[Breck]

Hey All,

After a few years of wanting one & searching for one, I finally bought myself an Elise! Saffron Yellow with just over 16,000 miles & I drove it 580 miles home from Kansas City, MO to Kenosha, WI. I am very excited to have it and look forward to it as it is my entry into the Lotus brand.

Is there any new owner tips/advise/information that is good to know? Can't wait to see how it goes!

Breck

 

[StressCraxx]

Congratulations, you certainly now have both ends of the sportscar spectrum covered!

 

[Tengai650]

Welcome and congrats on the purchase! Your drive home was certainly a good shake-down run to get acquainted with the car!

 

[Verichai]

Well man, you're putting that garage to good with use a couple of absolute classics parked in there. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the Viper, still love seeing them.

Congrats on the Elise!

 

[billyz16]

congratulation that remind me back in 2010 my first Elise and same color and now I am in my third lotus I am a big fan of viper you get the future collector cars in the garage enjoy it don t lotus cars are addiction

 

[4380r]

Congratulations! I had an 05 yellow as well. Love the base/non touring configuration. With the base wheels, indicating non LSS, the car very well had no options, as pure as they come.

Read the mega thread, but in a nutshell make sure all recalls done, especially oil lines. Recommend upgrading the radiator. The stock with the plastic ends are known weak points. If the clam comes off for the oil lines/radiator, install a decent horn. Check and upgrade toe links. Failure is catastrophic.

If you haven’t already, inspect the cams for excessive wear.

 

[Catsailr27]

Welcome to LT Breck! Congrats of your new Elise. Be sure to check thru threads in the Elise forum for new owner recommendations. Use G search with lotustalk at the end to find specific threads quickly here on LT.

 

[carbuff]

Is there any new owner tips/advise/information that is good to know?

Look no further than the PINNED topics at the top of the forum categories. (They don't always show up when you access via a phone)

Here is just one:

GLB recommendations for new Elise/Exige owners

Note to new Elise & Exige Owners: 1. These cars have large (i.e. dangerous) blind spots. Multivex mirrors are NLA, but RLS (Really Light Stuff) offers very good tape-on replacements/. GRP (Greg’s Racing Parrs) offers Extend -a-View mirrors, but I’ve not seen them. 2. The horns are way too...

www.lotustalk.com

 

[fzust]

Hi Breck,

Welcome! My first elise looked very similar; Saffron is a great color! Enjoy it. We have maintenance items and upgrades on our site. www.blackwatchracing.com. We've been exclusive for Elise/Exige/Evora for 15+ years!

 

[JMack77]

Welcome to LT from a fellow Saffron Yellow Elise owner! 💛

 

[wtharvey]

Looks like you found a great entry into Lotus! Being still in the low mileage world, the cooling u-tube could likely be a problem in the next 10-30k miles. They develop pinholes because of how they’re secured in place from the factory (a dumb ziptie location where it rubs on a fitting). If you are ever under the car, zip-tying the u-pipe to something else before the hole happens is a wise move that saves a lot of headache. It burned me at 41k miles, but some have seen it earlier. Check out this thread for more info: Coolant U-Tube Chafing Problem

 

[4380r]

Looks like you found a great entry into Lotus! Being still in the low mileage world, the cooling u-tube could likely be a problem in the next 10-30k miles. They develop pinholes because of how they’re secured in place from the factory (a dumb ziptie location where it rubs on a fitting). If you are ever under the car, zip-tying the u-pipe to something else before the hole happens is a wise move that saves a lot of headache. It burned me at 41k miles, but some have seen it earlier. Check out this thread for more info: Coolant U-Tube Chafing Problem

This. When I first read about the problem, I got under my car and took a look. The u-tube had started chafing.

 

[62521Elise]

Great car! Even at such low mileage, I would keep an eye on the wishbone bushings (esp. the front where they mount to aluminum tub). The wishbones can rub on the suspension pickup points if the bushings are pushed out/dry rotted. If the clam comes off for a new radiator, upgrading to stainless steel brakes lines is a great idea.

 

[waLIEN]

I recently purchased an Elise SC with 5K miles, so a lot of these are still on the top of my mind:

1. Check the toe link condition and torque them down to spec, as others have said. In my case, they were already torqued down and looked great. I check mine with every oil change.
2. Due to age, the stock radiator w/ plastic end tanks is bound to fail. Mine did at one of the worst times possible. Pressure test your coolant system to make sure it's up to snuff. With that said, if you don't know when the coolant was changed last, do that. A vacuum fill tool will save you a lot of time and headaches.
3. Regarding fluids, make sure you also change the following if you don't know when it was last changed: brake, transaxle, clutch slave cylinder. A pressure brake bleeder will be super helpful in this department.
4. Check your drivebelt's condition as well
5. Check your tires date code. You'll get a lot of varying info on what is "passable" online. (Tire Replacement Guide - When & How to Replace Tires.)
6. Email Lotus Cars via their contact page to get an official list of options that came with your car. This helped me validate that I have the sport option and a factory LSD. While you're at it, also get the manual defeat code in case your FOB(s) ever die on you.
7. If you don't plan on doing any suspension mods in the near future, a quality alignment should be on your list of things to do.
8. If you plan on doing work on this car on your own, be sure to carefully review the lifting/jacking procedure. Also, get yourself a set (2) of ESCO brand flat jack stands. The rear most jack points are the subframe, so you can use standard jacks for that.

 

[Breck]

Thank you all for the information and assistance!

 

[6TVRs+]

Nice to see you sharing all your newfound knowledge @waLIEN !!