Nitron episode concluded within less than 30 hours of noticing the missing o-rings. That’s how to look after customers!
No bonus sweets though.
I’m going to try some of that bearing grease later, will let you know how it tastes
Lol… Great work from Nitron… Wish all companies looked after you like this.
Adding charge cooling will never give you more power as the map has not changed, but, you will not lose power due to excessive charge temps. Also, there is a slim chance you might see some extra power with a reduction in parasitic loses as the charge cooler may flow better than the standard intercooler, but it will be marginal. My car saw quite a midrange increase in torque, but it was remapped as well to gain from the efficiencies provided by the charge cooler.
Adding a CC will not give you any running issues on the 260 map
That backs up what I saw when mine was dyno’d compared to a stock 260 car - loads more midrange even without a map but no change to headline figure.
Thanks to the weather turn around this weekend I got some miles on the car and managed to form a few more opinions on the exhaust.
First up I tweaked my front ride heights up a bit, for reference I was running approx. 125mm rear and 115mm front previously which is now around 120mm front and 128mm rear. That will change slightly once it goes back on the scales, but providing my next few days/weeks of testing goes OK I’ll request that the front goes no lower.
The first drive out was just a tentative clunk/rattle check to the shops and back. The exhaust isn’t any louder, predictably as the backbox remained unchanged but it does have a few more burbles and is a bit ‘poppy’, some of that may tame down a bit once it cokes up a bit but I don’t expect it’ll be blowing any dB meters which is a relief.
On the way home I gave it some beans and the car felt… well a bit flat to be honest. I wasn’t too concerned, ECU I’m sure had some adapting to do and I always planned to get an ECU/map sorted soon anyway but it was worth noting nonetheless.
I was up early (5am) Sunday to meet some friends over in the Peak District, they had a route planned out which I would join them for at the start, then once we got to the most Eastern point I would peel off and head back home. Good opportunity to bed everything in and get a feel for the car after the tweaks.
The drive over was good, enjoying the subtle changes to the soundtrack of the car and navigate safely through the morning fog.
I started to get a move on once I got into the National Park as the roads just encouraged it and the car started to feel very sprightly indeed. It was no longer feeling flat, but it was really picking up more towards the top end. Mid range torque felt similar, but just as power started to trail off a bit before it seemed to get a bit more of a push. Despite some quite dramatic undulations and mid/high speed turns there was no evidence of wheel arch slaughter either, so the morning was going well.
Four banger cars were heavily outnumbered when we met up in Bosley and I had been warned about driving closely behind the Zenos (stone chips) or let it get too close up behind me (woeful brakes) so I clung on the best I could to the nearest V6 
I won’t pretend to know what route we took, I just kept following people but we ended up in Hope Valley SW of Sheffield before I finally peeled off.
I don’t drive my car anywhere close to at capacity when on the road, but I paid close attention to the ride quality and characteristics of the car when pushing on a bit. The bumpsteer I complained of a few posts ago didn’t feel anywhere near as bad - perhaps the added 5mm of ride height made some difference, or perhaps the roads were just different and I wasn’t feeling so sensitive towards it after a 5am start… 
Car came back with some nice things ticked off:
- Exhaust didn’t fall off
- New ride height feels good
- Felt pretty quick, getting a bit of a fuzzy feeling thinking about how quick this could be with a map on it.
Some things still to work on:
- Brakes still vibrating a bit when giving them some hoof. I’ve never struggled to bed in a set of pads like this before, but will keep trying - so far their performance outweighs the fact they vibrate a bit.
- AC still being a bit intermittent. When it’s on, it’s icy cold - so I’m fairly sure the AC circuit itself is fine, but I’ve noticed that the fans are constantly blowing warm when switched on - wonder if the heat blend flap thing is jammed which I believe is accessible with the clam on, just. Alternatively I’ll check the wiring behind the switch panel, there’s a remote chance I suppose that the temp knob isn’t even plugged in
Good write up [mention]Fonzey[/mention]
Can you give me a shout next time you venture out? Would be good to say hello.
I also have the hot flap thing. I am not sure its able to get accessed via the access panels. I think it is on the elise though …
EDIT : 1000th post!
Will do Andy, was a bit impromptu for me this one - the “peak district” gang were discussing it late on Saturday and I just said I’d be there if I could wake up in time… which I did, just. Let’s get something organised locally in the meantime 
Yes you could be right about the Elise being more accessible. The AC theory that I can best come up with for now is that AC is working ‘fine’ but as designed it doesn’t remain on at all times, it rather cycles on and off to maintain temperature. When mine is on an “on” cycle, it overpowers the warm air from the heater matrix and cools me down nicely, but as soon as it cycles off the warm air hits me, seemingly the same temp whether the dial is set to ‘full blue’ or ‘full red’.
I’ve blatantly disturbed something with my charge cooler install, so hope it’s just something silly/electrical. I believe the flap does default to the warm position (for emergency defrosting etc).
You are correct - flap is warm unless you tell it otherwise. Its prone to sticking in that position …
Cheers for confirming.
Another potential clue, which you may not be able to help with as your AC is currently not in/working - but is the blue light on the AC button supposed to stay illuminated even when the temp dial is set to warm? My blue light stays on regardless of where the temp dial is, which seems wrong. I’d imagine it to automatically click off when the dial is set to hot - so could be further ammunition that the dial isn’t connected/working?
Yep, that stays on no matter what the temp setting. Its SOP.
Useful for demisting …
OK yeah that makes sense, false alarm there then.
My ‘flap’ gets stuck too… I never put it all the way to cold or all the way to hot… or it I will have hot air even when the AC is on… although, my AC seems to have stopped working… blue light is on, but I can’t hear the ‘click’ when you turn it on… hasn’t been regassed for a few years, so I would imagine that’s the issue
Quick lunchtime update:
- The flap is accessible on the Exige, just unbolt the fuseholder and take the two screws out of the rain gutter thing, it should then pull out - sort of like getting a square peg out of a round hole though.
- Once exposed, just pop off the ducting that carries airflow to the dash.
My flap seemed to be sat in the ‘cold’ position by default (car was switched off with it in the cold position, so makes sense):
I booted the car up and switched the dial to full hot, and sure enough the flap moved as expected.
Also did another test with the dial set half way and the flap moved to the half way position as expected.
So that’s all a bit odd, no evidence of this being jammed at all and the control panel knob is clearly working. The only thing which was a little suspect was the wiring to the temperature probe (the probe sat in the AC evap radiator) was a little strained by a hard line which ran quite close to it - so I’ve gently bent that back into shape so the plug isn’t being pushed on.
Maybe I’m just expecting too much from the AC system, everyone does say that it’s crap after all and my attention towards it is probably heightened due to messing around with it so much over Winter.
I’ll pay a bit closer attention to the rear of the car when my AC is next running, see if I can see any pattern in how the compressor is operating.
Thought I’d just run the car for a bit with the heater box exposed, hoping to feel/see the AC fluctuate as I’ve experienced it on the road and see with my own eyes what the flap is doing.
Ran the car for about 10mins, coolant fully up to spec and had the AC running all the way through. Early on in the process the AC clicked off/on a couple of times (could hear the compressor click and the engine revs fluctuate slightly in addition to the top mounted radiator fans kicking in/out) but the temperature flowing out of the heat box remained icy cool.
Once the coolant was up to temp, the AC stopped clicking off/on and just remained on all the time - the temp never rose, it all just remained nice and cool.
So either this isn’t something I can replicate when the car isn’t under load, or I’ve magically fixed it just by poking around for a bit.
ETA there is a bit of foam (I presume used to seal the flap) that’s flapping around a bit on the blend door, may have caused a jam in the past? I’ll glue it back down but it seems unlikely.
Hmmm I think I might have just caught it in the act. I was going to put it all back together so thought I’d test one more go.
Flap was in the cold position before I started the car, I started up the car - didn’t touch the heater controls at all and the flap had moved to the warm position. No amount of fiddling on the dials made this change, switched the car off and back on again - and the flap was behaving again.
This must be an electrical fault surely?
Must be. Default is hot so I guess multimeter across the motor to see if your getting any voltage?
I’m just going back through my old photos now to try and figure out the wiring.
When you say the default is hot, would you expect the flap to return to hot whenever the car is powered off? That’s not happening right now, it just stays wherever it was last positioned… I think.
‘WELCOME TO HELL’ 
Looks like you had good fun!
How much of a difference is there performance-wise between the 4-pots and 6-pot Exiges - on the road, not track?
Trust the handling characteristics are similar?