Hi all
Did a 300 mile trip today to look at an exige.
Holes in rear arch liners - Does this cause problems/is it expensive to repair.
Noise similar to little tyre squeal (but not as high pitched) , but heard on straight sections of road so don’t think it was tyre squeal - any ideas?
Really liked the car but turns out I would be the fourth owner. God forbid I ever have to sell the car, how many of you would be happy to buy a four owner car.
Cheers
Wallsy
I’m the third owner on mine and when looking I saw a few that had lots of owners. Wouldn’t be too worried about the amount of owners if the overall condition of the car is good.
My liners have holes in them I think they all go that way eventually.
One of the belts squealing maybe mine squeals a bit on damp days for a few secs.
again not the numbers of owners but how its been looked after and/or used… mine had 3 owners at 3000 miles on the clock
hi wallsy, i am the 3rd owner of my 2001 exige. To be honest, they only made 600 of these cars and a lot of folk use them as weekend track cars so its not uncommon for them to have changed hands a number of times. When i was looking there was only one for sale in scotland and it was quite rough. 99% of cars i looked at down south had had at least 2 previous owners. I havent had the holes yet but my car does make that ‘chirp’ noise. Sounds like you ran over a mouse kind of noise?! I think its just the rear suspension needing a bit of wd40 because it only happens when i go over certain bumps or too fast over humpback bridges
My cars got the squeaky mouse/yip noise really bad over anything bigger than cats eyes. It seems to come and go from time to time but i miss it when its not there.
I’ve never understood the hang up people have with how many owners a car had… You could have a car with 5 careful owners, or a car with 1 person that ragged the arse off it… should you go for the 1 owner car ? I don’t think so.
My 360 Spider was 3yrs old and I was the 8th/9th owner. Didn’t bother me (nor the person that bought it from me) All that matters to me is the condition of the car.
It’s common for wheel arch liners to be worn, and for the suspension to “yip”.
plus, thing to note with a car such as an exige/elise, the more miles/owners to the cars history… more often than not it has resulted in the majority of faults and niggles been fixed, the engine will be nice and loose and you may even find some useful/expensive upgrades have already been done! i remember when i went to buy mine i was a bit iffy because of chips on the front and sides of the car. You have to understand that an exige is just meant to go corner and stop… very fast!! You have to avoid being pedantic with the car and just enjoy driving it. thats how you get the most enjoyment from these cars
Holes in wheel arch liners is common. Normally brought on by people using sticky tyres without uprating the suspension. Also the standard shocks are not much cop and tend to break with low mileage which doesn’t help matters. It’s nothing to worry about though.
The ‘yip’ you heard is present in every Exige with standard suspension, not a problem.
The first ‘owner’ is almost certainly the dealer as every car had to be SVA’d. I bought my car with about 300 miles on the clock in June 2001, but tecnically (i.e.V5) I am the third owner.
The first ‘owner’ is almost certainly the dealer as every car had to be SVA’d.
Not sure about that Mike. Although each S1 Exige had to be SVA’d, & most were tested at the factory before being delivered to the dealers. Some were SVA’d locally to the dealer, & your’s must be one of those.(I am the first & only owner of my car)
I stand corrected …but there’s still s good chance that I’m right about this particular car
Mine was 36k miles and I think I’m the fourth owner? Can’t remember without looking so you can see it didn’t really bother me. I have the same problem with all the liners. The front were repaired some time ago by the previous owner.
I’m sticking my neck out here but i think my ‘suspension’ squeak is sod all to do with the suspension and is the poxy latch on the engine cover. If you push on the cover over the latch a very similar squeak can be heard. I have not found a way of getting rid of it yet. Tried v thick grease etc…
Overall condidtion is key. I don’t even give a monkeys about ‘Dealer Service History’ it means nothing. I bought an Elise 111s with main dealer history and it was F*cked!!!
If it had ‘serviced from new by www.lotuspower.co.uk’ I would be more impressed than a dealer history
hope this helps
PS Thanks Randy - that saved me asking why the liners wear? When i first saw it i nearly S*at myself - thought the geo was so bad it was damaged It must have ben those sticky Yokos that did it