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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.

`R300chris. I assume that you are fed up with the continual failures of the senders on the K series engine. Since 1999 on two cars and 50,000 miles I have had 6 replacements within 9 years. The senders are not Rover items,but Caerbont the instrument makers and they don't like the harmonic vibration in the engine. It appears that the electrical part slowly fills with oil causing failure. I cured it once and for all time with a replacement original sender mounted remotely. In my case the sender is mounted on a little bracket attached to one of the clamps which are on the top of the chassis holding the headlight bracket and connected to the original sender hole via a braided oil hose with the correct fittings on either end and electric wire with connectors soldered on. The sender has been perfect for 5 years as no vibration from engine and was under £20 for the oil hose and the wire. It is lovely to see 5 bar at 70MPH all the time and 2 bar hot at tick over 45,000 mile Xpower 140 2003 k series... Never ever needed any liquids in the car apart from Petrol !!

The A frame should have large washers each side of the bush and smaller differential spacer washers to centralise it in the chassis between the large outer washers and the chassis mount. The Watts linkage should be the same each side with the distance between the bolt hole centres on the upper (longest) link 475mm and the shorter lower one 244mm. This will make the bellcrank vertical. Kerbing a rear wheel could bend the A frame and thus make it not lie on the centre line of the chassis even if the same sized (thickness)washers are used each side on the A frame mounts.It could also bend the mounting of the radius arms leading to the bell crank not being vertical each side as the lengths of the arms should be as above and not altered. Happy days Hugh Robinson (Hove)

My manual says Caterham gearbox oil GL 4 grade... 5 and 6 speed. Under no circumstances use GL5 grade oil. I used Castrol and due to a very tight 1st and 2nd change added a PTFE based gearbox additive. IT was less tight, but was never really easy until 30,000 miles. Now at 45,000 miles it is very good even from cold as you could ever wish. Finger tip light.

Mine is the same , but I always use some orange coloured "Instant Gasket" for good measure as I do around the sump plug. Not a drip in sight !

This seems to be getting out of hand. The simple answer is that the standard radiator in a Xpower 140 1.8 K series. is totally fit for purpose. My SV ( 45,000 miles) has never over heated and it has been provoked. Genoa to Montpelier at 80/85 MPH cruising at 35C caused no more than 95C on the gauge. Half an hour in a jam in the motorway tunnels of Basle with 45C outside temp caused no more than 95C with fan running the whole time. 5 minutes foot on the floor south of Reims at between 6500 to 6750 RPM in 6th at 25C had the temp steady at 90C and oil 5 bar. The only issue is that the fan operated a lot in the town traffic in warm weather. Simon Lambert told me not to worry it would not overheat and it hasn't. BUT not liking the fan operating so much I made up little "wings" which fill up the gap on the outside of the radiator and the nosecone so that the air would not escape around the sides. Problem solved. C.C. say that when you fill the car with water ( antifreeze change)it is essential to raise the front of the car by at least a foot i.e trolley jack plus axle stands and massage the hoses to expel air. The old Rover dealers procedure in Rover cars with this engine was to pressure fill as the cylinder head is where the air lock normally forms. The C.C. method works. A good test for an airlock is to make sure that the water is up to the mark, start the engine and run to 80C then take the cap off the expansion tank. Let the engine idle and leave until the fan starts and the whole system is hot. The water will not overflow from the tank as there will not be any need for the system to be pressurised at tick over. IF HOWEVER the cylinder head has an airlock the water will start to boil in the head and steam will form and there will be a minor eruption of water out of the tank as it vents. If you have an airlock and you drive the car with the cap on the tank it will pressurise as normal, but as the head is not being cooled properly the water in touch with this area will be much hotter than normal and this will cause the temperature gauge to show anything up to 110C. I have been there when I changed the antifreeze and had 3 attempts to get rid of the airlock and called C.C. Using the jacking up the front method worked perfectly. I repeat.. the NORMAL RADIATOR IS FIT FOR PURPOSE. If that does not cure it then there may be an issue with the head gasket. Of course it might be the temp sender. ( I have had a new one (and 5 oil pressure ones...3 as warranty claims since cured totally by remote sender fitting)) Coming back from St Moritz run in 2005 the oil pressure went to zero up the Grimsel Pass and later the temp went past 120C into the black(all fluid levels normal.) The engine was running sweeter than ever so I disconnected both gauges to save worrying and called into Caterham for new senders on the way home and all was normal when fitted the next morning !!

I have 140 bhp K series in SV body and I had a hot K series as well.( No track work) After a 70MPH run the fan was always running and temp nearly 100. I figured out that it was because the larger nose cone left a big gap around the sides of the radiator. The cooling air obviously will go around the radiator rather than through it as there is less resistance. I made up some aluminium plates ( from B and Q ) to close off the gaps and used the radiator bolts to attach. so almost all the air coming through the grill has to go through the radiator. Problem solved, but I have also had a new radiator as I wrecked the fins of the old one with a pressure washer (Take note, don't use a pressure washer to clean the radiator) I think that the new radiator is more efficient. When I went to Minister Racing engines some years ago , they always fit a lower temperature thermostat than the standard 88C one that is fitted. I tried this, but the heater was too feeble on a cold day. All is well with mine since the plates were fitted. Suggest you also fit a heat shield around the alternator near the exhaust with the spare aluminium you will have over. I ruined the rear bearing due to overheating. I fixed mine with hose clips around the engine mounting leg and while you are in the mood a little shield over the starter assembly attached to a convenient bolt will save that from overheating from the exhaust as well. Dear old Jez Coates at CC was so obsessed with weight that he was horrified at my changes..." just think of the weight" he said..... "Yes at least 2 Mars bars" I replied !

Having done 42,000 miles and read the excellent article in Low Flying, I thought I ought to give it a look. Interestingly the Caterham Service book indicates without telling you how, to check it at 12,000 mile intervals, but does not indicate replacement ! ( Neither does it suggest changing the gearbox or diff oil ,but tells you to check the "Different" oil whatever that is !!!!!!) Gearbox oil change resulted in a very much improved change and even the diff sounds better if that is possible. The foam baffle was in a chronic state. Like very badly burnt toast and just crumbled into tiny pieces. No harm done fortunately and oil pressure with new oil, the normal ( well normal for my 1.8 Xpower K series) 2 bar hot on tickover and 5 bar at 70 plus as new. Never ever used a drop of oil since new. Will check it at 60,000 and probably discard as never do any track racing. Think that it probably does something in keeping the oil in the bottom of the sump rather than up around the crankshaft in heavy cornering. CC have been remarkably uncommercial in the past and have left it up to Soft bits for Sevens and others to provide essential bits and bobs to improve our cars. You would have thought that CC would have sold a simple "Haynes" type guide to keep our cars in tip top condition. Any way well done to Low Flying for current articles on servicing our cars.

As far as I am conserned you can stuff all your theories on back EMF from relays. The facts are:- I have had about 30 cars over 45 years and driven well over 1,250,000 miles and never had a headlight relay failure and until I had Caterhams had never had a brake light switch failure. 2 failures in 2 new Caterhams both under 15,000 miles would in todays world indicate a poor quality switch and I have never ever seen any suggestion that a brake switch should be "serviced" as part of normal running repairs on any car. My mod has lasted nearly 17,000 without fault. The load is under half a normal headlight relay load. They should work for the life of the car untouched as all have done on other cars. Caterham have always been lucky as their warranty on average only covers the cars for about 3000 miles which is the average one years use of a Caterham. So many failures which on normal cars which would show up with their greater mileage do not come up in Caterhams radar as a problem item as it is not a warranty claim. Another Caterham weakness on the K series engine is the oil pressure sender. After 5 replacements, most at Caterham's expense as they lasted less than one year, I modified the whole set up and removed the sender from the oil filter housing and fitted it to the clamp bolts for the headlight stay just under the back of the nose cone via a long braided oil pipe and connecting lead. It is away from any wet and vibration and has lasted nearly 15,000 miles and gives lovely high readings.... never less than 4 1/2 Bar hot. Cost under £20. Caterham reckoned that wet and road dirt was the problem, but it wasn't as I covered it over from wet and dirt and it still failed. It seems that it is engine vibration which ruins the senders ( These are not a "Rover " original unit as the instruments are different) It is possible that the crimped metal around the plastic sender unit loses its grip due to engine vibration and oil slowly makes its way into the electrical parts causing failure. ( It was the only failure of a part on the famous Caterham which did the 2004 Nurbergring 24 hours race and came 11th overall !) Most Caterham Owners have replaced the whole sender and instrument for a non electrical set up, but that is quite expensive compared with my modification. A car manufacturer is only going to put a better quality part into their cars if it costs them under the warranty. Selling parts after warranty is good profitable business!! Just about to fit a new foam oil baffle in the sump of my 42,000 mile K series when weather warms up! Sump gasket at £40 is expensive !... Total of 56,000 miles in Caterhams now and apart from petrol, never needed any oil, brake fluid or water ever between services... An excellent record !

I had this problem on both my Caterhams. My first one a 1.6 1999 K series, failed at 12,000 miles and I got a replacement at local Motorspares shop. Think it was a Renault one. Second car 2003 1.8 Xpower SV same thing at similar mileage. Took apart and cleaned it, but as there was the addition of Hi Visiability LED Redlights mounted on the top of Roll Bar rewired the switch via a headlight relay so old switch takes almost no current and is still working at 42,000 miles. There is a slight click as the relay operates and this is a useful check that all is well.

Cable is fine and valve will not go any further to the nearside. Expect the insides are knackered as so long been operated almost closed to try and get slightly warm rather than "volcano" setting.