The general crapness of the A/c drove me nuts on the way back from Brands yesterday (got chased and driven by The Stig in an A8, boy can he drive!).
It got me thinking. The Exige has all the necessary components, how come it’s soooo bad?! Anything you think that’s worth trying to improve it?
All thoughts welcome (other than remove it, I know that one!).
Ian
Move to Iceland ??
Ian,
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s all the fault of bad thermal insulation.
This also applies to a non-aircon car, the more hot air gets inside or the less cold air it retains, the less effect the aircon is going to have.
Where does the hot air come from?
-2 holes directly behind the handbrake lever, in the back wall. Seal them.
-the air barrier between the area where the ECU resides and the engine bay (on the sides) sometimes is broken. Seal with foam PVC
-the holes where the oil cooler pipes come in to the dashboard are too big/loose. Seal.
-but the most difficult (and the one I’m working on now) is the hot air coming from the side sills. These provide a good chanel for air from the engine bay to behind the dashboard. This is the reason why the area above the right cointray gets so hot, diminishing the effect of any fresh air or aircon. This also tells you that the most critical is the right one, where the oil cooler pipes go.
I was working on a way to seal this, considered many things and have arrived to the conclusion that the only way is to remove the front dash (where the light buttons are) and seal from where the oil cooler pipes go, this is the narrowest point (and is about 4"x 6", irregular shape.
Will try two big car washing sponges wedged in there on each side (don’t laugh).
But this is the reason. Lotus guys didn’t really care about it (as they didn’t care on putting three nuts on my right window, I was investigating why the right door always rattled and found out that it was held by three bolts and… two nuts ).
My 2p.
Uldis