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Steve I recommend you lock wire the bolts for the Bernard Scouse air box. There have been a few cases of the bolts vibrating out and the inner clip they screw through then being inducted into the engine. I incurred expensive valve, piston and liner damage that way. Regards, Andy

The RAC is no better. Last year it took four hours to get home. On the first call I told them exactly what was wrong and that a mechanic who would stand and scratch his head and suck breath through his teeth like a plumber preparing a quote was no good. The said mechanic arrived after an hour and had to order the tow truck. He told me the tow truck was 30 minutes away. After an hour I phone the RAC and am told the truck is stuck in traffic, they tell me which contractor it is and they will be 30 minutes. I had to phone two more times and each time a variant on the story and a different contractor mentioned. It was over two and a half hours when the tow truck arrived and sure enough it was none of the contractors they had previously mentioned on the calls. If i had known how long it would take them and the stringalong stories that would be told I would have called SWIMBO as soon as I broke down who could have hooked up the trailer and I would have been home in 30 minutes.

Martin Have you checked that the starter is fully engaaging with the ring gear on the flywheel? When not engaging the starter will make a fast whirring noise. This is something I have encountered in the past. In order to measure the starter will need to be removed and then measure distance and angles from bolt holes plus the throw of the pinion on the starter. Whilst the starter is off also inspect the teeth on the ring gear to ensure they are in good condition. Andy

Agreed, not a great start to the week. It took 4 hours from calling the rescue service to the low loader arriving. In that time i could have walked back to Farnham, gone over wiht my own trailer and still had one hour to spare. The cause was the crank pulley coming loose. The real problem, unfortunately, is that I did not notice the lack of oil pressure soon enough so the engine will need a complete strip down to check on the extent of damage. ☹️

Yes, with the lid off you can see the oil being returned to the tank. It breathes into a catch tank that is empty. In normal use there is no oil consumption and when pushing hard on trackdays there is a very small amount of oil consumed.

I would expect the drain away through clearances to be steady. On Sunday when I put more oil in it did not show in the bottom of the tank as it poured away immediately.

I have an early SLR with the dry sump tank in the bellhousing and no tower on top. Normally checking the oil is a look at the level in the tank and there is no problem with it. However, twice I've experienced the oil not staying in the tank but instead freely draining out, presumably into the sump. Both occasions have been very hot trackdays when the car has been worked hard. It occurred yesterday at Donington. Tonight turning it over and the scavenge pump returns the oil to the tank and it operates in the normal way. Has anybody else suffered this or is there a brilliant explanation what is causing it or how it can be cured. Andy

Bailey Morris should be able to make you one to order and can supply with heavier duty UJs. They are the supplier of props to Caterham. Give Stuart a call on 01480 216250.

I buy battery acid from the bike autojumble at Kempton racecourse. Every couple of years I drain the battery, flush it out and refill with the new acid. The Banner is now seven years old and still fine.

Mine is an early six speed box so I wonder if they replaced 2nd gear in later boxes and hence the reference to special.

Phil at R&R has just rebuilt my box and replaced 2nd gear. He said that I was lucky he still had one on the shelf as they are no longer available. Apparently, 2nd is a normal weak point in the six speeders.

I recommend you measure the distance from each mounting point to the pinion for your original starter motor and the Brise. There is a thread in the archives from May or June last year regarding this and a number of cars that have non-standard positioning.

I always tie down both rears and one front with straps around the tyres and not the suspension. The reason for only one front is to not put tension on the geometry. I always tension the rears first so that the fronts are right against the chocks.

petrol works fine removing the sticky remains. I replaced mine only one hour ago.

Ian at GRL is good for tuning but does not have a rolling road. When he needs to put a car on rollers he takes it to the Steve's at Rainham. You could try Airey Tuning who are between Winchester and Petersfield (www.dnbconsulting.co.uk/aireytuning.com) and have a good reputation with older motors. Andy

John I've had similar to this in the past and it turned out to be some of the strands of wire in the cable had snapped and what little was left had stretched. A cable will often go progressively rather than all at once. Andy

I agree. Ian's been doing work for me foe a decade now.

It could be that the weights for wheel balancing have been placed so that they foul the de dion ears. The weights get trapped between the ear and the wheel and will then score the wheel as it rotates. I suggest you check whether you still have any balancing weights on the wheels. If not, before you take them in to be rebalanced mark the depth of the de dion ear into the wheel with masking tape or similar and ask the balancer to fit the weights further in than the mark.

Merlin at Castle Combe will make and mail.

I use the latex with aloe vera gloves from Lakeland. Some of the other latex and nitril gloves were causing/aggravating an allergy. The Lakeland ones are easy to put on and remove whilst also proving very durable. I also use them inside gardening gloves during the winter months when doing anything that is likely to make the gloves wet. They are not the cheapest but you get what you pay for.

The driver! Especially after the Christmas over indulgence.

Hi Stephen You may not have done anything wrong when fitting the starter as it sounds like the starter is not engaging with the ring gear on the flywheel. This has occurred on a number of 7s - see threads earlier this year from me and Andyg. To be sure whether this is the cause take the new starter off the car and then measure both the new and old motor from each bolt hole to the centre of the pinion (the cogged bit in the centre that engages with the ring gear) and the pinion throw (pull the pinion out fully from the motor and measure the minimum and maximum distance from the starter body). If any of these measurements are more than 3 or 4 mm out it is almost certain that the new starter is not the correct replacement. I managed to solve mine with the help of David Brise at Brise Motorsport (01322 313761) - send him the old starter and he should be able to measure totally accurate and provide a motor that will engage. Best of luck Andy

Several years ago I did the relay mod to overcome the K series starter click of death. Recently I have blown two relays and when I take the relay out of the circuit by connecting the input from the ignition switch to the output to the solenoid the fuse for the ECU blows. Ideas on what I should do to trace and rectify the problem are appreciated. It may be unrelated but the immobiliser has recently been reluctant to activate and deactivate despite a replacement of remote battery. Andy

I have always found WD40 to be very poor at anything other than dispersing water. The best releasing fluid by a very long way that I have found is TRS Plus made by Rivolta but it is not easy to get hold of in this country (I believe it originates from Germany).

If it is the one I had the tell tale sign will be a small amount ground out of the body where the bottom bolt head goes as the bolt would not go through straight.