From a recent trackday at Brands, noticed a scuffing sound every time I went through the dip at Paddock hill and also Grham Hill bend coming from the front drivers side.
Had a look inside the wheel arch and found the tyre is scuffing the inner black arch lining. Directly above the tyre, a hole has been worn through the size of an apple.
Would like to know whether this happens frequently, and whether it means my suspension is on the way out?
Also if anyone knows what I should be looking at ���-wise to have the lining fixed/replaced I’d appreciate that. I can see the lining is riveted in, so it doesn’t look like a quick job?!
They are not riveted on, the rivets you can see will be holding brackets in place in the under bonnet compartment for modules and pipe holders etc, so straight forward-ish to replace, not sure but you will probably need to transfer these riveted brackets/pipe holders.
This is a common problem. I’m on my second set now and they are about �65 + vat per side from lotus. Newer sets do have modifications to give a bit more clearance but still not great.
I replaced a set the day before the exiges day at cadwell last year and I had holes in the new ones by lunch time - and that was with newsih nitrons. Nature of the beast I’m afraid.
You do need to be careful though, as the drivers side has the pipes that run from the front oil cooler to the engine running above the liner and you don’t want to be rubbing holes in them Also the passenger side has the fuse box mounted to the liner so if you use it in the rain and there are holes in the liner you could be asking for trouble.
I now try and patch them occaisonaly using off cuts from the old ones. Pikey I know but if you track the car then they are likley to wear through.
Got nothing to do with your suspension although its probably a good excuse to treat yourself to some new nitrons !
oh and relatively easy to fit - just takes a bit of time.
That was very useful and a relief to know they don’t cost too much! . How long would you say it takes to change? Is this a wheel off job, or front clam off job?
Any decent plastic welder worth their salt should be more than able to affect a pretty decent repair on them. they can even weld a thicker plate over the top of the wear patch (it really is only a problem in one or two patches) so that there’s much more meat for the tyre to have to chomp through before it meets the end.
In all honesty, I would just leave them with holes in, as has been said here, you will replace them and it will happen almost straight away again. I run my car without any wheel arch liners at all. I know this wouldn’t be ideal for a road car, but unless you want to be replacing these almost everytime you drive the car I would leave them.
That was very useful and a relief to know they don’t cost too much! . How long would you say it takes to change? Is this a wheel off job, or front clam off job?
Its a wheel off job. It took me about 2 hours to do the job for the first time as you have move to the fuse box fixings from old to new on the NS and the oil pipe fixings on the OS. Mine was a little tricky as some of the fixings were FUBARed so I had to replace and improvise somewhat.
try the carrossel at nurburgring, this punches holes in any RH wheel arch even with nitrons…gaffer tape over the holes and the next time it happens, which it will, more gaffer tape.
a friend of mine bought a new exige(mk2 SC) and before it went on the track it received a few layers of glass fibre and resin to thicken up the rub areas. this i guess is a slightly easier way whereby one does the repair before the damage happens…
Was out again today, and driving the car slowly down a dip (i.e. 10mph) it’s now scuffing. Either when it was hit at Brands the top of the lining has now dropped somewhat, or something else is wrong, because I’ve never heard so much scuffing going on. I’ll let you know how my repairs go.
If you drive tracks this is going to happen…
I repaired mine with scrap plastic and adhesive/rivits.
Uprated springs helped a bit BUT as I also lowered the ride height a bit was back to square 1 !!
Thats why we all love our Exiges.