Valve spring replacement needed on R500 Duratecs?

Valve spring replacement needed on R500 Duratecs?

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Discussion

Tim75

Original Poster:

21 posts

124 months

Monday 24th March 2014
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Hi All,
New R500 owner checking in..
Hoping for some help - Caterham have apparently had an 'upgrade' of sorts in place for a while to upgrade the valve springs on the Duratec R500s due to some durability concerns. Apparently mine has not been done (2010 model), and they advise I should. I don't want to spend the money if i don't really need to. The car will be tracked occasionally, but not hard, and i will drive it hard on the road where there is opportunity..few with an R500 wink
Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

DCL

1,215 posts

178 months

Monday 24th March 2014
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Interesting! When building my engine to R500 levels, Ultimate Performance offered two types of springs - a double spring which I understood was for all-out performance, or a single spring that I thought was little gentler on the valve gear (but presumably good enough). Having stripped a few heads now, I know there can be high wear rate on the cam bearings, so opted for the single spring. Do you know what type of spring they intend to upgrade to?

downsman

1,099 posts

155 months

Monday 24th March 2014
quotequote all
Tim75 said:
Hi All,
New R500 owner checking in..
Hoping for some help - Caterham have apparently had an 'upgrade' of sorts in place for a while to upgrade the valve springs on the Duratec R500s due to some durability concerns. Apparently mine has not been done (2010 model), and they advise I should. I don't want to spend the money if i don't really need to. The car will be tracked occasionally, but not hard, and i will drive it hard on the road where there is opportunity..few with an R500 wink
Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.
That sounds rather like a recall, if your engine is at risk through no fault of your own and they know there is an issue, why are they asking you to pay for this?

I'd be pretty cheesed off in your situation.

Tim75

Original Poster:

21 posts

124 months

Tuesday 25th March 2014
quotequote all
Thanks Guys. Yes, agree on both counts:
- I was trying to be nice..I work for a tier 1 Auto OEM, and we would call this a 'recall' for sure.
- No, not clear on the spring change, though I do know that it would be to heavier duty springs, so your thinking is an interesting angle; lighter duty might be better for other reasons. I will see if i can get more detail from CC. The thing that really worries me is that if the spring fails, it is pretty catostrophic for the engine.

SpeedYellow

2,533 posts

226 months

Tuesday 25th March 2014
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Be very interested to hear more if you can find out as I own a 2008 car and not heard a thing about it...

nigelpugh7

5,997 posts

189 months

Tuesday 25th March 2014
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downsman said:
That sounds rather like a recall, if your engine is at risk through no fault of your own and they know there is an issue, why are they asking you to pay for this?

I'd be pretty cheesed off in your situation.
It does indeed sound like a recall, but i suspect that Caterham would like to limt their costs, after all such cars are well out of warranty.

However I too would like to know, as my own R500 is a 2011 car, so i think i shall be in touch with CC to see what they say!

nigelpugh7

5,997 posts

189 months

Saturday 24th January 2015
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nigelpugh7 said:
It does indeed sound like a recall, but i suspect that Caterham would like to limt their costs, after all such cars are well out of warranty.

However I too would like to know, as my own R500 is a 2011 car, so i think i shall be in touch with CC to see what they say!
Did anyone ever get any more news on this?

I have to admit I forgot all about it,,and only had a quick conversation with Mic Atree on the differences of the spring and what year cars they were fitted too.

I still need to check with CC if my car has the older or newer type fitted though!

DCL

1,215 posts

178 months

Saturday 24th January 2015
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I did follow this through - I was told the new springs are the same (maybe even the part number). But there was a problem with quality on some early manufactured ones, although exactly what I don't know.

nigelpugh7

5,997 posts

189 months

Saturday 24th January 2015
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DCL said:
I did follow this through - I was told the new springs are the same (maybe even the part number). But there was a problem with quality on some early manufactured ones, although exactly what I don't know.
Thanks for that.

So are the new springs the single or double single unit items then I wonder?

gvs

6 posts

253 months

Thursday 21st April 2016
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What was the outcome on the R500D valve springs? I appear to have the same failure on 2011 R500D. I would welcome a quick chat with anyone effected. Any feed back appreciated