Driving to work yesterday and noticed some vapour from the engine. Put it down to water evaporating off the manifold with all the rain we had up here yesterday.
Anyway, i got home form work and checked the oil to find i had lost approx 0.5 - 1.0 l. I removed the undertray to find a nice pool of mobil 1!! I reckon it has only been leaking for 2 days as there are two patches of oil on the road outside my house!
I cant see exactly where the leak is coming from, however, the engine/gearbox interface and the right side drive shaft are covered.
I suspect the main engine/gearbox seal has gone?? Has anyone come across something similar before?
Uldis - can you recomend a garage/mechanic in the aberdeen area? or do you know how big a job it is to seperate the engine and gearbox to have a look see?
Argghhh!! This just gets better and better. Called the warranty company to initiate a claim and ask if they had any preferred repairers in the area and was told that my policy does not exist with them, i.e. they have no record of my proposal form being sent to them!!
Am trying to get hold of the garage that i bought the car from to see what the fck is going on.
Im assuming the dealer has kept my money for the warranty and not sent any documentation of to the warranty company. Anyone know how i stand legally? On my invoice for the car it states exige + 6 months warranty!
where did you buy it from? I would be buggering them like there’s no tomorrow.
Regardless, if I was you, I would take it to the Lotus dealer for that kind of problem, especially because they have changed management and are willing to prove everyone that they stand by their quality.
On my recent HGF, they offered to change it for �300, which I believe is very good for a dealer, buy I still took the car to another mechanic I trust because he’s going to clean up the ports as well.
Anyway, Town & County Lotus Aberdeen: 01224-241700, look for Scott (new manager).
Power systems: 01224-774051, Tuner: Bob Duncan
Bought it from an independant dealer down south. If it was a local dealer i would be have been round there first thing this morning demanding to get it fixed. Its not so easy though when the dealer is 400 miles away!!
Anyway managed to get hold of him this morning. He assures me the warranty company have received the payment. The reason they have no record of my policy is because the company is in administration and they have a backlog of policies to be processed. Sounds like a crap to me - they either have the paperwork or not!!
In the meantime though i have found out that the engine is warrantied by Lotus till Sept. I knew it had been sent back to Lotus Cars for an engine rebuild last year - but i didnt realise they warrantied the work for a whole year.
It is now booked in to the local Lotus garage for them to sort it out. Unfortunately they cant fit me in till next Friday though
Just have to find some way of getting it to the dealers as its probably not such a good idea to be driving it. Here’s hoping it gets fixed at no cost to me - famous last words!!!
If not become one quick. You can’t use them for a day or so after you join, but they’re not to know the car’s currently dead, so should be willing to truck it to the garage if you join with the correct level of membership.
Managed to get the car to the lotus dealers on sat. They are working on it at the moment. Just had a call to ask permission to remove gearbox, etc - 5 hours labour apparently - hope they dont think im paying for it!!
Anyone had any work done by the Lotus Service Centre and experienced claiming on their warranty at a dealer?
Scooteroo when you get your car back fit the Lotus oil catch tank and breather kit. It will set you back about �115. In my cars case there was nothing wrong with the seal in the end, it was just massive pressure build-up in the engine that forced the oil out. As soon as I fitted the kit the leek stopped. I think the car had covered about 7000 miles when the leek occurred and it has now covered the grand total of almost 12000 miles. Apart from the lack of air-con nothing has gone wrong since! I am now finding some wood to touch�
Hi all. Well got my car back yesterday - all is fixed and well. As suspected the crankshaft oil seal had failed as a result of being incorrectly fitted Just to let you know how the saga went …
I spoke with Lotus before booking the car in to my local Lotus dealer and they told me that as my car had been back at Hethel for an engine rebuild last Sept there was a years warranty on the engine. They told me to take it to my local dealer and get back to them. As soon as i found out what was wrong i called them again and the guy i spoke with was very unhelpful. He turned round and said that because i was not the owner of the car when the engine work had been carried out in Sept then the warranty was not transferrable to myself. Note: that the engine was rebuilt last Sept due to a lotus fck up. The owner at the time did not pay for it.
Anyway, the dealer i bought the car from eventually sorted out my warranty (was with Warranty Holdings but has now been transferred to Motorpoint). They agreed to pay for the repair immediately (much to my surprise!!). It came to around �500.
I am now in the process of writing a letter to Lotus customer services to express my dissatisfaction. I knew their customer service was non existant but they way they have dealt with this matter is just appaling. It makes you wonder when the mechanics at Hethel cant even fit an oil seal correctly