This is an ongoing problem with my car that got worse over the last month or so. The car has been into JCT and they wouldnt replace the front shock absorber under warranty without authorisation from Lotus. The Lotus Engineer has been out today, driven the car and he won’t authorise it due to not being ‘severe’ enough. The thing is rattling to point of p*ssing me off. Ok its not loud, but it rattles and it didnt do when I got the car and upto 10k miles later. Surely if its rattling its damaged and they have an obligation under the warranty to replace it? Anyone got any advice? ta Dan
Anyone got any advice? ta Dan
Get them to replace BOTH fronts, not just one
well quite… in an ideal world both should be replaced, but Id be glad of one at least!
Is it leaking fluid ?
That’s rubbish mate, although seeing JCT in the post almost made the outcome a certainty. Did you go out in the car with the engineer or speak to him? I really wouldn’t trust JCT to tell you the whole truth.
They must have told you what it was?
I would have thought that it wouldn’t have cost Lotus much as the supplier would cover the cost of the parts - Pesky is right also they should really only be changed as a pair.
basically I went out with the technician from JCT (months ago) who confirmed that it was the front N/S shocker that was rattling (its not leaking any fluid). Rattles worse with no passenger due the shocker not being loaded up with weight on that side. He said it was a fault with the spacers they use on the Bilstein shockers on the Exige S. But I was told that the Lotus Engineer would need to authorise the warranty work.
He came out this week, drove the car and said he couldnt find a fault with it. I’ve spoken to the engineer and he’s adamant that there is no fault. Interestingly I also spoke to him prior to him travelling up from the factory and he said that some of the Exige S’s do have rattling shock absorbers but they wont replace them unless they feel that the rattle is severe enough.
Great eh? Looks like I’ll have to live with it and save up for some Ohlins in a few years time (at x amount of thousand pounds!)
Where exactly is this spacer? Do you have any photos? Can you just repalce it yourself with a new part or is it the design that causes the rattling?
I would speak to the Customer Services chap at the factory - not sure who he is now - and challenge the Service Engineers definition of acceptable. If the dealer was doing there job for you properly, I’d expect them to do this anyway assuming that they thought it was bad enough to let the Service Engineer see it!
By any chance is it one of those intermittent faults, so perhaps the Service Engineer did not hear it at its worst?
Try e-mailing neil turner at lotus, great bloke who knows what customer service is all about. he helped me no end with my exige and some problems i had (with the dealer i purchased it off). i used to have his e-mail address but cant find it now. it should be on their website somewhere.
I thinks it is terrible that you spend all that money yet they wont replace the shocks (funny enough i had my front shocks changed by the dealer i purchased it off when i said i could feel a knocking, they changed the shocks but i could still feel it knocking, took it to another dealer and in fact it was the steering rack, got that changed as well). I’d lay it on thick, say you’d expect them to do it, tell them you are a lotus fanatic but next time you may go down the Porsche route as they look after their customers much better.
Good luck
Tanman
Im suspecting its going to be a common fault on the Exige S (my car has done 12k miles now), and Lotus are anticipating a flood of claims on them? Maybe Im wrong. But its not an intermittent fault, it does it continuously, obviously more noticeable at lower speeds and on more uneven road surfaces (which is generally everywhere around Leeds and Huddersfield!)
No photos of the shock or the spacers on them. That was just explained to me that it was the spacers at fault knocking against each other.
Go to another dealer and get them to email you their veiw of the problems and a quote for sorting it out if they feel that it is not what it should be.
Then issue breach of contract with inferred terms in the county court I guess a couple of shock and fitting will be under � 1000 + � 80 court costs. Process the paper work manually at the court and attach a copy of the email from the other dealer to the court paperwork.
It is very easy to do and you can down load the paperwork from the internet. They also have some very good instructions on what to do.
I bet that you will receive a call to get thing sorted out very quickly.
I think that you will have to issue the procceding against Lotus because they have the contract of warrenty and sub contract the work to the dealer.
I am sure that a legal buff on this forum or SELOC would be able to give you a bit of advice.
I’ve got this from the left front and the car has only done 4700 miles. However the tyres are due for replacement so I’m planning on getting NW to look at (and hopefully fix) the shocker(s) at the same time. I’ll let you know how THEY handle it.
Id be very interested to hear how you get on. As I said earlier the Lotus Engineer insinuated that this is a common fault on the Exige S, and I get the feeling they are trying to avoid replacing them if they can.
I’ve got this from the left front and the car has only done 4700 miles. However the tyres are due for replacement so I’m planning on getting NW to look at (and hopefully fix) the shocker(s) at the same time. I’ll let you know how THEY handle it.
smacks of the phantom gear stick fault that ended up with a full recall