Sound advice

[Tommy Twist]

Hi folks,

I've had my first Elise for two days, a 2007 "S" — amazing car, but I need to (re)learn to be a lot more cautious in the wet than I had to be with my previous car!

Anyway, I would like to know whether some of the sounds I'm hearing while driving are 'standard features' or anything that could/should be investigated further. I would be most grateful for any input you can offer

• At low revs, the exhaust sounds a bit 'tinkly' to me... at first I thought it might be engine pinking, but I'm fairly certain it's exhaust-related. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm wondering if it might be a loose heat shield.
• First gear is a little whirry/whiny... nothing drastic, and it's 'underneath' the sound of the engine, but I wondered if that was normal?
• I hear a few rattles & creaks at low speeds over moderately uneven surfaces, but this seems less noticeable at higher speeds on the open road (perhaps because it's being drowned out by engine/road noise!). Hard to pinpoint the sources of the noises. I guess that this car and the other I test drove must've made similar creaks/rattles, or I would've noticed one making them and not the other... I was just wondering if they all did this, and where it tends to come from? I guess with less sound-proofing than a 'normal' car it should expected to an extent?

Thanks again folks

[Tommy Twist]

P.S. Is there a general consensus about whether it's worthwhile using super unleaded in these cars?

Ta.

[robin]

They all creak and rattle to an extent - some issues can be cured, others are just too hard to track down.

The exhaust heatshields on the toyota engine cars often break loose from the exhaust (the bolts break through the shield leaving the shield loose); this might explain some tinkly type sounds.

I doubt it needs super-unleaded - I never put that in the 240 Exige when I had it

Cheers,
Robin

[B12ANR]

I was the same when i got my Exige S but i learned just accept the car makes lots of little noises which come and go. I have the roof off quite a lot too which adds to the variety of squeaks and rattles

It's all character imo!

Have fun in your new wheels!

[campbell]

All entirely normal Tommy. Main thing to observe is any sudden arrival of a major creak or clonk, then you need to pay more attention, but otherwise, "they all do that sir", and the best advice is...drive faster or take the roof off

(and this from the world's original rattle-trapper...I have up after a couple of years!)

Don't think Super will add much to the party, albeit the Yota ECU can probably tell you are using it. But for a few extra p per litre, I doubt you'll see the return in terms of bhp, or mpg (the latter might just break even but who knows eh...).

McKean knows a thing or two about this stuff...his company makes some of it ...so he might have a view.

Campbell

[duggiesmith]

As others have said, it all sounds totally normal.
If the heat shields haven't been replaced, they may well have broken loose (I think their life expectancy is about 3-4 yrs).
As for squeaks and rattles, all part of character although you might want to check the sun visor isn't pushed right up against the windscreen as this will often squeak (that's about the limit of my technical knowledge).
I've asked about Premium unleaded before and the general consensus is it won't make any significant difference for your engine and given the price of fuel, you'd be better off saving the money for a few trackdays instead

[Tommy Twist]

Thanks very much for the replies, folks

OK, I'll live with the odd 'bodywork' vibration for now - as I say, only noticed at low speed anyway. A wee bit of first gear whine is livable too, provided it doesn't get any louder... actually my previous car had a louder whine in second gear and it had an even lower mileage than the Elise when I bought it. So no biggie.

The heat shield rattle (if indeed that's what it is) is annoying though, so I'll have that looked at.

Also meant to mention - sometimes there's a bit of a 'thunk' from behind when selecting reverse gear - felt more than heard, really. And occassionally I've had to double-clutch to get into reverse. Doesn't seem ideal on a car with under 20K miles... hmmm.

Thanks again.

[robin]

The rover box doesn't have syncro on reverse so you sometimes need a bit of clutch to help is engage. The Toyota box may be the same?

The thump on reverse could be drivetrain slack (worth asking MMC or whoever you bought it from to confirm that it is not drivetrain slack) or, more likely, is brake pads. When you come to a stop going forwards the pads rise to the top of the caliper. When you then reverse they can get dragged to the bottom of the caliper and make a clonk. Anti-rattle buffers are fitted to deaden this and similar pad noise, but they aren't always there.

Try this. Stop the car whilst going forwards normally, engage reverse and listen for the clonk. Now go forwards again, use the brake to stop and repeat. It'll clonk again, this time, engage first and go forwards but let the car coast to a stop so that you did not touch the brake pedal since stopping when going backwards. Now engage reverse and see if it clonks just the same. If it doesn't then it's just the normal pad clonk. If it still clonks it's something else (exhaust pipe/back box is another possible source of clonking in reverse).

Cheers,
Robin

[Tommy Twist]

Hi Robin,

Actually I don't know if the Toyota box's reverse has a syncro.

The low thump is felt precisely at the point that the gear lever is slotted into reverse, so I doubt that it's brake-related. Drive train slack is a possibility, I guess.

Thanks again.

[robin]

In that case the thump is the input shaft/clutch stopping. When the engine is running and you've pressed the clutch pedal down the clutch still drags on the friction plate so provided the box is in neutral the input shaft will still spin. When you make the reverse gear engage when the car is stationary, the input shaft/clutch plate must stop spinning (the wheels aren't moving, the gear is engaged so the input shaft cannot move either).

Cheers,
Robin

[Tommy Twist]

Cheers Robin, maybe I need to give it a few more seconds after drawing to a halt before engaging reverse.

[Shug]

In Elaines car (yota powered) I give it a two second count before engaging reverse, to avoid her look of disapproval at the crunch...

[campbell]

In Elaines car (yota powered) I give it a two second count before engaging reverse, to avoid her look of disapproval at the crunch...

Now there is definitely an alternative way to interpret that entire statement. However only the physical impossibility of such a manouevre, in an Elise, prevents it from holding true...

[Tommy Twist]

In Elaines car (yota powered) I give it a two second count before engaging reverse, to avoid her look of disapproval at the crunch...

Now there is definitely an alternative way to interpret that entire statement. However only the physical impossibility of such a manouevre, in an Elise, prevents it from holding true...

Either way, it's likely that lack of lubrication is exacerbating the situation

[Tommy Twist]

P.S. Cheers for the comment Shug. Is Elaine's car an 'R' or an 'S', out of interest? (assuming it's an Elise).