grog

I've just refurbished a starter as a spare. The old one had a lot of rust/corrosion of the brush plate inside. It seems that water finds it way in and gets trapped.

The centre exhaust hanger on the exhaust needed to be re-bent to fit. Otherwise it was OK, with a tweak of some of the heatshields. It's touching the undetray in one spot, but touching enough that it doesn't rattle. Apparently the 'fix' used is to cut a little hole in the undertray. My mechanic recommended that we leave it to the next service, either the stainless exhaust will wear a spot in the undertray showing exactly where to cut, or we might put a bit of silicon hose between the undertray and exhaust. I'll try and get a video this week.

i recently fitted the 3" Larini system (marketed as the evora 400 system) to my s1 LE, its the full manifolds, sports cat, valved back box. it sounds great, seems to have more torque and top end power. all round very happy with it. i've currently hooked it up in quiet mode, but almost finished a plug and play switchable solution, as the launch edition didn't have provision for this. a short drive in valve fully open mode, confirms it's loud with the valve open!

Hi Spinney, As bibs says, take it for a drive and toy might change your mind! However if you don't feel like diving further into the regulator refurb, I'd be happy to give it a go. I have fairly reasonable electronics skills and kit too.. Hopefully we can figure out a way to sort these for reasonable cost!

quick update, first drive today with the valve tee'd off the red hose going to the airbox solenoid (from the vacuum resevoir in the airbox lid) much better, it's now socially acceptable. it's louder than the deathly quiet LE silencer, but i wouldn't say it's loud at all. just got to wait a couple of weeks for the air solenoid and remote to arrive, then I can have switchable Loud mode

ok... well I am still alive.. but I thought you all deserve an update! Although the wife hasn't driven it yet, so maybe I'm on borrowed time. the exhaust is on, it wasn't a 100% pain free fitting, the middle hanger needed adjustment to line up with the mount on the car, probably because the exhaust is supposed to be for a 400. or that my car is a launch edition? I think the heat shielding somewhere needed a tweak, maybe around the ARB? for now I have decided to temporarily hook the valve up for always quiet mode. currently I have the vacuum line tee'd into the line that goes from the manifold to airbox, this means if I open the throttle above about 1/2 (for more than a second) the exhaust goes into loud mode. I'll be moving the line to tee into the one from airbox to vacuum solenoid, to give always quiet mode for a week or so. I might try always loud mode for a week, but i think it'll be too loud for my taste. I have also ordered parts to hook up a vacuum solenoid in the factory position (as per MY12+) and a remote kit so i can set one of 3 modes. 1.Loud, 2.Quiet 3.sport button - so switchable on dash, and opens at high RPM with the airbox flap. currently it sounds very nice, throaty and no drone not too loud. with my foot down, so I think valve open, it's quite loud, i can hear the noise bouncing off walls! another interesting thing, the exhaust tip seems to stick out the rear clam a little further, maybe 1/2 or 1" or maybe it's supposed to be like that so when left running on the drive it doesn't cook the clam?, I prefer the look of the twin tips, so maybe something I might change later on anyway.

Also interested in this, as I have a set of spare wheels for my s1 LE and want to get sensors sorted. I saw this, it looks like it'd work, but no idea how to actually do the procedure? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175771709150?

I didn't have a bit of wood the right length, so used my head (literally)... the few mm difference in length between old and new were barely noticeable fitting, even half way through with new 'longer' one on the left and old 'shorter' one on the right. thinking about it, part of the price difference might be due to the lotus part number comes with the ball headed bolts that are screwed to the brackets, at least the pictures show them as with the struts.

thats interesting, the part from Lotus is cheaper than the same Stabilus part from the usual aftermarket suppliers! C132B0058F at £25.38 each. (£30.46 inc VAT) it's often assumed Lotus directly will be more expensive, but clearly not always the case!

I just renewed my struts, hopefully this info is helpful to others, the OE struts are Stabilus 016912 which are 406mm long, stroke 156mm, force 250N. I replaced with Stabilus 0818mm which are 412mm long, stroke 152mm, force 340N. these work really well, look just like the originals, the boot open imperceptibly higher, but doesn't droop. hopefully the slightly higher force will mean they last longer before the boot starts to droop. autodoc are cheaper if you are ordering other parts (shipping is charged extra) I ordered from here, https://www.strutsdepot.com/product/stabilus-renault-clio-tailgate-struts-0818mm/ it was £26 the pair inc delivery. Vs the lotus specific ones at £101+postage as both are Stabilus the quality should be the same.

I've read a few threads on here about controlling a valved exhaust from the vacuum line to the airbox flap, but it's be great if someone could clarify a few things, . I know the exhaust is in quiet mode when vacuum is applied, is it also the same for the airbox? does vacuum application enable loud mode? it seems i may need an air restrictor to fine tune the changeover point from loud to quiet, I could use something like this i assume, in line with the feed to the actuator. alternatively, is it possible to enable the ECU for exhaust valve control? i understand i'd need to add the wire (probably) to both a dash button and also the vacuum solenoid? not sure there is any advantage? if thats not practical or feasible, and the 'passive' idea suggested first doesn't work out, i'm tempted to add another air solenoid, like used on several Mercs, and could use this to feed vacuum (Tee'd into the airbox feeding line) to the exhaust, and tee into the electrical signal for the airbox solenoid, this means i can use the sport button to override both exhaust and airbox to loud mode.

They look like inputs or outputs on the imprint module. There are some photos here of the Imprint in place and removed You might be able to confirm if the sub is working, by putting the key in, turning the headunit/sub on/off and listening next to the rear sub grille for a quiet click as it powers up/down. I could hear mine powering up, but it was getting no signal. The signal wires were still plugged into the imprint module which was no longer connected to the headunit!

The std subwoofer is decent, certainly better than many of the threads here would have you believe. Do you have the old alpine imprint unit mounted under the passenger side of the dash. If the headunit was changed for a later alpine, the imprint may not have been connected (might not be possible to connect to later headunits) The phono leads to the sub are routed to the imprint unit, they don't appear behind the headunit. Hence why the sub is often not connected when head unit is chaged (like mine was) Solution is to pull the phono leads back to behind the headunit and plug in the sub.

Thanks, that's super useful info.

Mk2 clio listed at 410mm long. Are they a little short or same as oe? I did see astra H listed at 425.. also mega cheep. Coincidentally I think the s1 window switches are astra H rear switches.