[VisualEchos]

OK, I've had my Exige a month now, and have done countless hours of reading and searching, but some questions remain, or the answers I found were conflicting. Please humor me.


1. Is there no way to keep fresh air from entering the cabin without turning the blower on and pushing the recirc button? Related to that, why is it that when I have the temp-dial set to heat, the fresh air entering the cabin is in fact cold outside air? If this is normal, is there a "fix" for it?


2. During the trip from Texas back to Missouri after purchasing the car, the heater got weaker and weaker over time, and in fact, has never blown what I'd call "hot" air. Is this normal?


3. Is the Exige rear clam in fact wider behind the rear tires than that of the Elise? It appears so in pictures, but I've never seen the cars side by side.


4. Is there any "normal" seat that will fit in this car? Although I HATE the thought of replacing the stock driver's seat, which is quite comfortable, a few minutes after driving the car I get mid-level back pain, and I don't know what to do about it. I'm not sure if it's because of the lack of lumbar support, or rake, or both, but I feel like I'm hunching over in the seat. I'm NOT complaining, I LOVE these seats! I'm just wondering if there's a solution.


5. The 2ZZ-GE is manufactured and assembled by Toyota, but the head design is Yamaha, correct?


6. I have the stock Exide battery, is it this one that is known to leak, or is it the earlier one? Related, I live in Missouri, where it can get quite cold in our 3 month Winter (in the teens), and I daily drive my Exige, would the PC925 be the best choice of replacement battery?


7. On the tip where I grab the fuel door to open it, it doesn't fit perfectly flush, but is sunk in a bit, making it difficult to open, and not so aesthetically pleasing. Is this normal?


8. What water temp is cause for alarm? During extended periods of idle (while taking pictures), I've seen 192° when it was freezing cold outside.


Thanks for any information guys, and you have my apologies if I missed any of this information in the uberthread.

 

[mjf]

8. What water temp is cause for alarm? During extended periods of idle (while taking pictures), I've seen 192° when it was freezing cold outside.

I've seen over 200 when I'm stopped in stop and go slow city traffic, it goes back down when I start moving again.

 

[RacyTracy]

7. On the tip where I grab the fuel door to open it, it doesn't fit perfectly flush, but is sunk in a bit, making it difficult to open, and not so aesthetically pleasing. Is this normal?

Should there be a little rubber bumper that's missing?

 

[ZAMMY1]

remove the grille, cover the two fresh air inlets with the tape of your choice, i used aluminum sticky tape for HVAC work, and use the recirc setting any time you want heat or air conditioning.
for fresh air, open the window.
mine works great.
grille: the front, center (big) grille.
2 rectangular, screen covered inlets.
else, take it back to a dealer for warranty work.

this has been written up a couple of times.
good luck, sam

 

[codymac]

6. I have the stock Exide battery, is it this one that is known to leak, or is it the earlier one? Related, I live in Missouri, where it can get quite cold in our 3 month Winter (in the teens), and I daily drive my Exige, would the PC925 be the best choice of replacement battery?

It's gray, right? AFAIK all the Exiges made out OK with a slightly better battery that was introduced around the same time as the Exige was to NA. Mine was still fine when I pulled it and swapped it with a PC680 - and my car sees a fair amount of track time. It's the black ones from the 2005MY cars that gave people issues.

7. On the tip where I grab the fuel door to open it, it doesn't fit perfectly flush, but is sunk in a bit, making it difficult to open, and not so aesthetically pleasing. Is this normal?

+1 on the black bumper. Open it - if you see a little hole in a tab where door stop rests, your bumper is missing. It's a common issue and the bumpers can be ordered from a dealer. Mine went missing on the drive home from the dealer and my temporary fix was to feed a thin zip-tie through it with the head positioned to act as the bumper. It worked nearly perfectly.

8. What water temp is cause for alarm? During extended periods of idle (while taking pictures), I've seen 192° when it was freezing cold outside.

That's normal. Get concerned when it gets up around 220° and get very concerned if it starts flashing. The boilover point is listed as 248°!

 

[VisualEchos]

mjf: So 200° is acceptable, good to know, thanks .

Tracy: There's no bumper on mine, when it closes it's just metal on metal. I suppose I'll contact the dealer and see if I can order one. Thanks for the info .

Zammy: Thanks for the tip .

 

[VisualEchos]

Cody: I thought the battery was black, guess I should have another look. Zip-tie FTW! Ah, so between 190° and 215° is ok, cool.

 

[codymac]

Cody: I thought the battery was black, guess I should have another look. Zip-tie FTW! Ah, so between 190° and 215° is ok, cool.

Yeah - IIRC, it will flash the temp display at 226°. Mine has got pretty close to that when my thermostat failed during a muggy summer.

Be sure you look under the battery cover which is black.

eta: If the dealer tells you they can't order the rubber bumper, have them call Lotus NA. There used to not be a p/n for it and Lotus replaced the whole fuel door (they did on my car) - that didn't last long since a lot of the bumpers went missing and fuel doors are more expensive than rubber bumpers/stoppers. Not every dealer may know that although they should by now.

 

[VisualEchos]

Will do!

Is there a specific Lotus dealer that everyone gets their OE parts from?

 

[ducboy]

6. I have the stock Exide battery, is it this one that is known to leak, or is it the earlier one? Related, I live in Missouri, where it can get quite cold in our 3 month Winter (in the teens), and I daily drive my Exige, would the PC925 be the best choice of replacement battery?

I'm in Missouri as well. I opted for the Braille battery from Sector 111 and have been very happy with it so far. I keep mine on a tender, but this won't be necessary for you since it is your daily driver:up:

 

[ducboy]

remove the grille, cover the two fresh air inlets with the tape of your choice, i used aluminum sticky tape for HVAC work, and use the recirc setting any time you want heat or air conditioning.
for fresh air, open the window.
mine works great.
grille: the front, center (big) grille.
2 rectangular, screen covered inlets.
else, take it back to a dealer for warranty work.

this has been written up a couple of times.
good luck, sam

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you have to remove the front clam on the Exige to do this:crazyeyes The grill itself is not removable. Else, I would have done this mod straight away.

 

[VisualEchos]

I'm in Missouri as well. I opted for the Braille battery from Sector 111 and have been very happy with it so far. I keep mine on a tender, but this won't be necessary for you since it is your daily driver:up:

See I wanted the Braille for my Suby, but I was told it wasn't good for colder climates. Which one did you get? Source?

BTW, your post-count is 111 .

 

[...m...]

...your car's original owner may have performed the heater bypass modification, not uncommon in warmer climates like florida and texas...my heater puts out nicely toasty air even during high-speed drives in sub-freezing temperatures...

 

[VisualEchos]

Hmmm, never heard of it, I'll PM him. Thanks for the tip .

 

[RoadDad]

A couple of issues:

1 and 2: You can't just remove the grill on the Exige to cover the air intakes. You need to remove the front clam to get the grill off. If you have the front clam off, you don't need to remove the grill. The grill pops off of the Elise only. If it was cold on your drive and you had outside air mixing with the heated air it will not be as warm. Closing the front intakes should help with both that and the cooling in the summer. The recirculation flap valve can also leak, so even if you had the recirc button pushed you may still have been getting cold air mixing. Again, closing off the intakes should help with that.

3. I believe that is correct.

4. I don't know of any "normal" seat that would fit. Are you actually slouching/hunching? It's not hard to do while sitting/driving. Perhaps adjusting your seat position may help. I was talking with one of the instructors of the Lotus driving school in NV and he was talking about how many people actually sit too far away from the steering wheel which causes multiple types of discomfort and fatigue.

5. Toyota commissioned Yamaha to design the 2ZZ-GE engine.

6,7,8. Codymac's spot on with the temps and your battery being fine. It was the earlier Exide battery that was popping on folks. No reported problems with the later batteries. You can often get the rubber bumpers for the gas door for free from your dealer. If not it will be inexpensive.

EDIT: a lot of chatter addressing many of these issues whilst I was slowly typing. Yes, ducboy is correct. The clam would need to be removed. The newer Exide batteries are grey, older are black. As codymac says, look under the cover -- you can just lift the bottom edge of the cover to see the battery, you don't need to take the entire cover off.

 

[SirLotus]

..

1. Is there no way to keep fresh air from entering the cabin without turning the blower on and pushing the recirc button? Related to that, why is it that when I have the temp-dial set to heat, the fresh air entering the cabin is in fact cold outside air? If this is normal, is there a "fix" for it?

This is why Lotus installed the 2 plates in the footwells, over the recirc. vents, because of cold air coming in. Blocking those fresh air intakes in the nose is the only answer and then leaving it in the recirc. mode.


2. During the trip from Texas back to Missouri after purchasing the car, the heater got weaker and weaker over time, and in fact, has never blown what I'd call "hot" air. Is this normal?

Block the nose intakes


6. I have the stock Exide battery, is it this one that is known to leak, or is it the earlier one? Related, I live in Missouri, where it can get quite cold in our 3 month Winter (in the teens), and I daily drive my Exige, would the PC925 be the best choice of replacement battery?

The grey Exide is not known to leak, it is the black generic one http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f129/battery-choices-information-64071/


8. What water temp is cause for alarm? During extended periods of idle (while taking pictures), I've seen 192° when it was freezing cold outside. Boiling is +248'F

Temps can go well into the 200's, but at cruising speed it seems to be around 190'
.

 

[VisualEchos]

Are you actually slouching/hunching?

In this seat I do believe I am, as there is no seat rake adjustment.

I was talking with one of the instructors of the Lotus driving school in NV and he was talking about how many people actually sit too far away from the steering wheel which causes multiple types of discomfort and fatigue.

I've heard of this as well, but only with regards to long or strenuous (racing) drives. The pain I have is within 5 minutes of driving the car.

I don't think the pain is due to the harsh ride, as I've owned several performance cars previous to this one, some of which rode much worse than the Exige. This has to be a lumbar, or rake issue. I have a friend with an EVO X, and I'd probably sell my soul to have that seat in my Exige.

 

[ZAMMY1]

AH, SOOOO! i've not dealt with an exige, my apologies.
i would otherwise use urethane foam thru a straw extension thru the slats in the non-removable grille. anything to block off the inlets!
i think the real fault is in the heater assembly itself, but that ain't easy, either.
good luck.
sam

 

[ZAMMY1]

on the seat issue, i love our subaru but the seat shape kills me in a short time. some seats just don't fit one's body.....
sam

 

[VisualEchos]

The inlets I'm trying to cover, have you ever seen a picture here on LT that I could look at for reference?