Just wondering how many of you have had sticking problems with your throttle bodies?
I know Mr Lane has recently had some scary moments with it sticking full on but just wondered if anybody else had.
Mine have started sticking when cold and I have to force the pedal down to free them. Its definately not the cable as when its stuck, the cable flexes freely and you cant manually press the mechanism between the throttle bodies until it frees up!
Once free everything moves as usual.
Lotus have looked at it and agreed the throttle bodies are at fault but it seems a common problem so was wondering if anybody has fitted any aftermarket ones.
Lotus price is �1400 + vat (parts)
Ptp �599 + vat (same product I believe)
An archive search should find more details on this - off the top of my head it can have somethng to do with a small plastic bush which can be replaced by a brass one which solves the problem - if I remember right there was an Oz company offering the kit?
One of my symptoms was that it became harder and harder to push the pedal.
Then it jammed wide open…
I had a brass bush from AndyD, but that goes at the pedal end, not the engine end…
Update - Williams Lotus have phoned to say the car is ready for collection - they have modified the spring etc “a bit more”, and it should not now be a problem…
Not sure if they want me to pay for this, seeing as they have modified it once before, but usually they are pretty good, and also they are talking to James at Lotus, so there may be further comment from him in due course.
After about 2 months Warranty holdings have now refused to pay for my throttle bodies to be replaced!
They have now got to the point where I have to unstick the butterflies by knocking the pulley free with a screw driver every time I start the thing.
They have said it is a not a failure of the part just basically wear and tear so they wont replace.
My question to all you guys is how many of you have had problems with them sticking or have heard of other Exiges/340R/190 owners experiencing the same problems.
My dealer have replaced a few and Ive heard of Mike Lane having problems but there must be a fair few others out there who have experienced problems.
Im going to throw it at Lotus next as its obviously a manufacturing problem. From what I have been told by my dealer Lotus know of this problem but have always refused to pay anything.
I think this is basically a load of rubbish as there is obviously a problem and I dont see why owners should have to pay out nearly �1700 for an ‘original replacement’ Yes �1700 parts!!
As I say if any of you have heard of problems please let me know
That’s typical of Warranty Holdings from what I have heard. Like a fool, I paid �600 plus for a 2nd year warranty, before I heard of horror stories about the difficultities of them paying out. (RussT managed to get a result, with massive help from LRV, but his experience convinced me not to renew the damn policy the following year!).
Apart from your’s & Mike’s, I’m not aware of any else having problems with the throttle bodies/butterflies sticking. No doubt those who have, will let you know.
Can you get your dealer on your side to argue the case with WH or Lotus? If not, may be it’s a case for getting an independent motor engineer to inspect/report on the problem, with a view to taking WH to the small claims court!
Either way, it’s a real bummer - wish I could assist further, cos something ain’t right for you to be treated like this.
get an independant engineers report. If it is in your favour, hammer WH with it & don’t let go - threaten court action etc. Eventually they will cave in & agree some sort of repair. Of course, this pnly applies if the engineer confirms it is not wear & tear!!!
I did have one result because they did pay for the HGF but now they are in receivership I think they are being even worse than ever to agree to pay out!
To be honest My dealer have gone out of their way to help me and as I didnt have the car from them I dont think its right to pester them too much yet.
The garage I bought it from have virtually palmed all the warranty work off onto my Lotus dealer as they didnt want to undertake the work. They didnt want to do the HGF either!
At the moment Im going to get some advice on where I stand and then get in touch with Lotus but just wanted a bit of ammunition on my side first.
I can see me ending up having to get them re conditioned or replace them.
If anybody knows of anywhere that could recondition them (preferably local to Brum) I would appreciate it.
I had a problem with my throttle bodies being a little bit stiff when my car was new. It wasn’t serious, but what would happen is when you lift off the power quickly, the throttle would stick momentarily, then spring up very abruptly. Made for rather jerky progress
As the car was under the manufacturers warranty, Lotus replaced it. With a reconditioned item This one was very stiff. Then a couple of days later it totally seized. At 120mph. Appoaching an island.
Lotus replaced the throttle bodies again, and all has been well since.
I would suggest that Lotus are well aware of the problem.
As for warranty holdings. Bunch of pig fiddlers. They will claim that anything is wear and tear.
They also argued that an engine mount is not a mechanical component
I also had this problem on the slave pair of bodies, i.e. the RHS pair when i reassembled them after some port matching.
The way around it was to use bearing lock compound to hold the bearing in and a locking compound on the small bolt at the end of the spindle so that the shaft would just move sideways without the butterflies in and remain free.
This play was taken up when the butterflies where put back in and remained smooth and trouble free.
I ALSO HAVE HAD THE THROTTLE BODIES ON MY EXIGE STICK.
WHEN HAVING THE CAR DELIVERED BY LOW LOADER TO THE SUPPLYING LOTUS DEALER,THEY TOLD ME THEY HAD CARBONED UP AND ONLY NEEDED STRIPPING AND CLEANING WHICH THEY DID.
BUT AFTER ONLY ABOUT 100 MILES THEY STUCK AGAIN AND WERE REPLACED UNDER WARRANTY AND YES I DID GET MY MONEY BACK AFTER THE FIRST REPAIR.
THE CAR HAD ONLY DONE 6000 MILES
Did a trackday yesterday in Anglesey & an infrequent poster on this bbs told me he had recently expereienced stuck throttle bodies at Bruntingthorpe. Problem was not sorted on the day & a local Lotus specialist repaired the car after speaking with PTP (who built the VHPD engines for Lotus) - apparantly this IS a well known problem to both PTP & Lotus.
Stick to your guns - phone/write to Lotus customer services/Warranty Holdings etc & don’t get fobbed off!
Thanks for letting me know. I was on the phone to Warranty holdings for an hour on Friday and its true what Brendan said. They are a bunch of t****rs!
They are now saying that the throttle body casings have ‘disorted or twisted’ due to the heat of the when the Head gasket went!
And the policy doesnt cover for heat damage caused from another failed component. I slammed the phone down on him in the end because I was getting fed up
And if they have any idea its possibly a manufactures problem, the policy doesnt cover for that either!
I’ve been in touch with Lotus and an Engineer is looking into it! Going to give them another call later.
Even the rest of the other Exigers yesterday at Duxford were a bit shocked how stuck they were
Well it appears that Lotus no longer care what their customers mean to them!
Said they dont see why they should pay out to fix (or even labour to take them off and check them) as you should expect this from when buying a car like this
Even though its an immaculate car with 10k at 3.5years old that makes no difference, they said its no longer their responsibility.
They admitted there was a problem with the throttle bodies but as the car was out of the 1yr warranty they would do nothing!
And at the end of the conversation I was told he had’nt got any more time to talk about it and that was it.
To put it mildly, my impression of Lotus as a company is now in the gutter.
I love the car but the ownership and experience of owning one should have something to do with it too but so far for me it hasnt been a rosey one
I found them very reasonable with my a/c even when it was out of warranty by quoting several over cases where they had fixed it for customers out of warranty.
Ian
ps. I was polite enough to check with the others if they minded me quoting their cases, just in case they had been done for another reason that embarrassed them or weakened my position.
I told him about all the cases I had heard of and also of the 4 or 5 cases that my dealer has dealt with.
His reply to the ones I have been told about was “you can read anything on the internet”.
He swore blind that if ‘I’ pay for the labour for them to be stripped and re-built by my dealer they will be fine, Even though I have been told by my dealer that they have done this several times and is only a temporary fix as the problems always re-occur as per 1111’s case above and Mike Lanes case.
He even admitted there was a problem with them but Lotus as a company would not even consider even paying an hours labour to look at it!
To be honest I was very shocked and a bit put back by what he said and when I mentioned if being an existing Lotus customer for the past 4 years meant anything to the company the reply was no.
He also said If we repair one we will have to repair them all!
To be honest its pi$$ing me off too much and I havent got time at the moment with finsihing my Uni work to talk to people like that.
Anyway I’ve slept on it and as far as I’m concerned I drive an Exige and not a Lotus and its never going to go into any dealer again.
I’ll save my money and sort things out myself (with a fair bit of help from the great people on hear )
and F**k Lotus
I suddenly feel better now I’ve got that out of system
Well that’s not the chap I spoke with and unfortunately I can’t dig up his name.
I didn’t push him during our call, I just laid out my case and told him to let me know through the dealer. It avoided a difficult confrontation. I heard the news I wanted from the dealer a couple of days later.
To be honest, if I’d been treated the way you have, I’d call the head of Lotus PR and ask them to address my frustration.
When I had engine trouble (under the original manufacturers warranty) A guy at Lotus named Heathcliffe Robertshaw was very helpful in resolving the trouble. It might be worth talking to him. (If he’s still there)