tomwood

Hi James, i won't hold you to it as I appreciate these things are subject to change but do you have an approximate date for when the Brands day will be open for booking? regards Tom

Glad you got it sorted. Interestingly the exact same thing happened to another Duratec caterham at the last track day I did last year. I wonder what it is about spinning it and going backwards which causes the fuel pup fuse to blow?

Good stuff, thanks. I too have MTL in the gearbox and rate it. I've just finished emptying the diff with the Pela (it was full right up to the filler hole still) and indeed a rough measurement suggests about 1.2L has come out. It's done 2500 miles like that without any leaking and has performed well so filling to the hole would appear to be fine as you surmise. initially the oil did look very clean and wondered if I was wasting my time but to be fair there was a fair bit of crud in the bottom 100ml or so that came out. ive found the old diff oil bottle from when I filled it originally. It's a caterham branded bottle of comma oil which simply lists GL5 on it. I added friction modifier to that when I put it in which is why I was asking the question but I've looked up the redline diff oil you've listed and indeed that already contains the required friction modifier. i'll go with your suggestion and get some ordered. thanks for your help, Tom

Thanks Peter - did you add friction modifier to the redline oil?

Hi all, car is now 4yrs/2500 miles (2013 build) and I'd like to service the diff whilst doing other bits on the car. I've had a look in the archive but the message is confused as to how much oil should actually be in it. Questions I'd really like answers to from those that know: 1) should I be refilling to the filler hole on the BMW Diff or is that going to over fill it? I'd be happy to empty it and refill with a set amount of oil - how much to put back in would be the question? 2) what is the correct oil to refill with? When I built the car caterham supplied a diff oil + friction modifier. I understand that caterham now stock a Motul 75-140 based oil that requires no friction modifier apparently. Do I have this right and is this the one to use in the BMW diff that has an LSD in it? Thanks Tom

BigCol - yes, correct. Mine too failed on brake imbalance on first attempt as well although in my case it wasn't a front to rear issue but rather a faulty calliper which was then replaced before a retest.

Thanks Duncan, I agree which is why I'd like sort the problem out. Thanks for your update. I will purchase the upgraded rears as well and switch them both out. Tom

Thanks for all the comments. D.J - Are those that you've linked to the same 'blue dot' ones being referred to by Roadsport06? If so, I will get those as well for the rear in that case. Car has only done 2500 miles so strongly suspect that the rear discs will barely look used and the fronts not much more so. Based on comments I shall try and use what I have provided they look in reasonable health when I take the wheels off. JK - I've been happy with the performance on the track thus far. My question was slightly leading. My suspicion is that grooved/drilled/vented would be a waste of money so your comments tend to suggest that's the case. Slightly ironic if the Mintex pads are of dubious legality given I'm only really doing it to avoid a rear overtaking the front type situation but if thats the case then I guess thats the case. If not Mintex 1144's with the blue dot rears, what other proven, legal combinations are there?

Hi All, Been digging through the archives for advice but just want to double check before I commit to purchasing. Currently I've got standard 2-pot caliper set-up all round with standard MC and pads as supplied in original kit I built the car with. The archives suggest Mintex MGB533 1144 pads up front to be a worthwhile upgrade to avoid some of the brake imbalance which I definitely do have. These I have purchased already. What I would like to know is the following: 1) Presumably its worth also replacing the disks at the same time to help bedding in? 2) Are the discs the same front and rear? 3) I'm tempted to leave the rears alone and upgrade to the 1144's up front. Is this wise? Ive seen talk in the archives of upgrading the rears slightly as well with some caterham parts items but the parts site has long since changed. Any ideas what, if anything, I should be putting in the rear these days to go well with the 1144's up front or shall I leave as standard? 4) is there much to be gained by moving away from the solid discs to ventilated/ cross drilled jobbies? 5) If I'm to get standard solid discs, where should I get them from? I've seen discussions of MOSS europe in the archives and I assume the standard Spitfire discs are the ones to get? Are these correct? http://www.moss-europe.co.uk/shop-by-model/triumph/spitfire/brake-system/front-brakes/geomet-brake-discs-spitfire-46635.html Thanks in advance for the assistance. Tom

I've got a Ford 5 speed and have no regrets. I kind of wanted a 6 speed when I bought the car as a kit but I'd run out of money by that point. As it turns out sticking with the 5 speed seems to have been a good move, the Duratec doesn't really need the 6. first however is a total waste of time and I never use it. It pulls away very happily in second so it's not really an issue but it kind of makes it a 4 speed box! Tom

So, finally had the chance to fit the new plenum. Struggled to get the old one off at first because some of the bolts were inaccessible. Made all the more easy once the belt tensioner was removed from the engine so for those doing this job in the future, do this first and save yourself some time. The new plenum is definitely different in its composition. I took photos of the inside of both old and new and they are noticeably different textures. That said, that's about the only distinguishing factor, they otherwise look the same. have done another comparison video now it's on the car: the lighting isn't great so sorry about that. To me it looks marginally better but it does still flex a fair bit.

In my case I simply want it for when going on track whereupon I will be wearing a full face helmet. For the road I'm really not keen for exactly the reasons described. I've never found myself wanting more grunt on the road either so the case for swapping to the aeroscreen for road use doesn't really stack up for me.

Thanks to JNC who kindly spotted one for sale on eBay for me this week, I have just secured a new replacement at a fraction of the cost of a new one from Caterham so will fit it once it arrives and do a comparison video.

Sounds good and thanks for the advice. Simon, expect an order heading your way over the weekend! Tom

Hi Simon, thanks, few questions on yours. 1) will it fit into the retaining channels discussed above? 2) Is the Perspex OK to be drilled to support some mirrors? 3) does the centre support have to be screwed into the bit behind the dash or is it just free standing? Thanks, Tom

Lovely, thanks everyone. Paul - I live just round the corner from that shop you mention and never knew about it. Looks like a very useful shop that one, will go check it out. I remember fitting the knee trim panels was quite difficult during the build so those captive nut retaining rails look a no brainier. With regards to the aeroscreen itself, are the ones from Kitcar direct any good? The Caterham ones seem very expensive and, you guessed it, they are out of stock. If anyone has a recommendation on where to get one that would be great. I don't need anything that fancy, I'll only use it on track.

Perfect, thanks guys. I take it one needs to drill out the rivets that hold he knee panels in place to fit the channels as a one off job? also how are the channels retained in place, are the riveted on?

Would someone be kind enough to talk me through what would be involved in terms of fitting an aeroscreen to a 7 that's never had one fitted. what exactly is it that needs fitting to the car to retain the screen, is there any drilling to be done etc? thanks Tom

Hi Andrew, if my own experience is anything to go by then I'd say there is a very realistic probability that the dampers are shot as you have surmised yourself. In my case I managed to kill one of the dampers after less than 3 years/2500 miles and 13 years is a while.... In my case I think I was unfortunate to 'pop' one whilst 2 up in the car having gone through a particularly deep depression in the road at speed. Think this managed to rupture the seal on one of them necessitating a rebuild. I have just this week received by refurbed shock back from Bilstein. They were very helpful and the turnaround was something like 3 days from them receiving it in the post and sending it out again to me so about a week all told, not bad if you ask me. they re-shimmed it, put new seals on it, filled it with oil and repressurised it. Cosmetically it came back a lot cleaner than when it went so all good there. I plan to fit it back to the car when I get home later. when I took it off the car I did a bit of testing on it, compressing it and watching the rebound. It was similar to the response you are seeing with yours, didn't seem to rebound with any great speed. including postage and VAT etc it was something like £115 for one so assuming you don't get any economies of scale doing them all at the same time then it's going to be the best part of £500 to have them all done but then what's a brand new set of Nitrons etc going to cost you? lets be honest they won't be in the best of condition after 13 years so you'll definitely get a benefit in having them all looked at. My SuperSport R rides beautifully on the standard Bilsteins so they are definitely good when fully working. Also if you don't track the car much do you really need anything more advanced? Tom

So, it's now been repaired and sent back to me. I asked the guy who rebuilt it what he thought. No obvious scoring on the shaft led him to suggest that I was just unlucky in this case and that he couldn't say what had caused it.

My car has failed its first MOT on the basis of a leaking rear damper. With this being after just 2,500 total miles I'm obviously interested to know why. One suggested reason that came from the garage was that, if the shock picks up a load of crud on the shaft, and you happen to go over a particularly large bump and compress the suspension more than normal, a sharp bit of it could make its way down to the dampers seal and end up knackering it. suggestion therefore being to fit some kind of damper sock to stop the crud going in there in the first place. Seems sensible so just wondered if others were doing this in their cars? ive had a look about, Deamon Teaks do them. Call me tight though but at something like £20 per corner it seems very expensive. I'm half inclined to butcher an old pair of socks

Probably but not sure how best to do it. What did you have in mind?

Thanks John, what you and Rattie have said makes a lot of sense. Also in light of the feedback I got from Caterham today I'm inclined to stick with it and monitor it for now. it is interesting though that I was told the design has been made stiffer recently. I did ask if they'd seen any failures of the plastic plenums and i was assured there hadn't been any.

So, spoke to the Main Technician at Caterham South. Apparently the design of these have been changed more recently to make them a bit stiffer but he has watched the better of the videos I took and reckons that its well within what he would consider to be normal. So its a case of TADTS. I will however be watching it very closely to see if it gets any worse.

If anyone else could do a comparison for me it would be appreciated. In the meantime I'm going to discuss with Caterham to see what they think.