2007 Exige S Oil Contamination

[Cthulhu]

I recently purchased a 2007 Exige S with about 6500 miles on it, and changed my oil. So after I got some 5W-40 and changed the engine oil, I replaced the stock Toyota filter with a mobile m209, mentioned on these forums. I'm not sure if this filter has a bypass valve, but it sure acted like it didn't. I'm guessing that the oil in the coolers was really dirty, and that the car hadn't had routine oil changes, because my new filter got more or less shredded on the inside.

I'm guessing that if you go from a 12 micron mesh to a 9 micron mesh you should drain your oil coolers too. After hearing some horrible noises in my cooler lines and checking and clearing a CEL, I pulled my car apart to fix the problem. The engine oil smelled burnt and had little tiny pieces of debris in it (filter paper, little tiny orange o-rings, metal flakes.

Lotus recommends replacing the oil coolers in an event of such contamination, but I can't really spare the expense. I blew out the coolers and oil lines from all access points with an air compressor, flushed 4-6 quarts of clean oil through the hoses and coolers in all directions (idling after adding engine oil, plugging the cooler lines with finger on either side to control flow direction, connecting hoses in different ways). I had to take off the front panel and spoiler and remove my front clam to access the lines. The whole system is bled and reconnected, and even after using half a bottle of detergent, my driveway looks like the Exxon Valdex beached itself there... complete with an oil covered baby seal.

The oil is so clean that I can't see it on the dipstick unless I tilt it sideways. I'm going to change my oil and filter again in 1,000 miles to make sure I removed all contamination. This time, I went with a K&N high flow 15 micron filter (the HP-2009). It has a bypass and some other nice features.

I also got to clean all the places I couldn't get to before, so the car looks immaculate now that it's reassembled. I still need to finish the interior, and then I'll post some pics for reference (in case anyone else needs to drain their coolers). I had to remove my door sill panel, door close sensor, and a big boot-shaped block of foam to retrieve a rubber/copper wheel well bolt spline that I accidentally pushed THROUGH the wheel well of the car while reinstalling the wheel well covers. At least I didn't lose it

It took me 2 days...

Pics to come.

[Cthulhu]

Clam removed... Notice the oil on my driveway. idling the car with open oi cooler lines makes it sneeze all over.

[Cthulhu]

So then, when I was putting the wheel well back on, I pushed that spline through. Look at where I had to get it from

[Cthulhu]

More cool pix, including after I cleaned stuff. My wheel wells be shiny.

[Cthulhu]

I don't have any pics of the whole car shimmed and back together, but I assure you I figured it out. I didn't lose any bolts or screws either In fact, I have an extra one now from my interior somewhere...

It's probably the screw that keeps the airbag from going off when you change radio stations or something.

[Cthulhu]

More clamlessness.

[VisualEchos]

Bravo dude, and great pix!

[shay2nak]

damn, that's a lot of work.

[Cthulhu]

So, it's been almost 1K miles already! Oil is still really clean looking, I'm wondering if I should change my filter as a precaution... Oh, and I hit 10K miles and took a picture, my car is all grown up <tear>

[Cthulhu]

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for a more in depth description of the job. I didn't want to post 38 high res pictures on the forums, so I did it on a facebook album instead. The captions document what the hell you're looking at in the picture. I'm not sure if you'll need to friend me or not, but obviously I'd be more than happy to approve all requests.