Back in a Lotus - 2006 Exige S
Discussion
Trackday report, woo! Sorry if it's a bit dry, just want to note down my observations for my benefit later.
I attended Blyton Park with Javelin over the bank holiday weekend to shake the car down, and start to get up to speed before the 'big' trackdays of the year.
The day before I gave the brakes one last bleed and finally got that glob of air that has been plaguing me! Car felt great on the test drive, but I did notice something worrying... every time I stomped on the brakes to test, my oil pressure gauge dropped to 0bar. I went to bed that night trying to convince myself it was an instrumentation error and nothing more, oil levels were fine and nowt' was leaking, and the OEM oil idiot light didn't light up.
On the drive over to Blyton my indicated oil pressure started fluctuating wildly, I pulled over and checked levels/leaks - still nothing - so I tiptoed to Blyton and hoped for the best. By the time I got there, the gauge was completely knackered and just kept flashing "FL". Either it meant "f
king Low!" or it was some kind of error code, either way the car was still running and had a sump full of oil so I decided to ignore it and hope for the best.
Spoiler alert, the sender wires had gotten pinched between my sump and one of the undertray naca ducts:
Onto the track, the car immediately felt fine. No fireworks, no questionable handling traits, no weird noises or sensations - it just felt 'safe'. Pleasant surprise, but I was way off the pace just trying to be on hyper alert to anything falling off.
I gradually built up speed through the day, but still a fair lick away from my best at Blyton. I can't blame the car for that, just a rusty driver combined with a very crowded track I think.
I've spent the last couple of days reflecting, trying to evaluate the car and the various changes. My summary is as follows:
Anti Roll Bar/Suspension Geo/Bushes(?): The showed no particular bias towards under or oversteer, it just works. Perhaps this is a result of me being a little bit slower on entry than I'm used to at Blyton - not pushing hard enough, but it felt like a great base to push forward. I was concerned the ARB would introduce some front end push, but no evidence of it. I had it set to the middle of three settings which in theory should be a bit stiffer than OEM. I'm not sure whether it was the ARB, bushes or both but the car felt a lot more direct when 'tipping it in' at higher speeds, makes it feel much more assertive - good change, 8/10. Only thing stopping 10/10 is that I felt I didn't push it hard enough for proper appraisal.
Gearbox - Ratios: The shorter ratios granted by the final drive change was probably the biggest thing I needed to adapt to, it's definitely a positive change - but it caught me out in a couple of places. Previously I could lean on third gear powering through Lancaster (long sweeping left) because the power delivery was dull through the tighter part of the corner, and only got into the high torque band once the track opened out a bit. Now the car is much more lairy through the earlier part of the corner where you're waiting for things to settle down a bit. In other areas I was hitting the limiter (4th at the end of the back straight, 3rd coming up to the first corner) so I need to be short shifting into 5th/4th and carrying more speed. This definitely makes the car feel (much) quicker, easily worth many horsepowers is my not-scientific appraisal. 9/10, maybe a bit compromised at Blyton due to not having very long straights, but expect it to be a solid 10 at Croft.
Gearbox - Differential: I was a bit scared of the diff for much of the day because I didn't know exactly what the car would do. When pressing on later though, I just couldn't upset the rear no matter what I tried. The car has bags of grip, where it used to spin the inside rear I was expecting the car to slide with an LSD, but it doesn't - it just pings me out of the corner and I'm gone. On a quieter track I'll play with it a bit more and see what else it has to offer. 10/10 - no notable downsides (yet).
Brakes - Carbotech XP8 pads: It seems like a lifetime ago that I fitted these, but this was my first track outing on them. Easily the best braking setup I've had in any of my cars, so much more stopping power than the RS42s (should be a given really), but I'm reluctant to compare them against the RS14's I had purely because I ran those with a cracked disc - so not a fair test. My stopping distances were so short, in the morning I actually had to get back on the gas a couple of times before turning in :lol: Seriously good, they don't seem to have worn excessively but they did give off lots of dust (which hosed straight off) and they do clatter around in the calipers a bit now they've had a few heat cycles in them. 8/10, only the noise stops 10/10.
Airbox/Induction Kit: The only negative from the day really, it was really really noisy. Not enough to trip sound meters, I think it's just limited to the inside of the car but the supercharger shriek is borderline painful now, even with a helmet on. 3/10.
BUT....
From checking logs from the ECU, my car is making a bit more boost since my winter tinkerings... I'm not exactly sure why, but I can only think it's the airbox being less restrictive. Car was peaking at 9.6PSI compared to the 8PSI it was making last year...(averaged across all trackdays, ambient temps have no appreciable impact) I only noticed this as my ECU was no longer correcting fuel via wideband (I found the wideband correction to be capped at 160kpa for some reason, so quick fix to up it to 180). This suggests to me that the filter is definitely a positive change as far as the performance of the engine is concerned.... so perhaps the 3/10 is a little harsh!
The car suffered a couple of casualties:
1) My internal gopro mount, it's a bit broken. I thought it was just too slack when I initially reviewed my footage (mostly of the back of my helmet) but it seems like it's taken a knock and needs replacing. No big deal, but does mean all of the video I've checked so far is trash
2) I lost both front centre caps, one was later returned to me - but the other one is long gone. Pretty stupid, every set of wheels I've had on every car I've ever tracked has had this problem, so normally jam the centre caps in with tape - totally forgot with these wheels.
So pretty successful day really, certainly a good base to build on this year. I also got to meet my cars doppleganger....
Pretty much the exact same spec as me in terms of chargecooler, gearbox upgrades, suspension/ARB etc... he's just running a smaller pulley so making a bit more power. Didn't get to share the track with him, but it certainly looked to be flying when I saw it from the sidelines.
Anglesey next (May BH Weekend), will get the gauge fixed and other than that - just a spanner check and hopefully some road miles to enjoy the car a bit between now and then.
I attended Blyton Park with Javelin over the bank holiday weekend to shake the car down, and start to get up to speed before the 'big' trackdays of the year.
The day before I gave the brakes one last bleed and finally got that glob of air that has been plaguing me! Car felt great on the test drive, but I did notice something worrying... every time I stomped on the brakes to test, my oil pressure gauge dropped to 0bar. I went to bed that night trying to convince myself it was an instrumentation error and nothing more, oil levels were fine and nowt' was leaking, and the OEM oil idiot light didn't light up.
On the drive over to Blyton my indicated oil pressure started fluctuating wildly, I pulled over and checked levels/leaks - still nothing - so I tiptoed to Blyton and hoped for the best. By the time I got there, the gauge was completely knackered and just kept flashing "FL". Either it meant "f
king Low!" or it was some kind of error code, either way the car was still running and had a sump full of oil so I decided to ignore it and hope for the best.Spoiler alert, the sender wires had gotten pinched between my sump and one of the undertray naca ducts:
Onto the track, the car immediately felt fine. No fireworks, no questionable handling traits, no weird noises or sensations - it just felt 'safe'. Pleasant surprise, but I was way off the pace just trying to be on hyper alert to anything falling off.
I gradually built up speed through the day, but still a fair lick away from my best at Blyton. I can't blame the car for that, just a rusty driver combined with a very crowded track I think.
I've spent the last couple of days reflecting, trying to evaluate the car and the various changes. My summary is as follows:
Anti Roll Bar/Suspension Geo/Bushes(?): The showed no particular bias towards under or oversteer, it just works. Perhaps this is a result of me being a little bit slower on entry than I'm used to at Blyton - not pushing hard enough, but it felt like a great base to push forward. I was concerned the ARB would introduce some front end push, but no evidence of it. I had it set to the middle of three settings which in theory should be a bit stiffer than OEM. I'm not sure whether it was the ARB, bushes or both but the car felt a lot more direct when 'tipping it in' at higher speeds, makes it feel much more assertive - good change, 8/10. Only thing stopping 10/10 is that I felt I didn't push it hard enough for proper appraisal.
Gearbox - Ratios: The shorter ratios granted by the final drive change was probably the biggest thing I needed to adapt to, it's definitely a positive change - but it caught me out in a couple of places. Previously I could lean on third gear powering through Lancaster (long sweeping left) because the power delivery was dull through the tighter part of the corner, and only got into the high torque band once the track opened out a bit. Now the car is much more lairy through the earlier part of the corner where you're waiting for things to settle down a bit. In other areas I was hitting the limiter (4th at the end of the back straight, 3rd coming up to the first corner) so I need to be short shifting into 5th/4th and carrying more speed. This definitely makes the car feel (much) quicker, easily worth many horsepowers is my not-scientific appraisal. 9/10, maybe a bit compromised at Blyton due to not having very long straights, but expect it to be a solid 10 at Croft.
Gearbox - Differential: I was a bit scared of the diff for much of the day because I didn't know exactly what the car would do. When pressing on later though, I just couldn't upset the rear no matter what I tried. The car has bags of grip, where it used to spin the inside rear I was expecting the car to slide with an LSD, but it doesn't - it just pings me out of the corner and I'm gone. On a quieter track I'll play with it a bit more and see what else it has to offer. 10/10 - no notable downsides (yet).
Brakes - Carbotech XP8 pads: It seems like a lifetime ago that I fitted these, but this was my first track outing on them. Easily the best braking setup I've had in any of my cars, so much more stopping power than the RS42s (should be a given really), but I'm reluctant to compare them against the RS14's I had purely because I ran those with a cracked disc - so not a fair test. My stopping distances were so short, in the morning I actually had to get back on the gas a couple of times before turning in :lol: Seriously good, they don't seem to have worn excessively but they did give off lots of dust (which hosed straight off) and they do clatter around in the calipers a bit now they've had a few heat cycles in them. 8/10, only the noise stops 10/10.
Airbox/Induction Kit: The only negative from the day really, it was really really noisy. Not enough to trip sound meters, I think it's just limited to the inside of the car but the supercharger shriek is borderline painful now, even with a helmet on. 3/10.
BUT....
From checking logs from the ECU, my car is making a bit more boost since my winter tinkerings... I'm not exactly sure why, but I can only think it's the airbox being less restrictive. Car was peaking at 9.6PSI compared to the 8PSI it was making last year...(averaged across all trackdays, ambient temps have no appreciable impact) I only noticed this as my ECU was no longer correcting fuel via wideband (I found the wideband correction to be capped at 160kpa for some reason, so quick fix to up it to 180). This suggests to me that the filter is definitely a positive change as far as the performance of the engine is concerned.... so perhaps the 3/10 is a little harsh!
The car suffered a couple of casualties:
1) My internal gopro mount, it's a bit broken. I thought it was just too slack when I initially reviewed my footage (mostly of the back of my helmet) but it seems like it's taken a knock and needs replacing. No big deal, but does mean all of the video I've checked so far is trash
2) I lost both front centre caps, one was later returned to me - but the other one is long gone. Pretty stupid, every set of wheels I've had on every car I've ever tracked has had this problem, so normally jam the centre caps in with tape - totally forgot with these wheels.
So pretty successful day really, certainly a good base to build on this year. I also got to meet my cars doppleganger....
Pretty much the exact same spec as me in terms of chargecooler, gearbox upgrades, suspension/ARB etc... he's just running a smaller pulley so making a bit more power. Didn't get to share the track with him, but it certainly looked to be flying when I saw it from the sidelines.
Anglesey next (May BH Weekend), will get the gauge fixed and other than that - just a spanner check and hopefully some road miles to enjoy the car a bit between now and then.
Great update, had my first couple of days with an LSD too. Love the no fuss power out of corners and you get the occasional delicious little slide when it does break traction.
Haven't noticed any extra understeer, but logically you would expect some with extra traction so I preempted it with Elise parts modified steering arms for more camber, running - 2.4 front now
Haven't noticed any extra understeer, but logically you would expect some with extra traction so I preempted it with Elise parts modified steering arms for more camber, running - 2.4 front now
leglessAlex said:
I'm really enjoying the thorough updates, even though I just lurk a lot. They're a great read!
Cheers Alex, as long as at least one person is reading I'll keep writing it... actually I'll probably just keep writing it anyway 
honda_exige said:
Great update, had my first couple of days with an LSD too. Love the no fuss power out of corners and you get the occasional delicious little slide when it does break traction.
Haven't noticed any extra understeer, but logically you would expect some with extra traction so I preempted it with Elise parts modified steering arms for more camber, running - 2.4 front now
I've seen your clips from Bedford and you've certainly got a handle on yours quicker than I have mine! Some great clips and your car looks fantastic.Haven't noticed any extra understeer, but logically you would expect some with extra traction so I preempted it with Elise parts modified steering arms for more camber, running - 2.4 front now
I think I need to look into front camber, I'm barely running -1 degrees... still got some shims in, so even on standard arms I've got some camber to gain. I think I want to push it a bit more though, seems like everyone I speak to is running significantly more camber on track, so even though I'm happy with the car as it sits... perhaps I'm missing out on something?! Oh, and I REALLY want to do Bedford... it looks like Blyton, just with big-boy corners! I love Blyton, it's a perfect spring proving ground for me but to be honest it is getting a little repetitive...
Oil Pressure gauge I think is fixed, but will see how it gets on. Wiring was definitely pinched somewhere, so may have pulled some connections out internally... but we'll see.
At Blyton it was just flashing and alternating between:
and...
I rerouted the wiring, patched up a couple of exposed areas and it's now reading correctly.... for now.
Always enjoy watching this thread. Must have been a heart in mouth moment the first time the pressure gauge went off! I'm not convinced they're actually worth while, in some ways I'd prefer an idiot light. Oil temp worth it for sure though.
Bedford is a great track, some great corners especially the one past the pits. Its fast!
Bedford is a great track, some great corners especially the one past the pits. Its fast!
My end goal is to be data logging oil pressure, I agree a quick 'idiot light' is perfect for when driving, particularly at pace - which the SPA gauge does achieve (the whole unit flashes when dropping beneath a threshold). What I really want is the oil pressures logging to the ECU so that I can review afterwards, and figure out which corners (if any) are proving risky. The EMU also has some engine protection features too that can be triggered from low oil pressure, so could also look at that.
Only problem is, because I went with the Toyota PnP version of the EMU, I'm lacking space on the loom adaptors for additional sensors. There are options available to me, but none of them cheap...
Only problem is, because I went with the Toyota PnP version of the EMU, I'm lacking space on the loom adaptors for additional sensors. There are options available to me, but none of them cheap...
Yes logging oil pressure is definitely a good thing, as is protecting the engine by linking the output to the ecu. I have as thinking out loud really, my 996 has an analogue gauge and invariably I end up watching it in traffic as the pressure at idle drops as the engine heats up wondering if the rods are about to fly out of the block.
Fonzey said:
I've seen your clips from Bedford and you've certainly got a handle on yours quicker than I have mine! Some great clips and your car looks fantastic.
I think I need to look into front camber, I'm barely running -1 degrees... still got some shims in, so even on standard arms I've got some camber to gain. I think I want to push it a bit more though, seems like everyone I speak to is running significantly more camber on track, so even though I'm happy with the car as it sits... perhaps I'm missing out on something?! Oh, and I REALLY want to do Bedford... it looks like Blyton, just with big-boy corners! I love Blyton, it's a perfect spring proving ground for me but to be honest it is getting a little repetitive...
Bedford is great, can really push hard without fear of stuffing it into the barriers and despite being a bit of a power circuit there's enough corners and big braking zones that our cars can keep up with the big boys. I think I need to look into front camber, I'm barely running -1 degrees... still got some shims in, so even on standard arms I've got some camber to gain. I think I want to push it a bit more though, seems like everyone I speak to is running significantly more camber on track, so even though I'm happy with the car as it sits... perhaps I'm missing out on something?! Oh, and I REALLY want to do Bedford... it looks like Blyton, just with big-boy corners! I love Blyton, it's a perfect spring proving ground for me but to be honest it is getting a little repetitive...
Deffo worth trying more camber, I feel like the car goes through front tyres slowly enough that any wear increase isn't going to be too noticeable.
honda_exige said:
Bedford is great, can really push hard without fear of stuffing it into the barriers and despite being a bit of a power circuit there's enough corners and big braking zones that our cars can keep up with the big boys.
Deffo worth trying more camber, I feel like the car goes through front tyres slowly enough that any wear increase isn't going to be too noticeable.
Good point on tyre wear, generally the fronts go old and hard before they run out of tread! I've run big camber on cars before and the main drawback has been lack of driveability on the road, always ducking and diving into undulations etc... but the camber is so easy to adjust on our cars, I guess I could try tweak it between trackdays. I just need to figure out what the correlation is between changing camber and changing toe.Deffo worth trying more camber, I feel like the car goes through front tyres slowly enough that any wear increase isn't going to be too noticeable.
Do you have a full geo print out from your car? Would be interested to see what sort of toe you run
Fonzey said:
Good point on tyre wear, generally the fronts go old and hard before they run out of tread! I've run big camber on cars before and the main drawback has been lack of driveability on the road, always ducking and diving into undulations etc... but the camber is so easy to adjust on our cars, I guess I could try tweak it between trackdays. I just need to figure out what the correlation is between changing camber and changing toe.
Do you have a full geo print out from your car? Would be interested to see what sort of toe you run
yeah it's fairly excitable on road but I've mostly given up with road driving in the UK, just too congested in the South. Most road driving I do is abroad on those nice smooth Belgian and German B roads! Do you have a full geo print out from your car? Would be interested to see what sort of toe you run
honda_exige said:
yeah it's fairly excitable on road but I've mostly given up with road driving in the UK, just too congested in the South. Most road driving I do is abroad on those nice smooth Belgian and German B roads!
Thanks for that. I've picked up a camber gauge, not the most precise thing in the world but it roughly lines up with the readings I got from my last proper geo. I whipped the front wheels off and I don't think I'm going to get much more than the 0.75ish degree negative I already have, without putting different arms on or machining.My NSF has 2 shims in (plus ABS bracket) so I could gain maybe half a degree there, but my OSF has just the ABS bracket in - so if I want to keep them even, that's all folks.
I'm going to get setup with some poles and strings and get myself into a position where I can at least check my alignment inbetween fettling sessions, then I'll potentially have a play around before my next trackday.
Small update, probably in vain... but we can only try.
I mentioned from the TD Report that the intake noise was a little grating by the end of the day, so I've made an effort to try and mitigate it. I don't have high hopes for it, but the intake kit 'design' that I ripped off (ITG do an all inclusive kit for this car, rebadged and sold by a few retailers like BOE) includes a 100mm flexi duct feeding the airbox from the side scoop. Whether this is for acoustics, airflow or both/neither(?) I really don't have a clue - but it's worth a go.
My first job was to shorten the TB to filter silicone joiner as it was pushing the airbox too far into the clam, not leaving enough space for the 100mm feed duct.
With it shuffled back towards the engine a couple of inches, this allowed me room to fit a short length of ducting.
If it just moves the noise a foot to the left, then I'll consider it a success... in fact, providing it doesn't make anything worse I'll still consider it a success - as at least I have the 'complete' kit now.
Aside from that, I've finally got off my backside and started setting up something I've been wanting to do for years... which is setup a redneck alignment rig in my garage.
I've got a pretty fresh geo on my car from Seriously Lotus with known figures for toe and camber, so I thought now would be a good time to get the rig setup and compare. If my measurements are a match for the measurements I got from Dave... then we can consider the rig a success!
So far so good, my toe angles all check out and I need to do a bit more work to make sure my camber measurements are properly calibrated (might need to make some small platforms to make sure the car is completely level) but I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'll probably not make any big changes as I'm happy with the car, but knowing I have a setup at home which I can trust will help me later when I inevitably start replacing parts or taking stuff apart. I'd really like to try running some more camber up at the front, so that might be my next job (shims are maxed, so will need to make a steering arm change or do some machining).
I mentioned from the TD Report that the intake noise was a little grating by the end of the day, so I've made an effort to try and mitigate it. I don't have high hopes for it, but the intake kit 'design' that I ripped off (ITG do an all inclusive kit for this car, rebadged and sold by a few retailers like BOE) includes a 100mm flexi duct feeding the airbox from the side scoop. Whether this is for acoustics, airflow or both/neither(?) I really don't have a clue - but it's worth a go.
My first job was to shorten the TB to filter silicone joiner as it was pushing the airbox too far into the clam, not leaving enough space for the 100mm feed duct.
With it shuffled back towards the engine a couple of inches, this allowed me room to fit a short length of ducting.
If it just moves the noise a foot to the left, then I'll consider it a success... in fact, providing it doesn't make anything worse I'll still consider it a success - as at least I have the 'complete' kit now.
Aside from that, I've finally got off my backside and started setting up something I've been wanting to do for years... which is setup a redneck alignment rig in my garage.
I've got a pretty fresh geo on my car from Seriously Lotus with known figures for toe and camber, so I thought now would be a good time to get the rig setup and compare. If my measurements are a match for the measurements I got from Dave... then we can consider the rig a success!
So far so good, my toe angles all check out and I need to do a bit more work to make sure my camber measurements are properly calibrated (might need to make some small platforms to make sure the car is completely level) but I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'll probably not make any big changes as I'm happy with the car, but knowing I have a setup at home which I can trust will help me later when I inevitably start replacing parts or taking stuff apart. I'd really like to try running some more camber up at the front, so that might be my next job (shims are maxed, so will need to make a steering arm change or do some machining).
I had my AC guy back round last Thursday. As a reminder, quick summary of my AC journey is as follows:
- AC worked fine
- I destroyed a few parts of it whilst fitting the chargecooler
- Condenser and a couple of pipes replaced, one pipe was custom made to give a bit more room around the CC hoses
- AC worked fine at the start of last year
Towards the end of summer, I noticed some residue on top of my OSF archliner and suspected it was from the new custom AC pipe. I wanted a fully flexi pipe but Lotus had a pressure relief valve fitted so we had to splice in a bit of solid and a bit of flexi together to accommodate it. The AC still worked absolutely fine but I stopped using it until I could get the leak verified.
Fast forward to last week, and I finally verified the leak. AC was still working a treat, but after a few mins of running at max pressure we saw bubbles of residue coming from one of the crimp connections on the custom pipe. Since we made the pipe, I learned that Lotus no longer supply this length of pipe with the PRV as it was deemed redundant, if we knew this previously we could have made it 100% flexi and had no issues, so that was the plan going forward... BUT I have very little faith we can unscrew it from the condenser whilst the clam is on. With the clam on, we can't clamp the condenser side of the union.
Rather than risking my condenser, we recrimped the pipe without removing it. It seemed to survive the follow up pressure test, and we'll come back to it the next time my clam is off to replace the pipe properly.
A couple of days later I was headed to Wales via and overnight stay in Cheshire to meet some friends and explore some of the North Wales roads. Not an area I've driven before, but so glad I've got to experience it.
Some belting roads, good company and no real traffic/cyclist issues all day. Long day though, was in and out of the car for 12 hours so I was pretty broken when I got home but luckily.. the car wasn't!
I did have a couple of snagging issues to address on the car though after so many miles, but should be easily sorted this week before I head back to Wales for an Anglesey trackday:
- Wheel balance is out, vibrating all over the place at <insert speed here>
- Engine needs repositioning a bit... not as drastic as it sounds, but the rear engine mount allows some adjustment. Currently the crankcase breather is interfering with the bottom of my chargecooler header tank causing rattles at certain RPM. I can lower the engine a bit, but it's a tightrope as I only have a few mm clearance between the cat and the rear diffuser.
- On the way home when the brakes all cooled down a bit on the motorway I was getting nasty pad chatter up front. Not THAT unusual for these cars but it was particularly bad. Upon inspection I found that only good-will was really keeping my pads in on the drivers side...
Worryingly it seems like both pins have wobbled out, maybe as a result of the poor wheel balance vibrations, maybe the Welsh cattlegrids that we flew over at "speed" but I checked a photo from the 'AC' work a few days previous, and they were definitely there then!
Anglesey next weekend, can't wait. Oh and AC worked a treat all weekend other than a bit of a compressor rattle at idle...
- AC worked fine
- I destroyed a few parts of it whilst fitting the chargecooler
- Condenser and a couple of pipes replaced, one pipe was custom made to give a bit more room around the CC hoses
- AC worked fine at the start of last year
Towards the end of summer, I noticed some residue on top of my OSF archliner and suspected it was from the new custom AC pipe. I wanted a fully flexi pipe but Lotus had a pressure relief valve fitted so we had to splice in a bit of solid and a bit of flexi together to accommodate it. The AC still worked absolutely fine but I stopped using it until I could get the leak verified.
Fast forward to last week, and I finally verified the leak. AC was still working a treat, but after a few mins of running at max pressure we saw bubbles of residue coming from one of the crimp connections on the custom pipe. Since we made the pipe, I learned that Lotus no longer supply this length of pipe with the PRV as it was deemed redundant, if we knew this previously we could have made it 100% flexi and had no issues, so that was the plan going forward... BUT I have very little faith we can unscrew it from the condenser whilst the clam is on. With the clam on, we can't clamp the condenser side of the union.
Rather than risking my condenser, we recrimped the pipe without removing it. It seemed to survive the follow up pressure test, and we'll come back to it the next time my clam is off to replace the pipe properly.
A couple of days later I was headed to Wales via and overnight stay in Cheshire to meet some friends and explore some of the North Wales roads. Not an area I've driven before, but so glad I've got to experience it.
Some belting roads, good company and no real traffic/cyclist issues all day. Long day though, was in and out of the car for 12 hours so I was pretty broken when I got home but luckily.. the car wasn't!
I did have a couple of snagging issues to address on the car though after so many miles, but should be easily sorted this week before I head back to Wales for an Anglesey trackday:
- Wheel balance is out, vibrating all over the place at <insert speed here>
- Engine needs repositioning a bit... not as drastic as it sounds, but the rear engine mount allows some adjustment. Currently the crankcase breather is interfering with the bottom of my chargecooler header tank causing rattles at certain RPM. I can lower the engine a bit, but it's a tightrope as I only have a few mm clearance between the cat and the rear diffuser.
- On the way home when the brakes all cooled down a bit on the motorway I was getting nasty pad chatter up front. Not THAT unusual for these cars but it was particularly bad. Upon inspection I found that only good-will was really keeping my pads in on the drivers side...
Worryingly it seems like both pins have wobbled out, maybe as a result of the poor wheel balance vibrations, maybe the Welsh cattlegrids that we flew over at "speed" but I checked a photo from the 'AC' work a few days previous, and they were definitely there then!
Anglesey next weekend, can't wait. Oh and AC worked a treat all weekend other than a bit of a compressor rattle at idle...
honda_exige said:
Very odd, I can't picture the pins vibrating out, just seems too difficult.
How mechanically minded is your wife and have you got a juice life insurance policy?
Yeah seems really odd that both came out and I've not touched them recently either.... The life insurance is not half bad actually so I think it's time to lock up the tools How mechanically minded is your wife and have you got a juice life insurance policy?
Love reading your updates.... Can I just ask how you got the last gob of air out of your brakes that you mentioned prior to going to Blyton.
I have a 111R Elise that is pretty much the spit of your old one, during my winter re fresh it had two recon rear callipers,i stripped front callipers and re built with new seals and new braided hoses were fitted. DIscs and pads are pretty much as new. Despite repeated bleeding with a good pressure bleeder, including inverting the front and rear callipers I still have a slight dead spot right at the top of pedal travel, after that I have a lovely firm pedal. Tried activating the ABS and then re bleeding, cant adjust the pushrod to the brake pedal any more, it makes heel and toe awkward as the brake pedal ends up below the height of the accelerator during hard braking. Have I missed anything that you have done?
Thanks Paul.
I have a 111R Elise that is pretty much the spit of your old one, during my winter re fresh it had two recon rear callipers,i stripped front callipers and re built with new seals and new braided hoses were fitted. DIscs and pads are pretty much as new. Despite repeated bleeding with a good pressure bleeder, including inverting the front and rear callipers I still have a slight dead spot right at the top of pedal travel, after that I have a lovely firm pedal. Tried activating the ABS and then re bleeding, cant adjust the pushrod to the brake pedal any more, it makes heel and toe awkward as the brake pedal ends up below the height of the accelerator during hard braking. Have I missed anything that you have done?
Thanks Paul.
italian job said:
Love reading your updates.... Can I just ask how you got the last gob of air out of your brakes that you mentioned prior to going to Blyton.
I have a 111R Elise that is pretty much the spit of your old one, during my winter re fresh it had two recon rear callipers,i stripped front callipers and re built with new seals and new braided hoses were fitted. DIscs and pads are pretty much as new. Despite repeated bleeding with a good pressure bleeder, including inverting the front and rear callipers I still have a slight dead spot right at the top of pedal travel, after that I have a lovely firm pedal. Tried activating the ABS and then re bleeding, cant adjust the pushrod to the brake pedal any more, it makes heel and toe awkward as the brake pedal ends up below the height of the accelerator during hard braking. Have I missed anything that you have done?
Thanks Paul.
Hi Paul, I think the silver bullet for me was to take the front pads out and clamp the pistons all the way back into the calipers with these:I have a 111R Elise that is pretty much the spit of your old one, during my winter re fresh it had two recon rear callipers,i stripped front callipers and re built with new seals and new braided hoses were fitted. DIscs and pads are pretty much as new. Despite repeated bleeding with a good pressure bleeder, including inverting the front and rear callipers I still have a slight dead spot right at the top of pedal travel, after that I have a lovely firm pedal. Tried activating the ABS and then re bleeding, cant adjust the pushrod to the brake pedal any more, it makes heel and toe awkward as the brake pedal ends up below the height of the accelerator during hard braking. Have I missed anything that you have done?
Thanks Paul.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/irwin-quick-grip-clamps...
I think I must have had a tiny bubble of air in one of the piston bores, so this pushed it back out then I repeated the process to invert the calipers etc. The ABS system is tricky too, so do your best to activate the ABS a few more times before you rebleed just to try and purge it all out.
Good luck!
If you're the sort of person who messes with brakes and pads relatively regularly, I'd highly recommend something like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-Tools-708247-P...
I've got a wide one that works in 4/6 piston calipers and pushes them all back simultaneously. It's one of those tools that you don't use that often, but when you do it really makes life easy.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-Tools-708247-P...
I've got a wide one that works in 4/6 piston calipers and pushes them all back simultaneously. It's one of those tools that you don't use that often, but when you do it really makes life easy.
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