The small engine cover release finisher is a plastic washer which seems to get some beatings over time.
The washer is located under the release cable grip inside drivers the door recess.

As the Elise S1 is getting older we see quite a few cars on which the washer has chipped, split or it's completely feeling sorry for itself and kind of hangs on to the cable to survive.

Apart from changing the design from plastic to aluminium to make it more durable, we've also made it about half the price of the original plastic part.