If it is a keeper than I would recommend taking all your nice carbon pieces off the car and getting then recoated with a good quality clear coat to give them extra depth and shine. Then get a professional to apply Gtechniq crystal serum for long lasting protection. Nick at Topcoat (South France, where I am based did my clear coat) & while back in the UK in the winter servicing, KDS Keltec detailed & applied the Gtechniq.

Agree with your experiences, I also had to apply numerous extra coats of clearcoat and the fitting was a fiddle, yes they are expensive, but as you say they look the part and finish off the front end.

Test photo - Car detailed at KDS in Kent

Done. Now broadcasted to the whole world!

Here is a photo to show what they look like out of the box

I thought this thread was worthy of an update on what happened next. Well, I had a chat with Simon at Meteor Motorsport. Being my hobby car I always want the best & a compromise is not good enough so I treated myself to a full set of Penske 3 way adjustables. They are custom made in America, shipped over & Meteor motorsports apply their own magic to valve them especially for a high powered Caterham, backed up with a dyno to prove the product worthy. Yes it can be tricky taking the front shocks off without damaging the surrounding body work & wishbones, plus where to place the remote reservoir assemblies, however many thanks to Boss Racing in Kent who did a brilliant install job. The car was being detailed at KDS Keltec at the same time so the new shocks & springs had a coating of Gtechniq Crystal Serum applied for long lasting protection & shine as well. So after being delivered back in South France, with a fresh service, suspension install & total wheel alignment corner weighting I was eager to go for a drive. First things first I had an hour on the phone with Simon providing a fascinating physics lesson on how they are made, work, on how to read all the dyno curves and the correct settings for low speed compression, fast speed compression & rebound. The whole package dampers & shocks included the correct valving & base line settings for all the adjustments available. I'm lucky to have some twisty hill roads not too far from where I live including the Course de cote de Biot which is a great testing ground for any Caterham. This Youtube vid gives you a good idea: Anyway, after my first drive I was grinning ear to ear! To be honest I was a little nervous, as its been a while since driving the car, plus knowng that it would take longer to get the tires & brakes up to temperature as its been very cold down here lately also. So my findings: Definitely transfers more power from the tires to the road surface - very noticeable. More stable under heavy braking & acceleration (the front does not lift up as much when flooring it drag car style!) You can feel the fast speed compression providing a smoother ride especially at normal speeds on uneven surfaces / pot holes, drain covers etc. On high speed long open bends you can feel the dampers & springs preventing the role. My freestyle anti roll bars are slackened off to nearly the softest settings now as recommended in the new set up. I have more confidence to keep on the power into open bends or high speed twisty sections rather then lifting off. Or at least holding onto the power longer & braking later. It is more stable under heavy braking into the apex and very predictable & balanced while powering hard out of a bend. This gave me a grin factor of 11/10 :) Only comment is may be, still more testing to do, is a lot more noticeable twitch of weight distribution / sudden understeer or oversteer / have to correct, etc, only if I do something stupid like change gear or lift off at the wrong point in a bend, & of course only at silly / naughty speeds. Time will tell & I will report back if this is correct & I experience this more, however so many factors could outweigh this conclusion at this stage as testing has only been on winter cold hill roads. One downside is that it will probably require a full service off the car more often. I’m predicting every 2 years assuming my 900 to 1,400 hill road miles per year, however its nice to know that Meteor motorsports are there to advise & supervise this when required. All in all a great upgrade & definately recommend. Its so good I will be looking at the possibility for a similiar upgrade for my Ultima GTR in the future :) Ult-jim7

I would treat yourself to a new set of Avon CR500's if your using on the road plus one or two casual track days per year.

Thanks Simon

Ok many thanks all. Cheers A williams for your informitive review. With the La Route Napolean on my door step (lucky me) I guess I am looking for more of a hill climb mountain road setup. Looking for a full on damper valve setting for this environment but also to cover the shoddy UK roads and also able to firm it all up for the track. I believe my Freestyle Avo spring setup is at the stiffer end of the spectrum. Will continue the discussion with the Race team manager who looks over my car and inquire directly with individual suppliers. Ult-jim

Firstly, been a member for years but never posted. Apologise for lurking for so long. Secondly thumbs up to the new webside & forum - I like it! I have Freestyle supplied one way adjustable AVO dampers & springs. They have worked very well for me, no issues, have a great feel. However from what I read and hear there may be better dampers available & I wanted to treat myself to an upgrade. Nitron, Penske, Ohlins & Bilsteins, different valving, different springs, the choice makes my head spin. If money is no problem which one or two way adjustable damper do you recommend and for what reasons? The car is a R500 K-series mostly used for mountain road blats in the hills in southern France, and odd track days back home in the UK. Any advice would be much appreciated. Ult-jim7