patneale

Dear Antony H I have just gone down to garage and have my K series plug spanner on the desk. Hope this helps. It ia exactly 12inches long and stamped "Halfords 10 mm" It is round section all the way down to the bottom 1 inch which is pressed into 6 sided shape to fit the plug. Inside about 1 inch inside from the end is a rubber insert which grabbs the white part of the plug so that when you undo it it grips the plug and lifts it out.. You just drop the whole thing down the hole and when it stops push down a bit more and you will feel that the insert is gripping the white part of the plug. wiggle a bit so that the 6 sided bit slides down and grips the plug. Have you checked that you can see the top of the plug down the hole and there is nothing else down there !! It should be very visible. If you have been screwing it round without the contacting the plug properly you might have unscrewed the little sleeve that is on the top of the plug and this has dropped down and is preventing the spanner locating.. Providing you haven't jammed it tight against the plug and the side you should be able get it out with some bluetack on the end of something long and thin. As previously said spraying WD40 down the holes and leaving overnight helps a lot. H Robinson Hove 2003 140 BHP Xpower SV 53,000 miles.

Sorry to hear of your speedo problems. Guess the instruments are still the Caerbont Caterham Branded instruments. I had this problem and you need to do 2 things. 1) check what the gearing is in top for your car with Caterham i.e. 22 MPH per 1000 revs. 2) borrow a Tomtom or other GPS and note down what your speedo is showing against the GPS and also what revs. as both instruments could be wrong. If you find that you are doing 50 when Tomtom is showing 45 you need to adjust the speedo. To do this at home just put car on axle stands with rear wheels off the ground. With ignition off. remove the speedo and obviously pull off the wiring connector block. Examine the back of the speedo and there should be a rubber grommet behind which there should be a slot for a small "jewellers" size screwdriver. Carefully ease down the connector block and there should be enough slack to reconnect the speedo below the dashboard where you can get to the adjustment slot and see the speed at the same time. Then keep the revs steady at 50 MPH in top gear and turn screwdriver to get the speedo to show 45 MPH.. Providing you kept the revs steady you should find that 50 is correct with the TOMTOM. However is the Rev counter correct for your new 50? You can calculate what it should be at the new 50 from the revs Caterham have provided per 1000 revs. If the revs are wrong from your base MPH per 1000 revs then you will have to do the same exercise with the Revcounter. It will vital to chock up the front wheels to prevent the car moving when doing this as you don't want the car to fall off the axle stands with the wheels doing 50 MPH !!!. Don't worry if you find that the speedo readings are slightly out at set multiples of 1000 revs you always want the speedo to be a little fast say 68 correct at an indicated 70 MPH so you don't get caught on cameras. My speed shows correct reading and revs at about 40 ,but slowly shows higher speeds against actual the faster you go. Remember Caterham has a great range of gearing combinations due to wheel sizes and axle ratios so one speedo does all will always need adjustment depending on the model.. Mine has claimed top speed of 122, but speedo goes to 160 to allow for R500's and the latest 310 BHP models.

It just sounds as if as previously suggested that somehow not enough current is getting to the starter motor. Perhaps Jonathan is right and a relay is not passing enough current. OR both batteries are not good enough. Banner batteries seem a bit weak and run down very quickly and I now always leave my car on a "conditioner" type of charger in the garage. I have had at least 4 Banners since 2003 and 49,000 miles. I bought my Halfords "Conditioner" type charger many years ago and the lead from the battery is connected to the back of the lower wishbone with cable tyes. It has a male and female connector with a protective cover and so easy to plug into the charger connector and avoids having to open the bonnet. Just remember to detach when you move the car.

Steve, Good point , but no problem as still plenty of space above radiator and of course the whole bottom is open. I have never had a warm foot well problem....... The CSR and 620R and R500 now seem to have the whole of the nose cone area ducted off and a top nose cone vent. Years ago I had an alternator problem after the St Moritz trip. The rear alternator bearing was totally dry no doubt as a result of 40 minutes trapped in the tunnels under Basle as part for their now completed throughway system. Cockpit temp was 55 degrees, but engine never overheated with fan on all the time. New bearing only cost £25 and autoelectric chap said that he had never replaced that bearing before as it was always the pulley bearing that failed . But that end is only 6 inches from the exhaust pipe. As Rover put a heat shield in on all their K series engines I used up some of the spare radiator alloy and made a heat shield for it and the starter motor which is also close to the exhaust. No troubles since. Simon Lambert of CC said it was unnecessary as there was so much air space around the engine ,but that was assuming you are moving and I was creeping along 1 car length at the time for 40 mins.. Not to be repeated especially as at times there was a 6 inch dia lorry exhaust about 3 feet from my side screen drivers side.

Pete, I have never had a vent tube, just 2 holes either end so any spills would go straight into battery tray.. But never had a spill. Is your car a racing one. At recent Wightblat I saw many batteries, but none had a spillage tube.

Pete, I think you have been lucky to have your Banner last 6 years. My 2003 K series 1.8 is just on its 4th battery. But I have done 47,500 miles. It always seems to be one cell that fails and strangely is has twice been the end one. On my car, it is always left on charge but the first sign of trouble is always the same. the engine starts at once ,but then dies unless you catch it on the throttle and hold the revs for 5 seconds. CC told me that this caused by one cell in the battery being weak and on start the drop in voltage is enough for the ECU to lose some of its starting data hence the stalling. This time I didn't bother to take the battery to have a check, cell 6 needed water only so I figured it was weak.. Even with the charger light showing green it stalled as soon as it started without intervention. New battery started and settled to normal warm up without stalling.

With the warmer weather approaching I have a little "mod" to help SV owners keep their engines cool. With slow running on many roads especially M25 you may find the fan working overtime. You will notice that with the wider SV nosecone that the radiator has plenty of room for air to slip around the sides as there is no ducting. At slow speeds much of the cooling air goes the way of least resistance down the sides. Filling in the gap made a great difference in the cooling with the fan only working when going very slowly as in the numerous M25 contraflows. A sheet of Alloy is an ideal material and sold at B and Q and no doubt Wickes and others cost about £4.00 and you don't need any fixings as you use the same 2 radiator mounting bolts each side. You can use cardboard as a template and the weight is less than a Mars bar !.

Normal on my 47500 mile K series 1.8 is 6 bar cold and 4 bar at 70 mph hot. Water 90C It was interesting some years ago south of Reims on a deserted Motorway to do about 3 miles flat out. Speedo 130 hood up and Revs 6800 Water dropped to 80C and oil showed 6 bar. Never ever had to top up with water oil or brake fluid between 6,000 mile services. Built myself and serviced myself 2003 build. Drove up Swiss passes with no oil pressure and back to UK and on the way the temperature went through the red into black north of Reims . Phoned CC from Boulogne and managed to get to Dartford before 5.00 and got new senders.. all normal next day !! But I knew it was the senders as after 1 hr parked at Ferry was still beyond the red !! If the engine is happy I should not worry as Caterham senders are very variable I have had 5 oil senders ( 3 Under Warranty from CC) until I remote mounted the oil sender and it has been fine for 5 years. The senders are NOT Rover original items but from Caerbont who make the gauges. The K series engines has certain harmonics in the rev range which the senders don't like. Hence the huge number of people on Blatchat who have mechanical gauges as standard ones are crap.

Callum, It was interesting to note the number of cars on the recent Wightblat sporting High level brake lights. Mine was a Halfords one for the rear parcel shelf on a little stand. This was just right to hang under the roll bar, secured by little plastic straps pulled tight with pliers and trimmed off. No problems for 5 years. It hangs about 2" below the roll bar and shines through the rear window with the hood up and clear plastic part of the half hood from Soft Bits for Sevens. I didn't bother to wire into any of the connectors and soldered it direct to the wiring connector inside the rear light where it is dry and free from corrosion. The earth is a wiring tag screwed to the metal frame in the front of the boot. It has been totally trouble free. I also fitted some Ring LED running lights each about 6" long vertically in the front grille wired to the ignition switch via an in line fuse. Some Wightblatters had managed to find little ones to fit under the front of the mudguards which looked very neat.

To The.Vet Slick 50 is sold at Halfords and they have variations for Engines,Gearboxes and Diffs. It is PTFE based and is a solution of the stuff they put on non stick flying pans e t c. The 6 speed Gearbox is made up from basically 1980's Sierra Cosworth XR4 bits. I had a chat with the designer of the 6 speed who was at the 50th Event of the 7 at the Norfolk Showground back in 2008. I pointed out this problem of very difficult change from 1st to 2nd when cold and pointed out that I had just driven a Honda Civic R type from cold with 500 miles on the clock and the change was as light as a feather. He said that modern gearboxes are built differently and the gear profiles are very different ( and I expect built to far better tolerances). These results in a much lighter change. That said the Caterham 6 speed is built to pretty tight tolerances, but 1980's tightness means stiff , but modern tightness means accuracy and slick. I have had to wait until now (45,000 miles) for the gearbox to be be worn enough to be really light from a cold start. Slick 50 helped a lot, but the downside is that you can beat the synchro if you rush the changes as the cones have less "bit" due to the PTFE. BUT of course if this is a problem you can change the oil back to normal oil. I would not recommend Slick 50 if you are going to track race the car as you will beat the synchro in rushed changes. OK for road use. The reason that Caterham use the old old 6 speed design is that it is tough and can take a high torque loading. Parker Racing told me that the gearboxes are the weak link in the car, but only because in the heat of battle on the track some drivers attempt clutchless changes (as they pull the lever from 5th to 6th before they push the clutch down !!) Properly operated they are OK.As a newcomer you find that the Diffs are dreadful especially on the overrun. But they are not usually any trouble just noisy. Another Ford crappy 1980's design, but reliable ! Hugh Robinson

I think my 36,000 miles on a set of tyres might be a little misleading as all were rotated including the spare and I think I had one tyre replaced due to damage. However with many thousands of miles on the continent.... 3 St Moritz Lotus 7 club trips plus 3000 miles on one trip all over Europe. and countless trips to Dijon, Loire valley etc and endless miles from Chelmford to Brighton on Motorways were all on almost wear less trips. At least 27,000 miles on these sort of trips. So probably 12,000 miles on a set of 5 in the real world. Hugh Robinson

Mine a 1.8 k series 140 Xpower has a label on the cambelt cover. Check oil level with the engine running when hot. It is way over the mark if you dip cold before starting. All this is to prevent oil pressure drop when cornering fast. So a higher than normal level and that rather nasty foam baffle in the sump of the wet sump models was to try and get away from fitting a dry sump, which is really essential for track racing. I think I am right in saying that all older (not K series) engines should be filled to the mark cold. Over filling on older engines could burst gaskets and you don't want the crank hitting the oil in an overfilled sump as it would beat it to foam and cause other problems.

I have the 6 speed and used the Caterham recommended oil. It was always a bit of a pig when cold and needed a very hard pull into second. That was until I put Slick 50 in it. It is just a dream hot and very good even cold. The Diff also got the Slick 50 treatment and I think it is quieter, but it might have "run in" now that I have done 45,000 miles. Certainly when new the diff sounded if it was going to spit its bits into the road on the over run . Even a Caterham replacement under warranty was little better. Ford Parts !

Dave, Clearly on my car they have things under better control. The large washers are the same size as as the bush housing and although unloaded they don't touch housing as the centre tube is slightly longer than the housing width there is only a tiny gap so any further movement would be prevented by the washers restricting sideways movement. Probably why my tyres lasted 36,000 miles ( No track days)

My build manual shows large washers the same size as the bush each side and another washer between these and the chassis mounting. I cannot remember back to the build in 2003, but I think there were several washers provided of various thickness and you put the same each side until any gap was filled up. This could have been 1 thick or 2 thin etc I have one thick each side, but never measured if it was central, but it must have been as my first set of tyres lasted 36,000 miles and the Tyre shop said that they were best set of worn tyres they had seen for years and that the set up must be perfect.