Hopefully we will have our car back soon.

[theDreamer]

As detailed in the thread Our summer fun has been put on hold because: our car came home from the body shop on November 4, 2025. Just a few weeks later it went off to another shop for a clutch replacement. It’s been resting in a nice heated shop all winter while the mechanic learned all about trying to find parts for a C20xe Vauxhall.

Well, I’m told it should be ready in a couple of weeks. If the weather is good and the roads dry I’ll drive the car the two hours home and save the $400 trailer fee.

[IamScotticus]

they took a seat out to separate the prop shaft?

[theDreamer]

Actually he took out both seats. AFAIK it was to remove the leather transmission cover to get at the shifter and other things. He had to disassemble and/or remove numerous items to get the engine and transmission out. He has done some work on an early Lotus 7 but this was his first go at a Caterham. Also his first time working on a Vauxhall C20xe with twin Webers. That means the alternator is on the opposite side to the Bosch fuel injected models. It’s all a learning experience. He’ll be better equipped the next time he works on our car or anyone’s Caterham for that matter.

[IamScotticus]

Going to stick with a cable clutch? I like cable. They will stretch out.  Have to be ready to adjust or replace them anywhere.  

Edited March 14 by IamScotticus

[theDreamer]

1 minute ago, IamScotticus said:

Going to stick with a cable clutch? I like cable. They will stretch out.  Have to be ready to adjust or replace them anywhere.  

Yes and I should have a spare cable when this is all done.

[IamScotticus]

One thing I've been wanting to do is send Speedy Cables a RS2000 Long cable to reproduce in more durable components.

https://www.speedycables.com/

If the upper sleeve ferrule has a C-clip ring on the inside be sure to use it so the cable doesn't fall out if it breaks.  Those repro cables will break at the upper Eyelet from twist or the lower anchor will pop out from shock.  Either way, both ends need securing.

I know you probably know all this. I just want to say it.

[theDreamer]

Well, multiple phone calls and emails and we finally went to pick up the car today. No surprise it wasn’t quite ready as they had discovered a coolant leak. So the wife went for a two hour coffee break.

First big surprise was the bill. YIKES! Not what I was expecting, nor prepared for.

Second was a cracked fender. He didn’t think he was leaning on it that hard until he heard the crunch.

Third was the 3 ½ hours of labour to fabricate a thermostat. The temperature gauge has not shown the correct temp since I took delivery of the car. The mechanic who did all the work when it first landed in Ontario said the gauge was working so it must have the wrong sender. Questions to forums and suppliers went unanswered. So I drove the car as it was and figured normal was when the needle was just past the first mark in the blue. Hot was when it was just past the second mark and pull over to let it cool down would be anything outside of the cold zone which luckily I never saw.

So while it was getting the clutch assembly replaced I asked this mechanic to have a look at the sender. He never got back to me until he phoned to say I could pick up the car. I enquired and his reply was that the thermostat was stuck shut. Now the thermostat and the housing are built as a unit and he could not find one in North America. So he modified the stock housing to accept a standard off the shelf thermostat, also modified. He claimed to have seen a high of 70c on the gauge.

Well guess what, fourth complaint was that the gauge did not work at all on my drive home.

Fifth item was that I once again had no brake lights. (Thankfully the wife followed me home.) When the car first arrived and everything was to have been in perfect working order the first mechanic found that there were no turn signals, 4 ways or brake lights. The first two were rectified by replacing the flasher relay. The brake light fix was accomplished by disconnecting the pressure switch and placing an electric switch at the brake pedal. During the crash back in May 2025 the bracket that the switch was mounted to was bent and the brake lights stopped working. A slight adjustment and everything was good again. I’m hoping that is all that it will take to correct the problem this time.

Sixth BIG complaint is the alignment is off. Now this car had both ends aligneded during the accident repair. I was able to test drive the car and the steering was not right. Turns out the alignment shops machine was in need of repair and recalibration. A second alignment and a much longer test drive showed the car was as I remembered it being. However, the car was not released from the body shop until Nov. 4^th 2025. I drove the car straight home where it sat for about two weeks until it was picked up and transported to the shop for the clutch replacement.

I suspect that the second mechanic hit a pot hole or something on a test drive and that is why the steering wheel sits cocked to the right when driving straight down the road on my home today.

There are some other infuriating items but these are biggies that I had to get this off my chest tonight.

I have an appointment tomorrow morning so I won’t get around to looking into these issues until tomorrow afternoon.

[Croc]

You are not the first to get a big bill for work performed.  Secondly, you are not the first to see a mechanic cause his own damage which he then will try to explain away with an apology but which he would like you to pay for.  Third, you are definitely not the first to see a mechanic reinvent the wheel all because they did not seek out input from the more knowledgeable.  

 

However, fabricating a thermostat when I bet the issue was the notoriously unreliable and faulty sender is really irritating.  

 

I'm sorry you are going through this but think - you are getting close and the list is down to post-it note size paper now.  Have a drink then keep the faith.  

[theDreamer]

The wife spoke to the mechanic this morning and learned that he removed the steering column before taking the engine out. He did mark it but now thinks he may have been off by one spline when he replaced it. He is paying for the fender repair and we’ll work something out about the temp gauge etc.

Yes, every seven, (heck all sports cars) have their issues and we owners deal with them as they pop up. It was just the end of a very long day full of disappointments and I had to vent to people I knew would understand. Thanks.