mjdm

If still available can I grab it? Mike

On the drivers side the A-frame mount is in a different position between metric and imperial chassis. When I offered up a metric bar to my imperial chassis it was, from memory, about 2" offset. I would guess the passenger side would be the same. So the top two mounts will line up but the bottom one won't. Mike

Loose honeycomb in the side chassis? I think they are only held on by double sided tape. I have a constant 'knock' on uneven roads that I've never managed to trace and am assuming it's inside the side panels. Mike

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I have a Powerlite fitted to my K series. Currently I have the R500K exhaust and there is plenty of clearance to the primaries with the solenoid of the starter motor sitting at the top. Previously I had the older 4-1 Superlight exhaust and this did have interference on one of the primaries. Rather brutally I knocked a small dent into the primary to give me clearance. Didn't seem to affect engine running at all and allowed me to fit the starter motor with solenoid uppermost. Mike

Having aero-screened on loose gravel roads in New Zealand I now value the relative safety of laminated glass over the involvement offered by the more 'open' option. Mike

Surely the question shouldn't be about looks...it should be about how many teeth do you want to end up with at the end of the blat :-) Mike

When I imported my Caterham into NZ in 2008 the low volume type approval inspection never touched on the subject of engine output power. I've never had it on a dyno so have no idea what its putting out and was never asked what it might be by the inspector. If this is a genuine regulation then it must be post-2008. I would read up on it to see if the regs have changed. You could try here - https://www.lvvta.org.nz Mike

Nigel, judging by your sig' are you trying to comply your car in NZ? I exported my UK Caterham to NZ in 2007/8 and put it through compliance as a kit built car so it was assessed by a LVVTA representative. He specifically didn't want to know production volumes so it could be passed by the low volume manufacturer route. The only changes it required were strengthening to the inertia reel belt mountings on the rear bulkhead, NZ spec brake lines, high level brake light and a return spring on the brake pedal. I assume by your question you are going for compliance via a different route? Mike

Still looking...BTTT

I'm looking for the catalytic convertor that fits the R3/4/500K exhaust. It's the Caterham part no. CSP857A. Can anyone help? Mike

The other nice trick with the K3 Emerald is the ability to switch between 3 different maps. When I finally get my Seven imported over here to New Zealand I want to have a go with setting up maps with different AFRs so that I have one map for the drive across the Desert road and a more suitable one for attacking the Rimutaka Hill road ! Until then its a case of doing it the Kiwi way in a JDM twin-scroll turbo, 4WD Legacy ! Mike

I had a similar problem - it turned out to be a hairline crack around the weld of the breather outlet on the top of the fuel tank. When the tank was full it would stink the car out with the smell of petrol. As the level went down it would only re-occur when going around corners. As a temporary measure I used some seal over the crack and it worked pretty well. Ultimately the tank needs to be repaired properly. Mike

I unintentionally tried something very similar to the "piece of perspex on the roll bar" still of wind deflector when I was moving a load of parts in my Seven a while ago. I had to take a spare windscreen with me so I taped it to the FIA roll bar, just behind the seats, in the same place as the piece of perspex mentioned previously. It didn't work. The buffeting was worse, in particular you end up with a lot more wind whipping round your neck. I think the JJ solution looks to be a lot better. Mike (in sunny Wellington, NZ waiting to spot my first Caterham - does a Lotus 7 Mk.IV count ?)

That's a really good page you've put together - I'll have to bookmark it for when I get completely confused with my mapping (every so often I seem to have to start all over when I find some other part of the engine setup is non-optimal !). I can certainly echo the finding that most of the updated site tend to be in a fairly narrow (diagonal) band of load and speed sites. I've done the same as Phil and reduced the spacing between speed sites and I've also changed the load sites so that it is 'sort of logarithmic' (larger spacing for the higher load sites than the lower load sites) to try and make better use of the available real estate. The main problem seems to be trying to map some of the high load / low speed sites since the engine doesn't spend particularly long in those states - I guess either you set the lock on timer to be very short and the AFR setting to be high and only use the adaptive mapping in that quadrant of the map or possibly do a lot of driving in different gears up very steep hills ? Unfortunately Oxfordshire doesn't have too many of those Most of my map updating is now down to the single figure % values, the ECU is very good at sorting the mapping out for you. A big thumbs up to Dave and Karl 😬 Mike

The screenshot that phil supplied doesn't have the sort of settings you'll need to get the corrections table populated. Try something like this speed_int=64 load_int=64 lock on timer=0.3 AFR target=1.0 (this is as high as it will go and should at least get you some results) I had the same problem initially that the corrections table wasn't being populated. The problem was the speed_int and load_int were far too low - they can go from 0-128 and represent the position of the cross in the bullseye on the live settings page. The inner circle is 32, the next is 64 and the outer is 128. So the interpolated correction only occurs if the cross is within the 'size' of circle you define. I initially started with values like 10-16 (didn't know what else to use at the time) and didn't get any corrections. Now it works fine. The Elise 160S map is where I've started and it's mapping up very nicely now. Cheers, Mike

Hi Matthew, I've had my Emerald self mapping for a couple of months now. Essentially you define an AFR target for all the load/speed sites that you are interested in and then as long as the engine is running within certain (user set) parameters it will try to determine the correct fuelling for the given AFR. When you start the self mapping you may find that the initial corrections that are generated might be adding or subtractings several 10s of % to the map, whereas after a few updates to the fuel map it should then settle down to only a few % or less up or down as the map optimises. You definitely need a wideband lambda sensor (lots of people go down the LC-1 route), the standard narrow band probe is essentially just a switch and is not sensitive enough to do the mapping. Emissions is about more than just AFR - if your ignition system is flakey you may still end up with high readings, but I would have thought if everything else is in good condition that it should certainly help. As far as which versions can be upgraded, I think you have to have a serial number above 41272 and send it back to Emerald for the update. Hope that helps, Mike

Hi Phil, glad to hear it's all going well ! Mine's also getting better everytime I drive it. One thing I noticed with part of the base map that was quite a way out of adjustment was that the revs wouldn't die down particularly quickly after taking my foot of the throttle. As the map improves this is getting better tho'. Having read Dave Walkers write up of using E85 in his Porsche and setting up a new map for it, it's tempting to see how well a Caterham would do ! Cheers, Mike

Hi Phil, I had my ECU upgraded to K3 spec earlier this year and I've been enjoying (!) having a go at gettig the self mapping set. Possibly the best place to start (as mentioned by Karl in a similar question to him) is to have a look at some of the other maps that should have come with the software (e.g. have a look at the VR6 or Elise S160 maps I think this has some of the adaptive mapping settings). You will need to set an AFR target for each load/speed site and to set that particular site to have adaptive mapping rather than closed or open loop. I have a section of the pre-release manual about these settings that Karl sent me and I'll email it to you. Regards, Mike p.s. best not to set the sites near idle to be adaptive or the ECU can start hunting around as it tries to set the best AFR.

Cheers John, great idea (should have thought of that myself since my tin top is an import with the same fix !) Thanks, Mike

Will be emigrating soon (to NZ) and the cars coming with me, so I'll need to convert to a kmh speedo. Hoping I might be able to pick one up cheaper than the price Caterham are asking for a new one. Mike

Thanks Oily, I was hoping that was the case. Cheers, Mike

Hi, hoping someone can help with the identification of some VHPD camshafts. They are both marked with the number 10226 (which tends to imply they are both inlet cams) except that one has the distributor drive fitted, the other doesn't. Also one is marked LYD17 and the other is marked LYD19. Are these inlet and exhaust cams or two inlet cams ? Cheers, Mike

I was in my 'Cadburys' purple Se7en driving into Oxford from Witney (A40) at about 13:20 - sometimes looks blue depending on the light - haven't seen another Se7en on the roads near Oxford for ages... Mike