A&Q about Lotus
Q:
So I bought my '06 Exige last saturday Since then I've put 540 miles on it, all of them treating the car like my first born.
Up until today I haven't had to use the brakes much, when you don't drive hard you end up not having to brake hard, and I like to keep a large following distance on the highway. Anyway, today some guy pops his nose out of a parking lot and into my lane, sees me, and then does the exact wrong thing. He stops, right in my lane.
Of course, I stand on the brakes. Now what I expect at this point is the car to do a nosedive, any loose items to become projectiles and hit the windshield and ABS to come on. In otherwords, a full-panic stop, the kind that is so fast you are glad the steatbelts kept you from hitting the dashboard. This is not exactly what happened.
Oh sure, the nose dipped a bit, the car slowed down, and I didn't hit the guy. But ABS never came on, nothing moved around, it wasn't exactly the kind of stop I was hoping for. After this stop, the rear brakes started moaning at low speeds, when coming to a stop. Not squeaking or squealing, but a much lower moan, like what you would expect from a city bus.
I could have an air bubble in the brake lines, a defective master cylinder, or some other serious problem, but what I think is going on is that I've never used the brakes enough to bed them in properly. So I need to heat 'em up enough to cook off the surface of the pads, and transfer a thin layer of pad material to the rotor. Like what is described here: Doing this would require using a bit more throttle and being a bit unkind to my green engine (and would also require an empty highway in the middle of the night), so before I do it, I'd like a 2nd opinion.
Oh, and since this is a first post, here is the obligatory pic
A:
bedding the brakes in properly would most likely make a world of difference. it really is required (either that or put on a 1000miles of normal driving.)
the break in guide says you CAN exceed certain engine speeds but not for "extended lengths of time." it's perfectly fine to get the car up to whatever speed you think is needed for a good bedding in of the brakes.
The way my elise stops is fantastic - I can have ABS kick in at 100mph easily.
A:
You can easily break-in your brakes during engine break-in. Just get the speeds up while keeping the revs down. A series of snubs are what you need.
A:
Your brakes aren't broken in, but you might find this item Lotus testing the federal car's ABS interesting:
"So we kept the ride and handling expert -- Matt Becker -- out of the prototype until we were ready for a serious test. That opportunity came at the Nordschleife circuit of the Nurburgring when the brake engineer, Dave Kay, put Matt in the car and told him to go for it. He cut a fast lap, emerged from the car a little pink-faced and reported that the ABS had not cut in at all! Dave downloaded the data logger and discovered ABS had intervened 26 times, but so late and so precisely at the point of maximum braking that even Matt had not picked it up! We were pretty chuffed, I can tell you, for we'd got precisely what we wanted." -- Lotus Elise The Official Story Continues, pg 199
Chuffed.
A:
At 3000 miles my Elise still stops gradually in a panic stop. Brakes are great when pedal is not jumped on. Dealer says no problem found, tadts!
A:
Originally Posted by Taxcheat
Your brakes aren't broken in, but you might find this item Lotus testing the federal car's ABS interesting:
"So we kept the ride and handling expert -- Matt Becker -- out of the prototype until we were ready for a serious test. That opportunity came at the Nordschleife circuit of the Nurburgring when the brake engineer, Dave Kay, put Matt in the car and told him to go for it. He cut a fast lap, emerged from the car a little pink-faced and reported that the ABS had not cut in at all! Dave downloaded the data logger and discovered ABS had intervened 26 times, but so late and so precisely at the point of maximum braking that even Matt had not picked it up! We were pretty chuffed, I can tell you, for we'd got precisely what we wanted." -- Lotus Elise The Official Story Continues, pg 199
Chuffed.
Nice
The car doesn't have the same 'pulsing' feeling that most ABS systems have I find. Every time I drive the car (or read more about it) I love it a little more
A:
Gosh... I think the brakes on my Elise are the equivalent of thrust-reversers. They'll suck your eyeballs out. Whenever I've done a panic stop demonstration for friends, they all say the same thing, and I quote, "Holy $@&t!"
Mike
A:
So I tried bedding the brakes last night around 1am. While they did get a little bit better, they are still somewhat soft. I had to abort due to sheriff presence on the road I was using. While I don't think slowing down fast is against the law, and I wasn't speeding, I don't think they would have been too pleased
I'll try again later.
At least something else good came out of last night:
A:
One thing to get used to is that the Elise does not 'dive' quite as much as normal cars. This makes the decelleration much less dramatic and it seems like it's not slowing down as much.
Once you take it onto the track you notice that it definitely is and actually slows down the car quite a bit more than others as you can brake much later.
If you can't get it to lock up or go into ABS at speed on the road, then I'd hazzard a guess that you're simply not standing on the brake pedal enough like 80% of people on the road. Don't be afraid to break the car and really stomp onto the pedal with all your strength.
BTW.. This is why brake-assist systems are now used often.. Post-crash data analysis shows that many drivers don't even reach 60% of the required pedal pressures. In many cases crashes could have been avoided if they had reached 100%..
Oh.. And the Elise is set up in such a way that you should get into the habit of NOT pressing the clutch pedal while braking, right up to the point where the car is almost stopped and you need to de-clutch to stop stalling the engine. The 'drive' to the rear wheels stops them locking/grabbing and upsetting the balance of the car. (less of an issue with the ABS equipped fed-elise, but still..)
Bye, Arno.
A:
The first week I had my Exige took some mental adjusting. I found myself having to let back off the brakes and drive on up to the stopping point because I had slowed down twice as much as expected.
I can now routinely keep driving right towards a stopping point until I think I'm surely going to die, then brake and still have too much room left over. The car stops a lot faster than it feels.
xtn
A:
Originally Posted by Arno
If you can't get it to lock up or go into ABS at speed on the road, then I'd hazzard a guess that you're simply not standing on the brake pedal enough
Not long after getting my car, I decided to test the brakes on a back road (no traffic). I got it up to about 60 and stomped on the brakes - the ABS didn't kick in. I did it again, and pressed even harder (would have had any other cars skidding all four or the ABS pumping away) - the ABS didn't kick in. On the third time, I pressed even harder than on any car ever before, and I finally got the ABS to kick in. Simply amazing how much better the Elise can stop compared to any other car I'd ever driven before. If you have not done this, you really need to do it so that you will actually know how much stopping power is available with the Elise.
A:
Originally Posted by TimMullen
Not long after getting my car, I decided to test the brakes on a back road (no traffic). I got it up to about 60 and stomped on the brakes - the ABS didn't kick in. I did it again, and pressed even harder (would have had any other cars skidding all four or the ABS pumping away) - the ABS didn't kick in. On the third time, I pressed even harder than on any car ever before, and I finally got the ABS to kick in. Simply amazing how much better the Elise can stop compared to any other car I'd ever driven before. If you have not done this, you really need to do it so that you will actually know how much stopping power is available with the Elise.
Quite! I let my extremely capable instructor drive the Elise at the HPDE on Saturday and confirmed my belief that the Elise will be MUCH more car than I can use for quite some time. It was like an amusement park ride. Yow.
A:
Darkness,
Do yourself a favor and make sure that you drop by your nearest Lotus dealer and let them know of your braking issues. If anything else, they'll put it in their system so that the factory can have a record of this and your dealer can inspect it once again at the 1k mile service. It's good that you can come to a forum like this and have knowledgable owners to direct you but, it's even BETTER if you can notify the factory so that this is documented to protect yourself...nice car btw
A:
i had a 3 ft tall jack rabbit jump out in the road at 80mph .... i slammed the brake pedal and heard the coolest chirp out of the a048's that ive ever heard a car make!!!kinda surprised me cuzz i figured the ABS would have stopped it from doing that. i turned the wheel a bit and zipped around him still in control. but i wanted to know if the abs was working so i pushed the pedal hard at speed and sure enough i COULD feel the abs come "on" but i could still steer quite well. good system shouldn't be noticed if it is working properly.
keep pushing them harder and harder a bit at a time soon you will feel it.
A:
Originally Posted by bmw1
it's even BETTER if you can notify the factory so that this is documented to protect yourself...
Very good advice.
A:
I would compair the brakes on my Exige to those on my yamaha R1 race bike. If you arent employing your ABS its not the brakes its only a matter of having more guts! They work if you do. I will give two sugestions on how to be certain they are (or are not) working.#1 find a road that is bumpy (one you know well) and hit the brakes about 70% harder than you feel you should. If that doesnt work try the same thing after a rain. The wet road surface should allow the tires to skip if you will,seeing as the ABS of my Exige is very different than any other car(truck) I've ever owned,they dont pulse they just seem to vibrate vibrate stop! If you dont feel comfortable with the extreme stop in the wet PLEASE dont try it.I'm not trying to give advice that would get anyone hurt.To each there own level of experiance,or is it some of us are just a little nuttier than others? Good luck and just push harder!!!
A:
Does the ABS light come on when you hit the brakes hard enough to engage it?
Or do you just "know"?
I haven't hit the brakes hard enough in my car to find out. I think I read something about disabling the ABS (but you lose the speedometer?) by pulling a fuse. Is that true?
A:
Originally Posted by Bane
Does the ABS light come on when you hit the brakes hard enough to engage it?
I didn't notice one way or the other. I just heard the slight (repeated) chirping of the tires, and felt the slight vibration on my pedal. I've been too busy being held back by my seat belts to notice any light.
A:
I would tell you that I thought (before getting) my Exige that the first thing I would do was disable the ABS,but after driving VERY!!! hard I would never even think about it. Our cars are so lite and nimble that to allow for full lock up during hard driving would be potentially deadly!!! I have engadged my ABS on a number of occations and as minimal as it seems if your feeling it you need it. It is very difficult to get it to engadge (you must really be pushing) at least in my experiance. And yes I believe a light does come on,but dont quote me on that I was more concerned with the road.
A:
Do a search for "ice mode" if you want some more information about it... Randy has a very good description in his post in the link above.