Your fleet running reports

[andybond]

Some new bits have arrived. The battery weighs 7kg

[andybond]

Here is my mark 1 ( and final ) home made cage for my 620

[andybond]

More progress. While I have been here there and everywhere and on the very busy work lead up to Xmas I had my coilovers sent away to be refurbed.



Rather worryingly nitron sent the coilovers back with the front springs on the rear, and the rears on the front. 600ib on the front, 450ib on the rear. Fail.



I needed the car setting up anyhow, so I headed down to see Dan @ HPEAutomotive earlier today.



Dan swapped the springs over ( good spot )

Did some magic with heights

Did some voodoo with corner weights.

Did some magic spannering to make the 4 wheels point in the directions they are meant to



I then did some driving home and took it on a few twisties.



Oh, so that's what a correctly setup exige feels like. It feels incredible.



Before heights. Look at it on its arse!





Clean dampers and new springs+helpers





Post heights





Corner weighted with me in the car. Look at the diagonals adding upto 50% !






For reference the weight of the car with me in it at 103kg is 1029kg,

[andybond]

Who says Exige aren’t practical?
2 people
2 pairs of boots
4 corner flags
1 respect barrier

[andybond]

I have a tingle on my exhaust!
Well , the cars exhaust! I have a hangar111 signature twin exit exhaust and the right tail tip has just started to rattle. I dont think its got a slip on pipe ( has it?) that I can see but it feels / looks like the honeycomb in the exhaust tip thats rattling. Its just annoying.

I would like to go back to OEM ( I think ) for an exhaust. Which one do I want to keep it track friendly? My current H111 is quiet and I quite like the sound it makes.

[andybond]

Went to fit my new shiny pro alloy oil catch tank / separator thing and I have been sent the wrong hose lengths. Plus I am not convinced the 12.5mm will fit over one of the t/b ends!

[andybond]

Do the n/a 2zz throttle bodies have a different size breather recirculation internal diameter to the 2zz S/C from factory ones?
Does the cable 2zz thottle body have a different size breather recirculation internal diameter to the 2zz that is fly by wire?

Who knows? I dont.

Reason for me bringing this up is I have purchased a pro alloy breather oil catch tank thing. Supplied pipes , check , clamps check , instructions check.

Que me going outside and thinking Ill get this done in a jiffy. Except I didnt.

The supplied pipework by pro alloy all checks out. Apart from one end of my throttle body inlet is too large. I am of adequate size and no matter how much sweet talking , pushing , swearing and smearing with lubricant this 12.5mm I/D pipe was not going to slip on over the 18mm proud flange. I even considered buying it tea to see if it would reconsider.

What I have done now is returned to the house and am now starting to look if there are any sleeves, so I can sleep the 12.5mm I/D OEM ( one end ) and 12.5mm I/D pro alloy supplied pipe together. Or even have one made up ( @Fonzey does you man make oil resistant non captive pipes?

[andybond]

Pro alloy catch tank fitted. I couldn’t find any leaks. Took it for a little hoon. Scared myself as cold temps ~3 deg C and AD08R Tyres. The car stepped out multiple times when pressing on.

Some before and after pics.

[andybond]

I have fitted the new discs supplied by @seriouslylotus

Very happy with the fitment and they are fractionally heavier and smaller in size that the ones I took over but crucially dont foul the pads.

Have tested the discs out and made myself feel sick with the braking. I can also squirt water out of the window washer pipe when braking without locking up.

The squeal of the DS1.11 has gone as well.

I am a little unhappy on the offside as I have some marks on the hub where the locating screw has been drilled out by a previous owner so Ill get that addressed in the near future.

[andybond]

Today a little goody bag from Dave at simplylotus arrived with some service items and 16 new wheel bolts. I didn’t like the look of the old ones as they had grown tired and I had no idea how many cycles they had been through.

I also have a lot of new washers / clips / screws to fit over the weekend from bits that have escaped , adding lightness.

I also checked tyre pressures and am running 25R 23F

Noticeably the front right was at 11PSI. I’ll be having the front right off anyway so I’ll eyeball it for a while to determine if it’s a foreign object that’s causing the issue or a random oversight last time I checked pressures.

I also put in 1/2l of oil. It’s due a service soon I think..

Pics before and after.

[andybond]

Looks like I have a parasitic drain.

Battery was at 12.63 this morning and 12.77 last night so .11v lost overnight

That might have been due to me leaving the fly leads of the trickle charger plugged in but it not powered on at the wall.

I have put the car back on trickle charge and will repeat the test tonight/tomorrow with everything properly disconnected

[andybond]

I got this today,



This lets me read my ECU and do maps and stuff. We aren’t talking google here!

Dangerous times ahead!

[andybond]

However something weird is happening with the ignition and am a little unsure where to look to be honest.

Its staying live. Imagine you put the key in, twist to first click , then second but not start the car.
Then you twist the key back to zero and remove it

The dash is staying illuminated, mileage et al.

Any ideas what that could be?

[andybond]

I have been experiencing a stange issue in my lotus for the past few months. Basically if you go out for a drive the ignition wont go off. The engine dies like normal but the power to the dash stays on. It shows the miles , fuel and backlights but you can take the key out and walk away. I think this is what sapped my battery as the car is solid voltage wise at the minute.



I have fixed it quite by mistake. I bought a MFRU ( multi function relay unit ) for a whole £13.99 and didnt get any further than getting it out of the packet. I bought this as on the schematics it controls the ignition and I thought ( incorrectly ) that it might be the ignition relay sticking on.



It appears that when I have studied the electric schematics that there is a fuse that controls the immobiliser. I hadnt had any issues with it , but I know its part of the loop so to speak.



I removed the fuse and in fact all of the fuses in that cluster and placed them back in again.



Car now illuminated correctly and I heard a clunk when I turned off the ignition along with a light that went out.



Job jobbed.

[andybond]

So came round the doing the front offside hub today. I have had a wrestle with the bolts that have been in there since what I can only assume day dot. They came out with a bit of a fight and me doing popeye impressions.

Strangely one was 19mm the other two 20mm. That normal?

I have cleaned them up with a wire brush now.

I ultimately could not get the hub out. Its seized. I need a hub puller I think ( @Fonzey )

Car is now back together again

Few pics ..



I had eldest assisting me with spanners/sockets and youngest cleaning the inside of the wheels when off.

[andybond]

Today I fitted a light strip of LED flavour to my garage.

Removed my wheels and cleaned them along with arches. Running out of stuff to

do

[andybond]

I have now changed the hub. I had ordered new hub bolts and got them earlier in the week.

I undid the old ones and left them a few mm proud and went round hammering them in turn. The hub eventually came out.

Cleaned it up and put the new one back in again.

Now I know how to do that one , I might just change the nearside just because.

[andybond]

Tow hook upgraded!

[andybond]

Inspired by @Fonzey and his cam bolt lifted episode the paranoia caught and I feared impending doom more than a pandemic. I ordered the bolts from Toyota ebay online as my local Toyota parts place is temporarily closed.

Parts duly arrived and swapped out this afternoon.

I noticed no marks on the cam , slight discolouration on parts of the cam ( heat? ) and the lift bolts were marked.

All back together now and no issues to note.

[andybond]

I noticed on a picture that my undertray was looking a bit scabby. Nothing more than surface rust mind :






Armed with nothing more than a wire brush , 3 tins of rattle can black and a little can of lacuqer and some time on my hands over this warm weekend I went about a poverty spec refresh .




I didnt expect miracles, but its a lot better. It really needs to be media blasted and the coating re applied, but for now it will do







You can see a bit of dust on the undertray from the garage floor. Nothing more