Toyota woes

OK a few of you may remember that I had a problem with excessive cam wear that Lotus eventually replaced. The inlet cams for cyls #1&4 had very high wear and 2&4 had none. Well I was poodling home on the motorway last week when I heard an odd new frequency from the engine. I kicked it into neutral and the engine was dead. To shorten a longer story, one of the inlet valves on cyl #3 broke at the top, dropped into the cylinder and was pushed back into the valve guide where it bent, thankfully locking it into the head. So the shop taking it apart also see that ALL the inlet valve cams (and followers)have a huge amount of wear (>1mm). On talking to Lotus they are willing to pay for replacement parts (but not the labour). However I am now concerned that I’ll be doing this again next year unless the problem is truly fixed. I am getting the mechanic to check that the oil flow through the cover is not blocked. Does anyone have any other thoughts while we still have the car in bits?

For the Toyota components being reliable, this has not been my experience so far.

OK a few of you may remember that I had a problem with excessive cam wear that Lotus eventually replaced. The inlet cams for cyls #1&4 had very high wear and 2&4 had none. Well I was poodling home on the motorway last week when I heard an odd new frequency from the engine. I kicked it into neutral and the engine was dead. To shorten a longer story, one of the inlet valves on cyl #3 broke at the top, dropped into the cylinder and was pushed back into the valve guide where it bent, thankfully locking it into the head. So the shop taking it apart also see that ALL the inlet valve cams (and followers)have a huge amount of wear (>1mm). On talking to Lotus they are willing to pay for replacement parts (but not the labour). However I am now concerned that I’ll be doing this again next year unless the problem is truly fixed. I am getting the mechanic to check that the oil flow through the cover is not blocked. Does anyone have any other thoughts while we still have the car in bits?

For the Toyota components being reliable, this has not been my experience so far.

It’s not the engines fault it’s the ass holes that don’t know how to do a valve adjustment or check who are at fault…

Lotus are 100% liable inc labour - take them to small claims…