Interior Exterior
Q:
It's one of those things. After taking out the passenger seat to replace the speaker,I screwed back in the bolts without the seat so as to not lose them. The front right bolt felt like it was cross-threading so as I was backing it out something broke. I know,
Now the bolt is loose in the hole, but threaded into a clip or something underneath that broke free and spins with the bolt but won't allow it to come out.
Before I commit to seeing if the undertray panel comes off to allow access to the bolt from underneath, I thought I'd ask the experts. I figure the other option is to just cut the bolt and let the remaining half to fall down and rattle around forevermore (hopefuly, there'd still be a way to secure that corner with a larger bolt).
Any insight or ideas? Thanks.
A:
I am 99% sure that the under-tray does not come off in the area under the seats. I think a bolt rattling around would drive me crazy.
I don't know if you have a "Don" in Vegas but if it was me I would take it to Don
Good Luck
A:
I am 99% sure that the under-tray does not come off in the area under the seats.
Rats.
Thanks for the heads-up.
A:
That's going to require cutting a small flap in the floor under the chassis beam I'm afraid.
Chassis beam is hollow and floor under the passenger compartiment is part of the glued/bonded chassis structure.
After fixing it, fold the flap shut and either have it welded up or use a sealant to make it watertight again.
Bye, Arno.
A:
Thanks, Arno. I've been thinking along the same lines, only cutting an access hole in the inside of the raised platform that the seat mounts to. This would end up under the seat and unable to be seen. I haven't thought about the need to seal it back up, but I think that area is still protected from the environment, isn't it?
A:
Just an update which may help others in the future. The local tech was able to drill out the bolt, making a larger hole such that there is now an empty hole covered with tape in the front right corner. The passenger seat is, therefore, secured with only three bolts, but seems solid.
What I found odd was that 2 of the three remaining bolts were 'stripped' although I didn't recognise this. The car must have been built that way since I only removed those bolts. With a tap and die, these were rethreaded without concern. The hole at the original bolt problem was marked at the factory with a green line, for whatever that is worth (i.e. if you have a green line by a hole - be careful)
Hopefully, future upgrades will include a different seat mounting system, at least allowing for repairs to properly secure the seats
A:
I'm having a heck of a time getting the rear left bolt of the passenger seat to thread in. I've got the nearly impossible rear right bolt snug, but the easy to access rear left is for some reason angry with me. It just spins and spins - never threading in.
A big 'Wag-Of-My-Finger' to Lotus for such problematic seat bolts.
A:
I'm having a heck of a time getting the rear left bolt of the passenger seat to thread in. I've got the nearly impossible rear right bolt snug, but the easy to access rear left is for some reason angry with me.
First rule of putting things back together - never tighten any bolts until you get them all started.
If things aren't quite positioned perfectly, the hole may not line up with the threaded insert. If you leave the other bolts loose, things can move around so that you can get them all started. Then you tighten them down.
If this could be your problem, I'd suggest that you loosen the other three bolts up, and see if you can start the fourth one.
A:
If this could be your problem, I'd suggest that you loosen the other three bolts up, and see if you can start the fourth one.
I took my passenger seat out a week or two ago to replace the speaker. I had the usual problems getting the bolts out (even damaging a tool in the process), but everything seemed to go back together okay. I took a friend out for a drive this weekend and he noticed the seat was moving a bit. Sure enough the right front bolt seems to have cross-threaded or at least not gone in all the way; It's tight enough in the hole that I don't want to risk turning it any tighter and making things worse, but it's not actually holding the seat down.
I pulled all of the seat bolts this morning and without the seat in place I still couldn't get that damn bolt to go in clean. It insists on going in at an angle and getting jammed. Looking in the hole, it almost looks like there's a couple of layers of metal and one of them has shifted a bit. The bolt also seems to have a little bit of thread damage, but not enough that I'd expect this sort of trouble. I'm off to get some metric taps+dies this evening and hopefully I can get things working again.
A:
Wow, I had fun this weekend with that area. I agree, to Lotus for this arrangement. I had problems with what seemed a cross threaded front right bolt.
I took a nice grade8 bolt, dropped a dab of grease on it, ran it through there 3-4 times to chase it. I used one of these http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes and one of those ratcheting box end wrenches. Bah, was cursing a lot.
A:
I used one of these http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes and one of those ratcheting box end wrenches. Bah, was cursing a lot.
The Special Applications set looks like it may be useful for the Elise, since it's all about tools for tight and unusual spaces. The car certainly seems to have no shortage of those. There's also the Special Access Pro set, but the price and tool selection aren't as good.
A:
Looking in the hole, it almost looks like there's a couple of layers of metal and one of them has shifted a bit.
It turns out this is because there are a couple of layers of metal, and the lower layer (with the threads) was indeed moveable. It doesn't shift very far, or turn, but it does rattle around. Is this normal, or perhaps did someone at the factory cross-thread the bolt and then torque it so hard that they snapped something loose?
The bolt also seems to have a little bit of thread damage, but not enough that I'd expect this sort of trouble. I'm off to get some metric taps+dies this evening and hopefully I can get things working again.
After re-threading both the hole and the bolt, it's now back in shape.
Aside: there were a few more issues during the procedure: the location of the hole meant that none of the wrenches in my tap set would fit, and the set didn't come with an extension. A quick workaround was to turn a normal socket upside-down, fit the square hole over the tap, and then use an allen wrench the same size as the socket. Another problem was reattaching the seatbelt when putting the seat back in. The threads in the bolt hole were full of crud (adhesive? seat material?) and that bolt refused to catch. My tap+die set didn't have any tool that matched this bolt; apparently it assumes bolts that thick will have larger threads. I used a scratch awl to dig as much as I could out of the first thread, then very light hammering to get the bolt to set as I turned it. Once I got it started, it went in smoothly.
A:
Two tips after pulling the seats numerous times:
1) The bolts are different sizes. Keep them in order.
2) Before replacing the seat, thread the bolts in and out three or four times (at least). Don't know why, but since doing this, I've never had a problem with cross threading.
A:
Another problem was reattaching the seatbelt when putting the seat back in. <...> apparently it assumes bolts that thick will have larger threads.
I don't know if this is still the case, but in the past, the US safety standards specified the bolt size that was required to mount a seatbelt. They specified a SAE thread size instead of a metric size. I don't know if that has been revised on not. Or if that could have even been the problem.
But it sounds like you used some ingenuity and solved the problem anyway.
A:
I don't know if this is still the case, but in the past, the US safety standards specified the bolt size that was required to mount a seatbelt. They specified a SAE thread size instead of a metric size.
The threads on the belt bolt seemed to match the (I think) metric 1.25 thread gauge that came with the tap+die set. I didn't try any SAE gauges so I don't know if this is simply a case of the standards intersecting.
A:
Originally Posted by dododge
Looking in the hole, it almost looks like there's a couple of layers of metal and one of them has shifted a bit.
It turns out this is because there are a couple of layers of metal, and the lower layer (with the threads) was indeed moveable. It doesn't shift very far, or turn, but it does rattle around. Is this normal, or perhaps did someone at the factory cross-thread the bolt and then torque it so hard that they snapped something loose?
I haven't had the seats out but this sounds like there is a captive nut on a plate that has some limited movement - this is very common in aircraft construction.