GreenExige

Massive disclaimer before you read any further - I'm in no way responsible for any damage you do/cause as a result of following my experimentation below. I'm posting to potentially help people out in a pinch, but please use your best judgement if you feel there are better ways to solve this issue! So... I had a boo-boo with my Exige a couple of weeks ago, whereby I was adjusting the beam height and managed to shear the adjustment mechanism inside the headlight unit: Straight on the phone to Lotus and also Perei, but unfortunately this is not a 'replaceable' part, and would normally be a whole headlight unit replacement. Understandable, but a pain in the backside none-the-less. The design is pretty simple - the above bracket's ball joint clicks into the bulb holder, and the threaded end is what goes in/out of the screw you turn on the back of the headlight casing. After a bit of time with the calipers and Sketchup, I had this: For those wondering why I've had to print the screw off, it's basically impossible to extract this from the headlight casing without breaking it. To remove it, I had to drill into the head, use a self-tapper to extract the broken threaded part of the bracket, and then use a needle file to cut a section of the sidewall out to be able to extract this piece. After a few test prints, I sent off the parts to be made (https://makeitquick.co.uk), and received these back on Wednesday: You'll note these have a thread on them - I've used an M7x1.0 tap/die with some cutting fluid to do this. The thread is way to fine to accurately print on a part of this size! To actually get the left-piece into the headlight casing, you need to cut a recess across the top of the cone, (I did this with a hacksaw, then filed to about 2mm wide with a file): So you should end up with something like this: Before fitting, make sure you also place an O-ring where the red mark is. I used a 10x2mm O-ring, which stops this from moving back-and-forth in the headlight casing. To install in the headlight, I did the following: - Inserted the piece above and let it click into place - Lined up the threaded part of the bracket , with the ball-joint facing away from the headlight casing, and screwed it in (see below pic 1) - Screwed the bracket all the way in until there was no thread showing - Undid and removed the 10mm nylock nut between the dipped and high beams (which allows the bulb holders to drop down into the headlight casing) - Carefully pushed the bulb holders down, while rotating the adjuster screw to swing the balljoint over where it sits (see below pic 2) - Loosened the adjuster screw a few turns, then pushed the ball joint into the socket on the back of the dipped beam bulb holder - Re-tightened the 10mm nylock I'm not going to pretend it was easy - it was extremely fiddly and a lot of bad words were said, but we got there in the end. I believe this fix should work on both sides for the vertical (up-down) adjustment. It may also work for the left-right adjustment; however, I think you would have to split the headlight casing as you cannot see the mechanism from the side of the bulb holders. If someone's got a broken headlight and can extract the pieces of it, I'm happy to 3d model it to see if this also works! 3D Printing I have got a 3D printer, but as a hobbyist I'm not 100% on getting it as accurate as you can from someone using these day-in day-out. I chose to do a test print to make sure this would roughly match up to what parts came out the headlight, but then send them off to be printed in PC-ABS for added rigidity. I decided to use https://makeitquick.co.uk as I have had other things printed with them before, but by all means use anyone you trust. The important things for printing are: - Ensure the layer thickness is high quality, and the infill is high percentage - Print the female/screw part flat (as shown in the screenshot higher up), otherwise the part is prone to snapping when trying to tap a thread in it. It seems much stronger being printed in this orientation - I chose to have the screws sanded & bead blasted. I probably should've had the bracket done too, but it does seem to be fine as it stands now I've attached the STL files for both pieces at the bottom of this post - hopefully this is useful to someone in the future! Happy to answer any questions you have Headlight Adjuster Bracket_fixed.stl Headlight Adjuster Screw_fixed.stl

Update - with the car running, you do get 12v on the plug, but due to the open circuit the button doesn’t register on the dash, so can’t test if the voltage switches or not. Pulled the solenoid off regardless, and with 12v on it, there’s no click and the exhaust port vents to atmosphere, so think I’ve found the issue. Thanks all for your help!

Just tagging onto this topic (which has been massively helpful so far in aiding my troubleshooting!), with a question... My V6S has the Race & Premium pack, so comes with the exhaust bypass switch on the left of the steering wheel surround; however, it doesn't seem to operate the valve on the exhaust. So far I've verified: The exhaust arm moves freely, and closes when I apply vacuum pressure of more than 300mb I've got vacuum pressure (over 450mb) where the red hose (from the airbox) joins the solenoid I do not have vacuum at the exhaust valve itself (post-sensor) If I cap the line at the exhaust valve and pull a vacuum from the solenoid end, it holds fine, so confident the hose is in working order When I press the button in the cabin, I get a message on the display saying 'EX. OPEN or EX. SHUT' This leads me to believe it's the solenoid that's at fault... but just to rule out any electrical issues, I put a multimeter over the electrical connector on the solenoid, and regardless of the button in the cabin being in Ex. Open or Ex. Shut, I always get 9.5v. I'm looking at the electrical diagrams, and believe the switch is working fine and registering in the ECU, as I get the message appearing on the dashboard when I press it, but I'm not sure what the expected behaviour is at the solenoid. Should the solenoid always have 9.5v, 12v when closed and 0v when open?

Sorry a bit new to the Lotus scene... what's the difference between them? Just noise?

I'm on the lookout for a soft-top conversion kit for my Exige V6 S, in prep for a summer road trip. Let me know if you've got one gathering dust that you'd like to part company with!

About 0.5% of that of the Exige 💪

Thanks all, smitten with it so far! The motorsport green is looking a bit grey at the moment with the number of miles I’ve done, must get the karcher out tomorrow!

So I made a silly (😉) decision last week, and have become the proud owner of an Exige V6 S, with the Race and Premium Pack! I’d been on the lookout for one for the last 6 months or so, but when I saw the classified for this, I had to go and see it. I’ve had a few MX5’s before, and also have an Integra DC5 which mainly sees the tracks nowadays, but not sure for how much longer after driving this around… looking forward to see what the future holds in the green machine!