Content .. 20 21 22 23 ..

Lotus Elise / Lotus Exige. Manual - part 22

Page 7

Lotus Service Notes

Section CI

Notes

Shim distribution at the front bush of either wishbone must be copied at the rear bush of that wishbone.

Transferring a 1.5mm shim washer from ahead of, to behind the pivot bushes, will

reduce castor by ap-

proximately 0.4°.

Transferring a 1.5mm shim washer from behind, to ahead of the pivot bushes, will

increase castor by

approximately 0.4°.

Ensure that the load spreading washers are correctly located beneath the bolt heads and nuts as shown

in the drawings.

Ensure that the pivot bolts are tightened only with the vehicle at ride height. Torque to 45 Nm.

CI.3 - ANTI-ROLL BAR

Three types of anti-roll bar and chassis mounting have been used:

1. The standard tubular steel anti-roll bar is mounted in pivot bushes onto the front face of the chassis, and

is linked to the outboard ends of each lower front wishbone via short ball jointed links. The bar is mounted

to the chassis using rubber pivot bushes for noise isolation, retained by alloy clamp brackets. Washers

welded to the bar bear against the inner sides of the bushes to provide lateral location of the bar. Castrol

LMX rubber grease, or equivalent, should be used when ﬁtting the rubber bushes onto the anti-roll bar.

2. On Elise and Exige models built with 'Super Sport' suspension prior to August '06, a stiffer adjustable bar

is used with 5 holes in each end to allow some adjustment of roll stiffness to be made. Standard setting is

centre hole. Using a more forward hole increases stiffness. Two hard plastic clamping blocks secure the

bar to the chassis via the front lower wishbone inboard front pivot bolts, with 'top hat' section steel spacers

preventing the clamps from being crushed. An M5 bolt is used to close the bottom of each clamp.

Anti-Roll Bar Mounting - Rubber

Spacer plate

Rubber mounting

Clamp bracket

c40

Anti-Roll Bar Mounting - Hard 1 'Top hat' spacer

Clamping block

M5 bolt

Lower wishbone pivot bolt

Anti-roll bar

c40a

Page 8

Lotus Service Notes

Section CI

These hard type mountings provide optimum steering response but will transmit more noise and require

periodic lubrication with MoS

grease at 3,000 mile (5,000 km) intervals. Noise from excessive clearance

may be ameliorated by judicious shaving of the clamping block faces.

2. Elise and Exige models built with 'Super Sport' suspension from August '06, use a yellow painted, standard

rate, 5-hole adjustable bar, sharing the chassis mounting higher position of the standard bar but using

hard plastic bushes housed in alloy clamps. Each split pivot bush incorporates a raised shoulder around

its centre in order to engage with a groove in the two part clamp, and provide lateral location of the bush.

A pip on this shoulder locates in a hole in the clamp cap to prevent rotation of the bush. No lubrication is

required. These hard bushes beneﬁt dynamic response at some penalty to reﬁnement.

Anti-Roll Bar Drop Link

Lower wishbone

Anti-roll bar

drop link

Anti-roll bar

c31

Anti-Roll Bar Mounting - Hard 2

Smaller washer Bearing clamp rear

Alignment

dowel Anti-rotation

pip

Cap head bolt

Chassis

front face

Anti-roll bar Synthetic Bearing

split bush clamp

c40b

cap Flat washer

Page 9

Lotus Service Notes

Section CI

CI.4 - SUSPENSION DISASSEMBLY/ASSEMBLY

The suspension may be disassembled without the use of any special tools other than a 'Torx' socket for

the hub bearing carrier bolts, and a spring compressor, required only if the spring is to be removed from the

damper unit. With the car on a wheel free lift and with the front wheels removed:

1. Remove the wheelarch liner(s) as appropriate.

2. Remove the two bolts securing the brake calliper to the hub carrier, release the ﬂexible hose from the top

wishbone, and support the calliper aside without straining the brake hose. Release the single countersunk

screw, and remove the brake disc.

3. Remove the nut securing the track rod end into the steering arm, and use a ball joint splitter to separate

the rod end from the arm.

4. Remove the nut securing the top swivel joint to the steering arm, and use a ball joint splitter to separate

the joint from the arm. Remove the two M10 ﬁxing bolts and remove the steering arm from the hub carrier,

taking care not to misplace the camber adjustment shim plates.

5. Remove the nut securing the lower swivel joint to the hub carrier, and use a ball joint splitter to separate

the ball pin from the carrier.

6. Remove the bolts securing the spring/damper unit to the lower wishbone and chassis anchor bracket, and

withdraw the unit, noting the spacer washers ﬁtted at the top end.

7. Disconnect the anti-roll bar drop link from the lower wishbone, and remove the lower wishbone front pivot

bolt.

8. Remove the lower wishbone rear pivot bolt from within the cabin footwell, and withdraw the wishbone.

9. Before removing the two pivot bolts for the top wishbone, take careful note of the distribution of castor

adjustment washers. Move the steering rack to full lock to provide clearance for the withdrawal of the

wishbone rear pivot bolt. Withdraw the wishbone.

10. The wishbone pivot bushes comprise a rubber bush bonded to a steel inner sleeve and a ﬂanged plastic

outer sleeve. The bushes may be pressed out of the wishbone eyes, and new bushes ﬁtted using suit-

able press tool dollies. Smear the outer surface of the new bush with IPC 'P-80' rubber lubricant emulsion

(A082C6042V) to ease ﬁtment, and assemble as follows:

Top wishbone - insert from the outside of both pivot eyes (from front of front eye, and rear of rear eye).

Lower wishbone - insert from the inside of both pivot eyes (from rear of front eye, and front of rear eye).

Note that all top wishbone pivot bushes are common with the exception of the top wishbone rear pivot,

which contains no interleaf sleeve and is identiﬁed by a blue paint mark.

11. Top and bottom swivel joints are identical, and may be replaced if necessary using a suitable press.

12. If the anti-roll bar is to be removed; remove the front alloy undertray, and, by drilling out the rivets, the

small alloy closing panel at each side of the crash structure below the anti-roll bar. Release the a.r. bar

clamps and drop links, and withdraw the bar.

13. The road spring may be removed from the damper using a suitable spring compressor to allow the spring

lower slotted seat to be withdrawn. Note that spring upper seat is located by a square section circlip on

the damper body:

- Standard Elise: Use centre of 3 grooves for mid-laden ride height of 130mm.

- USA Elise: Use lower of 3 grooves for mid-laden ride height of 135mm.

- Elise with sports suspension package and non-USA Exige: Use the upper of 2 grooves for mid-laden

ride height of 130mm.

14. To remove the hub bearing unit from the hub carrier, release the three Torx head bolts and withdraw the

complete unit. The hub unit is not serviceable, and is replaced complete if faulty.

Page 10

Lotus Service Notes

Section CI

Reassembly

Re-assemble the suspension in reverse order to disassembly with the following notes:

Take care to assemble each pivot bolt with the correct washers/snubbers/spacers as shown in the dia-

grams.

Smear the shank of each pivot bolt with PBC grease, but do not allow contamination of the threads.

Take care to reﬁt the original camber adjustment shimpack, and distribute the castor shims as noted on

removal.

Top ball joint plinth ﬁxing bolts:

The bolts securing the steering arm/top ball joint plinth to the hub carrier were upgraded in March '04 at

VIN serial number 1537 (approx.) in order to commonise with motorsport applications. Earlier type 8.8

grade bolts should be tightened to 45 Nm; Later 10.9 grade bolts to 68 Nm. The bolt grade is stamped

around the head of the bolt. The thread of both bolt types should ﬁrst be treated with Permabond A130

(A912E7033V).

After re-ﬁtting a standard anti-roll bar, ensure that the crash structure closing panels are re-riveted.

Lubricate the rubber type anti-roll bar mountings with rubber grease and the Nylon type with MoS

grease.

Apply Permabond A130 (A912E7033V) to the threads of the steering arm bolts.

Lubricate the ends of the damper top eye bush with rubber grease.

Press the brake pedal to reposition the pads before driving the car.

If the car suffers a suspension impact sufﬁcient to damage a wheel rim, careful attention should be paid to

all related suspension components. Such forces can cause stretching of the lower ball pin and consequent

ﬁxing nut torque loss. As a safety precaution, it is recommended that in all such cases, the lower ball joint

and the two bolts securing the upper ball joint plinth to the hub carrier are renewed.

The Service Schedule speciﬁes that the security of the front and rear suspension is checked at each service.

For cars used on race tracks, or in similar conditions, suspension components and torque checks should be

carried out between sessions. This operation requires that all the principal suspension pivot bolts are torque

checked, noting the following points:

Where a bolt is tapped into a housing or weldnut, and relies on a thread locking compound for security, it

is important to appreciate that if the bolt is disturbed, the locking compound must be re-applied. The following

procedure should be adopted for all such ﬁxings:

Check the torque of the ﬁxing.

If the speciﬁed torque is attained without the ﬁxing being disturbed (moving), take no further action.

If the bolt moves, the locking action of the thread adhesive will have been compromised. Remove the

bolt completely, clean off all old adhesive using a wire brush and acetone, and apply new adhesive as

speciﬁed.

Reﬁt the bolt and tighten to the speciﬁed torque.

If for any reason a bolt is found to have become loose, and the car has been operated for any period in

this condition, the bolt should be renewed as a standard precaution and related components carefully

inspected for hole ovality or wear.

Torque Settings: Nm

Upper and lower wishbone pivot bolts 45

Upper swivel joint to steering arm 55

Lower swivel joint to plinth 55

Steering arm to hub carrier - 8.8 grade 45

- 10.9 grade 68

Track rod end to steering arm 30

Damper to lower wishbone 45

Damper to top anchor bracket 45

Damper anchor bracket to chassis 25

Hub bearing unit to hub carrier 90

Brake calliper to hub carrier 45

Anti-roll bar alloy mounting clamps 25

Anti-roll bar drop links 45

Content .. 20 21 22 23 ..