nigelh

Was good to meet you at Blyton today Carl. Hope you enjoyed your first time out in the Evora - you seemed to get plenty of track time in. I've only been to Blyton once in an Evora, but have taken them to a few other circuits and I do think a bigger circuit suits them more. Nigel (with the blue S1 Elise)

👍 Hope it finds a new home a bit quicker this time

Looks good Scott - the 4xx cars definitely benefit from using all the revs, so get those run-in miles out of the way ASAP. I do like the bumpers on the GT410, but after a test drive of one last year I couldn't quite justify a 400 to GT410 upgrade. What did you do with your (my old) N/A? Sell it on or trade it in?

Lotus switched my Evora 400 to a gatorback belt after repeated problems with the aircon tripping out due to belt slip: My car is also currently in for it's 'C' service and they were waiting for delivery of another gatorback belt from Lotus last time I spoke to them. Looks like the part numbers for the 400 (now on a 'C' revision) and the S1 (S) Evora belts are different though, so maybe the change was only applied to the 400. ....or maybe even just 400s with belt slip problems?

Those instructions are for an S1 Evora. The 400 doesn't have the same type of momentary switch for turning the lights on / off, and do not switch off automatically. See this thread for details of the equivalent 400 'homesafe' functionality:

Unless someone has worked out the costs of fitting the charge-cooled TVS1900 to a 400 it's surely not so easy to compare the costs with other power related upgrade options. It's also worth noting that since this topic has been split off from the TVS1900 topic, my initial comment now looks completely out of context.

I have to admit, now my 400 is out of warranty I was starting to wonder about the TVS1900. Given that the 400 already has the plumbing etc for the charge-cooler, I was curious if anyone had looked at putting the charge-cooled TVS1900 in one. Would it be easier/cheaper than fitting to an 'S' due to the changes already there? How would it compare to some of the other options for the 400?

The seats have independent switches at each end of the main bank:

Cracking looking car Phill. That wing looks bigger than the one on your old race car!

Was any reason given in the TSB for the change? The Evora belts will be different due to the power steering, but it would certainly be interesting if they were changed on the Exige due to belt slip problems.

I updated the firmware on my INE-W990BT just after I got the car and don't remember it causing any problems. I think it did loose some settings, but nothing that couldn't be reconfigured easily enough through the UI. It takes a little while for the update to run, so don't start it when you're planning to go out somewhere. I've since replaced mine with a Pioneer head unit, and it's sitting in a box at home. Was fully functioning when I took it out a couple of months ago, and would be happy to sell it at the going rate if a firmware update doesn't fix your problem (ebay probably a good place to find the going rate?). Also worth mentioning that the main harness plug for the INE-W990BT looks to be identical to the IVA-W505R I took out of my previous N/A, so they should be a good candidate for an easy upgrade on the earlier cars.

This might not be relevant (I never had any problems with the belt on my N/A Evora), but thought it might be worth flagging up as it might be related to the change in service schedule. I've had ongoing problems with the aircon stopping working on my 400 due to tripping the 'belt slip' error code in the ECU. It's been looked at a number of times under warranty, and one of the things Lotus instructed the dealer to do was replace the S belt. This was done in May, but the problem resurfaced before the end of the year. I've just picked up the car from another attempt to fix the problem by, you guessed it - replacing the belt. The only difference this time is that they have switched belt design to one of the gatorback style belts (see attached). Not sure if this design is being used for all belt replacements now, or they are just trying it out.

It had a Pioneer SPH-DA120 when I traded it in, and the photos would suggest it's still in there. Gearbox choice will always be subjective, and largely dependant on your use. For me, the long box plays up to the Evora's comfortable GT credentials - 5th & 6th will only be used on a motorway cruise, whereas the close ratio plays more to the sports car side of it's character.

The phone mount I referred to is the Elise-shop bracket that you can then fix an actual mount to (Brodit in my case). It works well in an S1 Evora, but not suitable for a 400. Not sure why I can't edit my earlier post to fix the broken youtube link, but the video was just meant to demonstrate that the phone connects quickly over wifi when the head unit starts:

When I had my N/A Evora I swapped the original Alpine IVA-W505R head unit for a Pioneer SPH-DA120. I thought the Pioneer was a big step up from the Alpine, but with some limitations. Before I get into them - I've had both Apple & Android phones over the years and my current preference is an iphone, so let's avoid discussions about which of those is best eh? Carplay worked great, but a bit of a pain to have to plug the phone in for short journeys The SPH-DA120 didn't support android auto, so problematic if I switched phone platform. (Sounds like the newer SPH-DA230DAB resolves this issue) The SPH-DA120 doesn't have an in-built satnav - it's what makes it cheap. Not a problem if you can run satnav on the phone I prefer satnav apps with offline maps. Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze etc are fine, but I want something that works even when I don't have internet access At the time, 3rd party nav apps were not allowed be either carplay or android auto, which creates problems for point 4. This lead to me installing one of Yvos phone mounts and running the satnav on the phone, next to the big screen that was relegated to a media player When I swapped the N/A for a 400 it came with the OE Alpine INE-W990BT. This worked reasonable well, and whilst the satnav could be a little sluggish at times it was miles better that the old INE-W505R, so I've kept it for the last year or so. After a Euro trip this August I decided I wanted something a bit more up to date and after giving serious consideration to the Alpine INE-W710D (the latest offering from Lotus), I opted for the Pioneer AVIC-Z910DAB - mainly for the combination of wireless carplay plus in-built satnav. Pluses: Capacitive touchscreen that's bigger than the INE-W990BT and SPH-DA120 - same size as the INE-W710D Supports carplay & android auto Carplay now supports 3rd party nav apps Wireless connection Has an inbuilt satnav. Don't plan to use it, but useful if the phone stops working Negatives: Harness needs splicing to the Lotus short ICE harness Microphone & GPS antenna fittings are different Surround needs a little fettling for the head unit to fit Even after fettling, the surround it a tight fit - means I probably can't use the head unit CD player or SD card slot Expensive - maybe next year there'll be more head units with capacitive screen, satnav and wireless carplay, but not much choice at the moment. So, with help from this thread, this thread, and my previous experience with the SPH-DA120, I chopped & soldered the harnesses: I decided that I'd prefer to retain the existing microphone and GPS antenna if possible, so ordered a some adapters. The GPS antenna was not a problem, even though I could only find one in the US. The mic was surprisingly problematic - I tried at least 4 different adapter combinations before I found something that worked. GPS Antenna Adapter Microphone adapter I also order one of these - the INE-W990BT has a trailing lead for the antenna, but the AVIC-Z910DAB doesn't. I pulled on the antenna lead to see if I could make it reach, but it didn't want to move much, so just got the short extension instead. The results work pretty well. The phone connects very quickly at startup, so for short journeys I can leave my phone in my pocket whilst still having music/satnav driven by the phone. For longer journeys I'll still plug the phone in to keep it charged. Demo of wireless connection: Youtube Also worth mentioning - the plug from the INE-W990BT looks the same as the IVA-W505R, so should be a straightforward swap for earlier Evoras. Expect to see mine in the classifieds soon