[lotusland]

I am following Wayne's excellent exhaust swap procedure, but I ran into one issue on my '06 Elise -- the part that Wayne calls the "access panel" is not present. In fact that entire piece of sheet metal that is in his photo is missing. See below for Wayne's photo and my photo of the same area.

Was this part deleted for the '06 models? If not, should I try and replace it?

Thanks!

 

[Randy Chase]

It was only on the passenger side of the car and I don't think it is a big deal.

 

[lotusland]

It's not just the access panel though, it looks like the whole sheet metal part is missing. I notice some sharpie marks near the mounting locations also, like someone was making note of it.

It was only on the passenger side of the car and I don't think it is a big deal.

 

[Randy Chase]

On the passenger side? I might be wrong, but isn't the pic showing the u-bend from the driver's side?

 

[lotusland]

No, the photo is the passenger side. On my car the exhaust clamps are not even visible from below on the driver side -- the heat shield is in the way. I am pretty sure my photo is the same area that Wayne's was taken from, but that part is not there. I can't seem to find the exhaust section in the service manual, so I'm not sure what that complete part looks like either. I know what the access panel looks like only from Wayne's photo.

On the passenger side? I might be wrong, but isn't the pic showing the u-bend from the driver's side?

 

[Smoky]

It was there in my 07. Are you the first owner of this car? If not then the prev owner prob installed a custom exhaust and cut out some of the heat shielding.

That's how mine (and a lot of other cars) are anyway. Lots of folks remove/cut out the rear section of the head shielding for better engine bar ventilation. Mine does not have that access panel anymore either. With the rear section cut out there isn't much for the access panel to install to.

All the access panel is, is a squarish piece of shielding that is held in with a few screws. Removing it provides easier access to other screws. You don't need it though. The important pieces of heat shielding are those which protect the frame, frame joints, and all of the shielding around the car and cat u-bend.

 

[kevinthefro]

Looks to me like your whole heat shield box has been removed.