Fly-by-wire Throttle (2023)
My first ever issue with my Caterham when it has, as Rolls Royce used to say, ‘failed to proceed’.
I had stopped to fill up with petrol and when I re-started the engine something was very definitely wrong. The engine was hunting and when I tried to move off, it would only give me just enough revs to pull away very gently.
I drove for about 100 metres and stopped in a convenient bus stop bay on the side of the road. I switched off the ignition and removed the isolator switch and then popped off the bonnet and had a look around – couldn’t see anything wrong but wiggled everything in sight, including the connection onto the throttle control.
I looked around on the Club website to see if there was anything similar reported and it seemed that the connection from the throttle pedal to the fly-by-wire engine control may be at fault. However, to be sure I would need to read the engine fault codes and for that I would need a Code Reader. They are surprisingly cheap, and I went for a mid-price one on Amazon for £40. It arrived the next day.
I re-energised the isolator and started the car, and it seemed fine. By this time the yellow engine issue warning had come up on the rev counter. All very helpful (not) but the engine was running fine, and I drove rather gingerly home.
Initially I couldn’t see how to install the batteries in the unit. Then I realised that it is powered by the car so that wasn’t necessary. I plugged into the socket (which is zip-tied to the underside of the steering column) and this is what it told me.
This apparently confirms that the problem was due to the connections onto the throttle. I got in touch with Caterham and they told me that it was not a critical fault and that if the car was running fine, it is fine. The fault-code reader was able to cancel the code. So far, no recurrence but I have put the code reader in the car just in case.
Rear Lights (2025)
A fellow club member came up to me during one of the club events and told me that part of one of my rear liglhts was not working. On inspection, I could see that part of the wrap-around element that was normally on when the lights were on, was not working.
This was a bit of an annoyance initially, but I then realised that this might mean a fail at the first MOT – due on May 2026. I had spent a signficant amount of money on the lights – the LED upgrade had cost me an additional £800 at the build stage. This was partly to get the best headlights that I could but also to improve reliability.
I realised that the rear lights are sealed units so there is not option to change a bulb. So I was a bit stuck – a replacement rear light from Caterham was going to cost me £180.
So, despite the car being well out of warranty, I thought I should at least try to get a replacement. To cut a long story short, after demonstrating (by submitting photographs) that the rear light was not damaged, Caterham provided me a replacement light for free which was very pleasing.
Whilst replacing the light, I noted that the patch I had put over the hole in the wing for the cable pass was still looking pretty good, despite the car now having done just shy of 20,000 miles.
My 170S Build 