LOTUS ELISE S1
Discussion
Might be worth posting this on the Elise / Exige forum.
That said IIRC the only potential corrosion worry was to the floor inside the car in the early S1's. Look under the carpets of any potential purchase and see if there is any white powdery substance visible. If so then it is corrosion. It is easily fixed and Lotus offer an 8 yr warranty, so if the car is less than 8 yrs old they'll fix it for free.
Wouldn't be too concerned about it so long as it gets fixed.
Hope this helps, good luck and happy hunting.
Dave
That said IIRC the only potential corrosion worry was to the floor inside the car in the early S1's. Look under the carpets of any potential purchase and see if there is any white powdery substance visible. If so then it is corrosion. It is easily fixed and Lotus offer an 8 yr warranty, so if the car is less than 8 yrs old they'll fix it for free.
Wouldn't be too concerned about it so long as it gets fixed.
Hope this helps, good luck and happy hunting.
Dave
There is a well known issue with floor corrosion due to chemical reaction between the adhesive used to stick the rubber floor mats in place and the aluminium. Further information on the Lotus website here.
Other than that, the rear subframe is steel, as are the suspension arms, so they can corrode like any other car, but the aluminium tub itself has so far proved extremely reliable.
Check the buyer's guide sticky at the head of the Elise forum for lots of other useful information.
Don't worry, though - they're actually pretty reliable little cars (apart from the odd head gasket failure), and quite cheap to run.
Other than that, the rear subframe is steel, as are the suspension arms, so they can corrode like any other car, but the aluminium tub itself has so far proved extremely reliable.
Check the buyer's guide sticky at the head of the Elise forum for lots of other useful information.
Don't worry, though - they're actually pretty reliable little cars (apart from the odd head gasket failure), and quite cheap to run.
Sam_68 said:
There is a well known issue with floor corrosion due to chemical reaction between the adhesive used to stick the rubber floor mats in place and the aluminium. Further information on the Lotus website here.
Not exactly true, corrosion was due to moisture getting trapped under the rubber mats, nothing to do with adhesive. These were fitted to early cars (standard cars had no mats, you could then have rubber mats or carpet as an option)
This issue only affected a relatively small number of cars and should have been fixed under warranty. It only affects the floor area, which is not structural in any way, as the elise gets its strength from the extruded aluminium chassis.
Regards, Neil
The floor corrosion was repairable under warranty, but for most cars that would have had the problem, this warranty period is coming to an end. Its easy to check for the corrosion, just by lifting the mats and looking for the white powder. Also, you can check the history of the car as Lotus will have records of which cars have had the repair done.
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