Fuse Shenanigans

After my first (and hopefully only) breakdown caused by a blown fuse there was clearly an issue that needed rectifying to stop the fuse blowing in the future.  It turned out that it was the cycle wing repeater shorting the circuit and blowing one of the 10 amp fuses which killed the dashboard and a number of the other electrics too causing the breakdown.

Another Caterham owner I know suggested he changed all his fuses to LED versions, which illuminate when they've blown - what an absolutely brilliant idea!  I'd never had a fuse blow in a car so when I had the failure it wasn't really something I considered as the cause of the breakdown.

Anyway, I decided to buy a pack of these LED fuses John recommended.  They are fairly cheap on eBay, but wanting to get the job done as soon as possible I popped down to Halfrauds and bought a set.

LED blade fuses.

This is a picture of a 10 amp LED blade fuse.  You can see the fuse wire in the middle, and you can also make out the LED towards the top.

10 amp LED blade fuse

Below is a picture of the fuses that I wanted to replace with the LED blade fuses.

Orignal Fuses in Caterham R500 Fuse Box.

It turns out the pack I bought from halfrauds didn't have enough 10 amp fuses, nor did it have any 7.5 amp fuses, so I had to take another trip there today to buy another pack and some 7.5 amp fuses too.  The only good point there is I have ALOT of spares now!  The fuses were removed with a set of needle nose pliers, as getting a good grip on them with your fingers can be a little fiddly.  I then fitted the LED blade fuses as you can see in the picture below.

LED blade fuses now fitted.

Having fitted the LED blade fuses I was curious to see what sort of illumination a blown fuse would give.  My friend Matt is over from Australia at the moment, and we rigged up a piece of wire and blew a 5amp fuse over the battery terminals and instantly the LED lit - I couldn't believe how bright it was.  So I fitted the blown fuse to the fuse box, and you can very clearly see if a fuse is blown now - I'd say even with the fuse cover in place you'd very easily be able to see the glow from a blown fuse.  Considering the annoyance this extremely small part caused, I would highly recommend these... and a few spares too!

Blown 5 amp LED blade fuse illuminating fuse box.

The next job was to check what was causing the issue of the blowing fuse.  Having had some grounding issues with the offside cycle wing repeater, I'd assumed this was the problem area.  Had a look at the connection block and the exposed wire along the wishbone and inside the body skin, and I couldn't really see anything that'd cause a problem.  A few posts on blatchat and 100% top marks to 'elie boone' who suggested the earthing screw in the cycle wing holder is quite long and has been known to pierce the live wire.  After loosening the wire and pulling a little out from the cycle wing stay, sure enough the live wire has been split by the sharp point of the screw holding the earth into place.

Broken live indicator repeater wire due to long earthing screw.

We removed the earth screw, pretty much cut it in half, so as to blunt the top and to decrease the amount of the screw protruding into the tube, insulated the broken wire shroud, fitted it all back together and hey presto one fully functional indicator repeater and no fuses blown - superb.

Only problem now is the weather has turned, so there's no track day at Snetterton tomorrow - and even worse the upcoming wales trip booked in for this weekend is also looking in jeopardy.

Raceco Exhaust Fitting, Noise Tests and My First Breakdown

Last night we went to the dog racing at Henlow Dog Racing Stadium, so had a few beers, a bite to eat and a couple of lousy bets... Ended up being a bit of a late one so I woke with a reasonably thick head this morning... Went for an early coffee and bacon sandwich to soak up any remaining alcohol and to give me some energy to get the Raceco exhaust fitted and to prep the car for the upcoming track day at Snetterton (weather permitting). 

First job was to remove the standard R500 silencer.  Real easy to do, loosen the nuts on the bobbin and then loosen the clamp and wiggle it off.

R500 standard exhaust.

Next up, removal of the springs holding the manifold pipes to the catalytic converter and exhaust collector.  For those of you who struggle with this, the best solution is to use a decent set of locking pliers to grip one end of the spring wire, then pull it over the hook on the right of the picture below (if you do it the other way the hook is a little longer so makes it very hard).  Or you can compress the spring using tie wraps (also works very well).

Springs holding catalytic converter and collector to manifold.

In the picture below you can see the cat ready for removal, complete with guard - it's worth unscrewing the lambda sensor from the cat before you remove it as you may accidentally pull on the connection wires too hard.

R500 catalytic converter and exhaust collector ready for removal.

Catalytic converter removed, lambda probe on left of shot and the springs top right.

Caterham R500 catalytic converter with guard and lambda sensor in shot.

Seeing as I was going to be fitting a cat bypass pipe, I thought it'd be worth seeing how much 'lightness' I'm adding, so weighed the cat - it came in at 3.3kg which is quite a lot more than I thought it'd be.  Naturally it'd be lighter somewhat without the guard in place.

Caterham R500 catalytic converter being weighed in at 3.3kg

So immediately I wanted to cross check this against the weight of the standard length cat bypass pipe - I say standard length, as it will require cutting to enable the Raceco exhaust to fit.  It weighed in at 1.49kg which is a big saving of around 1.8kg.

Caterham R500 cat bypass pipe at standard length weighing in at 1.49kg

Next job was to fit the cat bypass pipe, as I was doing noise tests using a decibel meter, I thought it best to try all the configurations possible.  When fitting the cat bypass pipe or the cat to the four manifold pipes I find it easier to loosen off the bolts that secure the primary pipes to the engine.  this gives a lot more freedom of movement when trying to refit the collector part of the cat (or bypass) pipes.  just be sure to retighten them to 34nm as per the manual.

Loosing off these header pipe bolts allows easier fitment of collector pipe.

Then it's just a case of putting the collector end onto the manifold pipes, connecting the lambda probe and tightening it, then fitting the springs.

Cat bypass pipe fitted to Caterham R500 Duratec.

So then it was on with the standard exhaust and to test the different noise output that having the cat bypass in place would give.  You'll see the bypass pipe is much brighter than the silencer and the primary pipes, but that'll begin to yellow with a few heat cycles to match.

Exhaust system re-fitted with cat bypass pipe and standard R500 silencer.

As I was testing the various decibel outputs of the different breathing configurations, I decided to weigh up the carbon air box and pipercross air filter.  The carbon airbox weighed in at 1.06kg

Caterham Carbon Track Day Airbox - weighs 1.06kg

Then I weighed the pipercross air filter which is much lighter at just 384g.

Caterham Pipercross air filter - weighs just 384g.

Then it was time to fit the Raceco silencer.  I placed the Raceco silencer on some cloth and next to the standard R500 silencer and you can see how much larger the Raceco can is.

R500 standard silencer next to Raceco titanium silencer.

Keeping with the weighing theme I decided to compare the weight of both exhausts too.  Firstly weighing the Raceco silencer, which came in at 5.5kg.

Raceco Titanium Silencer - weighs 5.5kg

After removing the standard R500 silencer I weighed that too, and even though it is much smaller in both sleeve length and circumference than the Raceco can the R500 silencer weighed 200g more.

R500 Standard Silencer - weights 5.7kg, 200g more than the Raceco Titanium version.

With the standard silencer removed, it was time to line up the Raceco can and mark up the cat bypass pipe ready to mark for cutting.  Mike at Raceco suggested to take caution when cutting the cat bypass pipe and to cut less off than you mark initially, as a number of his previous customers have cut a little too much off exposing the gaps at the connection.

Caterham R500 Cat Bypass Pipe marked up ready for cutting.

Got the Dremel out to start the cut, then finished off with a hacksaw.

Cutting the Cat Bypass Pipe with my Dremel.

With a good 10cm cut of the cat bypass pipe, I de-burred the edges, fitted the pipe and then offered it up to the Raceco exhaust.

Cat bypass pipe cut, after first cut, de-burred and fitted.

It turns out I'd been a little too cautious with my cutting and needed to remove an additional 3cm - so back out with the Dremel and in total cut off around 13cm.

Cutting another 3cm off the cat bypass pipe with my Dremel.

With around 13cm of tubing removed from the cat bypass pipe I thought it best to check what it weighed now...  Now 1.1kg instead of the original 1.4kg - which is another 300g shaved off the car.

Cut cat bypass pipe, now weighing in at 1.1kg

So I de-burred the car bypass pipe (again), fitted it (again) and offered up the Raceco can... Now the fit was absolutely perfect and it was time to fit.  Before I fitted the Raceco silencer I thought I'd take a look inside and took this picture.

The inside of a brand new R500 Duratec Raceco Titanium Exhaust.

I then fitted the Raceco can - wow it looks big!  The header pipes are a little yellower than the cat bypass pipe and new silencer, but I think after a few heat cycles everything should be looking that nice 'used' colour.

Raceco Titanium Silencer fitted to my Caterham R500.

And the finishing touch... The Raceco sticker.

Raceco sticker fitted to silencer.

The Weights
As I'd weighed everything I thought I'd total up what the before and after weights are.
Pipercross Air Filter - 384g
Carbon Track Day Airbox - 1066g
Catalytic Converter (with guard) - 3314g
Cat Bypass Pipe (uncut) - 1490g
Cat Bypass Pipe (cut to length) - 1162g
Standard R500 silencer - 5.7kg
Raceco Titanium silencer - 5.5kg

So my old setup of the Pipercross air filter, catalytic converter and R500 standard silencer weighed 9.4kg and the new (track day) configuration now weighs in at 7.7kg - so that's a 1.7kg saving.  I think I'll order myself another cat bypass pipe and run that with the standard exhaust and pipercross air filter for road use as not only will it sound amazing, it'll also be 7.3kg which is 2.1kg lighter (all due to the cat!)

The Noise Reduction
A couple of days ago I went to Maplin and bought a cheap decibel monitor to measure the results of each possible configuration of the air filters, collector and silencer pipes.  Turns out I spent about 2 hours recording video of startups, 5,000RPM revs (as this is the 2/3rds region for testing at track days) and fettling with the different setups to find out that Maplins' decibel monitor was absolutely rubbish.

So I decided to go for a blat instead, and remembering there were some nice tunnel noises on a blat I done on Wednesday, I went back to get some footage to compare the two setups.  The setups were:-
1. R500 standard exhaust, catalytic converter and pipercross air filter
2. Raceco titanium silencer, cat bypass pipe and carbon track day air box
There's definitely a different tone between the two, and I prefer the sound of the standard exhaust - but that's ok as the Raceco (for me) is purely to ensure I get through the noise tests at track days.

The breakdown

A few days ago I noticed that one of the indicators on the cycle wings wasn't flashing brightly, and made the following video:-

After speaking to Simon at CC Midlands about the issue he said that it was due to a grounding issue, and I just needed to slightly turn the nut connecting the brake hose to the front calliper.  (See picture below)

AP racing front calliper on Caterham R500.

So I put the indicators on, tightened the nut very slightly and it worked!  Another job done!

So why have I written about the indicator repeater under the 'breakdown' heading... The video below is of the breakdown and should reveal all...

It turns out that the grounding issue is causing a short in the electrics - and when I hit the indicator button at 13 seconds (yes 13 believe it or not) in the video it shorted the electrics and blew the 10 amp fuse.  So the job isn't done at all, now I've got to try and work out where the short is.

Here is a picture of the fuse that blew:-

Blown 10 amp fuse.

And a picture of the fuse box with the fuse removed ready for replacement:-

Fuse box with blown fuse removed.

A Polished Raceco Titanium Exhaust

As I've been getting more and more confident in the car, the road speeds have been increasing, and in turn, I've really felt the need to let my hair down (not that I have any) on a track day.

My main concern with doing track days in the R500 Duratec are the noise limits.  I'd read a lot about other owners experiencing difficulties with noise limits, especially drive by noise rather than the static tests and potentially being black flagged and subsequently 'thrown off' the track day.  Having paid a fair few quid for a track day, and more than likely having driven a hundred or so miles to get to a circuit, this wouldn't go down well with me... So... thinking prevention is better than cure, I decided to invest in a raceco exhaust as these have been recommend on blatchat, and by other R500 owners as being great for reduced noise without any reduction in performance due to the way they are made and packed.

Raceco Titanium Exhaust
I got in contact with Mike Riley (the new owner of the raceco brand)... he's been the guy making them for ammo for the last thirteen or so years, so the right guy to speak to.  He recommended the 7.25" / 185mm diameter silencer which is a standard length with a 750mm sleeve and offset inlet pipe for the Duratec based exhausts.  I paid upfront, and he manufactured the exhaust over the last couple of weeks.

Some pictures below of the components before and during manufacture.


These are the component parts for the inlet and exhaust cap.



The inlet and exhaust cap assembled and welded together.

The outer sleeve in manufacture.

Unfortunately there aren't any pictures of the internals as that's their unique selling point and Mike naturally wants to protect that!

Mike's been great advice and help, has done a superb job, and the quality of the exhaust looks excellent.  A link to his site is here http://www.raceco.com/silencers.html

Getting a Titanium Exhaust Polished
I was initially a little against a titanium exhaust purely due to aesthetics - as I really loved the look of the shiny polished steel exhaust I currently have, so looked into getting the raceco exhaust polished.  It turned out being titanium (which can be a fairly difficult metal to work with) there were hardly any polishing companies interested in taking on the job.  After numerous calls I was recommended M&M Polishing in Poole.  I gave them a call, spoke to Mark there... he was a little unsure due to the size of the exhaust and quality of titanium that would be used, but agreed to take a look at the silencer, test an inconspicuous area and take it from there.

So I arranged with Mike at raceco that once he'd made the silencer, he'd then deliver it direct to Mark at M&M polishers for inspection and (hopefully) polishing. 

Mark at M&M received the exhaust a week ago, and as they were working with titanium they said it is always a good idea to find out first if it has been alloyed with another material such as aluminium, iron, copper, steel and so on. They tested an area first (in a place that wasn't noticeable) to see how it reacted to a light linish and mop.


Raceco Exhaust prior to polishing with sharpie pen as a reference to the size!

When they were confident as to how far they could go with the grades of sand paper they started to work on the area shown in the picture below.  After the initial linish they worked through various grades of mop and compounds to brighten the exhaust, slowly bringing a brightness to the surface.

Titanium Raceco Exhaust in between polishing stages.

After they finished the area in the picture above, they let the metal cool as titanium will dull slightly as the heat dissipates.  This is inevitable and this is where their knowledge of different polishing compounds comes into it's own so as to ensure the metal keeps as much of it's initial lustre as possible.

 

As you can see from the picture below, the penultimate stage of polishing had been finished.  You can actually see some of the mop and swirls and the compound reside as they left the exhaust to cool before engaging in the final stage of polishing.

Exhaust cooling before final stage of polishing.

And there it is... Finished off with a very fine cloth mop to achieve a bright polished finish and looking absolutely awesome!


Freshly Polished Titanium Raceco Silencer and looking awesome!

The exhaust was delivered to me this morning, and as I opened the box and removed the packaging, I came to realise the finished article is absolutely as good as the pictures above, if not better! 

Opening the delivered exhaust, and seeing how good it looked for the first time!

Mark and Mike at M&M Polishing were a pleasure to deal with, didn't charge the earth (the polish was £100+VAT, plus delivery) and considering the amount of time and effort that was involved and the quality of the finish I think it was money well spent.  Here is link to their website http://www.mmpolishingltd.co.uk/ and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for polishing services for any type of metal.

 

I'm looking forward to getting the exhaust fitted over the weekend and seeing what I can get the decibel output down to!  By all accounts I should be able to get onto a Track Day at Bedford Autodrome as that is the most restrictive circuit at 96db static!

Blat to Classics on the Common Car Show, Harpenden (and back!)

Classics on the Common in Harpenden is a rapidly growing classic car (and bike) show held on the Harpenden commons.  It was this evening, my sister and her other half Derek (who helped with the build) were attending, so I decided to take a blat there to see what it was all about.

I was extremely surprised at the massive turn out of cars, all sorts of things there from Escort RS Turbo's to Ferrari F40 and F50's.  Very impressive, and I'll definitely go there again next year providing the weather is good - I may even exhibit my own car there too.

Here is a video of the blat there, a wander through one of the commons showing some of the thousands of cars on display - including the amazing Ferrari F40 (one of my favourite cars of all time) and the blat back.

As you can see from the video - even having already done a thousand miles, I'm still having an absolute blast, loving every second of driving it... and... I'd clearly got myself a job to do tightening my mirrors!  I found it difficult to set the mirrors up properly and get them tightened when I first fitted the aero screen as the tightening bolt is on the underside of the mount.  Another Caterham owner suggested it was best to drill a central hole through the aero screen and to tighten the mirror that way.  This solution was perfect.

Central hole drilled in aero screen to allow proper adjustment and tightening of the mirrors.

On the blat there I'd noticed that my off side repeater had stopped working. As they are the new LED variants I'm not entirely sure what the problem is, but it seems like they are blown to me and I didn't think LED's could blow...?  I've checked all the wiring and everything seems in order...  Video comparison below, but I'll be sure to get a replacement ordered from Caterham tomorrow.

I'd also noticed my rear tyres were getting a touch on the low side, and with a track day at Snetterton coming up I thought the rear's would be well and truly finished after that, so in preparation of abused rears... I ordered two new Avon CR500's from the Caterhamparts online site yesterday.  The ordering process was no hassle, they sent an order confirmation and dispatch email and the tyres were delivered next day, so was as you'd expect in this day and age, but I'll definitely use them again.

Fresh 13 inch Avon CR500 rear tyres delivered next day by TNT.

With the Snetteron track day coming up next week I'll be doing some other modifications to the car over the next few days, to ensure I get through the noise test.  I've ordered a Titanium Raceco exhaust which has already been manufactured and I've also found a company who is prepared to polish it, I've written this in such a way as it was extremely difficult to find a company prepared to polish titanium as apparently it's quite a volatile material due to the dust and minor flakes that are removed in the polishing process.  Anyway... I've had a sneak picture of the work done on the exhaust so far and it looks really good - this will be delivered to me hopefully on friday allowing me to test the various decibel outputs with the two exhausts and air box configurations over the coming weekend.

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!

Collection for First Service, Westermann Carbon Headlights and some other updates

With the first service interval of 1,000 miles nearing rapidly and a holiday on the horizon I decided to tie both things together... A couple of weeks back I called Dean Francis (CC midlands dealer principal) and we arranged to have the car collected today with the aim of the first service being completed whilst I'm away and the car being returned to me (hopefully) soon after I get back.

In the meantime after removing the wipers and windscreen at the weekend I thought it'd be a good idea to get some caps for the wiper spindles.


Caterham Wiper Spindle

Caterham Wiper Spindle with Cap

 So the car got collected today by Cockerills Recovery who'd been organised by Caterham.


Car being loaded onto transporter.

My R500 and Caterham's demonstrator on car transporter

Those of you who have been following my blog in detail may remember I had a bit of another 'saga' with Westermann Motorsport and a pair of carbon fibre headlights I purchased from them.  If you don't remember, then a touch of enlightenment will follow:-

I ordered the pair of carbon headlight bowls that took about six weeks to manufacture (twice as long as the quoted three weeks).  The arrival date came and I was very excited, but upon opening the box I was extremely disappointed with the quality - the manufacture and weave laying was very good, however, they were poorly finished, were scratched and the lacquer looked like it had pooled and run - not good at all, especially as they were about £600 for the pair!


Carbon Headlights from Westermann Motorsport - arrived scratched and poorly finished.

Naturally, I complained and the contact there agreed that they were of sub standard finish, (reluctantly) agreed to collect them, courier them back to Germany, have them finished to a good standard and then shipped back to me.  I tried to argue the point that it'd be better for them to give me a slight refund and I'd organise the finishing of the lights to a suitable standard myself using a local body shop, but they refused that idea.

Anyway, the lights got collected, were returned to me in around 10 days, and I have to say they were better - but still not what you'd expect for the money I paid for them.  I offered them up to the car and they were still visibly duller than the front cycle wings, and had extremely dull patches on them - which I just couldn't stomach to see fitted to my pride and joy!

Caterham carbon headlight bowls now better, but not excellent.

So I found a local body shop who were prepared to help and luckily enough they'd recently done some work to finish off a nice piece of carbon for a Ducati...  We agreed a price and I left the lights with them for about four weeks, which was a little longer than expected as David (the owner) who was doing the work had a two week holiday.

He ended up having to put eighteen coats of lacquer on them, which were applied in three coat intervals, then allowed to dry,  sanded with 800 grit sandpaper to cut them back to about 1.5 coats, so in total the lights have had about 9 coats of lacquer.  I collected them today, and they now look absolutely amazing as you can see from the picture:-


Caterham carbon fibre headlight bowls, freshly lacquered and looking amazing.

David from Daytona Coachworx done a superb job and I would highly recommend them... A link to their website is here: http://www.daytonacoachworx.co.uk/
They mainly specialise in Porsche work and accident repairs, but will take on smaller 'interesting' work too.

So hopefully by the time I'm writing this post the car has safely arrived a Caterham Midlands and will be worked on over the next few days / couple of weeks.  I, in the meantime will be off to Egypt for a two week diving holiday - happy days.