fastlady

Bright green (lighter than BRG) and black Seven, with black / carbon trim on cycle wings and rear wings IIRC, heading towards Guildford from the London direction on the A3 at about 3pm this afternoon Spotted you from the tintop going back towards London - great day for a blat!

Yay! Spotted!!! 😬 Yes that would have been me - doing 40mph exactly (officer!!!) - I was picking up my car from Andy Belcher at Tech7 after its MoT 😬

Proxy spot by fellow Blatchatter JDW7 in a rather wet Calais this morning - a large group of about 14 Sevens getting of a ferry at about 8.30 today. Didn't get details of all of them but couple of reg. Nos were FH?? NJJ and M??? MPU. Where were you lot all off to? 😬

Hmm, thanks all - lots of things to check there! 😬 Charlie - from your list: 1. Does it happen if you drive along at a constant speed? Yes 2. Does it happen under acceleration? No - pretty sure it doesn't 3. Does it happen under deceleration in gear? Do you mean deceleration under engine braking not whilst pressing the brake pedal? 7. Do the noises coincide with the road surface - if you go over a pothole do you get the sound more? Seems to though not it's not an exact correspondance with the road surface, it's similar to the usual diff noise in that as the car jinks from side to side on a rough road I hear the noise more, if I'm on a smooth road I get it less Will try the other checks when I next get a chance to drive the car and let you know the results. Andy_h - yes I do have a rear ARB (which definitely used to be connected!) and will check that out along with Charlie's list next time I get a chance - probably this weekend.

Kevsta - thanks for that, and it definitely sounds "thin" (like that terminology!) like a piece of sheet metal, so hopefully that's a good sign! 😬 Will have a look at the things you suggest to see if I can spot anything obvious, plus I will get the de-dion checked out anyway as it's due a service in the next few weeks.

Just wondered if anyone might have an idea what might be causing a klonking sound from the rear of the car when pootling along at steady pace along a road? Car is a 2002 S3 de-dion K roadsport, if that helps. It's not the usual diff klonk as I'm getting that as well - it's an extra noise, which I'm sure never used to be there, higher pitched and more like the sound of something shifting from side to side and tapping another object, a sort of "tick-tick, tick, tick-tick" - not a regular "ticking" sound like a clock though but sounds as if something were rattling around in the car somewhere. But I've checked for the obvious things like something loose inside the cockpit or boot and can't see anything that could cause it, and it doesn't sound quite as random as that probably would anyway. It also seems to be commensurate with the motion of the car and gets worse on rough roads as the car jinks around more, though it does go away altogether on occasions (interestingly under acceleration when the other diff klonk goes away, though that may be coincidence). Any ideas? Is it just another type of diff noise I've not noticed before or something I should get checked out? I'm fairly sure it hasn't been there all the time I've owned the car and has only started recently (last summer, didn't drive the car over winter but still there on Wight Blat).

Fred, I know this sounds like an odd question but are there two separate markings for + and - on the top cover and main body of your battery, and if so are they the same way around? My last battery (an Exide bike battery, which has now been replaced as it expired in the cold weather!) was like this - the terminals marked + and - on the top cover were actually the wrong way round and the markings on the body (reversed) were correct. Whoever connected it up originally thankfully had noticed this and marked the correct polarities on the top with a marker pen! It's probably worth a check if nothing else

Again slightly out of London in Redhill but I would always recommend Andy Belcher at Tech 7 who looks after my car (including getting MoTs done, though he sends them out nowadays) - however he's a Sevener himself and used to run a well known and extremely Caterham-friendly MoT garage 😬 but has since set up on his own, and is well known as a bit of a guru around everything "Seven" . He's also pretty easy going about when you can drop the car off and collect - I can't easily get the car to Redhill during (long) work hours but he's always happy to take the car at a weekend or in the evening if that's easier. Blatmail me for his number, or I think he also advertises in LowFlying so you may be able to find his number there anyway. If you really want somewhere very close to Putney then the guys at theGerman Motor Company (yep, you guessed it, they normally specialise in German cars! 😬) tell me they have also done MoTs on Caterhams and other unusual / exotic cars in the past, so if you think you're going to get through without any trouble (i.e. your car isn't highly tuned and doesn't need proper warming up to get through emissions tests for example) then they might be a closer alternative. BTW - I'm in Putney too and as you're so close to it I hope no-one minds if I also put in a small plug for the "Sahf London" Clapham meet tomorrow night - why not come along and meet a few more of us Seveners south of the River! 😬

I think I am going to need a replacement battery for my Seven as it didn't seem to hold any charge when I tried to charge it up yesterday. The car is a 1.8k roadsport with DVA K13 upgrade and it currently has an Exide bike battery - I would prefer to keep the same type, or at least one with the same dimensions, mainly for ease of replacement. So I'm wondering where the best place to get one fairly quickly would be. My biggest problem is that I am only able to collect something like this out of work hours, unless it is from somewhere within 15 minutes journey by tube or taxi from Marylebone - unless some kind soul in the London area could collect it for me and I could come round to get it one evening or weekend! Any help appreciated!

Had the same thing with mine and it also stopped after I replaced the battery in the key fob, so I would certainly think that's worth a try in the first instance

Ali with turquoise wings, L reg, heading north on Putney Hill just by the heath at 7.15ish tonight. Think it might be the same one I spotted a couple of weeks ago on Putney Hill from my bike but this time it was going down the hill not up!

Doug - I only just missed you this morning then as I was only a few minutes behind that on my bike! Will keep an eye out for you in future

Spotted an ali Seven with turquoise / greenish rear wings heading up Putney Hill just after 7pm today. Think it was an L reg but could have been a newer style registration too. Was on my bike a few car-lengths behind you so didn't get anything other than a brief look before you whizzed off when the lights changed!

....on the A34 going towards Silverstone this morning at about 11am.... for once without all the usual flux capacitor (a.k.a. coffee grinder ) and other "Back to the Future" gubbins stuck all over it 😳 Don't see many of those on the road these days - especially ones that actually look like proper cars!

Spotted in the car park at the Wisley RHS garden about 5pm this afternoon - Q plate, ali with red nose cone and wings Lovely afternoon to be out in a garden as well managed and beautiful as Wisley is - the flower displays are simply stunning at this time of year