Caterham 170 experience

  TL;DR : Better luck next time That photo-stunt was months in the making after Stephen presented his "EWU" on a Facebook group.  I jokingly replied with "WTF is even an EWU?" or something of that effect and got a serious explanation about how his kids named his car after its license plate. Anyway, in July he contacted me for some advice regarding his plans of touring the Belgian Ardennes with one of his teenage kids. I was in Corsica and couldn't share the trip, but I was more than happy to help prepare a memorable road-book. I based the general directions on a drive we had with a few friends on May 25th, which I actually did rehearse on the day before. The only significant change would be that it would basically be in reverse, with more high-speed roads and none of the questionable paths in the woods (they allowed for some shade on a very hot day as well as a very appreciated opportunity for some -hum- relief) . Their 3-day stay in Belgium went without a hitc...

  TL;DR : 🦝💥🏎️💨⚰️😭 "Will you kill all animals in the forest with your Seven?" - I've been asked. Maybe one of each is fair game. Really eager to confirm my over-heating issues (in cold weather only) were solved for good, I went for a short evening drive around the Ardenne. Temperature was around 13°C and the rain just stopped for a bit. The good news is that yes, after 6 months of wondering how to solve my cooling issue, the actual culprit was the expansion bottle cap . As House of Speed were closed for the Summer holidays, I got a replacement cap from Land Rover instead. The part number is PCD500030. The expansion tank and cap used by Caterham come from an old Freelander. Shoutout to Spirlet Liège for their gentle help.  It cost me 23.53€ for an OEM part.  As a reminder, I tried a 12€ one from Aliexpress first. Sold with an identical part number, it was advertised as " Factory-grade quality at competitive price " . My arse. The valve looked fake and there...

TL;DR : Fiery, but cold After a 35°C kind of day with equally enjoyable conditions working from home in the attic, an evening drive felt quite appropriate.  With a former colleague just arrived in Liège to work here for a year, I thought we could take the Caterham to the Ardenne and grab a drink. The trip started with us driving in circles through a maze of roadworks. It was basically impossible to go South without resorting to driving on the highway. As I had removed the side screens for maximum effect, it would have been no fun at all.  That's how I drove east with the idea of having our drink in Spa. Along the way, we were able to see the wildfire of the High Fens, that began on that afternoon. We stopped once or twice to take some pictures. After a beer in Spa, we continued our way to the East, again guided by roadworks that blocked the roads I know best. Up top, the smell of wood fire. It was getting cold as well, and we were only wearing shorts and t-shirts. I pulled th...

TL;DR Turbo-curious The previous 150 or so posts probably left little doubt about the fact that I'm no mechanic. With that came basically no prior knowledge about the ins and outs of a turbocharged engine. In a nutshell, both turbochargers and superchargers push more air in the combustion chamber than atmospheric pressure alone would allow. A turbo is driven by the exhaust gases, while a supercharger is powered by an accessory belt, stealing engine power from crankshaft (in basic terms : just like the alternator, or better yet, like an AC compressor) . With a boost pressure of 1.3 bar (measured through the OBD port) , the Caterham 170 sees an absolute pressure of 2.3 bars in the intake manifold when full boost is achieved. That forced induction basically turns the puny 658cc block into a 1513cc one. Who's laughing now? Compared to the 0.3  bar boost pressure on supercharged Lotus es , that's quite something. Pushing air then... yes.  Like a Nitrous oxide (NOS) ...

TL;DR : I've bought a garage Against my will, yet another saga that began on Christmas week  🎄🎅☃️ We were on holidays at the belgian coast, with the Caterham kindly stored at House of Speed during their week off. I came to think that it had been sleeping outside for nearly 2 years and it was well overdue to find it better sleeping quarters. In about 5 minutes, two or three options looked promising : a well located and very secure garage box, a small warehouse, and a small house that had been flooded 5 years ago. On the way back home, we stopped by the 80 m² (square meters) warehouse, to find that the entrance had been pimped a bit, but the roof was covered by a tarp. That was an instant no-go. The small house, already converted as a garage, had allegedly a buyer already. The prospect of being that close to the river didn't enchant me more than that either. Finally, that reasonably-priced garage was well located, a short 10 minutes from home. The place looked familiar, and I ...

TL;DR : a bad idea, don't do it With the recurring failure of the wideband oxygen sensor (4 killed fair and square and 1 DOA) , I was ready to try about anything to increase reliability. The change in November consisted in increasing the heating delay in the ECU, and I did add a 25mm spacer to get the sensor out of the direct exhaust flow. As a reminder it's located 8 cm from the exit of the turbo. That (already third) sensor lasted for about 6 months, only to fail at the track day in March. I had a spare on hand that didn't even last 2 kilometers. I got yet another one, that was installed straight on the pipe this time and didn't even last a full month. What I think happened is that re-starting the car when the engine was still warm-ish (~40-50°C coolant) was the scenario that led to all those failures. That was a clear thing on track where I drove 20 minutes sessions followed by equivalent pauses. It was also the case when I only used the car to commute to work and ...

TL;DR : easy-peasy with the right tools Having replaced the mirrors with  SPA design ones , the originals were left laying on the desk downstairs. I thought it would be a good idea to remove them from their arms to save space and set them aside in a slim cardboard box. That was a mistake : once you remove the screw from the ball joint, there's not way to get it back, and all the hardware is left loose inside behind the glass. I knew from the first 2 minutes of this video of the build series by Kyle Townend that it could be a pain to deal with. He broke one and got the second out with a hot air gun.   I also read Lee's build blog where he states that Caterham advised him to submerge the mirrors in hot water to soften the glue. In both instances they had to get the mirrors on stalks attached to the windscreen stanchions, as the IVA does not allow the side screens for some reason (my guess is that the plastic windows are the actual concern as they can scratch easily). Anyway,...

TL;DR : Sub-optimal job from the factory With the car up on the lift at House of Speed the other day, it was apparent that the seats rails nuts and washers had seen better days. They were rusty more than scratched from contact with the road, but I couldn't leave them like that. While stainless steel replacement would look like the obvious choice, titanium is even a better option. CAUTION : Do not replace critical load bearing steel hardware with stainless steel or titanium and always stick the the prescribed alloy grade.  I reckon it's OK for the seats. Worst case they would become loose on the floor pan (or break) and you would still be attached to the car anyway... All we need are 4 (of each)  M8x20mm bolts, M8 nylstop nuts and M8x30mm plain washers per seat. Before placing my order, I had gotten the passenger seat out of the car for inspection, as I wanted to make sure I wouldn't need grinding down the titanium bolts flush with the nuts after fitting. Assuming they w...

TL;DR  : If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is After the slight over-heating issues at the track day, I did eliminate the idea that it could come from the faulty oxygen sensor. Those were (are) totally independent problems. With the oxygen sensor replaced once again, I came to understand and suspect that my car does not like cold weather. So I took the opportunity of a nice Spring weather to do various tests early in the morning or late in the evening with a cold weather (~5°C), and compare what happens in the afternoon when it's over 15°C. On the first cold night, I got the coolant up to 110°C when briefly pushing hard. And got no issue in the next afternon. On the next morning, we went back to the Fagnes  with a mask covering the front grille. That somewhat improved things but the solution was not perfect either. It confirmed that the thermostat is "shocked" close as soon as it opens. The rest of the drive it must have remained closed as the cabin heate...

TL;DR : adhesive tape is all it takes As a follow-up to the new screws I did fit to the poppers that are on top of the boot cover, the ones on the sides needed replacing too. The concern with those poppers is that they have an orientation, with a slight bulge on the bottom that keeps the full hood secured once popped in place. Not wanting to mess that up, I took some time and finally found a silly solution to keep it all well aligned. Tape, it's just adhesive tape. So one at a time, I did lock the poppers with tape and replaced the rusty screws with stainless steel ones. Two per side : one behind the door, and the front-most one under the boot cover (the others are riveted) . I've spotted that the screws from the poppers in the cabin where the sidescreens latch have white oxidation; I'm ok with that.

TL;DR Wet wet wet   All pictures courtesy of GT Production  and Racing Pictures & Reports Although I had planned on going to the Belgians On Track event of April 3rd, I finally chose to go to the "Trackday & drift" week-end organized by Pierre Malderez / Malderez Racing instead. Same circuit, same week, same weather. The fact that I wouldn't need taking a day off was the decisive element. I had the car serviced and the thermostat replaced just in time for that week-end, and did replace the safety-wire on the differential that was leaking a bit again. I assume I didn't do it right after the Quaife had been fitted. Anyway, as I had my car raised at HoS to do the work, I was told not to use the NS2 tyres I had shred the threads off during the previous trackday in October. It would be too dangerous. So I got the Uniroyal RainExpert back on the rear, on the original Juno wheels. As they have no "rotation" to respect and only an "outside"/"...

TL;DR yet another saga, for some reason Super boring long story short, the reference you're looking for is 17670-81AB1. Good luck finding one. With no reply to the enquiry I sent Caterham through their online form, I had to find the Suzuki part number for a Suzuki Every DA17 on eBay. As far as I known, my dealer was not able to get any information from official channels either. We got the thermostat out of the car at House of Speed and were able to confirm that what we saw did match the pictures from the listings : the offset piston, the looks of the mechanism and even all the markings on the flange were identical. On the Caterham 170, the thermostat is not located in the housing that's on the cylinder head  (we checked, it's empty) , but in a remote housing near the oil filter, where the bottom hose of the radiator is attached  (gotcha) . 17670-81AB1-000 is a 82°C  thermostat with a 48mm diameter that, in Europe, is also used on the Suzuki V-Strom 800 mo...

TL;DR What a year 📄 First, I take the opportunity to shed some light on the Index page I wrote over the past week-ends. It’s available as the first item in the left-hand navigation bar of the blog. Content is sorted by topic, allowing to find what one could be looking for - the calendar thing is basically useless.  🎂 Two years then... It went both quickly and slowly, with the car stuck in the garage waiting for parts or paint for nearly five months. That made me miss the driest spring/summer season but I somehow managed to drive around 15 000 km despite that.  We did attend about 10 events and longer trips, from Mont Saint-Michel (shown above) to the Black Forest, club events, blats with Seven friends, a charity drive... and a first track day. Even if it sometimes looks and feels like a "Sisyphus' Caterham" story with the need for near constant upkeep, the worst issues so far have been a pair of 70€ oxygen sensors and a ~25€ thermostat that will be replaced wi...

TL;DR a lot of fun After two cold weeks of rain on frozen roads, any outing would mean soaking the Caterham in salt. We don't want any of that, so I jumped on the first chance of properly rinsed but dry roads one Wednesday evening after work to go for a quick 45-minutes drive. It was  just enough to keep the battery in good condition. Yes, I could have cut the master switch beforehand. I came back with really cold feet but had some good old fun. With the kids on vacation for 2 weeks, the original plan was to use it as my daily and take it to the office every day. Weather was so bad that they had to close the motorway near Francorchamps because of jackknifed tractor-trailers (on ice). Anyway, with the week-end came March showers. A bit of everything, with warmer rain. I don't know if I was craving driving so hard or what pushed me to see it that way, but it felt like a perfect day for one of my long drives around the Eifel and Rursee area. I left at around 9:15 and came ba...

TL;DR I'm really pissed this time Excuse my use of Greek letters, but What the Fυϲκ ! I just gave the car a quick power-wash after our Saturday blat to the Nürburging, and came back home to grazing sunlight that releaved strange brownish shadows behind the left-hand headlight. Looking closer, the bucket is rusty; all fυϲκed up with the paint cracked and lifting everywhere. With a car that's just 3 years old, "for the price" , this is just unacceptable. Options range from a £60 replacement that would most likely end up in the same state in a few years; to the 1000€ carbon fiber alternative from Wesmo. Or there's the obvious solution of spending hours cleaning, protecting and painting them to get them future-proof. My " perceived quality" (a strong focus at the top management at Caterham) has been never lower.