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Author Lotus Exige S
Kyle T
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Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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3rd Jan 19 at 16:14   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Hi Seth, after concluding my previous Readers' Car: http://www.corsasport.co.uk/board/viewthread.php?tid=670360 I'm back again with a new purchase.

For anyone who hasn't read the above, the summary is that I bought a Laser Blue 2006 Lotus Elise 111R (190bhp NA Toyota 2zz) back in 2016. It was a great car, and I'd have loved for it to be a keeper but it was doomed from the day I collected it, I'd "invested" part of our new house deposit into it so it was always going to be fodder once we were ready to buy another house.

That time came in early 2018, so the car went onto a new owner after I'd had 2 great years out of it, plenty of track time and plenty of DIY servicing/fixing/improving including a suspension refurb, new radiator and front clam repair after hitting a bunny.

I'll always view that car as unfinished business, so hopefully I can continue where I left off with my new toy.

I did think about some non-Lotus choices, stepping up to Exige budget opened up some new doors including Zenos, Caterfields and even a chubby Porsche or two crossed my consideration... but ultimately it was always going to be another S2 Lotus. The S3 (V6) Exiges are creeping into S2 Exige territory nowadays so I could have stretched to one but ultimately I want a car that I'm comfortable working on, comfortable chucking round a track and the known low running costs of the S2 platform won out for me.

I'd kept my eye on the market and one particular car was loitering around at a popular Lotus trader, priced a bit too high for me initially after just moving house but as winter approached the price slowly came into a reachable range - so I went for a look... and well, the rest is pretty obvious!



From the ad alone it ticked my boxes, Laser Blue (again!), low mileage (just under 16k) and didn't look to be particularly hacked up or modified (that's my job).

Whilst sat with the trader it had a couple of changes:

- Black Vinyl front splitter, sidepods and rear spoiler
- Aftermarket "long scoop" roof
- 260bhp upgrade, offered by Lotus as a dealer upgrade but this one has been done with a Spitfire fuel pump and 550 injectors (rather than the Lotus 440cc ones) and it has a Lotus reflashed ECU.

Other details on the car are Avon ZZR tyres, it has the factory Sport and Touring option packs which I can never remember what included what but the general spec of the car is:

Electric Windows
Aircon (and it works!) *
Carpets
Probax seats with harness cutouts *
Harness Bar *
Traction Control *
Twin oil coolers *

"*" all stuff the Elise didn't have.

The oil coolers were subject to a Lotus recall in 2014 as the crimped connectors were failing and spraying oil everywhere (nicely positioned in front of front wheels too!) but I had the paperwork to show this had been done. The other paperwork was all in order, I can't find any record of this car on forums/clubs etc but it's generally only done a couple hundred miles per year for most of the last decade. The only notable item in the history is a new supercharger fitted in 2012, no idea if these are a weak point or what - but the car had 9k miles at the time, so seems strange.

I test drove the car on a pretty wet day, so not ideal but it was clear (if the stats weren't already obvious) that this was a big boy step up in performance from the Elise. Aside from the performance I noted a really slick gear change on the Exige compared to the rather vague one on my Elise, I guess this is just down to the low mileage but I'll keep my eye out for any obvious modifications which may have contributed.

The car needed a touch of paint before we completed the transaction, the rear clam had a bit of a crack in the gelcoat typical of a car that's had a little bumper brush in a carpark but that's now sorted and the car is settled in the garage at home! Happy days.

I learned a fair few lessons with the Elise, spending money where it probably wasn't needed being one big one so I hope to learn from that and get this project off to a strong start. I've already had the car jacked up for a poke around, mainly checking for any issues that a test drive may not have identified but also on the lookout for any sneaky modifications (none found yet, but I learned this lesson after buying a load of Whiteline goodies for my "stock" Impreza and then jacking it up to fit them, finding the car already had the entire Whiteline catalogue on it :laugh: )



Inspection suggests that the car is fitted with EBC red stuff pads - they're new to me, but so far don't seem to be squealing or dusting too much so that's 2/3 tests complete. If they can survive a few laps without fade then I'll keep hold of them till they die.

Whilst the wheels were off, they got a clean and seal (freshly powdercoated, so now the ideal time to do it)



... and that's about it so far. I have some plans already, two trackdays already booked one of which is a trip to France in May so I have some prep work to do:

- Give it a good going over with the DA and get it waxed up
- Change the toelinks to Spitfire jobbies - both a known failure point on the Elige platform with sticky tyres, but also an MOT advisory.
- Fit a baffled sump - known weakness of the 2ZZ with sticky tyres
- 4pt Harnesses, maybe
- New backbox, maybe - need to figure out if this Lotus Stage 2 one will indeed fail the trackday limits.

Some longer term stuff I'm expecting to need doing at some point:

- Front Clam off and replace radiator (plastic end caps are known for failing)
- Use this opportunity to fit braided brake hoses and replace any rotten steelworks under the nose.
- Monitor and address airflow to the intercooler, these cars are known for bad heatsoak and poor airflow to the intercooler - but there are a few options ranging from a bit of hosing through to a fill chargecooler setup.

Ultimately the C64 gearbox fitted to this car is very close to it's limits with a car running the 260bhp Lotus upgrade, so chasing power isn't going to be on the agenda and I really don't think it'll be needed. The car feels ballistic compared to all of my previous reference points (400bhp Impreza being my previous quickest car, and I think this Exige would have it beat). The Lotus factory update also has the 440cc injectors running close to maximum, so the fact my car has 550's gives a little headroom which may push the gearbox over the edge with the wrong supporting modifications! That said, if/when the gearbox does fail there are uprated options which may open the floodgates further... let's see how that goes though eh.

Hopefully I can get out for some better pictures in the next few days, but on a technical note I'm going to try image hosting on instagram this time around so this thread may have a bunch of broken links... sorry about that in advance, I'll figure it out. But for real time updates - feel free to follow @k.townend. It'll be all car stuff, no baby photos or pictures of my breakfast - promise.






Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
evilrob
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3rd Jan 19 at 16:14   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Nutsack.
Kyle T
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3rd Jan 19 at 16:15   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Well it wouldn't be a Lotus thread without a couple of problems

Nothing major, yet - but it's happily given me something to tinker with the last couple of nights.

First up, the bellows connecting the intercooler to the roof scoop kept popping off. Refitting was a nightmare, you'd get one side on and the other would pop off.



It looked like IC shroud had some 12 year old double sided tape on it, so I whipped the intercooler off and got the shroud cleaned out and re-applied some tape.

This allowed me to reinstall much easier, I'm not sure the tape is load bearing at all but it helps installation significantly. Got it all refitted and got the massive clip back on. Job done.



Next issue was identified on collection day, but required a part from Lotus. I feared the worst as part supplies from Lotus can be difficult at best, but luckily the trader got hold of one and it's on its way now.

The issue is the central locking, clicking the Cobra ball-bag arms/disarms the alarm as expected but it is not unlocking the doors. The prime suspect is the CDL unit behind the dash, apparently always failing and should be an easy fix - so I'll update either way once it arrives.

Aside from this bit of tinkering, I've been all round the car now (and under it) and I'm pretty happy with what I can see. Sump gasket (or lack of, sealant is used on these cars) is weeping a tiny bit but that'll be replaced with a baffled job before spring arrives. Oh, one of the exhaust heatshields appears to be missing too. It pretty much rotted off on my Elise so I replaced it at the time with DEI wrap, so I may do the same here.

I re-read my 111R thread last night and the condition of the suspension and brakes is a thousand times better on the Exige, I can't believe how rusty the undercarriage of my Elise was before I refurbed it all.


[Edited on 04-01-2019 by Kyle T]


Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
Kyle T
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3rd Jan 19 at 16:16   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Festivities aren't halting progress as I got a nice package from Christopher Neil Lotus t'other day containing a new CDL unit.



This is installed behind the dash binnacle under some foam under the dash surface. They're technically replaceable without moving the dash, you can stick a hand in through an air vent, unplug the old one (leaving it in situ) and plug a new one in and just ram it into the foam. I wanted an excuse to spend time in the garage so I had the dash top off anyway to do it "properly".



Cleared out a bit of muck and tidied some rough edges up (foam padding where panels had rubbed, maybe this reduces NVH a bit?!?! (it didn't) )

This is the hiding place of the original.



When I took the dash out of my Elise (can't remember why I removed it... rattle hunting I think?!) I took a load of bits off that didn't need removing, and I clearly didn't learn my lesson as I did it all again this time - so this is a message for future Kyle T for whatever it is you're dismantling next:

THE BLACK DASH TOP DOES NOT NEED TO COME OFF, YOU DON'T NEED TO FISH THOSE THREE CRAPPY SELF TAPPERS OUT OF EACH AIR VENT. IT'S A TOTAL WASTE OF TIME.

I'm happy to report though that the central locking is now working as intended. Happy days!

I'll be posting a few more bits and pieces over the holidays as I've managed to sneak some bits and pieces into the Christmas post influx.


Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
Kyle T
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3rd Jan 19 at 16:17   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

I finally managed to get the house emptied of family members today after Christmas so got myself busy in the garage to unwind a bit... I'd ordered a new aux belt just before Christmas in the SeriouslyLotus sale, and was amazed when the poor Fedex guy banged on my door at 07:30 Christmas Eve!

I decided to change the aux/supercharger belt as there's no record of it being done, and it's supposed to be a 2 year/20k service item. I guess there's a good chance it was changed back when the S/C was apparently changed in 2012... but that's still 6 years ago. I get the feeling some service items were skipped on this car due to the insanely low mileage.

I'd never done the aux belt on my 111R, so this was an opportunity to try something new! I was hoping I could get this done with the rear wheel off and arch liner out, but no chance. The rollbar and some environmentally friendly looking canister device were blocking my view and access - so floor was coming off, again. Once under the car I got the pulleys and belt route mapped out the best I could.



Next up was a challenge, this engine has an auto-tensioner with a very stiff shock absorber. The 19mm nut that I'm supposed to leverage was pretty badly positioned near the subframe so I could only get a shallow 3/4in socket onto it and a tiny little 6in breaker bar... No way I could shift it with that!

I had a scoot around the garage and found some metal curtain poles left by the previous house owner... so out came the dremel and a few mins later I had a brushed brass effect cheater bar with a fluer de lis decoration on the end.

Using my new tool I was able to slip off the old belt, I was keen to take it off properly rather than just cut it because I wanted to make sure I had the tools/strength to get the new one back on agan!

This is the first aux belt I've ever removed, so I'm not quite sure what to look out for but it seemed fairly cracked on the grooved side with a handful of full-width cracks on the smooth side too.




Comments welcome with regards to the state of this belt, was it a good time to change or is this fairly safe levels of wear?

Final observation was that my new belt was a tiny bit longer than the old one. If I read these numbers correctly, out by 3mm:



I'm sure that's well within tolerance of the tensioner but I double checked and everything I could find suggested the new belt was appropriate for my car. With the Lotus 2ZZ variations being quite... varied, there are a few belts floating around - but with AC and a Supercharger mine should be the longest one available, I guess.

While the car was in the air I whipped the front undertray off too, it's one of the few panels I'd not looked behind. I found that the oil hose connecting the front oil coolers was no longer fastened to the underside of the crash structure with the sticky pad/cable tie combos and instead was bouncing around on the undertray. I'd noticed a bit of NVH coming from the front of this car, nothing too concerning as it's a rattly old Lotus anyway but it certainly wasn't present on my old Elise. Perhaps this is the source of it, but I won't be test driving today - too dark and too tired.

The sound I'm hearing is quite hard to describe, it's not really a metal on metal rattle you'd get from a nut rolling around on an undertray or behind the dash or whatever - maybe closer to two pieces of material rubbing together occasionally. Big bumps don't really agitate it, but rough roads do. I initially thought it could be the fire extinguisher in the passenger footwell as that's the region it's coming from - but all seems secure down there, and is easily isolated when driving.

Hoping to get out this weekend, some clear days forecast so might be able to make a day of it and get some nice pictures somewhere




Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
SetH
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3rd Jan 19 at 17:35   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

What a machine! looking forward to following this.

what causes CDL failure? damp getting in? soldering deteriorating after time?
Kyle T
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3rd Jan 19 at 17:50   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by SetH
What a machine! looking forward to following this.

what causes CDL failure? damp getting in? soldering deteriorating after time?


I'm not sure to be honest, vibration maybe? It's almost a given on these cars - just cheap shit components I guess.

The new one seems to have some kind of gel/resin encasing all of the electronics where the old one was just an exposed circuit board so perhaps they've been revised.

Cheers Seth!


Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
SteveoBC
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4th Jan 19 at 13:35   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

looks nice Kyle, but for the love of god resize your images! could go on an expedition across them they are that wide lol
Kyle T
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4th Jan 19 at 15:36   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by SteveoBC
looks nice Kyle, but for the love of god resize your images! could go on an expedition across them they are that wide lol


It seems most websites (or is it browsers?) scale them down but a couple of them have just gone mental here. I've just edited and all should be down to 1280px wide now


Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
mattievRS
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6th Jan 19 at 19:26   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

What a beauty! Love it and will read with interest as the spannering continues and the track days begin.
Kyle T
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7th Jan 19 at 17:05   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

I'd made a minor change to the car, something I do to all cars that I buy - sorted out a number plate with legal font/spacing but with the minimum 11mm border around the letters which makes it fit the Exige plinth perfectly and sharpens up the front end a bit.





Obviously the run out got the car completely filthy so needed a clean on NYD - perfect hangover cure though and an opportunity to get the whole fleet clean at once (it'll be the last time it happens) for a photo.





Since then I got my first drive on a properly dry road and so attacked my first few corners. Can't believe how much grip the car has, which is worrying! Just when I started feeling comfortable with the straight line performance of it it took one humbling roundabout to get me back properly respecting it for a bit


[Edited on 07-01-2019 by Kyle T]


Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
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15th Jan 19 at 22:02   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Kyle T
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15th Jan 19 at 22:07   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Some updates from the last few nights:

I got the car rinsed down after the 500miles of crud and got it jacked up into position ready for work. I started off by removing the cat converter and backbox, although not mandatory for a toe-link change it does give better access and it would give me an opportunity to see about replacing the heatshields on the manifold.

20mins of productivity saw the exhaust off, another 10mins had the toe-links removed and I was left with this little pile of stuff.





That photo was actually taken after I'd wrapped the u-bend on the cat, this is to replace a heatshield that rots off of these cars pretty quickly. I did the same on my 111R and it just isn't worth replacing with standard heatshields because they don't last. I only wrap the u-bend because that sticks out from underneath the larger heatshield that lines the boot floor. The bend itself is pretty close to the nearside rear tyre and you can feel the rear clam get pretty warm after a run when it's missing.



I had a trial fit of the manifold heatshields, I could get them into position once the cat was removed but I was having trouble inserting bolts at the fixings closest to the engine, it seems like they'd just rusted over. There's no way I could get access with a tap, but I did note that the manifold bolts were in pretty accessible positions... so 10 minutes later:



The holes tapped out nicely, the manifold it seems had been fitted with the OEM gasket in addition to some gasket sealant. Not sure if this is standard Lotus procedure but I couldn't find any reference to it in the workshop manual - so figured it had been removed/reseated previously. I cleaned it all off and got hold of a new gasket for re-installation. I'll try without sealant and make sure it doesn't blow.



The replacement manifold shields were like new, really chuffed to get hold of them. I got the manifold re-installed and did the "cat-end" bolts up loosely before venturing up top to finish off.



To access the top bolts I needed to remove the boot catch mechanism with its own heatshield, this will be staying off the car - more on this later.



That gave just about access for my girly hands to get down and fit the final bolts.



That was rather satisfying and relieving. The heatshields are potentially a total non-issue, the car has been running without them after all for god knows how long but I'd concerned myself that it would be clam off to resolve. To get it done, and back to standard feels great.

Between all of this work, I've made a start on the toe-links too.

First off an inspection of the old ones, both in-board sides looked like this. Total separation of the boot and dry as a bone inside. It probably didn't help being so close to an unshielded exhaust manifold - but for 16k miles these look pretty rough tbh. Movement feels a little slack in the off-side one too.



Fitting process is basically offering up the new brackets that come with the Spitfire kit and marking out 4 holes on each side that need to be drilled into the subframe ready for rivnuts. This took a while, I tried with 3mm pilot holes first which went in fine but my next step up (5mm) HSS bits were a bit tired and just weren't making progress into the subframe. I ordered some cobalt bits in 6mm and 9mm to finish off and upon arrival they tore through. Nice and slow with plenty of lube, as I learned from my Elise.





Unfortunately I only got 4 rivnuts in before my Chinese eBay rivnut tool decided it had enough - stripped its thread and made a good mess of one of my rivnuts too... so job is on hold until reinforcements arrive. Doh!

Whilst waiting around for drill bits, rivnuts, gaskets, etc I addressed something else. My aftermarket hardtop didn't come with any edging trim fitted which I think looks pretty cool, however I've caught my belt/jeans on it a few times whilst getting in/out of the car and I'm a little nervous about chipping the paint or worse, the fibreglass.



I got supplied with some self-adhesive edging trim which I've now fitted but apparently forgot to photograph, and I can't be bothered going back into the garage tonight so more to follow on that! It looks very OEM and was cheap enough to re-do in the future if it doesn't survive too many pressure washer blasts or 100+ mph on track!

Hopefully by the weekend I'll be back on all four wheels. I've got some more bits arriving this week before I can complete. The toe-links btw seem to be preconfigured to factory toe settings so the car may be approximately driveable without a geo, but I will of course get that done before any significant mileage or track time.






Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
SetH
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'Nice and slow with plenty of lube'

Ste
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What are the rivnuts for? you know they're really not structural and only good for holding a panel on that doesn't come under much stress


I would rather lose by a mile because i built my own car, than win by an inch because someone else built it for me.
Kyle T
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16th Jan 19 at 16:21   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by Ste
What are the rivnuts for? you know they're really not structural and only good for holding a panel on that doesn't come under much stress


The OEM toe links are single shear with a very long bolt which anchors both the toe links and the trailing end of the lower wishbones - and they often fail.

There are 2 options on the market for upgrade kits split across 8 or so manufacturers:

1) Brace added between the two inboard links, brace in effect puts the links into double shear

2) Brackets added to the subframe to put the inboard links into double sheer. The brackets are held onto the subframe with 4x M6 bolts via the rivnuts. They're only torques to 10nm and aren't really intended to take any load as the brackets slot into contours in the subframe anyway - and the force is transferred efficiently onto the subframe.

The preferred option is 2) as the first option is transferring load into the "other" toe-link rather than the subframe itself. It's a known solution and most track/race Elise/Exige/VX cars have had this upgrade and is still being performed on new cars from Lotus. The main downside to this is that the OEM toe-links are a sacrificial component in a shunt, so if I slide into a curb or whatever the subframe will be taking the smack and there are known cases of subframe damage with upgrade toe-links despite the rivnut/M6 fastenings.


Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
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17th Jan 19 at 13:55   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Looks ace that

Bet I flies with that power and weight!
I remember changing the belt on my supercharged civic with a simular setup. Ended up with the Mrs with a scaffold tube on the end of the breaker bar holding the tensioner while I did the belt. Gave her very clear instructions not to move whilst my fingers were in the area

Good luck with it


Drives supercharged Tec with torque
Kyle T
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17th Jan 19 at 17:05   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Cheers Gavin, yeah it's an absolute hoot. It makes me really scared to think about what these 300+ bhp Caterfield 7 cars are like

Yep I did an aux belt once on a mates Corsa, neither of us knew what we were doing but had a similar auto-tensioner and we had a massive pole on it, rocking the car side to side (on that same job I got my finger stuck in the aux belt while car was running - ran my finger around 2 pulleys before I got it out, can't believe it didn't cause any lasting damage but had some monster blood blisters for a few weeks

Hopefully I won't be touching it again any time soon, but my curtain pole is bang on if I do!

Slowly started putting bits back on the car now, will post an update once I'm done. I love this phase of a job, putting all the clean stuff back on.




Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
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18th Jan 19 at 14:04   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Sounds ace. Certainly suits that colour too.
Will get myself something lotus based one day. Need a new house with a garage first mind
Will keep an eye out for you on future track days incase we cross paths


Drives supercharged Tec with torque
Kyle T
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19th Jan 19 at 17:44   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Alright time for an update, been tinkering away an hour or so each night for the past few nights and finally dropped the car back on its wheels today.

I mentioned before that I'd fitted some edge trim on the roof, but had forgot to post a photo - so here we go:



I believe I left it where I'd stripped my rivnut tool and was waiting for a replacement, well that came - it wasn't much more expensive than the last one but it said "pro" on it so I was in safe hands. I got the remaining rivnuts in without drama, so was then just a case of bolting everything up.




I torqued them all up, with loctite on the inboards and nyloc nuts on the outboard.

It was then a case of bolting stuff back on the car, the catalytic converter and big bootfloor heatshield first:





The heatshield on my Elise was a little ropey around the toelinks and had rotted through so I couldn't fasten it down. This was still really strong, and a quick brush down and dusting of VHT paint had it looking bang on. The factory shaping of it fits around the spitfire brackets beautifully - so that's them tucked up nicely away from the exhaust.

Then it was backbox time, except mine would not be going back on the car - through some elaborate backbox-triangle of contacts I managed to get hold of a second hand one made (we think?!) by the popular 2bular which is listed as being a track safe/road option. I know it's boring, but I needed to quieten the car down a bit for my tastes - but I've found a new home for my old backbox, well when I say new home it's actually kind of it's old home as it's going back to the son of the previous owner of my Exige

Putting them side by side show identical dimensions, and raises suspicion that my old exhaust may be another offering from 2bular - or at least something close.



I had 10mins with the autosol and brought it up a treat, I would have done more (plus the old one) but I knelt on the tube and got autosol all over the place...



It bolted up a treat, and after a few adjustments to get it somewhere near central I got it nipped up properly. It's fairly common for this size backbox to catch on both the rear boot heatshield and the rear diffuser (both my removed exhaust and the new exhaust in its previous car did exactly this) but by rocking it back on its hangers before tightening up you can get just about enough clearance.



My final task over the last few days was related to the boot strut - I mentioned that the boot latch mechanism wouldn't be going back on the car and that's because I've bought a new one:



The 2006 Exiges came with a twin gas strut design to keep the boot lid up. Unfortunately the struts were slightly too long and/or strong which pushed up the corners of the boot lid giving a panel gap like this (yes, they came out the factory like this...)



From what I can gather back in 2006, some people rejected their cars so Lotus swapped them to the new design as a warranty change. The new design came in with the 2007 car and had just a single strut mounted to the boot latch mechanism. Luckily it's an easy retrofit if you can get hold of the parts - which thanks to community favourite Junks.. I did

Before:


After:


And the boot now looks like it's not half open...



... and that's about it for now. The car is currently sat in the garage with no floor or diffuser - just want to check for knocks/rattles or exhaust blows over a few miles when it dries up then I'll have one last torque check before screwing it all back on. That's a big chunk of my track-readiness dealt with now leaving just a baffled sump to come in a few months, as I'd like to get some mileage from my engine oil before dropping it all...!






Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
SetH
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20th Jan 19 at 10:51   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

I love your attention to detail. All these small little pieces of work you do one piece at a time all add up to a well sorted beauty!
Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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21st Jan 19 at 08:49   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by SetH
I love your attention to detail. All these small little pieces of work you do one piece at a time all add up to a well sorted beauty!


Cheers Seth, this is why I enjoy tinkering around on an "optional" car. When it was my Subaru it also had daily duties so often was rushing around and just making sure it was back on the road for Monday morning. With this I can just leave it up on stands for weeks if needed, allowing me to tidy up and fuss about a bit.

The current dailies in our fleet are a total mess, and I really cba even checking the tyre pressures on the civic for example despite the TPS bleating away everytime it starts up


Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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27th Jan 19 at 16:50   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

This was a nice surprise on Saturday!



Unfortunately now that I've peaked as a published writer, the quality of this thread may take a fall.

Car is booked in for alignment at my local favourites Track Torque in Tockwith near York for next week. I took the car out for a shakedown and realised it was desperately needed, with just a bit of gas the rear of the car squirms all over the place!


Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
SetH
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Registered: 15th Jul 01
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27th Jan 19 at 19:04   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

I saw that article and my first thought was that it was yours then I noticed the front plate and thought that you had fitted a smaller one so dismissed it doh!
Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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28th Jan 19 at 09:24   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Aye they used one of my earlier photos, but then I guess pictures of it with the rear end hanging off in my garage aren't quite as attractive


Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi

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