sjmmarsh

Yes - it was described as one of the elephants in the room. The main points covered by Bob were: The number of actual issues are small compared to the number of cars, based on 10s of cars inspected. DVSA investigations complete - no need for any changes to the clevis geometry needed. They are reengineering it. Replacement Clevis will be available. Under Warranty it will be replaced FOC. Outside that it will be offered at a discount if only a few years outside warranty (TBD, but Bob mentioned 4-5 years), beyond that you can buy them to fit yourself.

ROFL!

Yes, all the pieces were still attached to the bolt, including the sliver of metal which was just hanging on by a thread. Having cleaned them up they are now on their way to CC who confirmed that they would still like to see them for tests. The two photos below show how it looked right after it was recovered. In the first photo you can just make out the sliver of metal still connected to the clevis (Top Left, covered in a lot of grease from the hub).

Here are pictures of my broken clevis (cleaned up) and the LHS which looks fine. Looking at the broken surfaces, it looks like there was a crack underneath the rear lug, which then gave way when I hit the pothole at 70mph on the M11. This then caused the top of the plug to shatter, taking the forward lug with it as the suspension collapsed.

Isn’t that the same form we originally completed several months ago? It isn’t asking for anything that I haven’t already sent them.

I have offered George Campbell both of my clevis as I now have the car back. He was interested a few months ago, but I haven’t heard back yet. I’ll clean them up and take some photos so we can see the damage.

The photo in #185 shows the LHS clevis. I can't be sure which way round the RHS was assembled until I get the bits back as I may have swivelled it round to get the grease off it to take the photo.

I was getting the CSR ready for collection by Nick Potter tomorrow, so took some photos of the near side Clovis - it looks OK to me, apart from some witness marks on the bottom of it. I also noticed on the offside rear part of the clevis (attached to the upright) that there was a loose piece of the clevis, still just attached but it came away when I touched it. One (smaller) face looks discoloured and so may have been a pre-existing crack, but the other size looked fresh (the bright bit is where it was still attached) - I presume that this was damage after the clevis gave way as the damper flew around. I can't see how it would have otherwise broken. Yes, I do need to get under the car and give it a good clean when I get it back!

Dug my receipts out - both rear dampers were replaced on 9/4/11 by Caterham Midlands - the mileage then was around 18k.

The car was factory built and the only thing that has been touched was one of the rear dampers that was replaced when the top lug seized in the steel collar resulting in one of the lugs breaking off, which would have necessitated replacing the lot - but that was a long time ago. I'll find it in the paperwork. I have now caught up with the Article in LF - I need to contact CC to let them know my incident could have been way more serious than a broken spring, had the sidewall been cut all the way through (the tyre lifted a piece of the side skin at the join between the side and rear skins) as it would possibly have spat the car across the middle and outside lanes of the M11 at 70mph! Does anyone have an email address so that I can let them know (with photos)?

Sam and David No - this is the same failure I experienced in June, just cleaned up so you can see the damage better and, yes, it does look like there was a pre-existing crack there which let go when I hit the pothole on the M11, but it doesn't look that old as the colour difference only showed up in the photo. It has lasted 54k miles and many trackdays and sprints, so I have been lucky compared to others. I have completed both questionnaires and CC advised me not to drive it (!), but I think they were expecting me to report a crack, rather than a failure. I have completed both questionnaires - the second had gone to my spam folder. My car is still awaiting repair - the dampers are now available again so the car is being picked up on Monday. It should be repaired in time for the winter, as it needs a rear skin and work on the 6 speed shift (rose joint seized up - I could do it myself but given everything else that is needed I have asked Nick Potter to sort this as well). It was availability of parts that has led to the long wait. Steve

Duplicate

Duplicate

2007 - 54,000 miles.

I didn't see this until I did a blatchat search while I was waiting for a recovery truck on the M11 on my way home from Italy. 2,500 miles of touring Europe and then I break down 40 miles from home. That said, I don't think it would have made any difference as I don't think mine were cracked - the problem was I hit a badly repaired pothole on the inside lane which had sunk into the hole, creating a ski jump. Hitting it at 70mph resulted in a massive bang after which the car did not feel right. Seeing blue smoke behind the car meant that I pulled over as soon as I could, which meant continuing until I could safely cross the entry slip road and pull on to the hard shoulder - about 800m or so. The damper broke free at the bottom and from what I can see so far it is a clean break - I'll know more when I get it cleaned up as the cover on the driveshaft UJ is mangled and there is grease everywhere. The tyre ended up resting on the side skin and lifted up a bit of the skin, cutting a groove in the sidewall. It would have been nasty if the sidewall had gone too! I am now waiting to hear from the insurers to get it all fixed. That makes 2 claims in one trip (after 20 years with no claims) as someone kindly broke my fog light and dented the rear skin whilst I was parked at the top of Stelvio Pass... nobody was hurt but it could have been a lot worse. The problem was already flagged to the Highways Agency (2 days prior) and they called me to say it would be repaired overnight Looking at the comments, (J11, M11j it seems that the holes were huge enough to rock HGVs and cracked a windscreen on a 4x4. I might get some compensation, but it will take a long time and I am not holding my breath. Steve I don't know why the 1st two pictures are coming out upside down from my phone...

I am on my way down to Italy in the CSR (waiting at the tunnel) and googled "Caterham six speed shift stiff when warm" and it brought me here. Reading this thread I know what to do, but hope the shift will hold together for the next 2000 miles of the trip! All seemed well on my pre-trip checks, but the longer journey in hot weather has brought the problem to the surface. The problem will be partly down to age (2007 car) but mainly to the dousing the car got when I hit a flooded road in the dark last November... that is turning out to be an expensive puddle to hit....

I am on my way down to Italy in the CSR (waiting at the tunnel) and googled "Caterham six speed shift stiff when warm" and it brought me here. Reading this thread I know what to do, but hope the shift will hold together for the next 2000 miles of the trip! All seemed well on my pre-trip checks, but the longer journey in hot weather has brought the problem to the surface. The problem will be partly down to age (2007 car) but mainly to the dousing the car got when I hit a flooded road in the dark last November... that is turning out to be an expensive puddle to hit....

Having just hit the same problem, if you find the yellow adjuster then don't worry - just look for the white one on the other side of the differential! Steve

One last post. As I have replaced the BMS, I decided to take it apart (drill out 4 copper rivets) to see what the problem was. The pictures of what I found are attached. Essentially when you insert the switch and twist, it pushes the plunger down which bridges the copper contacts and also depresses the switch at the bottom, which is a push to break (pair 1) and push to make (pair 2). The idea of the switch is that when the BMS is inserted it connects the ignition switch to the power (2) and when it is disconnected it shorts out the alternator through a resistor to prevent a voltage spike to the ECU. if you look at the close up of where the key is inserted you can see that the pin has worn a groove in the plastic, which is why it felt sloppy, However, the copper contacts are bright and clean - like new (not bad for 16 years old). Testing the switch at the back it turns out that this was not working properly, requiring it to be worked several times before it would turn on/off cleanly. The two problems combined explain why the car would not immobilise as the key was vibration sensitive and the resistor wasn't switching out properly, so pulling the voltage down that the immobiliser saw. so, despite looking in relatively good condition, the BMS is best consigned to the bin, along with the key which, over time, will wreck the next BMS it is used in! Steve

Final update. it was an onion skin problem. Having replaced the BMS, the immobiliser turns off fine and the car starts and sounds fine in fast idle. However when off fast idle the car would not respond to the throttle properly. It was very lumpy and when I blipped it, the engine died, Suspecting the throttle bodies as the issue (and remembering the heavy dousing the car got which started all this), I pulled both connectors to the throttle bodies and reseated them. That seemed to fix things, so went for a blat - finally! All seemed fine, so I put the car in the garage..... only it wouldn't go into reverse... the gearstick would not depress, so couldn't shift it to the left into reverse. Time for lunch and to consult the blatchat tech archives. This directed me to the quick shift rebuild in the May 2020 Low Flying. It looks likely that the gearstick had rusted into the spherical bearing Back up to the garage, put some WD40 down the gearstick, waited 5 mins and gave it a thump. Success! I now have a car that goes backwards as well as forwards. Hopefully you won't hear any more on this saga. I could tell you about the problems I am having with my Defender... but that is for another forum! Steve

Thanks JK. I tried to be helpful when the switch to the new website happened in 2014, but that was mainly on identifying workarounds to some of the issues, including using Google site: parameters to find things that otherwise seemed lost. The shortcut upload had me perplexed - I just couldn't get it working from my iPad (despite trying several image sites) and didn't want to have the hassle of transferring from iPAd to PC then uploading to my own sjmmarsh.f2s.com website and linking to that one as it is really clunky! Steve

Thanks JK. I tried to be helpful when the switch to the new website happened in 2014, but that was mainly on identifying workarounds to some of the issues, including using Google site: parameters to find things that otherwise seemed lost. The shortcut upload had me perplexed - I just couldn't get it working from my iPad (despite trying several image sites) and didn't want to have the hassle of transferring from iPAd to PC then uploading to my own sjmmarsh.f2s.com website and linking to that one as it is really clunky! Steve

Thanks JK I followed your helpful links and realised that things had changed a little since I was a very regular user of blatchat. My problem was that I was using the other image upload facility (ringed in yellow) rather than the new (to me) one in blue. The insert image icon is commonly used on other forums and web editors, hence being puzzled why the same links don't work on here. If I have got it right you will see the image below. The other photo I was trying to upload shows that one key is blind and the other has a through hole for the pin.