Slipper man

I have a throttle cable for a K-series. Rover part SBB10176 ​They are very rare parts, so I bought myself a spare. Now sold the car though so no longer needed

Talk to Simon. And in the nicest way he will make you feel that spending £1500 on dampers makes you a bit of a cheapskate! But the £1500 is well worth the spending!

Mine seemed fine until WOT on a long straight after a long straight. If the car isn't used on circuits very much there will be no problem, I am sure. If, however you are on a circuit where you go flat out for an extended time, you may get a problem. The trouble is, you don't get any warning before the Big Bang!

Thanks Roger for tactfully not mentioning my name. For 'twere me! I now realise that my scavenge pump used to make a "clucking" noise, which later on it didn't. Like Roger, I had only just checked the oil level. I don't have the car back from East Europe, but it does look like Roger's analysis is the problem. I am also discovering that K-series parts are starting to get more difficult to obtain. The only new pump I could find was at Caterham, and I took their last one. I will also see if the old one can be rebuilt at an economis cost. The new one was a rather frightening £600!

I have one you can have for a NTL donation. It will need repair - A stone made a hole in it, but it is easily repairable

Can't wait! Well actually I can as we are currently in Beaune en route to Andorra!

Yes Simon. I don't suppose the irritating Yorkshireman happened to mention that at the time I couldn't stay with him, my top ball joints had failed and the wheels were pointing in different directions, did he?

I ended up taking my car to Andy Jupp at PGM. What a nice guy! And he seems to know what he is doing. He has a great deal of equipment, including a computerised alignment system that measures all the parameters simultaneously. My car was miles out, with virtually all parameters, front and rear, being quite a long way from the ideal settings. The corner weights were set first, then the rear cambers and toe. I hadn't realised how these could be adjusted (by putting the appropriate shims behind the de dion ears). Then the front was set up, though as it turned out with insufficient (1.5deg) camber, which was rectified later (see below). I took the car to Spa, and it really was transformed. It took a while to reach what felt like the optimal settings for the new Nitron dampers, but in rain and sun the car was vastly improved. Until it decided it would rather go straight on at Blachimont... That didn't cause the type of drama it would have done in the past, now that there are acres of tarmac run-off, so I got the car on the correct black bit without damage. On the next straight I found the steering was no longer pointing the right way and back in the pits I discovered that the top ball joint had failed, so that was the end of my day. It was 4:00pm anyway, so I would only have done a few more laps, so it wasn't a disaster. So, back to Andy (after fitting the new top joints) for a quick check of the alignment, and dialling in a bit more front camber, and all is prepared for the next outing at Brno with Bookatrack. All in all, the present experience certainly confirms that for circuit use, the best "upgrades" you can do concern getting the suspension right, and a set of good tyres.

Is Track and Road the two Steves? If so, it is worth the effort. They will sort whatever the issue is that you want them to concentrate on.

I can recommend the Raceco silencer. On my R500K it brought my noise level down to under 102 at 6,500rpm. I was using full throttle and revs on the straights with no driveby issues. Importantly, there appears no noticeable performance deficit (which is not the case with my old 'quiet' system).

Does that offset the effect of the over indulgence in Barb's cooking then?

... but not for mine, unless I have been spending too much time eating Barbara's excellent food! Still, booked in next week with Andy at PGM, so we will see how it feels after that. Oh yes, and a set of Meteor Moteorsports Nitrons...

Who is PGM? Is that Andy Belcher?

Ian I don't expect to notice any handling difference - the reason to change is to make adjustment easier

What it says. I have Bilsteins on my R500 and wondered if you can turn them upside down. That way, the works of the damper are attached to the body of the car rather than the wishbone, so there should be a (no doubt impossible to detect!) reduction in unsprung weight, and it would be easier to adjust the ride height.

Does anyone know any corner weight scales near Caterham that I can use? I don't really need to pay someone to set it up, but it would be good to get the corner weights set up, and the geometry set up correctly.

The R500K was originally mapped for 95 RON fuel. I kept it that way because a) 95 is easier to find and b) when on track I can put in 98 RON and have a safety margin. Steve seemed to think that was logical.

Why swap the packing material? On the standard R500 silencer, I don't find Acoustifil very effective. It is much louder with that than it used to be. I am not sure about the science of teh packing, I must admit. I know you can over fill, but I don't think I have done so.

What is it, and what is it for?

Why don't you ask James Whiting? He would know.

You can get a universal "winder" tool from draper for about a fiver. Or use a spanner, as I did for 15 years! I wouls ask Mick at Redline - totally reliable and nice guys

I have a 2001 R500 and it was incredibly loud from new, even when the silencer was newly packed. It was once measured at 107 db AT DRIVE BY!! I bought the Caterham airbox, which made a big difference to the induction noise. I also bought a rear-exit system from Caterham, which used the standard type main silencer, but one which had an exit that went under the car and connected to another silencer under the back of the car. With all that in place it was measured at (IIRC) 93db at Goodwood. It might have been 95, but it is certainly good for any trackday you would come across. The only problem is that the silencing takes the edge off the performance - it is noticeably slower over the last 500 RPM. It is annoying, but it does at least mean that you can still go out and play.

One difference between the FIA bar and the standard is the materials used. The FIA bar is made from cold drawn seamless tube, whereas the standard is a welded pipe. The former is much stronger.

Why don't you run the breather pipe up the roll cage like mine? U bend at the top of course to stop water ingress

Unlikely to be the head gasket I think. On the earlier K's, the gasket goes normally because the line of rubber seals breaks down (my Monza problem occurred on a non-standard gasket). A test pressurising the water should show that up. As you say, it is hard to imagine it causing all 4 cylinders to misfire. Can you swap the sender with Martin's to see if that is the problem? What is the battery voltage like? The symptoms could be explained by voltage drops. I had something similar when I had a duff battery at the same time as (possibly caused by) a failed alternator