A, B or C Service?

Can anyone advise on which service I should be getting done - the Exige is an S1, Jan 2001 car with 15,000 miles on it. It had an A service last Dec at 11,500 miles and a B service the year before at 8,000 miles. Which one should I go for?

Also does the cambelt need doing now and is there any upgrades worth doing at the same time - the car is a 177 still although I am thinking about going down the Lotus 190 route (I know the emerald route would be better but I want to keep it stock and it has air con etc).

I think I am going to be eating bread and water for the next few months as the wallet is going to take a bit of of a canning

Cheers

Godspeed
According to the book it should be an A service. But, I get my serviced by mileage not every 12 months.
I had my cambelt changed at 18000 miles the first time, even though the book says 36000 miles - my reasoning was that I would rather pay the �125 (or whatever) for a cambelt change, rather than an engine rebuild for a duff cambelt. You pays yer money…
Tony

Re cambelt - recommend you speak to B&C or Lakeside as I believe Lotus has brought the cam belt change forward… cant remember what the new revised mileage change point is…

I’m pretty certain the Lotus recommended cam-belt change is 36k miles.

I’m pretty certain the Lotus recommended cam-belt change is 36k miles.

or 3 years, whichever is sooner.

Ok, I’ll be 3 years next month, but only 13k (which is a crime I agree!). I wasn’t contemplating a belt change yet, am I mad? (for not contemplating the belt change, not generally!)

Ian

IDG

I guess there is not certain answer here, but if you consider that your car has been kept outside and the belt is basically rubber… what would happen to rubber if left outside for 3 years ?? It’s not a wholly fair analogy but you should think about it.

Add to that the fact that the cam-belt gets quite a hard life in an agressive environment and most all manufacturers recommend very similar change criteria (3 yrs 36k miles)…

as they say… the choice is yours…

btw yes you are mad… and that would still be true regarless of your decision here…

[/quote] or 3 years, whichever is sooner. [/quote]
Are we sure it�s every three years? This seems very conservative, I would expect a timing belt to last closer to five, mileage dependent. If you check the service manual the 36K service which should include a belt change comes in at six years. A quick check of all the service books for cars I have or had shows intervals from 4 years/40,000 miles to 8 years/80,000 miles. A look at the service notes for the MGF quotes 5 years/60,000 miles. So if Lotus built in a bit of redundancy to account for how our cars may be driven, you would be looking at four or five years/36,000 miles. I must admit I thought that Lotus had actually revised the cam belt change down from five to four years.

Dave

Cheers chaps

Ian

ps. Rox

Please change your belts !

Having seen mine after I had verniers fitted, sooner rather than later would be a good plan:

  • My belt was a “thin” one and it seems a number of VHPD were fitted with these ones from new
  • It was badly worn - you could see cracks in ther rubber

The new Piper belt was wider and just looked a whole lot better -

Dont skimp on this one

Very touchy subject for which i feel there is no real answer, however for the standard exige cams and higher cam profiles then changing the belt every 3 years or 36K is a “safe” bet.

Belt change �300, engine rebuild �3000, for everything else there is Mastercard