Ah balls... Snapped aux belt.

[Ryvita]

Well this was fun when it happened on the M3 at cruising speed... Not a great picture, it's a bit awkward to see. Initial diagnosis is that one of the pulley bearings failed, pulley locked up resulting in friction on the belt, a short period with squeaking followed by a bang when the belt overheated and snapped. Happened really surprisingly quickly.

Full diagnosis tbc, but hopefully it's just a case of replacing the offending pulley (and checking that the others are ok, could have been some misalignment stressing the bearings).

[BertBert]

Let's hope it's not more serious than just a pulley bearing. Didn't Jay Emm (is that right?) have a painful supercharger issue that pushed him over the edge with his Evora? Might have got none of that right!

[elise2000]

Good luck sorting.

I had this. Belt melted onto pulleys. Was a right mess. To make it worse, it happened in Belgium and took 2 weeks to sort!

[Ryvita]

Two months waiting for parts from Lotus... Should be back on the road by next week I hope.

[Lotobear]

That's a bugger. When I had mine, though a N/A, someone had produced a parts list with the original parts/alternatives sources. The aux belt was a standard Gates part and cost me around £30 off the shelf at a local factors.

A HID ballast unit was almost £300 from Lotus but I got one from Germany for £52 (it was a std Valeo unit as fitted to many Audis).

Ditto the HID burners, £35 for an Osram unit which was the same as the £100+ part from Lotus

[Ryvita]

It's the stuck pulley I've been waiting for and despite a montain of research, it appears that some of the pulleys are Lotus-unique, with no Toyota/Lexus equivalent (because of the supercharger orientation I guess.)

Have done the "order ballasts from Germany" thing. Insane prices from Lotus for standard OSRAM / VALEO parts...

Car is still not home. Not heard from the garage in a few days, so more than a bit worried that the long stationary period, or something from the original incident has thrown up further issues.

Edited by Ryvita on Thursday 25th April 10:18

Update: "Workshop's really busy, should be done next week."

Edited by Ryvita on Thursday 25th April 15:44

[Ryvita]

Update update: Car finally back with me after 3 months off the road. A huge wait but the 6 am drive this morning made it all better. Empty roads and a full tank of petrol and a dry light spring morning in England, driving a British sports car the way it was intended, down leafy green B-roads...

Here's the offending pulley that caused it all, looks like the bearing had a complete meltdown.

Edited by Ryvita on Saturday 4th May 07:52

[Si_man306]

I had a pulley go on my Evora S after a drive down the A414. sounded like a tractor. Recovered to Castle lotus (now Hilton) who changed it. Was 7 hours labour- tricky fit. As they had recently serviced the car (inc aux belt) they very kindly only made me pay for the part (£90 ish). All was well.

[Ryvita]

Si_man306 said:

I had a pulley go on my Evora S after a drive down the A414. sounded like a tractor. Recovered to Castle lotus (now Hilton) who changed it. Was 7 hours labour- tricky fit. As they had recently serviced the car (inc aux belt) they very kindly only made me pay for the part (£90 ish). All was well.

Mmm, scary experience having the belt go bang right behind my head. It was a bit surprising that it kept driving quite happily after that... (as in motor and electrics kept functioning fine) ...until the lack of water pump caught up with it and the temperature started climbing! It was enough to be able to slow down from motorway speed and safely pull over.

The fix on mine was somewhat more expensive given they replaced all the pulleys idlers and the belt, and there was a very long wait for the parts, but have had trouble free motoring since.

Edited by Ryvita on Wednesday 5th March 14:17