Caution: This section includes various modifications made to the Lotus Elise. Do not make these unless you know what you are doing. We accept no responsibility for damage to you or your car.

Adjusting Throttle Pedal Height

Once I adjusted the brake height, I wanted to adjust the height and throw of the throttle to match. I tend to want to sit back from the steering wheel. I moved the brake pedal towards the driver, thus allowing me to move the seat back from the steering wheel. Now the throttle was not level with the brake while braking. This makes it difficult to blip the throttle on down shifts while braking.

Lotus suggests replacing the rubber upstop for the throttle with a M5x15 hex bolt with three or so washers to gain the right height and a nut to hold it all together. I prefer to use a Nyloc to make sure it stays together. I found I preferred the height of the throttle with no washers. Adjust the height according to your preferences by adding (pushing the throttle away from the driver) or subtracting washers (bringing the throttle closer to the driver).

Once the up stop of the throttle is adjusted, you must also make sure the throttle quadrant on the engine is returning to idle and that you are getting full throttle when you have the pedal to the metal. According the section EMP of the Lotus Elise Service Manual:

Notes on Installation:

  1. I implemented step six from the manual and included the metal throttle up stop. I found the 15 mm length to be too long to fit in the bracket because of clearance problems and suggest using a 12 mm or even a 10 mm.
  2. Step two makes sure the cable is not stretched when the engine is at idle, which means the quadrant pictured above is closed. The throttle stop bracket should be against the throttle stop screw. Mine was not and so I needed to adjust by loosening the lock nut on the cable length adjustment and make the cable slightly longer. (add picture here)
  3. I did not have any problems with the idle control valve.
  4. I checked to make sure that full throttle pedal depression resulted in full rotation of the quadrant. This is a bit difficult to determine because there is no positive stop for full throttle on the quadrant. There is some resistance and the throttle pedal down stop should be contacted about the same time as resistance is felt in the throttle body. It helps to have a patient wife or enthusiastic child to help with this step, depressing the pedal.

    I did not feel it necessary to change the down stop as I do not often use full throttle and when I do it is gently. However if you choose to do so, it is a M8x20 (all are standard 1.25 pitch).