I was at a dealers once and I saw an elise having a rad swap.
I also saw the clam just sat on the concrete floor. Broke my heart.
When I have the clam off mine it sits on carpet 
Thatâs the difference between working on things yourself and entrusting to another. Care.
Without wishing to be rude, 4 hours is a bit keen, when your only experience is of 1 that took 20 hours. In my experience of probably a couple of hundred, itâs not so keen.
I suspect that the 2 days allows for any issues with seized pipes, fixings, failed captives and the like. In my experience itâs much easier to say it takes 2 days and then call to say all done early, than say 4 hours and need it for longer.
As for putting a clam on a concrete floor, itsâ not ideal. But as long as itâs placed there and not dragged around with its weight on it, it will come to no harm.
Feel free to share your experiences of the repair on your car, as Iâm sure it wonât be as cataclysmic as you are making out.
I wonder if they are not planning on changing the hoses? Maybe just removing and refitting new unions? I have first hand experience of the problems with removing the unions from the oil coolers and it isnât nice, at best you might get one off, at worst you destroy both the rad and the threads in the union. Or maybe they are just going to pull it all off and replace both pipes and rads?
Appreciate your point of view and completely claim my inexperience in this task but I have an experienced appreciation of the task, having done it and 4 hours, imo is lean. The conjecture will end when a number have been undertaken. Letâs see how it all pans out in terms of dealer and owner post completion comments.
As per the dealers statement, 2 days is over budget but clearly they label it 2 for a reason. You make the example that things may be seized and in view of that, Iâd expect the dealers to suggest double of 4 hrs. They havenât. Theyâve suggested quadruple, ie 2x8 hrs. They must have stated such an increase for a reason. Else why is it not a week?
But, as stated, time will tell once the reports start to come in.
I expect the ends are fused to the coolers (dissimilar metal syndrome).
I donât expect they will replace pipes and rads. How the heck could that be done in 4 hours? There would be no chance at all on that one.
I expect they will hope to cut the ends off, crimp new ends on. That only works if you (as you state) are able to remove the old ends from the coolers. Else itâs completely new oil coolers all round.
This could turn into a mare.
This is my point though, if lotus have got the network to agree 4 hrs, itâs likely thatâs all theyâll pay. What a mess that is for the dealer network.
It will be that the 4 hours will be best case where everything comes undone without issues. Anything over and above that the dealer will simply apply for more time and parts from Lotus. Been there, done that. Many, many times. The 2 days will be to allow for these situations. Believe it or not, this isnât the first time that something like this has happened, and Lotus will be totally aware the issue with the ends fusing to the coolers.
Of the ends donât come off the coolers, and I expect that there will be more seized than free, itâs not the end of the world. The coolers take about 5 mins each, once the unions are off.
Just because your car is in a workshop for 4 hours work and you drop it off at 9, does not mean your car is started at 9 and its done for 1. The same as if your car is in for 2 days, does not mean itâs being worked on solidly for all that time. Some of that time is going to be downtime waiting for authority to do any extras, ordering any parts, working on other peopleâs cars that are booked in, etc.
Relax, let the dealers do what they know about doing. If you have an issue come back and make a big deal about it, try not to pre-empt something that has not, and probably wonât happen.
Is it 4 man hours or 4 chronological hours?
4 chronological hours will depend if it is a one man or multi person task, and hence so dealers saying it will take a whole day or more.
I have been working with planners this week. It has been joyfull 
Almost definitely 4 man hours. 2 people working on it at the same time tends to not take half the time on these sort of jobs sadly.
So you are saying dealers charge by the chronological hour and the number of technicians working on the task arenât the time factor. I guess this would make sense as most of the hourly rate would be made of fixed costs and not labour.
Maybe someone should get a breakdown of the job time/labour numbers 
I appreciate your response jds. The realist (pessimist) in me is intrigued to see how this pans out. I do hope we all share the results on here.
I just think back at the effort that was involved to do my previous one.
Replacing the shims alone took about 30 mins each side! Thatâs 3 hours left⌠
I do this all day, everyday, and itâs the biggest frustration in the my life. Book times are set by manufacturers, God only knows how they come up with some of them!! 
Couple of examples below
Book time is say 2 hours for a service - worth noting this normally includes finding car, moving it into the workshop, test drives, etc - this is 2 hours work that the workshop sells to the customer, and in theory is the time the job takes. You get your poverty spec fiesta/corsa/107/etc in and everything goes to plan, youâre at a dealer, so most stuff is 3 years old or less, no upsell on anything, as itâs all ok. Tech fills in the paperwork, drops it on my desk, usually done in slightly less than the time given, happy days, quick qc, customer pays the 2 year service for ÂŁxxx price, everyoneâs a winner.
Same job, 2 hours for a service, but now its 8 years old, customer is still paying the same ÂŁxxx for a 2 year service. The downside is that now it needs some extra work thatâs part of the same service - all the undertray fixings are seized/captives failed, the wheels havenât been off for for 6 years, the tyre valve caps are stuck as it has some high spec ally ones with steel caps, the locking wheel bolt key is missing/damaged, thereâs a knock noticed on road test so needs to come back into the workshop to check that itâs nothing related to the service, the customer isnât answering their phone to authorise more work so it needs to go out and come back in again for the pads it needs, etc, suddenly youâre 3 hours in, with all the wheels off and blocking a ramp. Now the customer has been quoted the ÂŁxxx price and thatâs their expectation, so you canât just add more labour onto their bill without speaking to them. Your 2 hour job has just taken 3 and a bit and probably not completed. Meanwhile the next job is sat waiting to be started.
Bit of a long way round to say that workshops charge per hour. If 2 guys are working on it, they still charge you the same total time, it just takes a little less actual time to do it. Weirdly not normally half the time though, as thereâs always a delay as the cars up when it needs to be down or the other way round.
So the expensive technician now gets and takes the car too instead of the old guy doing odd jobs? Why should the customer pay for that incompetence?
Cos otherwise the you are paying for the old guy doing odd jobs as well???
Why should the garage pay for the incompetence of the customer to give out the wrong phone number? Not answer? Change their mind?
Life ainât perfect.
Thatâs why jobs get allocated hours. 
Ooh, Iâm exhausted reading all this. Itâs taken me 2 hours, with no tea break. Better get an S1
I had an oil cooler replaced after it sprung a leak when the car was 5 years old, and it took a damn site more than 4 hours to replace it by the local specialist.
This is because I (foolishly it seems) persuaded my local dealer to replace the rusty grille and tow post when it was less than 2 years old. To remove the grille from its sikaflex, the clam would clearly have to be turned over, and as I suspected both wings were marked, (not too bad, and I âlivedâ with it).
That of course shouldnt happen in this instance as the clam shouldnt need to be turned over.
However, in their infinite wisdom the clam must have been put back on and the bolts tightened within a millimetre of their life, and without any copperslip.
And that is why it took considerably more than 4 hours, and cost me into 4 figures.
When your recall is done, please make sure they use some copperslip or similar
Good Lord steves. Thommo what about a wine break?
Weâll hopefully live longer this way Pete nicely put.
The fun will really start when the threads strip on the oil coolers (and I guarantee some will if not most!!!)
They will be on back order and cars will be off the road weeksâŚ
Good luck!!
To be honest,I had the wine before I started reading . . . it was the only thing that got me through.