Fitting a stereo to an Elise S3

[Marc_Hill]

Wondered if anyone has any experience of fitting and wiring up a stereo and speakers to a car not specced from factory.

Is there a loom/wires already in place?

[crispyj]

I believe it’s a standard loom on all cars. Mine had no rear speakers but the wiring was there.

[Baldchap]

Ours came with one but TBH the acoustics and road noise are sufficiently bad that I think I've used it twice.

[Paul_M3]

I've got an Exige, but as somebody said earlier it appears there is one standard wiring loom fitted to the Lotus cars.

I upgraded the front speakers, added rear speakers and also fitted a compact active subwoofer in the passenger footwell.

At town speeds it's actually quite good. At motorway speeds you do have to crank the volume up a bit, but it does make the 3 hour+ journeys to track days much more bearable.

[1981Lotus]

crispyj said:

I believe it’s a standard loom on all cars. Mine had no rear speakers but the wiring was there.

What age, model Elise was this? Trying to figure out if mine has the wires too.

[1981Lotus]

crispyj said:

I believe it’s a standard loom on all cars. Mine had no rear speakers but the wiring was there.

What age, model Elise was this? Trying to figure out if mine has the wires too.

[GaryF]

Hi, I have a 2019 S3 Exige and was happy to find rear speaker cables taped up either side behind the plastic bulkhead cover behind the seats. I think you will have them on the Elise too if you investigate.

I fitted Focal Flax Cone 165s at the rear, but they required a spacer due to their depth, plus Focal Access 100s at the front and a Pioneer sub in the passenger footwell. Heed unit is a Pioneer flip - see Paul's Exige thread for more detailed info on the install

The only issue I have is that my 3,400ish USB-stored songs won't play as in WMA losless format. The Pioneer I thought, supported these, but it turns out,not the 'lossless' variety Have had to buy some bulk conveter software - UniConverter.

Hopefully you can progress your install too. I'd definitely recommend the sub though in addition to the rear speakers as makes a big difference.