cracked rear hub on a 1990 SE

[brianabbot]

Hi, once again, I am having fun with my new Esprit - just when you think you've got one problem sorted another one pops up, I went to collect the car from the garage after having new shocks and a huge oil leak from the cam tower caused by the previous owner threading two bolts (they have now been helicoiled or something) and they pointed out a crack through the bottom shock mount of the rear hub, does anyone have a passenger side rear hub that they want to sell? That aside apart from the faulty coolant sensor and chargecooler that leaks water from the matrix I love the car, also if anyone has a chargecooler or coolant sensor for the ECU please let me know.

Kind Regards

Brian

[James]

Brian,

Had the same issue with my near side hub carrier, this item is seriously rare in the end PNM Engineering were able to repair it it cost around

[superdavelotus]

Hi Brian,

Are you sure your garage didn't crack the rear hob? It's an easy thing to do if you are not a Lotus dealer or specialist knowing what they are doing. Most garages hit the pins out which easily crack the hub. You need heat and lots of penetrating oil and it takes ages when they are stuck. Under no circumstances must you hit pins/bolts out of your hub.

I believe hubs are

[brianabbot]

Brian,

Had the same issue with my near side hub carrier, this item is seriously rare in the end PNM Engineering were able to repair it it cost around

[davevr6car]

I had the same problem, the only difference mine broke at 90mph.

I had just collected my new S4s and was trying to make the boat home from Holyhead to Ireland. I was just going past Oxford making good time when a f**king lorry driver swerved into my lane, I swerved to avoid him and hit a large pot hole, I thought I got a low out, I managed from stoping the car from spinnin out of control, pulled the car over onto the hardshoulder. When I got out to my shock the whole rear suspension on the drivers side had collosped.

Anyway I had some bill,

Rear hub

2 rear shocks

2 new rear tyres

labour

tow truck to london

flights home that night

2 x ferry tickets

flights back to london to collect the car a week later.

What a sh*t experience that was, but I supposed we could totaled the S4s.

Oh yeah the lorry river didn,t stop.

[Jonathan]

Useful to know - personally I'd be scared of repairing a cast like this, especially when it's so absolutly critical, I guess it depends where it cracks.

I've had 2 break in my time - I even wrote a 'how not not break them' guide on LEW :

http://www.lotusespritworld.com/EGuides/EM...ubCarriers.html

Always got mine from SJ with little delay, perhaps they are down on stock now ? Although I was sure I saw loads of them at Bristol ?

[Simon350S]

I deffo agree that the garage that changed the shocks could very well be the cause of the damage.....

If it was cracked before then in 'my opinion' the cracked part would simply have broken off and they'd be left holding it in their hands.....

Sounds VERY dodgy to me mate.....

Simon

p.s. could be wrong, this is just my opinion... I just don't trust garages.....!!!!

[MGFCrasher]

I got a brand new one from Lotus a year of so ago through Strattons.It was expensive but I think they are the same through the range so they probably have some.That may be the quickest route?

Rich

[Jonathan]

Generally in order to take the rear shock off they'll try the bottom 1st and take that nut off and belt the lower link stud which = a cracked hub.

What you should really do is compress the spring, take the top end off and then slide it off the stud but thats the long and more work involved route.

Where's the crack ? It's always a tell tale sign of whether it's been twatted or not.

[hilly]

I agree, it is a little bit of a coincidence that you have just had the rear dampers changed and the garage happens to "find" a crack in the upright.

There is no need to move the stud at all to remove the damper, but if the shock has been fitted a long time it is bound to have corroded on.

What should happen is what Jonathan said, but that is a shed load of effort and time is money to a garage so they will have most likely whacked the crap out of it to get the dampers off.

Look at the condition of the stud (especially the threads), if it has any signs of impact on it then that will likely be the cause of the crack.

The hubs are just not able to cope with high percussive loads in that axis.

Hilly

[brianabbot]

Hi all, I don't know with the crack - it does look pretty old, I guess the garage could have rubbed some crud into it but I reckon it's been there a while, hopefully I've uploaded a pic showing where it is in red. On the plus side I have just succesfully changed the bearings in my translator as my gearchange stopped working yesterday, a bolt was loose and the arm that attaches to the gearbox came away. I then noticed the bearings had broken down completely I took the boot floor out and it was not too bad, by the way the bearings are the same as fitted to a ryobi printing press.

[Jonathan]

You could repair that as it's not totally load bearing most of the time.

Hammering will usually crack the casting on one of the legs - ie the leg snaps off completley - thats the weak point.

You might find that's cracked due to the swelling / corrosion inside thats why it's so important to copper grease that area.

One of the hubs I had, the garage put an acetaline torch on it to try and release the stud from the casting - they gave up when the aluminium started to melt ! once they're in that swelling action is nigh on impossible to budge (I've tried with a 13 ton fly press and a sledge hammer on the other one I broke to see how badly it was stuck).

OR they might have done the nuts up too tight and caused the split bushing to burst - check that too.

As I say you could repair this and it should be OK, however I'd still edge on the side of caution and try to replace the whole lot, if that web breaks you can end up losing the rear suspension....dont wanna be doing that when you're in the Esprit zone if you know what I mean.

Edited December 18, 2007 by Jonathan