MOT 2018

S/N: 635682076597

Mileage: 42,413

(Annual mileage: 1049)

No advisories

High level brake light fitted along with LED rear lights and front indicators

48 LED high level rear brake light and new Caterham high level brake light sub loom fitted and now working.

Took the opportunity to fit the Just Add Lightness https://www.justaddlightness.co.uk/led-lights which I purchased in January.

Plus gratuitous fair weather shots:

 

 

 

Circuit tester question and answer

I have a Plasplugs power tester (Model PT 119 UK) and need help interpreting it.

The high-level brake light on my Caterham has stopped working. I pulled the connection from the brake circuit loom to the brake light and wanted to test that there was a signal being sent i.e. power when the brake pedal is pushed.

The tester as you can see has two lights in the shape of an up and down arrowhead. When I took a reading from the two “loom” wires with the ignition ON and the brake pedal pushed it just lights the UP arrowhead which apparently indicates the red probe (of the tester) is detecting DC+. With the brake pedal NOT depressed both lights are off.

I was expecting both to light up and this has confused me. I tested the circuit on a 12v garden light which was ON and both arrowheads lit up; which iws what I was expecting from the brake light curcuit.  Right?

Does the result on the brake circuit show me that there is a continuity issue on the DC- side of the circuit?

Update:  I received this reply on Pistoinheads:

The result you got seems correct – it was showing the red probe was connected to the positive 12V.  If there was a break in continuity then the tester wouldn’t show anything as there would be no circuit. If you reversed the probes then the lower arrow would light up because the red probe would be connected the negative 12V.  Check the tester across the battery and see what you get in terms of which light comes on.

Result: That update was correct.  The result I saw was showing the red probe was connected to the positive 12V.  If there had been a break in continuity then the tester wouldn’t have shown anything as there would have been no circuit. When I reversed the probes on the car battery then the lower arrow lit up showing that the red probe was be connected the negative 12V and there was no break in continuity.

New high level (48 LED) brake light

Sourced from Car Builder Solutions  https://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/48-led-high-level-third-brake-light:

Name	Price	Quantity	Total
48 LED High Level Third Brake Light SKU: LEDST6	£14.40 incl VAT	1	£14.40 incl VAT
3mm Brass Bullet Terminals 400pcs SKU: BULTERPAK	£16.80 incl VAT	1	£16.80 incl VAT
	Catalogue Request: No
	Sub-Total:		£31.20 incl VAT
	Shipping:		£7.20 incl VAT
	VAT 20%:		£6.40
	Order Total:		£38.40

High level brake light loom ordered

SUB LOOM – HIGH BRAKE LIGHT

£10.30 VAT incl.

£8.58 VAT excl.

Reference: 76149

Broken speedometer trip reset – replacement.

I like to use the trip meter on my (analogue) speedo, however recently whilst trying to climb into the 7 with the roof on, I managed to breaked the rotary knob used to reset the trip.

I tried various glues to make a repair however hard plastics are notoriously hard to glue, as I found out, much to my annoyance!

I then looked at the Caterham Parts website and found the part:

SPEEDOMETER TRIP RESET CABLE  £49.67 VAT incl (£41.39 VAT excl). Reference: 71174

Anyone who has tried ordering parts from Caterham will not be surpised to know that, the part was out of stock and they wanted £49.67 VAT incl with P&P on top….

Anyway, a quick look on Google identified what appears to be the same cable as a Land Rover part:

Land Rover Series 2a & 3 Jaeger Smiths Speedo Speedometer Trip Reset Cable Part No: 13H92051

So I have ordered the part and hopefully I can fix the problem.

Spent the afternoon checking the car over and giving it a clean and polish.

Not bad for 18 years old….

Superlight R #111 reduced to £21,500 from £23,500

Great price. Source: Pistonheads.

20/06/2018 apparently now sold as no longer listed on Pistonheads.

Oil pressure warning light slow to extinguish.

Recently, I noted that on starting the car from cold after it had been left for a while that the oil pressure warning light was slow to extinguish.

This was a problem I dealt with in 2015 after fitting a mechanical one pressure sender and gauge (See entries for 25/09/2015 and 29/09/2015).

The problem was that having recently fitted the (L7C) Think Auto mechanical oil pressure gauge and low oil pressure switch and light I noticed that if the car had not been started for a while the oil pressure warning light and the gauge were very slow to go out / register pressure.

The remedy was to fit an inline one-way flap valve (Think Auto part number: LVF7-4 4JIC).  This prevented oil draining into the sump and away from the relocated mechanical oil pressure sender and provided an immediate oil pressure reading on startup.  The problem being that the pressure sender is in an area which was draining of oil and when the engine started it took time for the oil to refill and then the pressure to register.

Therefore, when I noticed this issue again, I immediately suspected the one-way valve may have failed to an open circuit.  Closer examination of the valve once I had removed it confirmed this.  I used compressed air to simply clean out the valve and thankfully it now works normally.  Problem solved for zero outlay!