Yep makes sense, there’s a thermostat inside the HVAC box which is intended to stop the whole lot freezing over - so that may have just been keeping the system offline.
Had to make an essential journey so took the fun car. AC works well still, I get too cold if I have it on for a couple of minutes. Tested whether I could get it down the driveway at my parents’ new house. The answer was no, it’s too low. I got halfway down before it started skimming the splitter and the 2nd half of the drive is worse! Guess I’ll have to visit them in the practical car in the future instead.
Poor thing was filthy after the winter (I don’t think it got much of a clean since the brands Hatch track day at the end of October). I decided to wave the hose over it before getting the normal cleaning guy round to do the job properly. It already looks a lot better
Little update, it passed the first Mot in my ownership this week. Took it over to Simon (Classic Modern Sports) for a once over and service. Would have got stuck in myself like usual but with some trackdays coming up this year I was happy for an experienced eye to have a look. Oil and filter, spark plugs, brake fluid change, (the air filter I supplied didn’t fit in the air box so will revisit that).
All good to go, July 1st at Snetterton will be the next outing.
1245 miles covered in my first 11 months with the car. That’s about 4 times more than I did in the S1 Elise in the year previous and with lockdown I’ve not gone more than 50 miles from my front door, I’m pretty pleased with that.
Another trackday complete but not without issues.
It was at Snetterton, a 150 mile journey from home. Went up the night before and stopped for fuel just after leaving the house. When I tried to open the door, something went ping inside on the mechanism and for the rest of the trip I had to wind the window down and use the external door release.
At the circuit I was happy it was forecast dry weather all day. This was the first chance I had with the car on a dry circuit (and only my 2nd trackday in this car). Built up slowly in the morning before putting in what was to be my fastest lap of the day just before lunch:
https://youtu.be/SqDGULZ_3hA
In the afternoon I just had fun lapping with my friend in his mx5, working on improving my lines and gear choices as I got quicker. But I never put one clear fast lap together again. At about 3.30pm, I shifted from 3rd to 4th onto the back straight and the cabin filled with a very loud, deep noise. After creeping slowly back to the pits I found this:
The cat has broken right on the weld where the pipe joins the box. This signaled the end of the day for me. With help from my friends we managed to bodge it back together with exhaust paste, a cut up monster energy drinks can and a jubilee clip. It was messy but effective.
With careful gear shifts I made it all the way home without it falling apart again. I’ve now got to decide whether this is fixable (welding back together?) or if I should replace with oem or sports cat (and whether to put an aftermarket manifold on at the same time). But all options are looking quite expensive right now.
Here’s some more video and photos:
https://youtu.be/pqIxmcxMaX0
Bad news on the cat pipe…
It just happens so that I have a spare sports cat from H111 sitting in my garage …
Well if you were thinking of selling it maybe I can help it find a home
Spent some time removing the broken cat today
Looks like it might be fixable but I may also buy a replacement and have this one as a spare.
Also, while poking around under there I saw this on the block just under the exhaust manifold, is this normal?
I wanted to fix the car before next weekend’s event. andybond had what looks like a hanger111 sports cat knocking about so a deal was arranged and a friend collected it from a recycling bin drop while Andy was staying down in the area.
My garage is a bit of a mess right now but it’s multi functional as a bicycle workshop, construction storage and car garage.
Seems to fit well, might be leaking slightly on the slip joint to the back box so may need to revisit that.
While I was under the car I noticed there wasn’t much left of the heatshield near the toe link. I still had some left from a job on the old elise so bent some into service. Excuse the temporary zip ties, I have run out of the correct rivets.
Then I moved on to investigating the non opening door from the interior handle. As suspected, the door lock rod clip has broken.
Lotus factory order @ £2 each but not sure they’ll arrive in time so I’ve also gambled on a universal one from amazon with next day delivery.
In the classic way, one problem led to finding another - a dodgy wire in the loom between the a pillar and the door means the electric window won’t go up if the door is more than half open. A problem for future me…
Good bit of (sort of) progress!
The good news is I think the car is good to come to C&M on the weekend!
The door lock rod clips I bought were these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08ZYFP3RB
Although slightly smaller than the oem one it seems to work fine and I now have 11 spare.
How important are the U-bend heat shields? Probably a stupid question (i.e. they are important enough to exist) but I didn’t realise my car didn’t have them until seeing other photos. The upper and lower parts are both required I guess and almost £200 combined on EliseParts.
Hard to quantify how important they are, but I can anecdotally say my rear clam got VERY hot in that corner as mine were also missing.
It’s very common for them to go AWOL, they rust and rattle so most end up getting removed eventually. Rather than replacing, I went for £50 of DEI heatwrap instead. It might need redoing occasionally though.
I have the heatwrap for the cat pipe now and also a spacer which I hope will work for a MiL eliminator on the post cat sensor which keeps causing an error code every other time I drive the car.
These will both be fitted before the next trackday at the start of November.
In the meantime I have been driving only short distances. Yesterday I popped out to a nearby coffee place run by a bunch of car mad guys:
Looking good! Mine is currently trapped in garage due to drive being dug up. So no runs out for me for a week or two
Spent Saturday morning crawling around on the garage floor again.
PXL_20211030_113933135 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr
In prep for a trackday at Silverstone I’ve heat wrapped the replacement cat pipe, pop riveted the previously cable tied heat shield back on and attempted to stop the cel coming on due to the similar gas flow readings from pre and post cat sensors with an angled spacer.
PXL_20211030_123939561 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr
I am getting really tempted to put this up for sale as what would potentially be one of the cheapest supercharged S2 Exige on the market because I have an itch for a change.
Hi Andy, I hope you’re well mate.
What are you thinking of getting to replace the Exige?
Early v8 manual audi R8s are turning my eye. At the moment I can’t even find one to go see though. I’ve got this trackday in a week’s time, maybe it’ll change my mind again but right now the opportunities to use something as focused and raw as the Exige are so few that I wonder if I’ll get more enjoyment from a car I can actually use more frequently. Also, I really fancy owning something with a v8
Tempting money aren’t they…
You’re on the Silverstone day with Circuit-Days aren’t you? I’m supposed to be there (haven’t had chance to fix the heater blower motor yet, so I have no way to clear the windscreen at the moment so I’ll see what the weather is like on the day, lol!) and so is my mate with his Audi R8 V10+, it’s absolutely awesome and is very, very tempting… but it’s FAR too much for the road, he’s taking it on track to ‘unleash it’ a little, lol!
I don’t know what the relative performance of the manual V8 vs DSG V10 are?