[lotusgt]

Hello, I picked up my 2008 Exige last week, and it's an amazing car! I was washing the bottom and found a crack in the orange adhesive near the rear jacking point. I inspected the rest of the bottom, and did not find any similar cracks.

I think that someone placed a jack at the wrong location. My initial thoughts is that it should be fine, but I'm new to these cars. Should I be worried about this or is enough redundancy built in?

The rear of the car is on the right side of the pictures.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Gunpilot]

To be honest, it looks like somebody spread more RTV on it to cover up some damage.

 

[addertooth]

I agree with Gunpilot's analysis; it will likely be just fine though. A critical dealer might define it as "frame damage", which would mandate a very expensive repair.

 

[lotusgt]

Frame Damage...that's not what I was expecting :facepalm. I just got the car with 6K miles.

There is no dealer in the area, so I'll drive hoping that it's nothing major...:crazyeyes

Anyone else with any input?

 

[glagola1]

I don't see any RTV. I wouldn't worry about the surface crack on the adhesive that's not even between parts... I mean, that crack doesn't mean that the bond between the parts of aluminum is failing. It just means that there was some flexure at some point and it put a surface crack in the over run of adhesive.

Don't sweat it.

 

[Bane]

Try to press your nail into it. If it's soft, then Gunpilot could be correct.

If it's really hard like the rest of the "glue" then it was probably just adhesive overrun at the factory like glagola1 said.

Either way, I wouldn't worry about it unless it's spread farther than what you showed us in that picture.

 

[rosscarlson]

I see nothing that would really concern me but testing with Bane's method would be good...

 

[Gunpilot]

Just what I see, can't get touchy feelie with it......it looks like it was spread with a putty knife and dirt was spread with it. I just don't see that occurring at the factory.

Also look under your car. I don't know about anyone else's but the adhesive on both of mine is nowhere near that sloppy looking!

 

[itslotawrk]

not to worry,i have that all around on both my cars

 

[David Craig]

This seems to be a case of new car jitters.

It looks fine to me.

With these hand-built cars you will often find little things that do not look perfect.

 

[lotusgt]

Thanks for all the good input guys--your thoughts are appreciated. I'm pretty sure that this was caused by someone putting a jack right on top of the bolt in the first picture...you can see a little damage above the bolt if you look closely.

I don't know much about these cars, but I feel comfortable with the cracking in this area now that I've read your responses. Thanks again!

 

[driftwood]

looks normal to me (i have some of the bonding glue pushed out from many seems as well)...

here are some pics from google after typing in 'lotus jack points'... they look very similar