Griff

I have to agree with Peter. Though actually the cost to make up a plate was nothing like £75 - I wouldn't bother with anodising something I have to crawl under the car to see - it was just too much hassle for the benefit. It's better to pump out the oil and do a full change at the end of the season. An advantage of the pump is you can see how much oil is extracted and replace the same volume plus a bit for the filter, avoiding overfilling and the fun and mess that entails...

Thanks guys. I've checked the suggested sites but they seem to offer the full units or non-standard replacement bulbs, many of which would fail an MoT. All I'm really after is where to get the bulb in its housing, or better still just the bulb. So I spent 2 mins this morning opening the sealed housing and found inside a very boring BA9S halogen bulb 12V x 10W, exactly like this one. I've since discovered these are used on bikes, for studio lighting and even by the model train fraternity. Hopefully, I'll find one locally now.

The N/S halo light bulbs failed - simple enough job I thought. I removed the little module which is a plastic housing, reflector and little 10W/12V halogen bulb that part removes like a bayonet fitting but doesn't actually come out (seems like it's sealed in from the back as there are no slots for the bayonet pins to pass throught the reflector). A quick Google to find the part proved fruitless - everyone selling fancy upgradfes to make the yellowish halogen whiter. They are stupid money and I've no idea if they will fail an MoT give the strict new rules on lighting. I'm not this vain either, so can anyone tell me if this "module" is a BMW only part or something I could expect my local motorfactor to have? Cheers, Mike

I'm in Cirencester and have a dial gauge. You asked for gauges plural but I only have the one. Blatmail if you're interested. Cheers, Mike

Hi, I'm looking for a passenger side half door in glass-fibre or possibly carbon (latter is probably overkill), similar to these here. Prefer if undrilled. I have a drivers side door already but would consider a pair. The ones recently listed on Blatchat are on 3rd dibs so not much change of getting those 🙆🏻 Cheers, Mike

That's an interesting thought. I had a look and the "bolt" heads which are actually socket screws so maybe they pick up an impulse from both sides of the screw? Or perhaps on some of the screws but not all? There weren't any GPS issues yesterday despite all these solar flares, so I'm pretty comfortable with the GPS speed reading. I'm off to find some hi-tech chalk...

It's a bit odd because all worked fine before Stack reflashed the unit (and replaced the taco needle which fell off!!), nothing else was touched on the pickup which is the usual front hub arrangement looking at the head of the disc bolts. I've checked various tyres and they all have diameters in the range of 500 to 525mm, so that doesn't explain the difference. And definitely the Stack is set to 4 pulses per rev. I'll do a check with the chalk method - not easy on my gravelled drive - but 3.142 x 2 x rolling radius should be pretty close. It all changes anayway with speeds and pressures, but I'd rather not be 70% out as I was at first.

I scratch my head. My sensor is front wheel mounted (4 pulses per rotation) and I'm running Toyo 888s with 250mm loaded (rolling) radius (taken from the Toyo site), so circumference should be 1571mm. If I use the stack recommended input the speedo is wildly out. I did a very rough recalc without the benefit of a GPS I input circ = 770mm which was seemed to be under-reading on speed. Yesterday I did a GPS check and found that 47mph actual was 42mph on the Stack. So I need the speedo to read higher which I think means I need a larger number, 770 x 47 / 42 = 862mm. Clearly this bears no relation to the real circumference so where am I going wrong? It's not a big issue for the 888sm but I switch tyres from time to time which means working out equivalent factors for those "if" I can find their rolling radius. Otherwise I need to do a GPS calibration every time. Cheers, Mike

Why worry? I've lost several "legal" front plates over the years to speed humps so now I keep the last broken specimen in the boot in case a nice Mr Plod ever questions me why I don't have a front number plate. I don't like to mount it higher as it blocks air to the oil cooler. Since I've never been stopped I haven't been able to check the theory. Perhaps you could kee a broken plate in the boot and use stick-on numbers as your "reserve"?

Will blatmail you.

I need one - is it black? Have you got the bolts to go with it? Cheers, Mike

Now sold 😬

During a clearout today I came across a new and unused tie rod refurbishment kit (narrow track) the same as this one in the Caterham store. Everything is there except the little locking pins used on the current design. I think older racks used a locking tab which is why they aren't in this set. Should be easy to find these or make one up from a small roll pin etc. £40 and I'll pay the P&P (to a UK address) so less than half the Caterham price.

Not mine and only a short while to go...link here

Success - new bearing etc arrived from Caterham on Friday and had it all back together by 3pm today. Everything perfect except I forgot to empty the catch tank and, having slightly overfilled when topping up the engine, came back from a quick test run looking like a WW1 fighter pilot... All running quiet and smoothly the way it should be, shame about the weather tomorrow as I think it demands a long blat after all the grief. Thanks all for your input and feedback. Cheers, Mike

From a WHO article I found about effects of ethylene glycol in streams around airports (which are supposed to have containment systems to prevent polluiton from run-off): Tests using deicer containing ethylene glycol showed greater toxicity to aquatic organisms than observed with the pure compound, indicating other toxic components of the formulations. Laboratory tests exposing aquatic organisms to stream water receiving runoff from airports have demonstrated toxic effects and death. Field studies in the vicinity of an airport have reported toxic signs consistent with ethylene glycol poisoning, fish kills, and reduced biodiversity. These effects cannot definitively be ascribed to ethylene glycol. Not conclusive but doesn't sound like we should be pouring it down the drains either. I think I'll join the tree-huggers on this one... 😳

So having read the label which tells me this is toxic stuff and that I shouldn't allow it to enter the sewers. I choose a nice dry day to pour it over my nice big area of tarmac (which by the way will have a gradiant to allow rainwater to flow away) and, being England, I wait five minutes and heavens open. It was a Gloucester County Council environmental officer who told me antifreeze should be taken to the local recycling centre.

After a few calls to the council (district and county) I found a helpful guy who told me absolutely never pour antifreeze or other chemicals down the drain, toilet etc. Apart from the fact it is toxic to organisms and animals, they routinely track pollutants back to source and the fines are big Our local recycling centre does apparently handle such chemicals but they need to be in clearly marked containers where they are held in a separate locked store away from the public areas before sending off for specialist recycling (perhaps a euphamism for poured down someone else's loo?). At least I'll be doing my bit...I'm off now to pollute the environment with my other car...

I wouldn't put it down the loo - it's quite toxic and what we send to the sewage works eventually comes back out of the tap...

I thought this was a dumb/easy question but ab we search shows there are are lots who still pour poisons down the drains - out of sight, out of mind I suppose. My "cellar" of vintage coolant needs displosing of properly - but where should it go? Our local recycling centre only takes waste cooking/engine oils, the motor factor I buy it from doesn't recycle either. Other not so useful suggestions included: - put out a tasty dish to get rid of the local cats - sell it to the Austrians vinyards - weedkiller for the drivewy (I don't want a pink drive) Green answers gratefully accepted..! Cheers, Mike

Thanks for that - the photo on the Caterham Store website is from a funny angle so hard to see exactly what the bearing looks like. I'll need to compare carefully as the McMillan unit is listed for 4/5 speed boxes, not 6 speed like mine. Need to be sure it would fit so will give them a call tomorrow.

Just 2h to get the engine out far enough to extract (what's left of) the CRB, also the release arm. Latter looks OK but I'll get it crack tested tomorrow. The CRB is, however, a little worse for wear (see ). I'm not totally sure what it should look like..! My guess is the bearing itself packed up first, friction created heat which caused the plastic to flow and extrude around the housing, gearbox shaft etc. Thats what probably created the smell - a bit like hot clutch but not quite. The Caterham part (AB57U) is a mere £19.80 but I've found similar on the interweb varying in price from £13 (SKF on eBay which you can believe at your peril) to £46 (QED). Is there really such a thing as a premium version that commands extra? I'd be tempted if I could be sure it wouldn't fail early. Let's see if I can get it back together in 2h before the weekend, but somehow doubt it..!

The shame... I tracked down a 36mm AF socket and managed to remove the "cap" after a little struggle. Close inspection showed this was indeed two pieces, the female top and the thin locknut. Not that you'd know with the 5 layers of bitumen it had been liberally painted with. After removing the worst of the paint the thread above the nut was revealed and the nut could then be eased further up. The little "airhole" in the middle turned out to be the missing hex socket, nearly sealed with paint. A quick trial refit later and I was able to find the perfect point between zero play and tight rack. So this evening's first job is an easy clean up and final refit...the second is to take the engine out and sort the clutch arm and CRB, not quite as quick and easy. Sorry to make a drama our of a crisis

Thanks Phil - I've emailed you.

That was quick - thanks both. I've just checked again and 100% sure the play is in the rack/pinion, not the tie rod inner or outer ends, nor in the column itself. So perhaps the bearings supporting the rack are a possibility - but here's an odd one?! On checking both ends, at the near side there seems to be a bearing or at least the rack housing comes right to the end and prevents the nut and tie rod housing/nut from entering the rack body. At the off-side the housing is larger and the tie rod housing/locknut go inside at full lock. There doesn't seem to be any bearing in there and this also seems to be the end with the most lateral "play". This begs the question, should there be a bearing and if so what does it look like? Anything too thick will restrict full right lock and I also don't see any means of securing a bearing (circlip etc), so perhaps it's not meant to have one? Phil - when you slid the rack back out of the way, did you have to release the tension from the pinion via the allen screw under the big nut on top of the rack? I'm referring to the screw I don't seem to be able to find unless its under the plastic plate? Did you do this job in-situ or with the rack removed? Does anyone have a set of photos showing a dismantled rack? That would be a great help. Cheers, Mike