Lotus Elise manuals are $45 / lb

[sandsmuseum]

I got my Lotus Elise manuals today. They are expensive. You will pay $45 per pound and the manual set weights a nice, hefty 15.9 lbs. That is over twice the cost per pound that we got charged for the car itself, $20.65 a pound.

Two of the manuals are Lotus, including the Parts Book and the Service Notes. The other three are Toyota part numbers, including RM930E for the Transmission Manual, RM929E for the 2ZZ-GE supliment, and RM733E for the Engine Repair Manual. I tried to walk in to my friendly Toyota parts department with these numbers and order the manuals but was unsuccessful. They could not find the numbers and needed to know the model and year of the (Toyota) car. (chuckle)

Now I have some late night reading material...

Michael

[huggy bear]

Do they sell the manuals on CD (.pdf)? I'm guessing no.

[Ground Loop]

How protective is Lotus of these service manuals?
I know scanned PDF have been made widely available for older Elise models, and some manufacturers tacitly allow reproduction of the manuals.

There are some pretty flagrant photocopies on eBay, and they've been there for a while.

I guess I'm asking if Lotus feels strongly about their copyright and considers the service manuals as a revenue enhancement. If not, perhaps they would allow us to scan & share the expensive books and let them do more engineering and less publishing..

[TimMullen]

Originally posted by sandsmuseum
I got my Lotus Elise manuals today.

How complete are the manuals, and are they (the Elise manuals, not the Toyota manuals) specifically concerned about the Federal Elise, or are they S2 manuals with supplements?

I've got one of the boot leg S2 manuals just to read and check out, and there are enough differences between the S2 and the Federal S2 that I'd be annoyed to have to check supplements all the time.

[adamant]

Michael,
How did you order them? Through UK or US channels? Thanks,

[sandsmuseum]

I do not know how Lotus feels about the manuals being on line. I heard a rumor about Lotus tightening the copyright and not wanting the distribution of the manuals to continue. I suspect the high price also indicates that Lotus wants to make some money with the publishing, or at least wants to break even as manuals are expensive to produce and keep current.

I have not gone through the update process for the service manual yet. There are three large updates, pages that need to replace error pages in the original or additional pages. So I am not sure how complete the manuals are.

My first example of how "complete" the manual is goes something like this. Kiyoshi and I are planning on taking out the grills in front and substituting mesh. I looked for some information on how to remove the side grills from in front of the oil coolers and could not find a section about them. I did see the screw and clip in the parts manual and can infer how they are to be removed.

There was a section about how to disable the airbags. One part was funny. It explained how to connect two 20 foot wires to particular terminals, remove all loose material from inside the car, get away from the car, and connect the wires to a 12v source. This sets off the air bags! Then you remove the material and wash your hands in warm, soapy water. (chuckle)

These manuals cover 111R, North American Elise, and the Exige 2004 model year onwards.

I have the orignal Elise Service Notes, published around 1996 with some following updates. Obviously the manual is substantially different. I have not seen the Elise 2000 manual so cannot comment on differences.

Michael

[BarryB]

we should try and get a group discount for the manuals.

Barry

[demarco]

Originally posted by BarryB
we should try and get a group discount for the manuals.

Barry

If we do this i'm in.

I'll probably be ordering a copy of the manuals soon too.

Vince

[Miguel]

Same here, but I only want the Service Notes and the Parts books.

The engine and transmision can wait. Unless the overall cost is not too much then I would love to get all 5 of them.

Michael are these the part numbers for the ones you got?

Manuals:

Elise/Exige 6 Speed General Maintenance A120T0327J (service notes)
Elise/Exige 6 Speed Engine Manual 1 B120T0327J
Elise/Exige 6 Speed Engine Manual 1 C120T0327J
Elise/Exige 6 Speed Transmission D120T0327J

Parts:

Elise/Exige 6 Speed A120T0325J

Edit: Those numbers should be in the front page.

[sandsmuseum]

Lotus Lotus Toyota

Elise/Exige 6 Speed General Maintenance A120T0327J
Elise/Exige 6 Speed Engine Manual 1 B120T0327J RM733E
Elise/Exige 6 Speed Engine Supplement C120T0327J RM929E
Elise/Exige 6 Speed Transmission D120T0327J RM930E

Elise/Exige 6 Speed Parts A120T0325J


The latter numbers are Toyota parts.

Michael

[wallabyguy]

I'm in for a group buy.

[Thomas Praetzel]

Books4cars now has the official shop manual for the 05 Elise for around $250.00.
Mine will be here in a week, I'll let you know how complete it is. They also have the Elise complete story, or something like that, I ordered it also.

Aloha,
Thomas Praetzel

[James A]

Thomas, please let us know how comprehensive the manual is!
When I built my Seven I went to a Ford dealer to get the shop manual for the Zetec Engine, I was told they did not sell them and I could buy them from the same suppler they use. Sure enough I hunted down a company called Helm at www.helminc.com they make the shop manuals for a large number of manufacturers and will sell directly to you. Unfortunately they don't list Lotus yet.
If you are looking for a shop manual for most makes try them, it's the same manual the dealer is using!

[raggedy1]

service manager at a dealer mentioned you don't get updates as they are distributed.
so once you buy your manuals that's it for you. the dealers receive constant updates, but private parties won't be getting them...

so with that bit of information I'm going to wait to order mine. maybe next year when they have a few bugs worked out and the information is more complete.

i ordered shop manuals early for my mr2T and regret not waiting another year as the following years contained much more information.

[JeffersonRaley]

Originally posted by Miguel
Same here, but I only want the Service Notes and the Parts books.

I agree, a good parts diagram can a be a lot easier to work with than the manuals. Definitely in for a group buy.

[Ground Loop]

Originally posted by Thomas Praetzel
Books4cars now has the official shop manual for the 05 Elise for around $250.00.
Mine will be here in a week, I'll let you know how complete it is. They also have the Elise complete story, or something like that, I ordered it also.

Aloha,
Thomas Praetzel

How did the manuals come out? Are they the full compliment, same part #'s as from the Lotus parts counter -- or something different (Haynes-style)?

[Frederik V]

Does anyone have the Toyota partnumbers for the gearbox of the Lotus Exige 2006 NA version ? My third gear is broken and the synchromeshes also.
I have the part numbers of Lotus but I want the Toyota numbers so I can order them by a Toyota dealer