Sports cat on a spyder - missing chassis piece...

[Chrisbassett]

The guys at SB Race Engineering just had a look under my car, a check-up so I know what to expect over the next couple of years for maintenance. Just a few issues, mostly to do with the car being left standing outside for a while by the previous owner, but nothing to worry about immediately...

...except - it seems someone put a pair of larini sports cats on at some point (cool, didnt know they were there!) and left off a piece of the chassis when putting them on!!!

It's a bolt on piece that I am assured isn't essential for the car to be safe, but that gets in the way of the stock position for the lambda sensors when using the sports cats. They may be an early version of the cats, and were probably designed with the hard-top in mind, so they didn't take into account the peculiarities of the spyder.

They quoted about £60 for the piece, £150 for some specialised work to re-site the lambda sensors plus labour for fitting. Not an expensive job, but just a bit surprised that the piece was missed out because the original fitters couldn't be bothered doing the re-site themselves.

Anyone else heard of this?

The knock-on from the piece being missing is increased scuttle shake and a degradation in handling, so I'm going to get it done.
: )
Chris.

 

[lozcb]

The guys at SB Race Engineering just had a look under my car, a check-up so I know what to expect over the next couple of years for maintenance. Just a few issues, mostly to do with the car being left standing outside for a while by the previous owner, but nothing to worry about immediately...

...except - it seems someone put a pair of larini sports cats on at some point (cool, didnt know they were there!) and left off a piece of the chassis when putting them on!!!

It's a bolt on piece that I am assured isn't essential for the car to be safe, but that gets in the way of the stock position for the lambda sensors when using the sports cats. They may be an early version of the cats, and were probably designed with the hard-top in mind, so they didn't take into account the peculiarities of the spyder.

They quoted about £60 for the piece, £150 for some specialised work to re-site the lambda sensors plus labour for fitting. Not an expensive job, but just a bit surprised that the piece was missed out because the original fitters couldn't be bothered doing the re-site themselves.

Anyone else heard of this?

The knock-on from the piece being missing is increased scuttle shake and a degradation in handling, so I'm going to get it done.
: )
Chris.

Cheers Chris for bringing this to our attention , perhaps if the previous owner was contacted we could find out who fitted them like that , just incase there could be others about ,


regards loz

 

[BennyD]

I've got Larini sports cats on mine too. Can you post a picture of where the missing piece goes so I can tell if mine is missing as well. Thanks.

 

[Chrisbassett]

****, I was under the car in the garage but my phone was out of battery so I didn't get a photo. Basically with mine, behind the cat boxes there is a recess and the lambda sensors stick out upwards into this recess. On either side there are two holes, also behind the cat boxes to the left & right where bolts should go to hold the brace piece in place behind the pipes. It's apparently a box brace maybe a foot long. If you don't see four holes, but see four bolts and a brace piece then you're fine!

My guess is that with the standard cat boxes, the sensors don't stick out as far, so the brace is fine, but the sports ones are either wider or oriented differently, so the sensors stick out further. It looks like laziness one someone's part. If I can, I'll get a photo sometime before its fixed.

 

[Chrisbassett]

****, I was under the car in the garage/QUOTE]

Where by "****" I meant an anagram of danm...nothing worse : )

 

[BennyD]

****, I was under the car in the garage but my phone was out of battery so I didn't get a photo. Basically with mine, behind the cat boxes there is a recess and the lambda sensors stick out upwards into this recess. On either side there are two holes, also behind the cat boxes to the left & right where bolts should go to hold the brace piece in place behind the pipes. It's apparently a box brace maybe a foot long. If you don't see four holes, but see four bolts and a brace piece then you're fine!

My guess is that with the standard cat boxes, the sensors don't stick out as far, so the brace is fine, but the sports ones are either wider or oriented differently, so the sensors stick out further. It looks like laziness one someone's part. If I can, I'll get a photo sometime before its fixed.

Cheers mate. I'll have a look the next time I'm under.

 

[Emtee]

Have you taken a look at the Eurospares diagrams Chris? They're on their web site. They're quite detailed and may point you to the missing brace.

 

[BennyD]

Is it the one on page 023, part 55? (Exhaust front support).

 

[Chrisbassett]

Have you taken a look at the Eurospares diagrams Chris? They're on their web site. They're quite detailed and may point you to the missing brace.

Wow, they are detailed, and from these it looks like the lambda sensors on the standard cat pipes come out at the side, nothing like mine do. Methinks someone has made a mess mounting them on to the other exhaust components, getting them misaligned, then had to fit the sensors to the top of the pipes instead of the side, but could only do it by missing something out to make room for them. Oh, and sorry, bennyd, I'm not sure if that is the piece, but it doesn't seem to have the four bolt holes that I saw. I'm sure yours will be fine, and mine is just a botched job.

 

[adam01]

Wow, they are detailed, and from these it looks like the lambda sensors on the standard cat pipes come out at the side, nothing like mine do. Methinks someone has made a mess mounting them on to the other exhaust components, getting them misaligned, then had to fit the sensors to the top of the pipes instead of the side, but could only do it by missing something out to make room for them. Oh, and sorry, bennyd, I'm not sure if that is the piece, but it doesn't seem to have the four bolt holes that I saw. I'm sure yours will be fine, and mine is just a botched job.

Chris,

Here is a shot of the cross member on my GS -note 2 bolts each side - is this the piece u r referring to?

When fitting Larini's (others), need to undo to remove the cats then replace. There is clearance when re fitting

Hope this helps

 

[Chrisbassett]

Ah, I see what you mean, but the holes were fore & aft of each other above the exhaust, and I think they said the part is peculiar to the spyder. Maybe I'm just confusing myself now, so I'll see if I can get a picture & maybe confirm with the SB Race guys.

 

[Chrisbassett]

Ok, I took my car into SB Race Engineering this morning to make sure that the exhaust rattle I have isn't something terminal - looks like a manifold gasket or the dual-skin issue that others have reported, so nothing I need to get done immediately...

Anyway, they took this photo of the cat and the bolt-holes, you can see where the lambda sensors poke out and they couldn't refit the chassis bit.

Apparently these are an early version of the larini sports cats and later versions don't have this problem.


And



If anyone needs more info, I'll ask any questions when I go visit next (maybe in a couple of weeks) and if I get it fixed ill get photos of that too.

Hope this helps - at least to reassure others that their Spyder is fine!