Took my Exige for a service last week. 100 km there, 100 km back.
Arrive home, try to select reverse to park in my garage. No can do! 
Try and try and try. Without success. Push car in. Great!
Phone dealer. Telephone diagnosis: either the cable that lifts the reverse gate protector ball has failed or the ball itself. Not a big job (15 min.), but you’ll have to bring it in. 
Took it today. Chief mechanic tries it from the passenger side and says he thinks it’s in reverse now. And it bloody is! 
Feel like a complete idiot. But he says it definitely doesn’t feel right.
Takes off shroud. When the reverse protector is lifted and an attempt is made to move the lever, it is at the limit off its adjustment and fouls on a metal guide bar above it. He had been able to force it in on his attempt, but I had not been so brutal.
He says the cable may have stretched a little, but the problem is because it was [size:14pt]never set up properly at the factory[/size]. He reckons it worked � just � and someone thought, “That’ll do”. Not very impressive build quality!
He adjusted it so that when the protector is lifted, the parts that move are nicely centralised. Also lubricated it all.
I hate the gate on this box anyway. Even freshly lubricated, it is obstructive. Furthermore, even though it is weighted for 3 � 4, they are tipped over to the right and 1 � 2 are actually vertical. That’s how I managed to blow my engine on track in 2007 � snatching for 4th and getting 2nd � and 9,400 rpm…
Even when cruising, changing down from 5th to 4th or 3rd to 2nd seems bloody awkward. Particularly second doesn’t seem to always want to go fully into position. I’ve tried it sat in the garage and 2nd seems to need an extra heave to slot fully in. This is nothing to do with the gearbox, btw, I’m only talking about the movement of the gear lever � it is really clunky with several bits that you can feel moving and reluctantly going to the required position. Really not acceptable on a car where you want fast, precise changes.
After stepping out of the Exige, I drove my 106GTI � now _that’s_how a box should be � none of this lumpy, clunky mechanical struggle across the gear planes, just a sweet and smooth, clear and simple selection of the desired gear.
I know that Lotus modded the construction later (mine’s a 2005, but with the round rather than fracture-prone hexagonal lever) and last week, at my service, they gave me an Elise SC to play with for the afternoon. That seemed better.
I hate my box � and the fact that it cost me a fortune for the new engine makes me wonder about if it is worth keeping the car. Do others with a 2005 Exige have similar problems?
