Collection Day Nightmare - 6 mile review

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

3 hours ago, Rambo said:

I've never washed a car with a louvred window either. I prefer sponges and soft, lint free cloths.

Indeed, I’ve never washed inside an engine bay either. I prefer to use the sink, shower or bath.

[Niffty951]

Decision made. Car being delivered friday with 2 new rear tyres and a fresh mot. They say theyve dried the connectors, sprayed with an electric anti moisture grease and driven it for an hour faultlessly.

Fingers crossed!

[Bibs]

[C8RKH]

I'm sure the car will be fine and to be fair to the dealer they don't seem to have just "cut and run" like many would have. Good luck and wishing you many thousands happy smiles and miles of motoring. They really are super cars.

[Rambo]

That's excellent customer service. Let's hope they have sorted your problems and also stuck on premium rubber and not Ditchfinders.

Check out the air con is working at the w/e and for any future faults I would suggest buying a decent OBD II reader. That way you can do your own diagnosis, identify where any problem lies and also clear any fault codes yourself.

[C8RKH]

As @Rambo says it is important to check the aircon works as it is an expensive fix, and one of only a small number of persistent issue areas (the aircon equipment due to it's positioning can get a battering from the wet weather etc iirc). Also, if the aircon fails it can trigger the "spanner" warning lamp on the dash and cause the car to "limp".

Not a hard fix, but an expensive one - the parts are of a US sold Toyota RAV4 iirc and so whilst they can be upwards of a grand here, you can often source on ebay or similar for a third of the price. Worth knowing.

Enjoy...

[Niffty951]

Replacing like for like with PZeros 👌

[Cdm2018]

Maybe worth putting the weekend aside to do a little extended road trip so you exercise all the gremlins out ? 

[jerzybondov]

Great news all round - happy for you!!

And second that note on checking the air con. In theory mine had been recently sorted when I got the car, but still needed a new compressor, condenser and much faff after the supposed cross ref cheap ones didn't work (I trust B&C's word on this). Was expensive!

[C8RKH]

This may be of interest as the alternative to the Lotus tax ones. No idea why these would not work given they are from the same supplier....

LOTUS EVORA REPLACEMENT AC COMPRESSOR DETAILS,.

Lotus Part Number A132E6349S

Toyota/DENSO Part Number 8832042120

UAC Part number UAC CO 10856C

FROM A USA TOYOTA RAV 4 3.5L V6 2006-2012

[Burnt]

Sorry to hear al your woes. It does sound like you’ll get a good result in the end. 
 

Not sure I’ll be so lucky. …

Like you, I bought a 400 mid December. 2016 23k on the clock. 
 

6 weeks into ownership and my first experience of Lotus cars, I’m driving up to a round about, nice and gentle ( I have my young son with me) drop from third to second and boom.  There goes the engine. Billowing white smoke out the back. Engine stalls at the lights. I manage a re start and crawl to a retail park. 

That was a week past Saturday. Not even driven 100 miles in the car or got a real feel for it. 

Completely knocked my confidence in these things to the point where I’m thinking about selling it after it’s fixed. 
 

Given the choice between a Cayman or an Evora 400, I’d take the lotus. Sounds better, looks better, probably handles better.

 Not now though. 
 

I think I’ll be going back to pork. 
We will see…
 

[Bruss]

Wow. That is unusual. Let us know when they find the cause. Oh, and good luck with warranty replacement.

 

[C8RKH]

Sorry to hear your news @Burnt and do hope you get a speedy recovery. First Evora engine I have heard of that has gone boom in 10 years of Evora ownership.

Just remember Pork had/has its issues too with bore scoring, suspension turrets, IMS bearings etc all more prevalent than an Evora engine going poof.  However I do really hope you get sorted, pain free, and back to enjoying your car.

[Niffty951]

@Burnt that's crushing, but one of the main reasons I chose the Evora and finally left a long string of Porsche ownership. A Toyota RAV4 engine new in a crate is probably less than it cost me to re-fresh the suspension and engine mounts on my 996 (I spent £11,500 over 12 months ownership of my C2 and a LOT more on my turbo). A replacement Porsche G50 gearbox is £22,500 from the factory. Think how many evora engines that could buy you 😂

 

I know it doesn't ease the pain much now.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Niffty951

[jep]

That's very unlucky @Burnt. Hopefully under warranty......Steve Williams in Maidenhead knows these engines well if you need expert guidance. 

My brother had a brand new Peugeot 205 GTi in 1988. That engine lasted 400 miles.

It happens, however good the reputation of any manufacturer. 

I hope it all works out well for you.

Justin 

[Phaeton91]

9 hours ago, C8RKH said:

As @Rambo says it is important to check the aircon works as it is an expensive fix, and one of only a small number of persistent issue areas (the aircon equipment due to it's positioning can get a battering from the wet weather etc iirc). Also, if the aircon fails it can trigger the "spanner" warning lamp on the dash and cause the car to "limp".

Not a hard fix, but an expensive one - the parts are of a US sold Toyota RAV4 iirc and so whilst they can be upwards of a grand here, you can often source on ebay or similar for a third of the price. Worth knowing.

Enjoy...

After I had my compressor changed I was advised to use the Aircon, for a while at least, every time I drive the car. It helps prevent corrosion/seizing apparently.

[Burnt]

Cheers gents. 
 

The sensible thing to do was call the AA initially . Being a Saturday pm, there’s not really much by way of specialist garages open. So we had the car flat bedded back to my house. Only a few miles. 
 

I now still have over a week still to wait before my garage can get the car in for diagnosis. Warranty should cover most of it. My guy is pretty sure it’s the head gasket. We will see. AA OBD showed faults on cylinders one and two with a few other unknown faults coming up. 

Oh and sorry Nifty. Not trying to hijack your thread! 

 

[jep]

If it's just a head gasket, that is unfortunate but not what I consider a serious failure. Very annoying but no more. No crunching metal. 

The head gasket went on our 4 year old Fiat 500, which we bought new. What was irritating was no garage would touch it, a Twin Air, so I had to use Fiat main dealer. Painful. 

Justin 

 

[Spinney]

On 14/02/2023 at 10:25, Niffty951 said:

Decision made. Car being delivered friday with 2 new rear tyres and a fresh mot. They say theyve dried the connectors, sprayed with an electric anti moisture grease and driven it for an hour faultlessly.

Fingers crossed!

Sounds as though the dealer has done a top job in owning up to and correcting the issues to your satisfaction, so may we know their name now? 

I’m all for taking dealers to task over poor service but, equally, think praise should be forthcoming for great service, as your experience with them seems to have been. 

[C8RKH]

I agree @Spinney, good service should be applauded and acknowledged.

[Escape]

Indeed, it's too often you only hear negative stories, especially online!

[jerzybondov]

To save the OP the responsibility of naming and praising - I believe the car came from Sytner. 

[Niffty951]

Everyone likes a happy ending. New tyres, freshly polished and a 12 month warranty. Ready to make some memories.

[C8RKH]

   Looks lovely. Very nice.

[jerzybondov]

Congrats. Hope the drive home went a little better this time?!