Gear Lever/ Stick - BBS (Blue Ball Syndrome)

[delands]

Could this be the end of the car?

Blue Ball at end of gear lever has failed - and the part is not available from Lotus since 2021 -  A132F6364S!

What have they using since then when building new Evoras and what is being used if there's a warranty claim?!

Checked with SJ Sportcars too, they have had three enquires over the same amount of days for this part too..

Is there a 3rd party, maybe short shift, option in UK?

[agentdr8]

This only affects Series 1 Evoras, as Lotus redesigned the shifter for Series 2, and it isn't directly adaptable to the earlier models. Lotus' solution to the shaft shortage is to have you order the entire shifter assembly. Unfortunately that means you're stuck with another OE shaft with a plastic blue ball at the end, which will most likely fail over time. 

There are aftermarket shifter assemblies available from the likes of Inokinetic that are better designed. 

I'm also personally working on a solution that would allow you to retain the OEM shifter assembly, but not have to deal with the blue ball syndrome. 

[electro_boy]

Have a chat with ES Motorsports to see if they can help you out?  They often have a bunch of spares.  Failing that, they have fitted the Evora 400 shift mechanism in my S1 Evora.

[2011 Chrome Orange]

There is a used complete assembly on ebay. It may get you back on the road in a pinch.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234686140643?hash=item36a46250e3:g:mwwAAOSw~i1jFwai&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoCsfodJdCS4xGl%2F3w97csSetwQl0EqNURBe7W%2FJuwr2OpodAvS9b%2FesRT%2BMnhcGF8g%2Bk49R0zh3dwGNgQdo%2BQ1nvSGqoOzIlire5f285oyGayLWtsIeKB83nJo%2Ft9YHsIeh2yG%2F%2B3DLiBS0YLFlpANV%2Fzkw5XKMGe1FcmwUnXAU3eNfC3ECMhKjjINhFmBsurPRC7seI9XDeoGKlSy11qq0%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR9SF_NDiYA

[steamdriven]

13 hours ago, electro_boy said:

Have a chat with ES Motorsports to see if they can help you out?  They often have a bunch of spares.  Failing that, they have fitted the Evora 400 shift mechanism in my S1 Evora.

How did the 400 fitting to the S1 go ?  Looks like something we S1 owners need to consider given the current 'blue ball' failure rate being reported.  Dare I ask how much £ did it set you back.  More details please...

[electro_boy]

The 400 shifter mech fitting was part of a bunch of other mods and fixes I was doing at the time so I don't know how much it cost on its own.  Have a chat to Dave at ES Motorsport and get a quote from him.  

I don't think it was cheap, certainly only something to consider if you have a shifter mech failure or you really want a better shift feel.  I was getting clutch changed to 400 clutch and lighter fly wheel so car was in bits anyways and made the job easier for them so I went for it.

As far as I know there was not any issues in fitting it.  ES Motorsport didn't comment on any difficulty or problems so I assume it was straight forward.

I've had it for over a year now and maybe over 10K miles and it really is an improvement over the S1 version; has a better feel and is more accurate when shifting.  Its not perfect you still can't rush the change too much but it is significant improvement over S1.