Caterham 170 experience

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 a 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 ...

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 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.   

TL;DR Pimpin' ain't easy Read part I   and part II for the full PIAA story. Even I think that a third post about those additional lights is a bit much. Yet again, the time spent 'researching' and fiddling with the adjustment make it worth my time writing it down. This whole blog could have been a collection of Post-It notes in Google Keep, all bullet points, sketches and figures. Anywho, as pleased as I was to transform my Seven into a light ball, it was too much and a plain nuisance to others if we're honest. Flooding the scenery up to the roof of houses with pissy yellow light wouldn't bring anything useful in actual fog either. The fact that the white drive beams were aiming too high was not as problematic, but the goal was for them to fill the black void left when the low beams turn off as the high beams are activated. I got a first check on the wall of the parking lot at work at the end of the day, with evidence recorded by the dashcam for later analy...

TL;DR Adding weight and complexity See them installed and in action here : part II    and finally part III about the alignment To quote Ben Jabituya in Short Circuit : "You know what many people are liking at night ? Headlights." Confession time. I'm one of those people he was talking about. Since the Vosges trip in August and the driving-mountain-roads-at-night-under-the-rain that came with it, I've been on the lookout for additional front lights for the 170. The issue comes from the void created near field when the main beams are switched on. With the original halogen headlights, you can hold the flasher button down to force both beams to illuminate at the same time. Replacement LED H4 bulbs didn't allow for that, but the illumination remained satisfactory. The proper LED headlights on the other hand alternate between two sharply defined beams that don't really crossover. The only Caterham with additional lights I know about is from Gilles in France. He l...

TL;DR : not the best afternoon Really happy with the MFD15 installed in October , it didn't take long to imagine a next step where the fuel gauge would also be replaced by a CAN one, and a final step that would see a custom base for my mobile phone holder take the space occupied by the coolant temperature dial. Since the last failure of the oxygen sensor, I came to like having the lambda value displayed at all times. That also helped justify getting a second MFD15. With all the discounts the end of year was likely to bring, I didn't rush the purchase. But as nothing came by mid-December, I placed an order from Sandtler24 before any hypothetical price increase in January. First things first, I prepared an image for the boot screen. This time with the House of Speed and Quaife logos. The new device was powered from its USB port, the boot image loaded, the firmware upgraded to the latest version, the TRI file (CAN messages definitions) uploaded as well as a backup of ...

TL;DR  stealth on a shelf My Ultralite wheels were actually configured with another car in mind. More precisely, they were supposed to be chef's kiss 👌 on a carbon fiber-clad Caterham 170R with a Nardo grey body. A real thing of beauty; a bit radical. The black perimeter bolts (20 per wheel) worked really well with that livery. On Firecracker yellow with black stripes, I did intent on having silver assembly hardware. It's a bit more subdued on a car that is already attracting a lot of attention. That to say those black bolts are bit much on my 170S. A good thing with split rims is that the fasteners can be replaced at will. A better thing yet is that the bolts aren't screwed in the wheels centers themselves, but rather on nuts behind the rim sections. Those allow for a visual inspection and can be re-torqued if needed. This is also way safer than threading straight in aluminium : failing threads can lead to wheels that split while driving or even explode when mo...

TL;DR  Sisyphus's Caterham Staring at the cover picture for the Lamba sensor blog post from the other day, I was surprised to discover that my turbo is missing a bolt that's supposed to keep it strongly attached to the cylinder head. Browsing my photo gallery, I could confirm it was in place and partially visible with the turbo fresh from its upgrade in January. I could also spot a closeup of the turbo from the blue factory demonstrator that showed there's a bolt where mine seems to be missing  (see below) .  Videos of of the R06A teardown mentioned here show that the Alto Works uses 2 bolts and 2 studs. I really lost one bolt then. The good thing is that I have no exhaust leak, no noise or traces of soot. Overall it's not a big deal : I'd rather lose a bolt than risk ripping the thread in the aluminium cylinder head. Looking for a spare, I mostly found M8 and M10 studs and nuts kits. I confirmed the size with an M8 nut I have in my drawer. As it threaded fine on ...

  TL;DR Fear not. Very interested and curious about the intricacies of the R06A engine that powers the Caterham 170, I stumbled upon a series of YouTube videos by 赤シルの休日 @akasil . In that series, our man Akashiru shows a complete engine rebuild  of the Suzuki Alto HA36S he plans to race. Beside those videos, he also got an interview with Izumori-san , president of OS Giken. Wondering about the differences between the K6A engine (the one from the Caterham 160/165 as far as we are concerned) and the newer R06A (in the 170), they inform us that emissions compliance and fuel economy were driving most of Suzuki's engineering decisions.  While the K6A is 'square' (bore=stroke), the R06A is a long stroke engine (smaller bore, longer stroke for the same displacement), giving more torque and helping with emissions and efficiency. This is overall better suited to use with a turbo.  Side note, the "longer" engine also explains the lower rev limit : 7000 RPM vs  8000 RPM f...