Elan M100 not well
Discussion
Just had a call from Lakeside Engineering to say that our Elan
1. Needs its rad re-coreing at a cost of around £330 + VAT (inc labour).
2. Was subject to a factory recall on the chassis that was never performed on our car.
3. Has at some stage in its life been involved in a heavy rear-end shunt.
The good news is that they can do the factory recall work for the cost of 30mins labour (the parts being free), and the chassis appears to be sound, so the rear-end shunt isn't particularly something to worry about.
Does anyone know what the nature of the factory recall was?
1. Needs its rad re-coreing at a cost of around £330 + VAT (inc labour).
2. Was subject to a factory recall on the chassis that was never performed on our car.
3. Has at some stage in its life been involved in a heavy rear-end shunt.
The good news is that they can do the factory recall work for the cost of 30mins labour (the parts being free), and the chassis appears to be sound, so the rear-end shunt isn't particularly something to worry about.
Does anyone know what the nature of the factory recall was?
Did the shunt not show up on HPI? Jon,
Log onto <a href="http://www.lotuselancentral.com">www.lotuselancentral.com</a>
this subject has been covered recently, IIRC you can get a Recon. Rad. for about £160
hope this helps try these people for your radiator
TOTNES radiators
01803 863123
Also all the recalls are on there, I'll have a look later on when I get home
>> Edited by mustard on Friday 4th June 14:42
>> Edited by mustard on Friday 4th June 14:52
Log onto <a href="http://www.lotuselancentral.com">www.lotuselancentral.com</a>
this subject has been covered recently, IIRC you can get a Recon. Rad. for about £160
hope this helps try these people for your radiator
TOTNES radiators
01803 863123
Also all the recalls are on there, I'll have a look later on when I get home
>> Edited by mustard on Friday 4th June 14:42
>> Edited by mustard on Friday 4th June 14:52
1991/21 Precautionary Replacement of Chassis Longeron Positioning Bolt
or
1992/08 Fitment of Chassis Load Spreading Plate to Rear Engine Mounting
The first one would be extremely unlikely to be spotted - as would the second one come to think of it!
The Rad rebuild is a rip off as you can get a new rad from Lotus for not much more, 120 is nearer the mark for supply only.
Scheduled time for radiator replacement is 1.5/1.6 hours depending on whether you have aircon or not.
or
1992/08 Fitment of Chassis Load Spreading Plate to Rear Engine Mounting
The first one would be extremely unlikely to be spotted - as would the second one come to think of it!
The Rad rebuild is a rip off as you can get a new rad from Lotus for not much more, 120 is nearer the mark for supply only.
Scheduled time for radiator replacement is 1.5/1.6 hours depending on whether you have aircon or not.
The car is a 1990 H-plate, if that helps.
Unfortunately I'm over a bit of a barrel with regards to the rad as they say that their investigative work has made the coolant leak worse and they don't recommend driving the car. I don't know anyone with a car trailer and can't tow it as the wife refuses to be the driver of either the towing vehicle or the towed vehicle.
The car was only borderline drivable anyway as we were topping up the coolant every other day, so I can well believe that they've picked at it and made the leak worse. Easily done.
Unfortunately I'm over a bit of a barrel with regards to the rad as they say that their investigative work has made the coolant leak worse and they don't recommend driving the car. I don't know anyone with a car trailer and can't tow it as the wife refuses to be the driver of either the towing vehicle or the towed vehicle.
The car was only borderline drivable anyway as we were topping up the coolant every other day, so I can well believe that they've picked at it and made the leak worse. Easily done.
Lakeside are good chaps, but work on the basis that if you ask them to supply a part it will be either from Lotus or somewhere they know and trust, and will not necessarily be the cheapest. I suspect this is good business sense based on many years experience of repeat custom.
They will fit customer supplied parts if you ask, but obviously don't expect them to change it for free if it fails prematurely, or to swallow any extra labout if doesn't fit easily or whatever.
AdrianR
p.s. If cost is a problem, you could always order something and have it delivered direct to them to fit.
>> Edited by adrianr on Monday 7th June 10:19
They will fit customer supplied parts if you ask, but obviously don't expect them to change it for free if it fails prematurely, or to swallow any extra labout if doesn't fit easily or whatever.
AdrianR
p.s. If cost is a problem, you could always order something and have it delivered direct to them to fit.
>> Edited by adrianr on Monday 7th June 10:19
Jon, just seen the thread, sorry to read about yr problems with the car. Surprised that a recall was not carried out bearing in mind all the service history. Also that the missed recall and the apparent shunt in the past were not reported by Bell & Collvile when they carried out a pre-purchase inspection for the previous owner. Just the sort of thing I would have thought they should be looking for! Hope you're getting it sorted OK now?
Elanbloke said:Hi Laurence!
Jon, just seen the thread, sorry to read about yr problems with the car. Surprised that a recall was not carried out bearing in mind all the service history. Also that the missed recall and the apparent shunt in the past were not reported by Bell & Collvile when they carried out a pre-purchase inspection for the previous owner. Just the sort of thing I would have thought they should be looking for! Hope you're getting it sorted OK now?
Haven't got the car back yet - should be ready tomorrow (ie. they'll have had it a week). Apparantly it would have been ready yesterday if they hadn't been waiting for a hood release cable.
Still, all part of the fun of car ownership.
By the way, please don't think I hold you responsible or anything - I'm sure you were just as ignorant of this as we were.
(For the benefit of everyone else, Laurence was the previous owner of our Elan)
Cheers Jon
Just had to replace the hood release cable on the S2 - a pain of job actually! Also a blocked fuel filler drain, some plastic window guides, an electric cooling fan, 2 headlights and the battery. PS, If Lakeside have not put the rear tray back yet it may be worth having them change the fuel filter while it's accessible (quite cheep & available from Halfords).
Best Regards, Laurence
Just had to replace the hood release cable on the S2 - a pain of job actually! Also a blocked fuel filler drain, some plastic window guides, an electric cooling fan, 2 headlights and the battery. PS, If Lakeside have not put the rear tray back yet it may be worth having them change the fuel filter while it's accessible (quite cheep & available from Halfords).
Best Regards, Laurence
Final post now - and I'm only posting because I know that some of you will want to know the outcome. For everyone else, please ignore. Move along, nothing of interest here. 
We picked the car up on Friday. Everything fixed and fine, but a somewhat eye-watering bill for £706
(I should point out that for that price we had a 'B' service, the rad re-cored and replaced, and the jammed hood release mechanism freed and cable replaced)
And, worse, when we got home we found about 4 very meaty chips in the paintwork round the hood release handle that weren't there before.
Just phoned Lakeside this morning as I'm a bit upset about it and my wife is even more so as the car is her pride & joy, and they said that they had to force the hood release to get it off as it had seized and that these things happen. If we want to pop over again then they'll touch them up for us.
The thing that upsets me is that if when we picked up the car they'd said "look, we're very sorry but whilst we were fixing the hood we had to force it and we chipped the paintwork. We're happy to order in a touch-up stick and touch it in for you at a later date if you wish" then we'd have probably shrugged and agreed that it was indeed one of those things.
But to get home, discover it, be upset and disappointed, stew over it for an entire weekend and phone up on Monday morning and get a telephonic shrug and a "these things happen" with no word of apology leaves me still upset.
I guess at the end of the day it is indeed just "one of those things", but it could have been handled so much better.
Ah well.
>> Edited by JonRB on Monday 14th June 10:54
We picked the car up on Friday. Everything fixed and fine, but a somewhat eye-watering bill for £706
(I should point out that for that price we had a 'B' service, the rad re-cored and replaced, and the jammed hood release mechanism freed and cable replaced)
And, worse, when we got home we found about 4 very meaty chips in the paintwork round the hood release handle that weren't there before.
Just phoned Lakeside this morning as I'm a bit upset about it and my wife is even more so as the car is her pride & joy, and they said that they had to force the hood release to get it off as it had seized and that these things happen. If we want to pop over again then they'll touch them up for us.
The thing that upsets me is that if when we picked up the car they'd said "look, we're very sorry but whilst we were fixing the hood we had to force it and we chipped the paintwork. We're happy to order in a touch-up stick and touch it in for you at a later date if you wish" then we'd have probably shrugged and agreed that it was indeed one of those things.
But to get home, discover it, be upset and disappointed, stew over it for an entire weekend and phone up on Monday morning and get a telephonic shrug and a "these things happen" with no word of apology leaves me still upset.
I guess at the end of the day it is indeed just "one of those things", but it could have been handled so much better.
Ah well.
>> Edited by JonRB on Monday 14th June 10:54
Forcing the hood release is imho bullshit as you can remove the covers either side of the catches with a pozi screwdriver, then remove the catches with a bigger pozi, unhook the cable. Then you remove the side panel in the hood tray behind the seat, loosen the cable nut with a spanner and its out in minutes.
Book time is around an hour
Book time is around an hour
M100 said:
Forcing the hood release is imho bullshit as you can remove the covers either side of the catches with a pozi screwdriver, then remove the catches with a bigger pozi, unhook the cable. Then you remove the side panel in the hood tray behind the seat, loosen the cable nut with a spanner and its out in minutes.
It is the area of the hood release knob* that has been chipped. The whole assembly had rusted and seized over the winter which was probably why they had to force it.
(* where you open the driver's door and then pull a black T-shaped knob set into the bodywork to release the hood, in case I have given it the wrong name or anything)
>> Edited by JonRB on Monday 14th June 17:33
Jon, thats what I thought you meant. IMHO Its just plain shoddy workmanship if they do ANY damage to the body to remove it, after all its only a 15 quid part that is readily available so the pull handle could easily be sacrificed to remove it without damage. Removing the catch covers, then the catches is just so easy to do!
On the bright side at least you can see the
up and its not safety critical which is more than can be said of some Lotus dealers work i've witnessed past and present. Bit of a bummer it being done in the first place though, especially given their good reputation in the Elise world.
On the bright side at least you can see the
up and its not safety critical which is more than can be said of some Lotus dealers work i've witnessed past and present. Bit of a bummer it being done in the first place though, especially given their good reputation in the Elise world.That was a shame! It is virtually impossible to get a spanner on the retaining nut behind the cable release. I invented a special tool (based on an old combination bicycle spanner) to get mine off. You need something like a small box spanner that can slide down the cable and into the tiny gap available. Then it's a paint chipping free removal! If anyone is contemplating this job you are welcome to borrow my special tool. Oh er !
Elanbloke said:Maybe you should offer it to Lakeside Engineering, for a small fee.
You need something like a small box spanner that can slide down the cable and into the tiny gap available. Then it's a paint chipping free removal! If anyone is contemplating this job you are welcome to borrow my special tool.
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