Anyway, I'm feeling pretty damn good at the moment and can't wait to pick the car up after DVLA registration in the middle of next week. Shame I missed the bank holiday tho'.... Hope it bloody rains all weekend!
Friday, 27 May 2011
*** Stop Press *** IVA PASS !!!
Thursday 26th May - I've just heard from Kate at CC that the car has passed the IVA test! This was at the second time of asking - apparently it failed the first attempt because of "the cigarette lighter socket". Now I am completely flummoxed as to what could possibly have prompted the DVLA to fail my car on such an insignificant item, and can't wait to get the car back in order to find out (a) what on earth was wrong with the socket, and (b) what they've done to fix it!!!!
Anyway, I'm feeling pretty damn good at the moment and can't wait to pick the car up after DVLA registration in the middle of next week. Shame I missed the bank holiday tho'.... Hope it bloody rains all weekend!
Anyway, I'm feeling pretty damn good at the moment and can't wait to pick the car up after DVLA registration in the middle of next week. Shame I missed the bank holiday tho'.... Hope it bloody rains all weekend!
Friday, 6 May 2011
Gentleman! Start your engine...
It's about ten days before the man from Caterham comes to take the car away for the post-build check (PBC) and government Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) test. All that remains is the starting of the engine, tidy up the loose ends, tighten all the suspension bolts, and install the various plastic caps etc. that are required for IVA. Thankfully there's a huge long weekend ahead (courtesy of their highnesses the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, gawd luv 'em).
First thing to do is fill up all the various fluids and check for leaks! For the brakes and clutch I used a Gunson EeziBleed which worked OK, I had to bleed the brakes at least 4 times over the space of three days and they still feel a bit spongy after all that. I'll ask CC to look at this as part of the PBC - There's no evidence of leaks, and it may be just that the pads need "bedding in".
I thought the clutch was going to be easy, but it is difficult to get at the bleed nipple without spilling fluid everywhere and I couldn't seem to get the pedal to operate correctly even after several bleeds. I finally realised that the problem was not hydraulic at all - The operating arm in the pedal box was not adjusted correctly to allow enough pedal travel, so I had to remove the split-pin and re-adjust the pedal "throw" myself and it works fine now. Phew!
Next I filled up with engine coolant and checked for leaks. Nothing obvious yet, but of course I expect things will change after the engine gets started and heating up! Incidentally the reservoir took all the 5 litre container plus nearly a litre of a second bottle, so I'm not too worried about airlocks since this is more than the manual says is required anyway.
Gearbox oil went in next, and this was the one I was expecting to be a pig given the notoriously difficult drain plug access. I created a filler tool, comprising a funnel fitted into a 500mm long fuel pipe of 6mm internal diameter, fitted into a final 100mm length of thin, clear, plastic tubing flexible enough to make a tight 90 degree turn into the gearbox side. I fed the pipe down from the top of the engine bay, and into the side of the box. This worked fine and I poured in about 1.5 litres of oil before it started leaking out all over the garage floor. Getting the drain plug back in was fiddly but not too difficult: I tightened it using not the recommended modified Allen key but instead the actual 15mm off-cut that I had sawn off the Allen key to start with - This fits nicely between the drain plug and transmission tunnel, and you can turn it with a spanner.
Finally I added 5 litres of engine oil, until it showed on the dipstick . Everything was ready to start up the engine! I had even charged the battery the previous night, and filled the tank with 15 litres of super-unleaded from the local garage.
The recommended procedure is to first "crank for oil pressure", so I disconnected the inertia switch to stop the fuel pump operating, gingerly inserted the starter key, and turned to position II, ignition on. The starter button was under my fingertip... press, and.... nothing. Not a dicky bird. A little flummoxed, I tried turning the ignition key to the normal start position and this worked fine - I cranked away, and lo and behold, got a decent pressure reading on the oil gauge. Hooray! But the push-button starter switch must be wired up wrongly....
Re-connecting the inertia switch I cranked again, expecting the engine to start, and... nothing. I scratched my head for a good few minutes, checked all the connections, and then realised that I probably had not disengaged the immobilizer. So I turned the key again, waved the fob around near the immobilizer aerial, and was rewarded by the sound of the fuel pump priming up the system. Another turn and.... life!
Brilliant! I was beginning to lose hope there for a while.... Anyway, the gauges are all reading sensible values so I switched off again to re-check the engine oil level which had gone down a little. Then I started up again, and ran the engine to "hot" until the fan started up. This all seemed to work OK, the temperature gauge stabilized at 80-something degrees, and I think the thermostat is working but some of the hoses seem to be remaining a little cooler than I had expected. The heater is pumping out hot air, though.
Into the final furlong now! With the car down on its wheels I re-torqued all the front and rear suspension bolts, and tightened up the rear hub nuts to 240nm. This was easier than I thought because there's a nice hole in the centre of the alloy wheels which is exactly the right size to allow the 41mm socket to enter, which means that if you put the handbrake on, chock the wheel, then you can torque away to your heart's content.
Last but not least, I installed some of the plastic caps that are required to get the car through the IVA test. Unfortunately CC had not sent me enough of the correct sizes, so this will have to be done during the PBC. ...And for a final laugh, I tried fitting the windscreen wiper arms only to find that they had sent me the ones for a left-hand drive car! Hohoho.
Anyway, nothing was going to dampen my spirits as I merrily drove the car down my gravel drive and back again, revelling in the fact that most of it works! Brilliant. It's a sunny spring day and I have a top-notch sports car, shouting "Drive Me! Drive Me!" loudly in both ears.
Ironic post-script: Mr. Caterham arrived today to collect the car for the post-build check and IVA. Would it start? Would it f**k. Over a minute of cranking and bugger all. Mucho embarrassment as I had to push the car onto the van... I'm still puzzling over this, don't quite understand what the problem is/was. Will be very interested to hear from Caterham what the diagnostic computer says...
First thing to do is fill up all the various fluids and check for leaks! For the brakes and clutch I used a Gunson EeziBleed which worked OK, I had to bleed the brakes at least 4 times over the space of three days and they still feel a bit spongy after all that. I'll ask CC to look at this as part of the PBC - There's no evidence of leaks, and it may be just that the pads need "bedding in".
I thought the clutch was going to be easy, but it is difficult to get at the bleed nipple without spilling fluid everywhere and I couldn't seem to get the pedal to operate correctly even after several bleeds. I finally realised that the problem was not hydraulic at all - The operating arm in the pedal box was not adjusted correctly to allow enough pedal travel, so I had to remove the split-pin and re-adjust the pedal "throw" myself and it works fine now. Phew!
Gearbox oil went in next, and this was the one I was expecting to be a pig given the notoriously difficult drain plug access. I created a filler tool, comprising a funnel fitted into a 500mm long fuel pipe of 6mm internal diameter, fitted into a final 100mm length of thin, clear, plastic tubing flexible enough to make a tight 90 degree turn into the gearbox side. I fed the pipe down from the top of the engine bay, and into the side of the box. This worked fine and I poured in about 1.5 litres of oil before it started leaking out all over the garage floor. Getting the drain plug back in was fiddly but not too difficult: I tightened it using not the recommended modified Allen key but instead the actual 15mm off-cut that I had sawn off the Allen key to start with - This fits nicely between the drain plug and transmission tunnel, and you can turn it with a spanner.
Finally I added 5 litres of engine oil, until it showed on the dipstick . Everything was ready to start up the engine! I had even charged the battery the previous night, and filled the tank with 15 litres of super-unleaded from the local garage.
The recommended procedure is to first "crank for oil pressure", so I disconnected the inertia switch to stop the fuel pump operating, gingerly inserted the starter key, and turned to position II, ignition on. The starter button was under my fingertip... press, and.... nothing. Not a dicky bird. A little flummoxed, I tried turning the ignition key to the normal start position and this worked fine - I cranked away, and lo and behold, got a decent pressure reading on the oil gauge. Hooray! But the push-button starter switch must be wired up wrongly....
Re-connecting the inertia switch I cranked again, expecting the engine to start, and... nothing. I scratched my head for a good few minutes, checked all the connections, and then realised that I probably had not disengaged the immobilizer. So I turned the key again, waved the fob around near the immobilizer aerial, and was rewarded by the sound of the fuel pump priming up the system. Another turn and.... life!
Brilliant! I was beginning to lose hope there for a while.... Anyway, the gauges are all reading sensible values so I switched off again to re-check the engine oil level which had gone down a little. Then I started up again, and ran the engine to "hot" until the fan started up. This all seemed to work OK, the temperature gauge stabilized at 80-something degrees, and I think the thermostat is working but some of the hoses seem to be remaining a little cooler than I had expected. The heater is pumping out hot air, though.
Into the final furlong now! With the car down on its wheels I re-torqued all the front and rear suspension bolts, and tightened up the rear hub nuts to 240nm. This was easier than I thought because there's a nice hole in the centre of the alloy wheels which is exactly the right size to allow the 41mm socket to enter, which means that if you put the handbrake on, chock the wheel, then you can torque away to your heart's content.
Last but not least, I installed some of the plastic caps that are required to get the car through the IVA test. Unfortunately CC had not sent me enough of the correct sizes, so this will have to be done during the PBC. ...And for a final laugh, I tried fitting the windscreen wiper arms only to find that they had sent me the ones for a left-hand drive car! Hohoho.
Anyway, nothing was going to dampen my spirits as I merrily drove the car down my gravel drive and back again, revelling in the fact that most of it works! Brilliant. It's a sunny spring day and I have a top-notch sports car, shouting "Drive Me! Drive Me!" loudly in both ears.
Ironic post-script: Mr. Caterham arrived today to collect the car for the post-build check and IVA. Would it start? Would it f**k. Over a minute of cranking and bugger all. Mucho embarrassment as I had to push the car onto the van... I'm still puzzling over this, don't quite understand what the problem is/was. Will be very interested to hear from Caterham what the diagnostic computer says...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)