[fun4two]

Well I have a completely stock 06 elise, with no mods and no aftermarket exhaust. I have only driven it on the street (maybe kinda hard) but I noticed a few days ago a wierd squishy bump under my carpet in the trunk. I lifted the carpet and found 3 distinct raised what felt like blisters about the size of a softball in the grey foam insert. I lifted the foam and found my clam discolored brown and very hot. I am guessing that I have an exhaust leak under it and hopefully will be fixed under warranty. I will be bringing it to Valenti Auto in Watertown CT this tuesday to see what they find. Sorry I have no pictures my digital camera is at my girlfriends house, otherwise I would have posted some to see if anyone has expierenced this problem.
I'll keep you guys informed of what Valenti does for me and what has caused the blistering.

 

[charliex]

could be an oil leak thats gone around the exhaust, or the exhaust is touching the heat shield and the bottom of the clam, thats usually what causes it.

 

[fitfan]

have you had the car since new? are you sure the heat shielding under the clam is there? (not the box heat shield.. .there is another sheet of heat shielding - so there should be 2 layers of different type.

 

[Jack]

.... I am guessing that I have an exhaust leak .....under

possible exhaust leak at the cat .... broken cat weld -- it has happened before.

 

[fun4two]

I purchased the car used last october, it had only 6,000 miles on it, and it was stock as far as I can tell. There is no indication that any work had been done. But of course I can't be sure I am just guessing. I can barely see through the rear panel but it does look like all the heat shielding is still in place. So thats why it has me a little confused. I'll find out next week hopefully.
Would I be smelling oil burning if it was an oil leak? Because all I smell is hot fiberglass and glue. No smoke or flame just a hot chemical smell. (I worked in a body shop so I have smelled burning/cutting/hot fieberglass) and thats what I smell. Hopefully its not been modified by the previous owner and will still be under warranty.

 

[kmt63]

i have an 06 elise.it does not have the boot floor heat shield.this car is a salvage tittle car that had the engine and trans removed.the rear clam was just sitting on the car when i got it.so i tried to figure out why they removed it.i posted something on here asking if people where taking them off for weight savings.with no response.there is two heat shields that are attached to the rear clam.boot bottom and boot front.you can see if you have them by looking inside the trunk for fasteners that hold it on.my car had been driven without this boot floor heat shield in place.the composite is kinda deformed looking.i drove this car for about 170 miles in the last two days.i would check the boot floor to see how hot it was getting.it was just a little warm.i have exige scoops on the car too that might help this problem some.when i park the car i pop the trunk to cool it faster.

 

[Hayseed]

I have a 05 with no exhaust mods, and all the factory heat shields, and the stock rear panel in place. My car has the same issue. The trunk floor is discolored from obvious overheating of the FRP, and the trunk floor pad has a large blister in it. I have no exhaust or oil leaks. I personally think the problem is caused by insufficient air circulation around the exhaust system.

My solution is probably going to be an aftermarket exhaust and a rear panel eliminator kit.

 

[kmt63]

I have a 05 with no exhaust mods, and all the factory heat shields, and the stock rear panel in place. My car has the same issue. The trunk floor is discolored from obvious overheating of the FRP, and the trunk floor pad has a large blister in it. I have no exhaust or oil leaks. I personally think the problem is caused by insufficient air circulation around the exhaust system.

My solution is probably going to be an aftermarket exhaust and a rear panel eliminator kit.

does your car have a heat shield on the under side one the boot floor?im thinking i should get this heat shield.then do the rear panel delete with a custom exhaust.remove the back portion on the exhaust heat shield to get more air moving over and through this area.the way it is stock.it just traps heat in there.

 

[fitfan]

that piece of plank heat shield that is attached to the bottom of the clam (not the exhaust heat shield) is not cheap - something like ~800 bucks - so poor repairs may not have it in place. you should see a hard foil faced sheild behind the exhaust heat shield.

it could be cracked (its kinda hard and fiberous) and i would imagine that if it was craked or broken - you could get a burning clam... ??

take the rear diffuser off, and look around up in there carefully, or just take it in to get checked out... look for any exhauset leakis too - but i owuld suspect you would hear that...

the trunk floor of the clam gets rather hot when everything is stock and working correctly... wouldn't take too much lack of shielding to cause burning.

 

[fun4two]

Yes I have both the heat shields I had my head up in there as far as possible yesterday ttrying to find a problem. And everything looks fine to me. But my trunk is considerrably hotter than it was when I first got the car a few months ago although it was winter and the temps were much lower. Not sure if that should make this much of a difference. I don't have any oil leak or exhaust leak that I can find. All areas around the exhaust that I can see were perfectly clean I would suspect to see some blackned areas where the exhaust would be leaking and there is nothing. I understand that this is a kind of custom car and all, with its share of problems, but this seems one kinda dangerous I can smell burning fiberglass everytime I drive the car. Fiberglass burns quite well and makes me a bit nervous. Oh well its sitting at Valenti waiting to be worked on, hopefully they find something.

 

[fun4two]

Well heard back from Valenti today and I had a large list of items for them to check, when my engine is ice cold it stumbles and stalls when any bit of throttle is applied, until it warms for a few minutes (not a real problem, but a new thing that has come to my attention) they said they couldn't get it to do it, which is ok with me. Prolly no big deal. I told them about engine stumble when rpms are coming down to idle at a stoplight, they also couldn't find a problem worth looking into, again no problem most of us on here have something like that. A nasty dash rattle has just popped up in the center of the dash, they couldn't make it rattle so thats a no go (hopefully its gone otherwise I will be bringing it back for that) And the engine/exhaust heating up my trunk to the point where it blistered my grey pad and discolored and disfigured my trunk fiberglass, well they said there was no issue with my exhaust or any clearance issues with the heat shield so they said they can't find any reason to look any further because nothing seems wrong. I kinda questioned him a few times about the trunk getting that hot and my concern about fire, but he said that he spoke with Lotus and Lotus said there is nothing to worry about and they just run hot. HMMM kinda unsure about this. I have never tracked the car, this occured while normal driving around town. The car is completely stock, I am having a hard time believing this, but ok. He ordered me a new grey pad under warranty so I guess I will just watch for more heat blisters. He then said that I had a headlight out and he was in the process of checking to see if it was covered under warranty :huh: That seems kinda strange, but maybe I'll get lucky I thought. HE said he would call me back when he got more warranty info. So an hour later he called with a no go on the headlight oh well he proceeded to tell me that he could do the head light for $153.00 dollars -eek- Well I said no I think I can handle putting in my own headlight. My god man its a whipping 10 min job and about 20 bucks for the light bulb. Thats just stupid crazy. And I am going to pick up my car tonight.
So they fixed nothing, I get a pad, and get to install my own light bulb. I will be heading back to the these guys again when I get my new pad installed and then blister it again in a week. So at this point I am not really impressed with Valenti, maybe there really is nothing wrong with my car but I am still a bit nervous about driving it, what if it catches fire! Im usually not paranoid about things like this, but this one just doesn't feel right. Time will tell I guess.

 

[fitfan]

if your car is under warranty, and the clam is "burning / blistering / disfigured" i owuld be inclined to get another opinion on that. if its just discolored... thats probably no big deal.

 

[Pengineer91]

Don't give up yet. Valenti's reputation on this board is less than stellar.

There are one or two dealers in the NYC area. Perhaps someone local to them can chime in. Your next choice is the Aston-Martin/Lotus dealer in Waltham, MA. I've been treated pretty well there, as have several others in the greater Boston area. They've been good about legitimate warranty issues.

I've had my '06 out on 300 miles days as well as the track and have never experienced what you describe.

 

[fun4two]

Yeah I agree about a socond opinion, I will be getting the new grey pad on thursday and will let them (install it) or place it in my trunk then I will drive it around a while let it blister again and take it to the dealer in waltham. It has been serviced there before according to the maintainance book, and I have heard you guys say good things about them, I thought I would try the local dealer but so far I am not truley impressed.

 

[Keeper]

Did you check your battery for leaks?

 

[fun4two]

There is no residue or anything like that making me think that it was coming from the battery, the only marks/browning is directly under the 3 blisters which are directly above the muffler. There is no stream or anything from the battery indicating a battery leak, but thanks for adding that as an idea. I will look next time I am in the elise.

 

[Keeper]

FWIW, there isn't necessarily a stream when a battery leaks because the vapor is an issue as well. If you have a stock battery there's a good chance that it's leaking. Even if this isn't your problem you should check it asap. Sprinkle some baking soda on the battery at the fill tubes and look for bubbles.

 

[Keeper]

BTW, read the uberpost if you haven't. I haven't updated it in a while but there's info in there you should know.

 

[kmt63]

my 06 elise does the same thing when cold.runs kinda rough.stumbles when you add throttle.i thought it was just something to do with the drive by wire tb.it does not throw any codes and really doesnt bother me to bad.once it warms up for a few minutes its fine.