Mis-fire on R400????

[jweeks]

Hi

I bought an R400 this weekend and on Sunday when accelerating out of a corner the car lost power, my first reaction was that I had lost the gears, but once I had pulled over let it idle I started off again but the car just would not pick up any speed in any gear. It sounded a bit sick too!!!

It may be the coils or a spark plug, but I wondered if anyone else has experienced this and has any suggestions

JW

[fergus]

I've got a similar problem, but it's lumpy on idle and doesn't seem to clear its throat until 5k+ rpm.... Will investigate over the next few weeks when I get a chance!

[dsl2]

Disconnect the plug from the throttle pot on the end of the roller barrels & using a cotton bud carefully clean the contactor's out & reconnect with a bit of wd40 or similar, see if that does the trick!

[sam919]

coil

[jweeks]

I have spoken to Caterham, and they think that if the obvious plugs, leads checks do not reveal anything then it may be the throttle not opening or the throttle voltage.

He said that in 5 years he has only known of 1 instance where the coils packed in, and said you would really know about it if they had. Will do some more digging though.

[dsl2]

At the risk of repeating myself! I had exactly that problem with my R400, turned out the connector for the throttle pot had some dirt in it causing the the pins inside not to contact occasionally giving no power, would not rev, poping & banging stalling etc.

[nigelpugh7]

My old R400 had all of the problems the guys described here.

But mine was like it from new, so there was no way it was throttle pot.

Mine was completely cured of all of those symptoms by a full rolling road session and remap at Mech Repairs in Cheltenham.

It transformed my car, and most people say it was one of the fastest and sweetest running R400's they had ever been in.

You can ask Markiebabes on Blatchat who now owns my car, and still really loves it, it was also featured in EVO mag for a superlight buyers guide.

It might be worth checking with Caterham what ECU MAP is on the car, and find out if it was ever updated from new, they did issue several versions of it.

Nige.

[sam919]

Me and a mate have been racing them for a while and they can get hot and fail, i spent a couple of days chasing a fault that turned out to be the coil again, 30 odd quid from lucas might be a simple fix:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[markiebabes]

Hi
Agree with all the above may be worth checking throttle pot connections (can vibrate loose and have bad contact)as per DSL above

also try looking here http://www.minister-power.com/index.htm (customer support page)
rolling road may be last solution.

very frustrating hope you get it sorted

Mark

[OJ]

jweeks said:

He said that in 5 years he has only known of 1 instance where the coils packed in

Cobblers, its relatively common on K-Series race cars

ETA - If it was a right hand corner and the fuel level was low, its possible (although unlikely) you could have lifted some crap in the tank. Otherwise I'd say coils or loom.

Also might want to pop the top cover off and check to see if an HT lead has popped out. What you decribed is exactly what happened to me at Spa a few weeks ago

Edited by OJ on Wednesday 22 October 10:19

[jweeks]

Results following a few days in QR Sport in Cheshire are:

- 2 plugs needed replacing
- Electrical problem causing overfuelling

It seems like thats it for the moment!!!

[dsl2]

Electrical problem causing over fueling = Throttle pot?

[jweeks]

Thanks for all the advice, looking forward to some dry weekends now!