I just came back from a Dynojet run as a baseline before installing the Larini. I have no mods and compared the results against my baseline run on my Elise last year at the same shop. All figues are corrected.
The Elise had a peak torque of 123 ft/lbs at around 6800rpm (which is about average)
My Exige has a peak torque of 108 ft/lbs at 7700rpm! Peak hp is 156 @ 7800rpm.
If I look at the torque curve from the Exige I have between 103 and 92 ft/lbs on the lower cam (once above 4000 rpm) and where my peak torque should be (6800rpm) I have 102 ft/lbs.
My Exige had always felt a little heavier but now I know why. There is definitely something wrong but I have no idea what it could be!
Anyone have an idea of what might cause this?
She has been carfully yet spriritedly run-in as was my Elise. I calculate the torque running 10-15% lower across the entire useful range. I hope LCUSA can figure it out as I’ll take it in next week.
BTW she has been competing fairly well with some Porsche race cars, that additional torque would make a significant improvement.
Perhaps I should stick with the “Bollox” handle, I seem to be saying it a lot recently
I noticed after getting the ecu dump done at my first service that as far as the ecu was concerned i had not used full throttle! i definately had!
We are now in the process of trying to establish if its a software glitch and i am in fact getting full throttle or if something is wrong and its actually not opening the butterfly properly.
My car is a 2006 drive by wire throttle. If you have a 2006 car which appears to be running fine but not delivering the numbers, maybe you are not getting full throttle…
Actually I had the throttle checked a while ago. The lotus device that plugs into the OBD connector can be set to read the throttle output so you should check that on yours. Mine showed 100% though. I think the shift in paek torque seems to be a clue to me. Currently I am hoping that the cat is damaged and seriously restricting flow but she goes into the shop tomorrow…
After more than half a year I have finally got Lotus USA to look at my problem of lack of power. Well it turns out to be the “recently brought to light” unhardened cam problem. The mechanic tells me that a couple of the upper lobes have 2-3mm (yes mm) worn off them Both followers have also worn flat. I asked if Lotus would pay for a leakdown to check if any shaving had done further damage, but no they won’t. So I am having to pay for that today. If they find any problems though, I am sure they will reluctantly fix it. (As you may have gathered this has not been a good warranty experience for me)
Going to pick up my Exige tomorrow, drive it and feel what the car should have been like from new
BTW I taking my camera too, for some shots of the f@*%#ed camshaft
Sorry to hear you have had a similar problem as Me & Bob C
My car has now been sorted and it deff feels more lively since the inlet cam has been changed and a damm sight quieter to drive, i have prob done 500miles since the cam was fitted and i have also found the fuel ecomony has greatly improved.
One thing that i am very weary of is assuming that the problem is fixed, i still from time to time hear the odd tapping from the engine, i’m going to take the top off it every 1k miles to monitor for any wear on the cam lobes, any re-appearance of marks on the lobe and the car will be back to the dealer ASAP.
One thing to note is Lotus told my dealer that they had only seen the worn cam problem once before and tests had shown it was a hardening issue, My cam is still with the dealer lotus have not asked for it, I would have been a lot happier if the cam had been checked and confirmed as a soft cam instead of just assuming it is.
there both stratstone so I would not bother if i were you.
I brought a new car from leicester and it had paint blisters from new, I picked up the car and made the sales guy sign a form to say I picked up the car new with paint blisters on the wing and it needed repainting ASAP.
6 months later it was still not sorted.
And people think this sort of service will make them move from Porsche or Audi to a Europa.
Lotus have always had major customer service problems.
They sell you cars when a new model is out next day,
they lie about limited model runs,
Hopefully picking up an Exige S around March time for myself, and am wondering where im going to go for it.
Ive heard good things about my new local dealer (Vindis in St Ives) so it might be worth a trip over here as they arent too far? At least give them a call maybe?
Hopefully picking up an Exige S around March time for myself, and am wondering where im going to go for it.
Ive heard good things about my new local dealer (Vindis in St Ives) so it might be worth a trip over here as they arent too far? At least give them a call maybe?
HTH
Gaz
Do what in did, find the dealer who will give you the best deal and buy it there, then find the dealer who can best look after it for you, get them to service it. Easy
Picked up the Exige today. What a difference you can feel acceleration in 4th. No kick at changover but then I have the ECU with a lower cam switchover. In 4th as the engine comes into 6000rpm you can definitely feel the torque curve push upwards.
I thought the mecahanic was exaggerating, but not by as much as I had thought. No percieveable wear on any lower cam lobe or on the upper lobes for cyclinder 2 and 3. But the upper lobe on 1 and 4 and the corresponding followers had a huge amount of wear. I would, without exaggeration, estimate the combined wear of the lobe and follower on cylinder 4 to be just under 2mm, pretty much exctly the thickness of the Lotus badge on my key fob! They were very smooth wear marks, I guess I was expecting them to be very rough. But thinking on it now as they were not hardened enough the wear is just as though it was a normal cam on a 300,000 mile car :\
I suck at taking pictures but a couple came out. Reluctantly I agreed to not post them on the internet for fear of getting my mechanic in trouble.
Actually the cam followers remind me of the end of a carbon brush from an electric motor, they are that concave.Cylinder 1’s had just started to wear on the backing plate as the contact patch had extended to the end of the hardened component.
I do wonder how many other engines are out there with this problem, my car has 7000 miles on the clock! There is no way to tell as there is no engine check light that would occur for the upper cam, so I am told. Now I think I’ll get her dynoed every year.
Glad you got yours sorted Phil!
I was also nervous that the debris from the wear (before I saw how smotth it was) may have affected other components so I had them do a leak-down test. All cylinders were less than 8% which apparently is really, really good, which I was very happy to hear.
Anyway I had better start doing my Chrissy cards now before its to late to ship them off to Blighty