paul_w

Baffled by an ongoing problem with my 2010 Sigma car (Ford box, hydraulic clutch) and hoping for advice as I've not had anything similar with any hydraulic clutched car before. Sorry for the long tale! Last summer I had Sevens and Classics upgrade the car with a lightened flywheel as part of the 140bhp Supersport upgrade. Set off round France and did about 1500 miles, as we got back to London I had a slight issue getting gears and had to pump the clutch a couple of times. Used the car a few more times before lockdown 2 hit and had no problems. Had to press the car back into use to visit my parents in North Wales a month ago. Coming off the motorway near their place the clutch pedal is dead and I can only get a gear with a lot of pumping. Can't even get a gear to move the car the following day. No apparent loss of fluid but the reservoir is full of black goo, presumably from a seal that has broken up. Borrow my Dad's car for the trip down to London and bring back a second-hand low miles spare master cylinder that I got off a club member who had upgraded. Fit it and bleed it out on my parents drive, works fine. Drive back to London with no problem at all until I get to the North Circular and again, can't get a gear. Limp back with much pedal pumping and rev matching. I have to be back in Wales, so S&C collect the car for a service and to sort the clutch fault. Diagnosis is that it needed bleeding and they test it thoroughly before dropping it back. Off to Wales again last week, same thing, clutch pressure lost as I come off the motorway. Pumps up again and is manageable for the rest of the trip (took the scenic route this time) although the biting point varies a lot. Drive back to London last night. Clutch fine for two hours of twisty Welsh mountain roads, but coming off the motorway and again I can't get a gear, lots and lots of pumping and rev-matching required to get it back without wrecking the gearbox. I've never known clutches to lose pressure like this when there is no load on them - it's almost like it is temperature-related. I'm wondering if the flexi is getting too hot, or that there is an issue with the clearance or positioning of the concentric slave cylinder - maybe it is touching and heating up the bearing on long runs?!? I know that fitting a second-hand master means that one might just be duff as well, but the fact it usually only fails after a couple of hours of motorway is strange. Anyone got any ideas? Obviously the answer is replace both cylinders with new but with the engine needing to come out that's going to be a big bill and I want to be sure there isn't some other underlying cause or I'll end up with the same issue. Cheers, Paul PS I know it sounds as though I am happily joyriding round Wales during lockdown, but I am having to travel there to provide urgent care for my parents and need to leave the sensible car with the missus. I will admit to enjoying taking the scenic route rather than the motorway as a small bit of joy in an otherwise bleak time!

sorry to ask the obvious, but are you using the standard 'chokeless Weber method' of 4 prods on the throttle before starting? Doing this to squirt some fuel down the intake usually fires them up though of course they don't run nicely till they're warm. I also fitted a thermostat to mine which was a great help getting the engine up to temperature after starting it up - they came from the factory with no stat.

Here's the barrel I made, don't think Caterham have had them in stock for a couple of years. Started with a thick bit of tube, I think it was the centre of a shock bush or similar, cut it and drilled it so the inner cable went right through but the outer cable didn't.

Found it in this thread (edited: the links are broken in the old thread - anyone got a copy?)

There was an article in one of the mags years ago putting a 7 in a wind tunnel and playing around with various bits and pieces and that is what led to the whiskers and the CSR wings - although they are very small tweaks I seem to remember they were surprisingly effective at cutting lift (which was the main objective) though it was a long long time ago I read it.

I've got a black screen surround and want a polished one - it's in Camberwell in South London but I could bring it home to North London N4. Whereabouts are you Chris?

sorted now, thanks all

Thanks Ian, thanks Andrew, really kind offers. Andrew, I still have to work out what I'm doing with the bench seat, will be going down to the workshop in the next couple of days, so if we can do a deal on the seats I can bring them up and kill two birds with one stone. What tyre is on yours?

Thanks, I will try them tomorrow.

Off to France on Saturday and thinking I should take a spare wheel now I have swapped to R888s as I can't see myself getting another in the middle of rural France if I needed one. Before I've just taken a can of foam and one of those repair kits but having doubts now. Anyone got a single 13x6 Minilite not too far from London?

I'm definitely not a polisher, I'm still driving round with one of the rear wings held together by gaffer tape a year later. Still looks better than the new ones I got from KCD! And I didn't need to be an expert in carbon to spot white patches up to an inch across caused by air bubbles - in my experience with bike forks these will tend to spread and separate so it's not just a cosmetic thing. As I said, it's not like there was any debate as to the quality of the parts when I took them back, Neil was clear that none of them were up to standard and should not have been sent out to me, apologised and gave me a full refund. I'd waited more than five weeks for delivery of the parts and the GRP nosecone was only £30 cheaper than Caterham were selling them for at the time. And it was absolutely dismal in fit and finish. Again, the gaffer taped original looked far better and stayed on the car until Caterham got them back in stock. I'm sure they can supply good parts, and their prices for the carbon bits are very reasonable, but I think it was fair to warn other people of my experience of their lack of quality control. It's not really a matter of balance, companies should have the checks in place to make sure all the parts are as good as the ones you got before they send them out. Hopefully they have made improvements since.

I ordered a full set of panels from them a year ago, carbon front wings and nosecone and rears in GRP. All had to go back, the carbon had milky patches, but the GRP was much worse, the rear wings full of microblisters that made them look metallic brown in the sun, and the nosecone looked like it had been made by a four year old, all out of shape, sanding marks all over it and impossible to fit without substantially modifying it to clear the radiator - I'm not particularly fussy, but it was completely unusable. Neil replied to my email saying they had been inspected and were "spot on". I ended up putting them in the car and driving up to them and he gave me a full refund - they didn't have any others in stock, and Caterham had got them back in by this point. He was very apologetic and said they should never have gone out like that. He seemed very nice, but I wouldn't buy panels from them again. Wasted a lot of time messing about and half a day off work traipsing up to return them.

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Are you able to get the whole written off car? If so I don't see how this wouldn't be feasible. I get that the conversion is expensive if you have to buy all the ancillary parts to upgrade a Sigma car to the Duratec, but surely in this case you would have all those from the wrecked car?

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Having been trying to minimise the driveline noise and shunt in my 2010 (Sierra open diff) car (including a rebuilt diff by R&R now filled with their oil, plus new driveshafts) I'm surprised to read that it seems the same issues exist with the BMW diff and Mazda gearbox set up, since I'd been led to believe that the 'they all do this' was due to the recon diffs and gearboxes used by Caterham when mine was built. My Dad's 33 year-old, 30,000 mile BDR HPC isn't noisy at all. Either that's just luck - be interesting to hear from other owners of early De Dion cars - or there is something else going on with the newer cars for this to be accepted as normal.

I don't think the L516 lights were ever originally fitted to Caterhams, I've got a few fairly early road test reports and they are all the later type. I've seen a couple of cars that have had them added later. Lotus fitted them to the S3 - all period shots of S3s I've seen have them. Given Caterham initially made the S4 (which had different lights set into the wings) before restarting S3 production four years after Lotus stopped it, it would make sense that that was the changeover point, given they were making improvements and engaging new suppliers.

I've got a set that I suspect I'm not going to end up using, with a lowered squab on the drivers side - if they are of interest I can dig them out over the weekend and send you some pics

I was assuming the seats predate the ones with the head rest tubes, and are the 80s standard fit Caterham items.

I'm looking at a similar issue on my S1 bitsa, and have decided I will create support bars for simple round cushions along the lines of this: http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/kirkham-motorsports/107363-headrest.html as a period-looking, whiplash-minimizing option. I have not done it yet though I am considered preparing it for hillclimbing and would therefore need to change the roll bar and work out what rules might apply regarding the headrest extensions. I do have a couple of the Caterham head restraint brackets that I could use/adapt. I am sure for the price of a Tillet you could get someone to fabricate a headrest support and get headrests made for both sides and keep the original seats if that appealed. My dad's BDR has the low back seats and I will do the same thing if I ever manage to prise it away from him :-D

Hadn't realised it was quite that small, be interested to see it fitted as it looks a good option

The challenge is making some kind of airbox to ensure it draws in from the fresh air vent in the bonnet, rather than just pulling in air from the engine bay :-/

Andy Wiltshire is another likely source, I'd be surprised if he hasn't made them before: http://axminsterspecialistpanels.com/home/

I recently drove a short distance with the pedal box cover removed (was just checking an adjustment) and realised that it has a very similar effect, and on my 2010 car there were very few fumes. I was tempted to make another pedal box cover with some kind of vent in it for winter use, given that a heater is £300 plus from Caterham and they don't seem to come up for sale. I have yet to work out if this is a really stupid idea or not.

Can I have second dibs please if Peter doesn't take them?