Getting the car back and also in trouble!

After a very nice couple of weeks Scuba diving in Egypt, I was very much looking forward to getting my car back from it's first service.

Dean Francis told me on Friday last week that everything was done on the checklist I'd supplied and that he'd arranged for the car to be delivered back to me on Monday afternoon - which was great timing as this was the first opportunity they could've delivered.  The car turned up in the early evening and was promptly unloaded off the transporter.

My Caterham R500 being unloaded after it's first service.

Some of the things I wanted changing and looking at included:-
• There was a nick out of the stone chip protection film on nearside rear wing which was agreed to be replaced when Dean initially delivered the car to me.  I'd also managed to mess up the stone chip film on the nosecone with a Gopro suction mount - so that got replaced too.

• When Dean delivered the car Caterham had provided me with a previous customers steering wheel, rather than holding up my car for a couple of switch parts.  So I've now got my nice new steering wheel.

Finally - MY steering wheel now fitted.

• The Stack Dash required a lead that was out of stock (at the time of initially delivering the car to me).  This lead is to stop the gear appearing on the dash (as my car is a H pattern manual not sequential).  So this has now been fitted which disables the static gear display on the dash which was set to 5.

• The engine started to run quite lumpy at low revs once warm (after about 700 miles), it would occasionally stall when idling.  I think this was an issue with the throttle position sensor, and this has now been rectified.

• The shift lights were set to come on at the running in red line of 5000 RPM, and these have now been re-programmed to the 8750 RPM limit.

• A washer needed to be fitted to the reverse light selector in gearbox, and as I'd carpeted the transmission tunnel this made it extremely difficult to do without a ramp.  I've not checked this has been done, but I guess it has... Best check that tonight!

• The initial cat bypass pipe I was supplied had a different bore at the collector end to the manifold pipes I had, so a correctly sized polished cat bypass pipe has now been supplied.  It looks visibly larger, and has a collar where the four pipes join into the single pipe.

The correctly sized polished cat bypass pipe for my R500 Duratec

• There was a very slight squeak on the front offside, this didn't get done, so I'll have to try and work this out as it's irritating me.  I'll be taking the front anti roll bar off tonight or tomorrow evening to start the carbon headlight fitting, so I'll give everything a good grease whilst it's unbolted.

• The offside front wheel brake pad makes a clunking noise in the calliper, and this was not fixed, but when I asked why apparently this will go once the pads are properly bedded in which can take quite a while.  I've done 1,000 miles now, and it seems to be getting louder, so I'll keep my ear on this...

• I received a throttle recall check document in the post and asked for this to be done. 

My service book and other paperwork wasn't on the transporter with the car, so this has been posted to me, so I hope to have the completed service and PBC stamps plus the throttle recall document signed off and delivered to me tomorrow morning.

So it was time for a blat. 
I decided to try a point of view angle for the GoPro this evening, which started off as a really good video, but I ended up 'accidentally' going sideways round a local roundabout with a police car just out of sight up the road... So I got the blue lights, and got pulled over... see the video below... After my chat with the officers, I decided it best not to publish the rest of evenings 'antics'.

As I was putting the car in the garage I found there were some oil drips on my drive...!  Not good..! 

Oil drips on my drive

I jacked the car up, and it appears the dry sump raceline hoses were weeping very slightly at the connector... I checked the connector bolts and they were extremely tight, so didn't think it was a major issue, but wasn't sure... So this morning I called Simon at Caterham midlands (who done the service) and he said due to the coarse thread of the connector nuts, there can be some oil weep out of them as that would've been residing in the thread when they were tightened.  I'll dry the area tonight, start the car and re-check.

So with any luck and the good weather set to continue, I should be at Snetterton Track on Wednesday 6th of August, and then the weekend after that off to Wales.

Bring it on!