TomB

A few random tech questions after a day tinkering with Tiggy (a 1.4 SS) 1. What are the two random sockets on black and red cables on the drivers side loom near the cut off key? One is yellow and marked 'Receiver' & the other a white rectangle marked KE113RO10%. My guess is that they are for some sort of fancy digital display or rev instrument? 2. A 'Minster Power' badge on my engine. Do all 1.4 SS have this as part of the conversion? I assume this is unlikely therefore it has been to Minster at some point. Is there any way of finding what they did, before I consider further tuning? Will Caterham or Minster have a record of the chasis number & what they did? 3. How much slack should there be in the throttle cable? The pedal has to move ~0.5 cm before there is any movement on the throttle body. I changed my cable to see if it had stretched, and I have fully shortened the adjustment. Is this normal? 4. What is needed to convert a 1.4SS to a similar spec to a 1.4 Roadsport, which I gather are really good. thanks in advance Tom & Tiggy

I got a quote from Kenricks of £300 and £220 from Ryders in Liverpool for the 12 k mile service. The Ryders figure is much more reasonable than Caterhams price. I know Mav wont touch them with a long barge pole, and Buda with a moderate barge pole, but has anyone used Ryders for servicing and been happy with them? Ryders is only about 20 miles from mine, so it has a lot going for it in the cost & convienience stakes. By the way, does any one run Yoko A539? 21R are so grippy, but my 21Rs on the rear need changing after 3000 energetic road miles. Need something a bit more durable without sacrificing too much grip. Cheers

Lincolnshires a long way to go for a service (I am in Wirral). I have gone through the service list with my Dad & the manual / handbook I got, and nothing seems too complex, just time consuming. Things like the headlamp alignment & ECU might be more complex. I guess labour costs are the highest cost of the £400. Martin, for future reference, is there a 7 friendly garage in Chester / Wirral area?

Popped into caterham midlands & asked out of curiosity the cost of the next service at 12000 miles (currently on 6800 miles). My was shocked to hear £425. To a new owner who has only just considered this aspect of ownership, this sounds very expensive for such a mechanically simple car. I had been led to believe they are relatively cheap to look after. Is this what a local agent will cost too? Looking at what needs doing at 12 k, how can it cost this much? I though 7s were cheap & easy to maintain!! To have to spend at least this amount on servicing, and maybe twice in a heavy year with a good summer (!) makes the 7 hard to justify to my suffering parents (and maybe even me if a worry about it too much) Can a relative novice do this and subsequent servicing? The car is 1.4 k / dry sump / dd.

Certainly not, who'd do such a thing. My cat was driving, officer...

Hooray! A happy chap who has just done his first proper mechanical job on his 7. Today i installed a stat - a fiddly job to say the least. I hope I dont have to that again. As suggested, there wasnt one fitted. Now the temp gauge gets up to temp quicker and runs at a proper temp. The fan kicks in at 90 ish I noticed how sensitive the gauge is when i took it for a test drive. At traffic lights you can see it increase a degree or two, cooling if when you drive away. Also with a sudden squirt of throttle, the temp quickly fell, then increased. Presumably the pump is engine driven, faster revs making cool water rapidly move out of the radiator down the rail towards the sender. At 90 - 100 mph, the temp hovered slightly below 80 degrees. Thanks for your advice. An afternoon of work that saved a lot of hassle delivering the car to Caterham Midlands for them to do under the waranty.

Mav, I was in Norfolk working all week unfortunately. I'll get to a MAD meeting with my baby eventually.... Tom

Mav, I was in Norfolk working all week unfortunately. I'll get to a MAD meeting with my baby eventually.... Tom

Mav, I was in Norfolk working all week unfortunately. I'll get to a MAD meeting with my baby eventually.... Tom

Should my dry sumped 1.4 K SS have a dip stick - I cant find one. Is the only way of checking oil to open the tank & looking inside? Doesnt seem a very accurate method to me.

My 1.4 K has ali panel over the wooden boot floor piece, & the whole thing is covered by the boot carpet. When waxoiling the car I took out the boot floor to spray the top of the diff. I also took the opportunity to Cuprinol the wooden panel. Not for longevity, you understand, I just wanted to imagine I had a Morgan or a Moggi Traveller!! Is that the only bit of wood lurking in my 7?

My antifreeze for whatever reason is only 20% strength. I need to change it. Would this affect the temperature of the engine in normal running?

I negiotaited a waranty from caterham midlands for an ex race car, which they dont usually give. Basically _they_ will look after my car for the warant period. I think I will invalidate my waranty with them if I take to the caterham agent in Liverpool (10 miles away). It amounts to hassle, & as theyd want the car for few days, fuel cost for 2 cars there and back, all for a £10 thermostat. So I will either do it myself, or wait till the waranty period is over then pay £40 - 50 at the agent in Liverpool. Ive been told by three people at caterham that it wont do the engine any harm to run cool for a few months. They are more concerned with hot cars. I am going to experiment with blocking half the rad up & see whether temp rises.

I had a play tonight with the car. The radiator gets warm gradually, within 1 -2 min of starting & ide running. I have determined I do not have a race radiator, as the tanks are at the top/bottom. The fan cuts in when left still for long enough & the dial has got round to 80 90 ish. I earthed the temp sender wire with the ignition on & the temp dial fully deflected. Therefore i think my temp sender is OK. It looks like a duff stat or absence of a stat. is it the standard Rover 1.4 part? Would someone kindly put idiot proof instructions of how to replace the stat / check its there etc here? I have only had the car a fortnight - Caterham should have fixed this before I got it. They should sort ot now on warranty, but I dont really want to make a 350 mile trip to get it fixed when the part is only a few quid & it will cost £40 in fuel + hassle etc. Any ideas as to what it would cost at a Caterham agent? Could I take it to a local Rover garage?

My temperature gauge / thermo or sender is being odd. I can get my 1.4 K supersport up to temperature on the gauge when it is at idle, but as soon as I take it out and the air flow gets going, the gauge goes down to the blue. I have cleaned the sender contacts. As it is a former track car, could it have been set up to always run cool because of the higher temps of racing? As far as I can gather it is either a dead or faulty thermostat, it has never had one fitted, or it is stuck open. I got it from caterham midlands a fortnight ago & if I want them to rectify it, I have to take it down to them & make a 300 mile round trip. Is there any thing obvious to try? How easy would it be to replace the thermostate with a replacement Metro unit from halfrauds? Thanks in advance PS the car has a heater fitted Edited by - TomB on 13 May 2002 20:08:46

Had a good fiddle with the car tonight & got the fogs & temp gauge to work. Fuse had gone on the fogs. I took the temp sender off & cleaned the contacts & wrapped a fragile looking wire in insulation tape. Is there only one wire from the temp sender? Thats all I've got on mine. The little niggles i have seem to be intermittent electrical problmes that in themselves are not hard to fix, just a bit puzzling at first! Cheers guys

I have had my 1.4 K supersport for a few days now & I need advice as to what are the 'normal' operating characteristics of this car. Is the following anything to worry about? its has just been bought from caterham midlands with a 6000 mile service. 1. Should there be a quiet clunk as I bring the clutch up on gear change? Is it just the clutch bearing doing its job? 2. Are shakes & rattles from the rear end on crap urban roads a normal de dion characteristic? 3. Although the exhaust is not smokey, it is quite smelly. Is this normal, or is running too rich? 4. Squeeky brakes. Where is the temp sender? My temp gauge is being strange & I have had a fiddle under the dash & not rectified it. Any bright ideas why the fogs wont work? Fuse & bulbs seem OK. Cheers in advance, Tom

A blown fuse in the dash was the answer! A 7.5 amp where there should have been a 10. On the subject of oil level, I asked Caterham & they said it should be at the bottom of the oil tank that sits on the gearbox. i havnt been able to find a dipstick or any kind of graded scale though. Going to scare my dad tonight.....;-) Cheers Count.

I got my 1.4 K Supersport yesterday from Caterham midlands & have done about 200 miles in it by this evening. I have my first problem. My temp gauge works intermittantly so I think there is a dodgy connection somewhere in the dash. Driving this afternoon, I touched a wire beneath the dash & the oil pressure gauge died & the oil warning light came on. No fluid is leaking & it appears to run OK. Had a fiddle with the dash & get the dial to work, but the oil light doesnt go out. It has just been serviced by Caterham. It is dry sumped. I have found the oil tank on top of the gearbox, but I cant find any indication of the correct oil level (no dipstick or graded scale etc). Pressure is indicated around 1.5 - 2 bar. When I picked it up it was around three. There is no oil dripping from the engine Could the oil just needs topping up following its change during service? Should I trust the dashboard? Put more oil in & see what happens? Drive it slowly to a agent? Need to fix it tomorrow if possible. Edited by - TomB on 5 May 2002 19:54:43 Edited by - TomB on 5 May 2002 19:57:40

George Polley motorsport said the following: "To be honest if they are A008R's they are very old I think they were last made in 1995. If you speak to yokohama they will tell you that their tyres have a 5 year shelf life which it would appear those exceed. In their day the A008R was a very good dry tyre but was terrible in the wet. I wouldnt think they were suitable for road use as they aquaplane very badly in the wet." Will ask Caterham for some other tyres. Any other advice?

I have put a deposit on a 1.4 K Supersport from Caterham thta needs 2 new rears. I dont know what are on it at the moment. They have a hexagonal shaped tread like AO32s but the pattern looks smaller. Caterham have said they can replace the 2 worn ones or put 4 new yoko A008 tyres. I believe these are not made any more. I have quick look at them on the top of a shelf at Caterham & was struck by the strange tread pattern with one almost slick and the other side of the tyre a more typical tread pattern. I guess it is better to start off with 4 fresh tyres. Why do A008 have this tread pattern; are they OK for road use in all weathers ( it will be my main car)? I know next to nothing about tyres, apart from black, round & that AA rating is very sticky and A less so. Any advice very useful!

Chris, you have mail!

Cheers for your help guys. How about a 3 speed automatic? ;-))

I have found a advert for a 1995 Caterham 7 1600 Classic SE, 4 Speed Live Axle, approx 8600 miles, BRG at a reasonable price. However I am ideally looking for a 5 speed box as I will be using it as my main car. How easy is it to convert a 4 spd to a 5 spd? I dont fancy pulling the engine out & changing the box myself. Are there any professional concerns that would be able to it? Would it be costly? Basically, should I pursue this advert and live with a 4 spd, or somehow convert it later to 5 spd? Or should I just wait for a 5 spd to come along? How important is a 5 spd? Would appreciate comments from 4 spd and 5 spd Xflow owners.

Al, you've mail from me