I ended up picking up a less expensive 2011 evora S. The car did have a Salvage title with the story of no frame damage just panels from a side swipe on the drivers side. Car had 12,000 total miles. Thinking this car was totaled sat forever and then pieced back together. After pulling history car was new in 2011. In 2012 it had a savage title assigned. From there all reports of mileage grew slowly over the years and the owner stayed the same from new till early this year. This changed my mind on considering purchase. Talked with the current owner and came to a price, knowing the wheels were tweaked and list of minor cosmetic issues. The car was 800 miles away but close to my brother so I sent my brother the money and he drove to look at it. It looked as advertised so he picked it up and drove it home. My thought was to go up there and drive it back but chickened out and had it shipped. Glad I did because the noise from the right bent wheel would have been miserable for a 10 hour drive. Once I got it here I drove it for a couple of days and of course like it. Once I got the state inspection on it decided to get the wheels fixed and do a good inspection. So far everything looks good just running into 10 years of poor maintenance. I do see the glass repairs where they say. The damage occured with no signs of structure damage.
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Grady
My Evora S project
3 reading
I ended up picking up a less expensive 2011 evora S. The car did have a Salvage title with the story of no frame damage just panels from a side swipe on the drivers side. Car had 12,000 total miles. Thinking this car was totaled sat forever and then pieced back together. After pulling history car was new in 2011. In 2012 it had a savage title assigned. From there all reports of mileage grew slowly over the years and the owner stayed the same from new till early this year. This changed my mind on considering purchase. Talked with the current owner and came to a price, knowing the wheels were tweaked and list of minor cosmetic issues. The car was 800 miles away but close to my brother so I sent my brother the money and he drove to look at it. It looked as advertised so he picked it up and drove it home. My thought was to go up there and drive it back but chickened out and had it shipped. Glad I did because the noise from the right bent wheel would have been miserable for a 10 hour drive. Once I got it here I drove it for a couple of days and of course like it. Once I got the state inspection on it decided to get the wheels fixed and do a good inspection. So far everything looks good just running into 10 years of poor maintenance. I do see the glass repairs where they say. The damage occured with no signs of structure damage.
Attachments
Ok day 2 of inspection, running across little stupid stuff. Was troubleshooting a right front turn signal and when removing the headlight the washer connection was broken off. Decided to pull left one for easy troubleshooting and it did not have the hose hooked up to it. The bumper was not aligned great so decided to pull front clip found that there are no washer lines at all. Some people. Everything else is straight and in good shape. Will be disassembling the right headlight to see if I can repair the turn signal. Every panel I run across there are non Lotus fastener so will be purchasing correct hardware for reassembly.
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Good luck. Body panels and a few wheels easy fixes. Great color. Thanks for giving her the love she needs.
Love to see this. The Evora S remains my favorite modern Lotus. I realize the 400 and GTs are better cars objectively, but the early Evora body style appeals to me more and the interior (especially the seats) hasn't gotten better with the newer cars. Would an intercooler be nice? Sure, but the chassis is black magic and 350hp is more than enough for the twisty roads where it shines. Kudos to you for saving her!
If the turn signal isn't working at all, it could be from a cold solder joint on the connector. I had one that looked like this:
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Repairs aren't entirely impossible, but I would recommend you drill out the rivets and take the heatsink off before trying to heat the board.
Repairs aren't entirely impossible, but I would recommend you drill out the rivets and take the heatsink off before trying to heat the board.
Ran across some more little stuff. Right upper radiator support was bent and not holding the radiator, a screwdriver and 1 min of work bent it back to where it needed to be. Finding a log of wire harness supports missing ty-wraps those will all be fixed. They had hard wired the left headlight in, will be searcheing for a car side plug for that. Also found a bent oil cooler line in the right rear wheel well, will be replacing that line. Drained oil from engine and transmission. Will be replacing power steering fluid, coolant and oil for the supercharger.
Other accomplishments were;
$300 order from HethelSport
$2000 order from Lotus parts on line
$1000 order from Gregs Race Parts
$2000 order from various places for new head unit and other electronic parts/LED’s to replace incandescent lamps.
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Other accomplishments were;
$300 order from HethelSport
$2000 order from Lotus parts on line
$1000 order from Gregs Race Parts
$2000 order from various places for new head unit and other electronic parts/LED’s to replace incandescent lamps.
So basically, it was a half a$$ed repair you are correcting. GOOD JOB!!! Too bad former owner didn't give you repair shop address so you could point out the lousy skills!!
Wheels are straightened and recoated. When I walked in to pick them up the guy sad those wheels were bent to ****. I guess that is a good thing because that should be the noise issue when driving.
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Parts are showing up, all new hardware for under panels, head lights and wheel liners.
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Parts are showing up, all new hardware for under panels, head lights and wheel liners.
Working on putting the front clam back on. When I got the car the bumper was sagging and was not lined up on top. It had al lip between bumper and top clam. Anyone have any tricks to fit the front clam? Looks like it going to be a lot of trial an error.
Ok figured out how to eliminate the bumper sag. Still not perfect but have an idea of what adjustments to make down the road.
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Everything is back together now after 2 engine oil changes. Brake and clutch full bleed. Power steering fluid change. Supercharger oil change. Coolant flush and refill. A/C service. I still ran out and found more fasteners that were incorrect or old. Ordered another $200 in Fasteners. Also installed the lower black vinyl. Took it out for a drive and there is still a noise associated with wheel speed. It is better but still there. The tires are old and hard so going to change them out for MPS 4s. Going to drive it for a little bit before I tackle the next projects.
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I am EXTREMELY fond of Continental ECS for this vehicle. They have performed extremely well in all conditions and IMHO are 99% of an MPS4 without that fat preicetag. They were tracked on VIR and Pittsburg, excel in the rain, and maintain a semblance of traction down to 40 degrees...
Decided to see how easy it will be to change out the head unit. Went with the Alpine INE W987HD. Figure since I was changing from Alpine old to Alpine new they will probably share a lot of the same connectors. After compairingn there is 1 wire that is different on the main connector. Old radio has an interrupt circuit, the new radio this is a backup signal for the reverse camera. After moving that wire to the main connector connected everything and all works. Except he BT box and XM boxes are not comparable. BT is built into the new radio, don’t care about XM right now. On the figment had to modify the mounting brackets a little and space them out about 1/4 inch. It functions much better, sounds a little better. Probably still needs new speakers but that is later when I gut interior for that Inspection.
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Took the next step in the resonance noise from the back. Since the rear wheels were still slightly bent after straitening went ahead and ordered a set of BC forged. Unfortunately the noise is still there. Thinking the bent wheels could have taken out the hubs going to put 2 new hubs on the back. Not disappointed in the wheels! Went with the 400 spec wheels.
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Hubs have not arrived yet but was told they were in the US and shipping. Purchased these from Sportcar World of Dallas. Went ahead and got ready for the new hubs. Can feel roughness in the right hub. Half shaft feels good.
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Installed new hubs last night. Was able to get on a closed course early this morning and tested up to 150. All smooth and no noise. Now on to enjoying it and upgrading other items at my leisure.
Threw som GRP CF interior bits at it. All started due to the OEM hand brake one being broken. I doubt this one will break.
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Did a quick proof of concept. Upgraded the home link to a new one that will work with modern garage door openers. Will need to fabricate a better trim.
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Can you share a link to the radio you swapped to? I have a 2014 Evora and could definitely use an upgrade to allow for Android Play.
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