Monday, 31 August 2015

Rivnut Refiitting Guide for Rear Wings

After all the toing and froing of the leaking gearbox dilemma, I think it's sorted! No leaks (yet) on my garage flooring, so it's happy days once again... So... I decided to take the Caterham to work on Friday to enjoy the weather before the heavens opened for a miserable bank holiday weekend's worth of rain!

The car was all good and running well.  Not the longest of journeys, but good to get out again, as it has been a while... I think nearly two months!  At the end of the day and time to leave, I had a few things still to finish off, at which point my business partner came up and said he'd crashed into my car whilst reversing out of his space - I thought he was joking as he's the type to muck around like that...

Anyway, it wasn't a joke and yes, the car had some damage!  I didn't freak out (which was surprising) as it looked worse than it was...   Lee (my business partner) was very apologetic as you'd expect etc etc, and I assessed the damage.  I'd say it looked more like a 'slow clip' of the wing than serious damage and it appeared that the rivnuts had been pulled from the skin behind the wing, with only the exhaust mount being a little bent.  I taped the car up with some low tack tape, and drove it cautiously home.
Caterham with taped wing after a minor incident with an X5!
Caterham with taped wing after a minor incident with an X5!
I rang Caterham Midlands to see what they suggested and it turns out Simon Lambert was up there helping out and I spoke to him... Simon was extremely helpful, went through the issue with me and suggested it may be a fairly easy fix (which I thought was the case too, but I wanted to double check with them).  He pointed me to this threaded rivnut insertion tool on amazon and said I needed some 5mm aluminium rivnuts... With a little persuasion he posted the rivnuts to me first class, I ordered the rivnut tool from amazon and everything arrived the very next morning!  Well done Caterham and Amazon!

I had some karting in Llandow to attend to over the weekend, so it wasn't until this morning that I could fix the car.

So onto my guide for replacing a wing and refitting rivnuts
I've put this guide together for my car (an R500 Duratec) please read the full guide before you start, and note there may be variances between the vehicle you are working on and this guide.

As a number of people had advised me in the past, Caterhams are quite susceptible to losing their rear wings... On track days, hitting cones and business partners reversing into them in their X5's!  Some people have suggested using plastic screws to hold the wing in place, which means the plastic screw snaps cleaning removing the wing from the rivnuts - which is great for racing, but not so practical on the road as you could do more damage to the paint on the wing (when it hits the tarmac) than the wing just pulling the rivnut away from the skin of the car.  So I've decided to stick with the metal screws.

Firstly, get yourself a large coffee and a bacon sarnie - a great way to fuel yourself for a couple of hours in the garage!
BLT and Costa before the rivnut refitting
BLT and Costa before the rivnut refitting
Below is a picture of the wing, you can see it's pulled away from the skin of the body, with the rubber piping lose, and also the exhaust looks somewhat askew.
Wing pulled away from the body, wing piping lose and askew exhaust.
Wing pulled away from the body, wing piping lose and askew exhaust.
What you need to do to get started is get the wheel off.  So using one of the rear jacking points (I put the jack on the cross section underneath the fuel tank), jack the car up sufficiently to remove the wheel.  Put an axle stand in place if you need to, but I trust my jack as it has a locking mechanism.

Then remove the rubber grommet (left of the picture below) and you should be able to pull the light connector block through the hole and separate the two connectors.  Then using an 8mm spanner loosen all ten fixings for the wing - start at the bottom and finish at the top, so the wing doesn't fall away from the car unexpectedly and cause further damage.
Remove all ten wing fixings, from top to bottom and remember to disconnect rear light wiring.
Remove all ten wing fixings, from top to bottom and remember to disconnect rear light wiring.
With the wing removed you can see that the front five rivnuts have pulled through the aluminium skin of the car.  The protruding aluminium around the rivnut holes will need to be lightly tapped back into place.
Wing removed, five rivnuts pulled through body skin.
I wanted to completely check the wing for damage, so I laid it on some cloth on garage floor so as not to damage the paint.   I know of other Caterham owners who've clipped their rear wings, with the GRP literally tearing apart, so I was hoping the wing would still be intact.  The wing was completely intact on the underside, which is testament to the additional strength of the carbon fibre over GRP wings.
Underside of wing intact, testament to the strength of carbon fibre over GRP wings
There was a very slight crack of the wing on the leading edge, which just needs some carbon epoxy left to cure overnight, a rub down and a touch of paint.  I'll get 'my mate Dave' at Daytona Coachworx to do this.
Very slight crack in leading edge of wing
Very slight crack in leading edge of wing
With the wing removed and checked over, it was time to push the protruding body skin back into it's original location.  I found the best tool for this was a medium socket extension, covered in a microfibre cloth, tapped lightly with a rubber mallet.
My bodywork repair contraption
My bodywork repair contraption
The skin of the body is very soft, so using my 'hammering contraption' I very lightly tapped the protruding body skin back to it's original state.
Rivnut holes tapped back to their original state
Rivnut holes tapped back to their original state
Here is the threaded rivnut insertion tool and the rivnuts that Simon Lambert from Caterham very kindly posted to save the day.
Threaded rivnut insertion tool and 5mm aluminium rivnuts
Threaded rivnut insertion tool and 5mm aluminium rivnuts
Having never used a threaded rivnut insertion tool before, I had to read the instructions!  It's really easy to use once you get the hang of it.  Open the handle, put the correct sized mandrel and collar into place, and screw the rivnut onto the end.
Threaded rivnut insert tool with 5mm aluminium rivnut ready to go
Threaded rivnut insert tool with 5mm aluminium rivnut ready to go
And the first one goes in... Really easy, put the rivnut in the hole and squeeze the tool... Don't squeeze too hard though as you can ruin the thread of the rivnut!  You can easily feel when enough pressure has been applied, and it doesn't 'snap off' like a standard rivet, you need to unscrew using the knob on the back of the tool to remove.
The first rivnut goes in
The first rivnut goes in
 Repeat for all the rivnuts you need to replace, in my case it was the leading five.
Leading five rivnuts replaced
Leading five rivnuts replaced
Then starting from top to bottom, very loosely replace the fixings for the wing.  It's worth loosely fitting the wing, with about 5mm of gap, so that you can then fit the rubber piping.  I find that working the piping from the top of the wing is the easiest way to fit it, but for tightening it's worth adjusting the piping to fit, then tightening a few fixings at a time to get a good fit. These fixings do not have a torque setting, so just nip them up to hand tight being careful not to over tighten.
Wing replaced, rubber piping in place, and rear light reconnected.
Wing replaced, rubber piping in place, and rear light reconnected.
Don't forget to reconnect the rear light connection, and replace the grommet.  Refit and torque the wheel, and then lower the car and the job should be complete!

I also had to remove the exhaust, slightly bend the exhaust bobbin mount back, and then refit the exhaust to finish the job, but the wing is now secure and looking like new again.
Rivnuts refitted, wing securely fastened, with exhaust re-alligned too - job done!
Rivnuts refitted, wing securely fastened, with exhaust re-alligned too - job done!
Hopefully I'll be able to have some trouble free use of the car over the next few weeks, I think Snetterton is calling!

Thursday, 27 August 2015

Third Seal Lucky

Received a call from Caterham Midlands yesterday morning, but was in a meeting so missed their call.  A follow up email came promptly through saying that another new rear seal (the third one!) was fitted to the gearbox tail a couple of days ago.

For the third time... This wasn't the smallest or easiest of jobs... The diff and prop had to come out, the existing seal (I would write old, but it was brand new!) was removed and the new seal was refitted.  One of the main problems with replacing the seal is the propshaft guard (specific to R500's and 620R's) means that it's very awkward to get the oil seal and the prop cleanly aligned without nicking the edges which causes the leak.  
The offending article - the rear gearbox oil seal
The offending article - the rear gearbox oil seal

Another new oil seal was 'extremely carefully' refitted a few days ago, the car was road tested and then left on the ramp for 24 hours.  The car was then road tested again this morning and there hasn't been any leaking whatsoever, so Caterham Midlands rang earlier on today to say that Keith could be with me this afternoon!  Great news!

So Keith arrived around 2pm, the car is now in the garage (it's chucking it down here) and 'may' get used this coming bank holiday Monday...

The Caterham is fixed and back!
The Caterham is fixed and back!

Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Missing

Following on from my last post, (where my car was collected on 17th August 2015)...  That was over a week ago and since then I've not heard a thing from Caterham Midlands... So one of my friends who frequents my blog as an 'anonymous' poster sent this tongue in cheek, but pretty apt picture over this morning...  I had to laugh...
...But... In all seriousness, my car has been with them for over a week now, and I've not even had a call to say it's arrived, or anyone is working on it.  I wonder where or when I'll see it again........

Monday, 17 August 2015

Off to it's second home

Received a call first thing this morning from Caterham Midlands, apologising for their error (see last Friday's post)... Luckily Keith was down in Crawley today collecting a red / orange demonstrator 620R...  So on his way back he picked up my car, and the car is now on it's way to it's second home (or so it seems at the moment!)

The R500 being loaded onto the Caterham van to go to it's second home!
The R500 being loaded onto the Caterham van to go to it's second home!

The dripping of fluids has eased off a bit, but even so there shouldn't be any drips / leaks, however small they are. I'm hopeful it's only something minor, but will wait and see what Caterham say...

Friday, 14 August 2015

Collection for the leak, or was it?

Last week after the car was returned (from having the gearbox leak fixed) I noticed there was still some fluid dripping onto my garage floor... I called and spoke to Caterham Midlands, who couldn't believe it was still leaking, and at which point I thought we agreed for them to be collect the car on the 6th August... Alas, there was no appearance from Keith and his collection van, and as I hadn't heard from them by 16:30 that day, I thought I'd call to chase them up.

To cut a long story short, I think Caterham and I misunderstood what we wanted, so I 100% re-booked the car to be collected this morning at 10am.

It's now 8pm and the car is still in the garage.  No phone call, no email, no collection - absolutely sweet FA, they simply didn't show up!  I'll ring them on Monday to see what's happened this time, but for now, the car is still in my possession, leaking fluids, some twelve months after this problem initially surfaced.

This is really, really poor...
The R500 should be in the Midlands right now, but Caterham didn't come and pick it up!
The R500 should be in the Midlands right now, but Caterham didn't come and pick it up!

Tuesday, 11 August 2015

Drift Champion Experience Day at Silverstone

Along with a number of other gifts, my girlfriend bought me a voucher to do the Caterham Drift Champion Experience at Silverstone.

It was one of those gifts that I was ecstatic to receive, but somehow 'forgot about it' in a usual bloke type way... So a few weeks ago Charlotte was lets say 'encouraging' me to book it up, but being a bloke 'booking things up in a diary' are not that easy!  So she took it out of my control and booked it for me, told me when I was to be at Silverstone and that was that!  I'm really glad she did as I had a great day...

Arriving at Silverstone's main entrance, the Caterham van and hospitality suite was large enough to see from the road.  The day is run in one of Silverstone's main car parks, so there's plenty of space and I guess a good revenue earner for what would be a dis-used carpark for most of the year... Next up was the usual signing your life away, briefing, a little bit of tuition and then off we went to the cars...

There were two different courses in the morning, one with a small donut and large drift area, then the second which was a figure of eight.

We stopped for an hours lunch around 12:30, whilst the Caterham team replaced the cones into the afternoon's layout which was to be practised on by all with a final assessment run at the end of the day.

Below are two videos, the first being an onboard video (that you can buy on  memory stick from Caterham for £25!) of my final assessment lap...

...and the second video is also of my final assessed lap but this time from the 'pit lane'...

I was happy with my final run, and thought it was worthy of a top three finish... The scoring was based on 100 points as you started the lap with single point deductions for every small errors, ten point deductions for hitting a cone, twenty five for a spin and so on... So to get a perfect score was going to be pretty tough!

The top three finishers scored, 92, 93 and myself at 94!  Well happy to win the day, and the gift... A whole autoglym cleaning kit - for me a so called polisher?!?  Perfect! :o) Well there was also a Caterham 1st place embroidered hat, and a goodie bag too... (by the way the valet kit is already on eBay as a polisher like me already has everything in the bag anyway!)
Collecting my 1st place cap, goodie bag and autoglym valet kit
Collecting my 1st place cap, goodie bag and autoglym valet kit
And the picture below is of the top three drifters of the day...
The top three drifters of the day
The top three drifters of the day
There were a total of seventeen 'drifters' at the day of varying abilities, the overall time in the car was reasonable.  I'd say it was a very well run day, the refreshments and lunch were good, the tuition was noteworthy and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I would recommend the day to anyone who wants to improve their drifting skills, have a day out, or generally just smoke someone elses rubber and gas!

Saturday, 8 August 2015

Checking the Leak and Cleaning

Having taken control of my irritation, I contacted Caterham Midlands and have organised for the car to be collected (again) to have this gearbox oil leak inspected / fixed... I guess as this will be the third time it's been back for this, I'm hopeful of the old saying coming true 'third time lucky' and I've a feeling I'll be 'lucky' if it is fixed.

Anyway, enough ranting... With the superb weather this weekend, I decided to get up early and give the car a check over, see if I could confirm that it was in fact the gearbox that was leaking  and to give the car a clean as it was still filthy after the service.

I decided to start with the long job first - the clean.  Starting at the front, the wheels, nosecone and bonnet came off.  All were cleaned to within an inch of their lives!  The sides of the car were cleaned, and then I started on the rear...

I wanted to get a picture of the new diff cage, so here it is:-
Replaced diff cage on BMW diff in Caterham R500
Replaced diff cage on BMW diff in Caterham R500
With the rear wheels off the car, and the car firmly on axle stands I took the opportunity to check under the car and to see where the leak was coming from.  In the picture below I've highlighted the area, and it appears there is still fluid on the bottom of the rear of the gearbox tail (silver section) and also some fluid on the chassis cross member.  I guess the cross member is where it is dripping to and from based on the fluid spots on my garage floor.
Tail of gearbox housing moist with oil and oil also on chassis cross member
Tail of gearbox housing moist with oil and oil also on chassis cross member
I'd also mentioned on my previous post that there seemed to be some fluid dripping from one of the seat bolts, and I'd noticed that looking through the hole in the seat base that there seemed to be a lot of fluid in there too?!?  So I removed the floor mats to reveal this mess:-
Oil and gunk under drivers floor mat
Oil and gunk under drivers floor mat
The picture doesn't do it justice, as there is so much oil and gunk in here, I guess from the initial problem, and also compounded by the steam cleaning Caterham had to do?  Quite poor (but not unexpected) that they didn't even remove the floor mats to clean up the mess.

After seeing how much fluid was under the floor mat, I checked the passenger side, which also had fluid and gunk there, but not as much as the drivers side.  I thought it necessary to take both the seats out, to check what was under there.
With drivers seat out you can see the amount of oil and gunk on the floor
With drivers seat out you can see the amount of oil and gunk on the floor
This is what both footwells looked like:-
With both seats and floor mats removed you can see the fluid and gunk remaining
With both seats and floor mats removed you can see the fluid and gunk remaining
I cleaned both sides with kitchen roll... Just aiming to get rid of the oil, gunk, stones, and the occasional ladybird in there! - this is how much kitchen roll was used... I estimate there was around 100ml of fluid that required removal.
Crazy about of oil, crud, stones and the occasional dead ladybird in the footwells and under the seats
Crazy about of oil, crud, stones and the occasional dead ladybird in the footwells and under the seats
I continued with the rear of the car, boot cover, put the seats back in and then it was finished and looking glorious once more.
The R500 is clean once more
The R500 is clean once more
I've also wiped clean my garage flooring, so will keep an eye on how much fluid is still dripping onto the floor.  If the dripping has stopped (which I doubt) then I'll cancel the collection and eat humble pie, but otherwise the car be back in the Midlands Caterham branch at the end of next week.

Monday, 3 August 2015

Five Weeks Later

It's back - happy days!  The guys at Caterham Midlands had a fair job on their hands...  With the broken diff cage pushing the prop into the back of the gearbox, it was a mammoth task to repair (or so they thought!)
An 'artistic' shot of the Caterham R500 with opaque bonnet
An 'artistic' shot of the Caterham R500 with opaque bonnet
A little explanation as to what happened... Apparently the diff cage broke (the diff cage incidentally hasn't been confirmed as having had (or not had) the recall work)... The broken diff cage was then practically swinging backwards and forwards on one bolt, which was pushing the prop into the rear of the gearbox, and machining both the rear of the gearbox and the front of the prop shaft.

So the diff (and cage), prop shaft, and engine had to come out... This was all covered under warranty, which was definitely a relief... The guys at Caterham Midlands said that once the diff and prop were removed they had to steam clean the underside and the tunnel as there was so much fluid there!  The engine and gearbox were removed, with the rear of the gearbox being sent off for repair.

With the gearbox repaired/replaced (I'm not sure if it was repaired or replaced in the end), the box was put onto the back of the engine and then eased back into place with a new prop shaft and diff cage - I just hope this diff cage is stronger than the last one... My diff doesn't have any mounting braces, whereas Caterham supplied braces with my kit, but the diff didn't have any mounting eyes and it was confirmed by Dean Francis (after he spoke to the workshop) that this particular diff didn't require the mounting braces (any comments about this welcome!)...

The car then had it's first annual service and was road tested.  There was also a weep from the petrol tank, that just needed the gasket screws tightening, so that has been eradicated (for now!)

Last Friday (25th July 2015) Keith arrived in the Caterham Van and transporter with my car in the back!  I was very much looking forward to a blat, but the first thing to do was to check the underside for fluids and thankfully it was clean!
Underside of my Caterham R500 Duratec looking nice and clean again!
Underside of my Caterham R500 Duratec looking nice and clean again!
I gave Keith the thumbs up and the car was unloaded... but...
The R500 being unloaded from the Caterham transporter.
The R500 being unloaded from the Caterham transporter.
It was still filthy!  Now I don't expect all of my cars to be cleaned after a service, but Keith was quite embarrassed by it all - it looked a mess... And considering the service and parts cost me £588, I think a clean wouldn't have been out of the question.

So I took the car to the office, and the smile was back on my face once again - what a great feeling to drive after so long! I drove the car home, and put it in the garage... Took it out again on Saturday for a short blat, and everything seemed all in order, apart from a little bit of fluid I noticed on my garage floor... I looked closely, and hoped it was just the oil weeping out of one of the seat mounting holes...

But alas, it seems like it's coming out of the tail of the gearbox... again!  This is the fluid on my garage floor after one evening:-
The gearbox is STILL leaking!
The gearbox is STILL leaking!
Having kept and eye on it, my gearbox leak is still not fixed.  I'm going to have to call the guys up at Midlands tomorrow to arrange for them to come and pick it up... again!  As you can expect this is a right pain in the arse as I'm missing out on 'the season' for using the car - I'm not impressed right now.