[Backpain]

Just wanted to update the thread and say I have not had any issues since the original ones and the car is running good now, I still get the stalling out on rare stops, but it's very rare. Everything else was fixed and is perfect, all I need is a good detail and I'll be good to go.
I wanted to let everyone know how well Lotus has stepped up to fix every concern and will do everything in their power to make thing right and make you happy as long as you do the right thing and call the 1-800 number in the back of the manual. They built this service to serve us and it works. If you are not happy about something or something with the dealer you work with, just call.
Don't waste time posting on here when your mad at the dealer or about something if you haven't called that number, they will take care of it. They want to make us happy and will do everything to make sure we are.

I shouldn't have jumped the gun here and posted without giving Lotus the full chance of rectifying my problems, I went simply off some things my dealer told me which turned out to not be correct 100% and the lack of not hearing back from them pissed me off. I should have just called directly to Lotus and they would have arranged the proper repairs with my dealer. Sometimes it's better to just do things on your own because the dealer doesn't know everything as each situation is different.









Just thought I'd post my problems I'm having or have had in the first 600 miles of my 2008 Persian Blue s240 port Car.

1. I noticed a vibration coming from the wheels. I called the dealer and told them I thought that my tires may be flat spotted since the build date was nov 2007 and the car came straight to my local dealer from port with only 3 miles on it. It sat for a year in storage. I also told them the front wheels were out of balance as the front wheel would shake above 65 mph real bad.

The dealer told me they doubt the tires were flat spotted but said they would check them. Turns out both rear tires are indeed flatspotted and can't be repaired, they tried to pop the beads and re seat them as well as some other things but in the end agree'd with my diagnosis. They told me they put in an email to Lotus and would try to get them to replace the tires, but they doubt they will. This was last week and I have not heard back from them. If they don't replace them then it doesn't say much to me about the company..I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope they do the right thing.

The front right wheel was totally out of balance and they re balanced it. The front end feels much better now.

2. The car has been stalling out almost every time I come to a stop, it would do this 5 out of 8 stops as well as the rpm hunting where it would float from 500rpm to 1500 and back then stall.
I told the dealer to check for vacuum leaks and exhaust leaks as these were probable, I let them know of the other here who had this issue.
The dealer claims there's a Tsb about the stalling and they claimed to have reflashed the ecu. I have since driven the car another 150 miles since and the car has only stalled 4 times now, so it's gotten better but is not fixed.

3. The rear brakes squeal when coming to a stop with light pedal pressure, they would continue to squeal even after letting off the brake pedal. I told the dealer that this is a typical caliper hang up and that it was binding up and not relaxing after braking. It squeal so bad that others always look at the car if they were not already..
The dealer said that the caliper was not hanging up but they did find it to be leaking fluid and the system had air in it. They claim to have fixed the leak and bled the brakes. The car doesnt seem to squeal when I let off the brake pedal anymore but it still does it when I stop with light pedal pressure. I will put some more miles on the car in hopes that this is just a break in issue with that set of pads.
Does anyone else have the brake squeal issue???

4. When driving the car yesterday I looked down and my gauge cluster was totally dead with no tach, speedo, or anything. I had read here about this happening on some new cars I think. The messed up part is I figured it's an electrical problem so I turned on my headlights to see if those still worked, when I did the whole gauge cluster lit up like a x-mas tree with everything on for a second and then off again, then the tachometer started to work and the ABS light was on. At this point I didn't know if I should pull over and get it towed or keep going.. I drove for another mile or so just going off my rpm since I know what speed I'm going at 4k, all the sudden the bottom half of the cluster comes on and I can see my mileage again and the trip OD. At this point I figure it will be ok to finish the drive home, well I drive for another 10 miles or so with no speedometer when all the sudden i lose all power to the car and it felt like someone turned the key off, this lasted about 5 seconds and then pop, the speedometer starts working with all the other cluster operations but the ABS light was still on.I drove the cvar off the highway and shut it off for 20 mins, then restarted it and the cluster was working and the ABS light has now turned off At this point I was kinda upset as now when I bring it to the dealer, they are going to look at it and say it all looks fine now and nothing will be dont to fix it.
Either the cluster is no good or the car has wiring problems, I will call the dealer today to have it on record.

5. The roof seal that's on the back edge of the roof in the interior of the car was hanging down and was not stuck to the roof properly, this is the foam seal with adhesive backing that's just behind your head. I'm not sure if this is what actually does the sealing of the roof as I have not yet taken it off. If this is the seal then i will have a leaky roof as part of the adhesive was pulled off and stuck to itself, so when the dealer stuck it up there's going to be a 1-2 inch section that's not sealed on.

6. When I pulled the dipstick to check the oil for the first time I used a clean white rag to examine the oil and it's condition. There was 3 small chunks of metal on the tip of the dipstick. Now I understand that there's usually some small pieces that always seem to get in the pan on new motors, but I hope now that I had the 1st oil change these will all be gone.

6. I was under the impression that we get 3 free months of Xm radio with the car. My car came with about 15 channels on it but that only lasted a few days and then the radio updated or something and I only have 2. I guess this is not that big a deal but if others did get 3 months ferr I'd like to know about it.

7. Small rant here but my clear coat has tons of swirls and scratches in it, the first time I saw it in the shade I saw lots ow scuffs and swirls, this is not something I'd expect in a 70k car. This car came straight from port and never sat on a lot. I'm not sure if the dealer's detail team is crappy or where it got like this but somewhere the car was buffed as they got the screens full of white wax in the corners. You would think they would take more car of these expensive cars.

Anyway, some of these issues are small and some are pretty major in my eye's. If anyone has experience with any of them I'd like to know how they were resolved.
I don't think a lot of these should have made it past the PDI inspection

Other than these things, I love my car:clap: It was the best purchase I have made, the car gives me pure happiness and enjoyment when I drive it..

 

[agirls]

It may take a while to get approvals from Lotus. It took about a month to get approval from Lotus for my dealer to repair my headliner.

 

[Hello Kitty]

I also had a -bad- vibration above 60 when I first got my car. I replaced the tires, and the vibration was totally gone.

I have never seen metal chunks in the oil. My oil is as clean today as the day it was put in... about 10,000 miles ago!

 

[tesprit]

Just thought I'd post my problems I'm having or have had in the first 600 miles of my 2008 Persian Blue s240 port Car.

1. I noticed a vibration coming from the wheels. I called the dealer and told them I thought that my tires may be flat spotted since the build date was nov 2007 and the car came straight to my local dealer from port with only 3 miles on it. It sat for a year in storage. I also told them the front wheels were out of balance as the front wheel would shake above 65 mph real bad.

The dealer told me they doubt the tires were flat spotted but said they would check them. Turns out both rear tires are indeed flatspotted and can't be repaired, they tried to pop the beads and re seat them as well as some other things but in the end agree'd with my diagnosis. They told me they put in an email to Lotus and would try to get them to replace the tires, but they doubt they will. This was last week and I have not heard back from them. If they don't replace them then it doesn't say much to me about the company..I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope they do the right thing.

The front right wheel was totally out of balance and they re balanced it. The front end feels much better now.

7. Small rant here but my clear coat has tons of swirls and scratches in it, the first time I saw it in the shade I saw lots ow scuffs and swirls, this is not something I'd expect in a 70k car. This car came straight from port and never sat on a lot. I'm not sure if the dealer's detail team is crappy or where it got like this but somewhere the car was buffed as they got the screens full of white wax in the corners. You would think they would take more car of these expensive cars.

I can't comment on all of the items in your list, however I had the same with problems 1 & 7 when my car was delivered new ('05 purchased in '06).

I am still fighting with the front tires on my car being flat spotted, and they do seem to repond to frequent balancing, however they never have been very round when spun on a balancer. There have been numerous threads about the poor balancing from the factory so I would have to say :tadts:

I had the same situation with the paint on my car as well. Tons of swirls and scratches and rock hard white compound stuck in every nook and cranny including all over my interior. The cars must get messed up during transportation to the port, and their guys trying to correct the paint just make matters worse. Sad to say, it would be better if they just left the paint alone and let the owner have the car detailed--this really stinks on a brand new car! After three years of ownership, I have finally corrected the defects in my paint after much effort and expense. Again, :tadts:

Sorry to hear of the rest of your problems and hopefully Lotus will come through and correct them for you.

 

[TimMullen]

The cars must get messed up during transportation to the port, and their guys trying to correct the paint just make matters worse. Sad to say, it would be better if they just left the paint alone and let the owner have the car detailed

The cars are transported in sealed containers from the factory to the port. They are shipped on enclosed trucks to the dealer.

I suspect that the dealer did a bad job of "prepping" the car. I asked that they not "detail" my car when I bought it, and spent the first weekend waxing it myself. No problems at all... :shrug:

 

[smicker]

My S240 stalls frequently as well, usually after long periods of highway driving, then coming to a stop. I seem to remember my Elise doing the same for the first few thousand miles, as if the ECU was going through a learning process.

The only other problem so far was that the AC was uncharged and the compressor wasn't engaging--this was fixed at the 1,000 mile service.

 

[tesprit]

The cars are transported in sealed containers from the factory to the port. They are shipped on enclosed trucks to the dealer.

I suspect that the dealer did a bad job of "prepping" the car. I asked that they not "detail" my car when I bought it, and spent the first weekend waxing it myself. No problems at all... :shrug:

I thought it was the dealer doing the buffing as well, however I have heard from many others with cars delivered all over the country having the same buffing compound mess and scratches on their new cars. I even have buffing compound under my Starshield in places and I know the Starshield is applied by Lotus at the port or distribution center before the car is shipped to the dealer. :shrug:

Here is a tip for those of you with white compound chunks stuck under your Starshield. Get a fine tipped Sharpie marker in the same base color as your car and color in the Starshield over the white spots. It made a huge difference on my AR (red marker) and should work well with other dark colors, especially black.

 

[newman]

My s240 stalls once in a great while, and my cluster went haywire too.

 

[Vishus_1]

1. Some of this is attributed to the length of time the car was just sitting at the port. These cars are not suited for sitting that long – bushings, seals, bolts, electrical, battery and especially tires are vulnerable. I would also be concerned that, even just sitting at port, that the tires have been exposed to temperatures that damage them – there are several threads on this topic but they can’t get below 14 degrees I think.
This needs to be addressed even if the two that aren’t flat spotted don’t get replaced.

This isn’t the first time I have heard of a tire not being properly balanced. Hopefully they didn’t damage your rim removing the tire.

2. Unacceptable. This issue plagues S owners and I have only heard of limited success with the reflash working. It didn’t fix my issue.

3. How many miles were on the car when you took delivery? Since you have an S240, I am sure you are aware there is a special brake bedding procedure that requires you first use the brakes to slow before engaging them fully. Hopefully that was done on your car – otherwise I bet Lotus won’t take care of the pads.

4. This is an alarming and dangerous issue. So far, the combination of all these things point to what happens as a result of extended storage and not being driven.

5. Again, this is another symptom of the car sitting that long in likely extreme temperature differences. The culprit here is the heat that must have built up in the interior.

6. Normal – this is what happens as the engine breaks in. I would be more alarmed if the metal was significantly sized.

6. (BTW your numbering is off) – anyway I can’t comment on this since I don’t really use the radio.

7. If the dealer didn’t cause this, then the port did. They seem to take buffers to cars that aren’t cleaned very well – as a result, the car gets permanently swirled and looks awful. This is also unacceptable.

I don’t think any of these issues are small or pretty and are well within your right to have addressed. I hope your dealer does you right and addresses and fixes these items.

 

[300hpMR2]

Just keep on it. Hopefully you'll get everything resolved.

I've had a worn 2nd gear synchro, worn steering rack, broken driver's side door release mechanism, rubbing passenger side door, leaky roof seal, oil leak, diffuser bolt issues, and my car stalls on occasion. Everything has been taken care of by the dealer except for the stalling. i hope Gotham will cure that.

 

[robains]

I had similar problems with my 07 Exige S new. Lotus were completely unresponsive. It seems that when you buy this car, if you sneeze wrong the 1 year warranty is void.

Too bad we can't register the car as "experimental" at local US DMV.

But in your case it sounds like that car is not all it should for the following reasons:

1. Flat spotted tires with only 3 miles ?? If the car was being "stored" that long it sounds like it wasn't stored correctly -- i.e. put up on jack stands so when the tire do deflate it doesn't damage them (aka, flat spots).

2. Stalling, yep me to and many others (several threads about it). It's a common problem that Lotus have not addressed in a meaningful manner. But keep in mind that Lotus don't really have an engine department as they source the motors from Toyota and the make their own ECU.

3. Brake squeel should go away after you got some miles on the car and done a few hard stops.

4. Dead dash, yep, this has happened to me also. My cure was to replace the dash with a IQ3 dash/data logger.

5. Someone pulled the roof off if you see seal hanging down. One pulls the roof of when one wants to remove the rear clam, one removes the rear clam when one wants to replace an engine or do some other hard to get to work back there.

6a. The dipstick is magnetic?? I thought only the drain plug was magnetic? I'd suggest you have them drain your OIL ASAP. Some small metal shavings are noraml on the oil pan bolt, but they should be very small and not too many of them.

6b. Demand your 3 months. FYI, XM had to restructure the financial debts (almost went bankcrupt).

7. Do you have star shield? If so, that is thin layer of clear plastic type material that should NEVER be buffed, only hand waxed. Also, it has a tendancy to leave wax lines when the star shield plastic ends and the 'normal' body takes over -- suggest finger nails to clear out the wax.

You probably paid $70K or so for the car. In most "normal" situations, this type of stuff just wouldn't be acceptable from any manufacturer -- I personally don't see why Lotus should be any exception. If you can make Lotus listen, good luck, but your ONLY real recourse is taking it to the dealer and look up the specific details about Lemon laws in your state. Usually there is a XYZ days at dealership and/or after 10 attemtps to correct and failed, etc. etc. If there are days at dealership limitations, the dealer will often try to NOT keep the car so that you can't evoke your Lemon law rights.

IMHO, this is one of the biggest downsides to purchasing a Lotus.

P.S. -- and I'm not even gonna start on about the fragility of the motors as I don't want to Engine #3 to hear

 

[kaiynne]

My elise stalled a couple times at idle when i first had it but then that disappeared. I definitely had the issues with the white compound stuck in many places, but i found after washing the car 2 or 3 times a week and being careful to get them out whenever i see them there are now roughly zero left. Other than that my paint was fine. Sorry to hear about your troubles!

 

[xtn]

Doesn't the S240 come with Pagid blue brake pads? If so, a slight squeal when rolling to a stop with light pedal pressure is normal. You may have to just explain to people that that's what real performance brake pads sound like.

xtn

 

[tesprit]

7. Do you have star shield? If so, that is thin layer of clear plastic type material that should NEVER be buffed, only hand waxed. Also, it has a tendancy to leave wax lines when the star shield plastic ends and the 'normal' body takes over -- suggest finger nails to clear out the wax.

I used to think the Star Shield could never be buffed (per the owner's manual) however the piece on top of my front clam was badly scratched by either the dealer or Lotus before I took delivery of the car. No amount of waxing or sealing helped the scratches. Just this past weekend, I took out my Porter Cable DA and my Adam's (sponsor here on LT) machine polishing kit and went to town on the scratches. They all buffed out perfectly and the Star Shield looks better now than new. Star Shield can be buffed!

I agree with the fingernail to remove the wax from around the edge of the Star Shield. It works well and you can feel the edge so you wont pick it up or damage the Star Shield.

 

[spectre]

I'm a second lotus owner (had an 05 elise that had issues straight from the factory, bent wheels, out of round tires, bad instrument cluster, etc.) and knew that the s240 was not going to be perfect from factory either and it wasn't...

Tires needed rebalanced, make sure to bed in the brakes (they will still squeak regardless but at temp the don't and they do a great job stopping the car), waterfall leak in hard top, crazy idle hunt and stalling (that does work itself out with 4 or 5 tanks of gas and driving, let it idle before / after for a bit and it helps), AC / Fan will cause it stall (I did notice that if you don't leave the clutch in at stop it will not stall although now I can as it doesn't stall anymore) instrument cluster froze within 200 miles (reset and fine ever since), new abs wheel sensor and abs computer, new steering rack (all parts back from steering wheel), etc. The dealer didn't have the latest tools or computer to even read diagnostics.

I had them pull in the Lotus Rep as I felt the dealer was unable to get it right. I will say my dealer tried to fix some of these issues but did not have the skill to do it all correctly. After the dealer had my car for 6 weeks I decided to never take it back to that dealer as they put huge scratches in my hard top, didn't reconnect the trip button or lights, had a nut rolling around in the dash. It was a nightmare...

I contacted another dealer do the track pack lower, corner balance and in general look over what had been done to notice that a boot was ripped and installed incorrectly on the front suspension.

My advice would be if your current dealer is not making it right to go to another dealer you can trust to make this right. Ask around and people will quickly tell you as there are a handful of great dealers that will take care of you and your new s240. Not all dealers are equal.

In my case the Lotus Rep really wanted to make this right. Reality is it came down to the dealer making it happen.

Is this acceptable for a brand new car?
No!

Do I love this car and its ability?
Hell yes and since the initial nightmare the car has driven to absolute perfection!

If you have questions feel free to PM me.

 

[bull30]

Just thought I'd post my problems I'm having or have had in the first 600 miles of my 2008 Persian Blue s240 port Car.

4. When driving the car yesterday I looked down and my gauge cluster was totally dead with no tach, speedo, or anything. I had read here about this happening on some new cars I think. The messed up part is I figured it's an electrical problem so I turned on my headlights to see if those still worked, when I did the whole gauge cluster lit up like a x-mas tree with everything on for a second and then off again, then the tachometer started to work and the ABS light was on. At this point I didn't know if I should pull over and get it towed or keep going.. I drove for another mile or so just going off my rpm since I know what speed I'm going at 4k, all the sudden the bottom half of the cluster comes on and I can see my mileage again and the trip OD. At this point I figure it will be ok to finish the drive home, well I drive for another 10 miles or so with no speedometer when all the sudden i lose all power to the car and it felt like someone turned the key off, this lasted about 5 seconds and then pop, the speedometer starts working with all the other cluster operations but the ABS light was still on.I drove the car off the highway and shut it off for 20 mins, then restarted it and the cluster was working and the ABS light has now turned off At this point I was kinda upset as now when I bring it to the dealer, they are going to look at it and say it all looks fine now and nothing will be dont to fix it.
Either the cluster is no good or the car has wiring problems, I will call the dealer today to have it on record.

Keep a 10mm open end wrench in the car. When this happens, and it will happen fairly often, disconnect the battery wait 30 seconds then reconnect. That will fix the problem. By the way, Lotus does not have a clue as to why this happens, maybe just because it's English, who knows. I installed the Sector 111 Braile battery with the bracket and cutoff switch. So when it happens like it did again this past Sunday. I turn the switch off then back on.

There is a good side to all of this... The car will run fine and you don't rack up any miles on the odometer rotfl

By the way, love the color, I wish mine was that color

 

[robains]

On a side note, is the odometer mileage being stored in the stock dash or stock ECU?

 

[DeanG]

Bad paint on a $70,000 car? Take a look at the paint on BMW 7 series. Bad paint on a $150,000 car.

 

[LBC111]

I also had a pretty good "steering shimmy" at over 65 mph. Rebalancing never worked. Unrelated to this issue, I replaced my stock wheels with aftermarket wheels (TE37), and remounted the SAME tires on the new wheels. Shimmy completely gone.

Stalling? Still an issue, esp in warm weather, but not as bad as when new.

Guage cluster? Mine went dead also. Dealership (no longer in business) swapped it out.

Roof seal? Install your own. You will probably want to anyway since the seal between the roof scoop and the roll bar hoop cover is probably causing leakage before the intercooler. You might have to fettle the opening in the rear anyway.

XM Radio? Right! I had two channels. One was weather, one was a cheesy endless loop of an XM commercial. Not a great way to sell the service. I never listen to the radio anyway.

 

[Backpain]

I also had a -bad- vibration above 60 when I first got my car. I replaced the tires, and the vibration was totally gone.

I have never seen metal chunks in the oil. My oil is as clean today as the day it was put in... about 10,000 miles ago!

Did you replace the tires at your own cost or did Lotus warranty them?
As far as the metal chunks go, My specialty is engine building, I have been building Honda Race motors for 6-7 years now and had my own prostock drag car. My motors will only have some metal from the rings seating and normal break in. I on average spend more time cleaning the motors then any other part of the building process, many multi stage cleanings is the key to a properly built engine. I know that Toyota isn't clean room building their motors and I'd expect to see some metal that wasn't cleaned out during the build. This is why I don't agree with the 1k first oil change, I'm not sure of what they do at the factory but I idle a motor after a build and then change the oil, then I high idle it at 2-3500 rpm for a few min's then change it again, I then road test (or dyno)and tune air fuel ratio and do some low rpm pulls to make sure all is ok, If it is then I'll put about 100 miles on it and change the oil again. I do all this with the cheapest NON detergent oil from autozone. At this point the car goes to the dyno for full throttle pulls. This whole long low rpm break in is BS, all the motors I have done that way end up burning oil and leak down like 8-10%. All the motors I break in hard will end up with 1% leak down and burn no oil.

I brought the Lotus in at 550 miles for the first oil change which was killing me because I had seen the metal chunk at about 400 miles.
The dealer wanted to charge me 303.00 for a oil change, I had to remind them that the sales manager told me he would take care of me on the service. They knocked off 70.00 because of all the minor problems I was having. The Service manager(Luis) at Valenti is a real good guy and he seems genuine in wanting to resolve ant issues with the car for me

I can't comment on all of the items in your list, however I had the same with problems 1 & 7 when my car was delivered new ('05 purchased in '06).

I am still fighting with the front tires on my car being flat spotted, and they do seem to repond to frequent balancing, however they never have been very round when spun on a balancer. There have been numerous threads about the poor balancing from the factory so I would have to say :tadts:

I had the same situation with the paint on my car as well. Tons of swirls and scratches and rock hard white compound stuck in every nook and cranny including all over my interior. The cars must get messed up during transportation to the port, and their guys trying to correct the paint just make matters worse. Sad to say, it would be better if they just left the paint alone and let the owner have the car detailed--this really stinks on a brand new car! After three years of ownership, I have finally corrected the defects in my paint after much effort and expense. Again, :tadts:

Sorry to hear of the rest of your problems and hopefully Lotus will come through and correct them for you.

So do you think your rims are bent? seems like yours might be worse than mine.
Also don't flame me here but what does the TADTS stand for? I keep seeing it..lol

I suspect that the dealer did a bad job of "prepping" the car. I asked that they not "detail" my car when I bought it, and spent the first weekend waxing it myself. No problems at all... :shrug:

I actually thought of asking them not to detail mine but it was pretty dirty when it came in. They did a horrible job and the inside of my windshield has terrible water marks and it looks like they used dirty rags to just wipe it. The whole car needs to be washed and I need to clean all the wax and compound out of all the grills, then I have to have it re buffed and waxed.

My s240 stalls once in a great while, and my cluster went haywire too.

Did you do anything about the cluster or did you just leave it?

1. Some of this is attributed to the length of time the car was just sitting at the port. These cars are not suited for sitting that long – bushings, seals, bolts, electrical, battery and especially tires are vulnerable. I would also be concerned that, even just sitting at port, that the tires have been exposed to temperatures that damage them – there are several threads on this topic but they can’t get below 14 degrees I think.
This needs to be addressed even if the two that aren’t flat spotted don’t get replaced.

This isn’t the first time I have heard of a tire not being properly balanced. Hopefully they didn’t damage your rim removing the tire.

3. How many miles were on the car when you took delivery? Since you have an S240, I am sure you are aware there is a special brake bedding procedure that requires you first use the brakes to slow before engaging them fully. Hopefully that was done on your car – otherwise I bet Lotus won’t take care of the pads.


6. Normal – this is what happens as the engine breaks in. I would be more alarmed if the metal was significantly sized.

6. (BTW your numbering is off) – anyway I can’t comment on this since I don’t really use the radio.

7. If the dealer didn’t cause this, then the port did. They seem to take buffers to cars that aren’t cleaned very well – as a result, the car gets permanently swirled and looks awful. This is also unacceptable.

I don’t think any of these issues are small or pretty and are well within your right to have addressed. I hope your dealer does you right and addresses and fixes these items.

I originally thought I was getting a car from the Cali port so I wasn't to worried about the tires getting too cold, but I then found out that the color I picked had a brother in VA. I asked the dealer about the tires going below 14 degrees and they questioned where I got that info, they say they have never heard of that problem and wanted me to show them proof.
It turns out that I actually knew more about the car once I ordered it because of all of you here on LT, I started going in and teaching the salesman stuff. He was happy to learn of all the small things I found but questioned everything, they wouldn't agree to anything I would come to them with unless there was written proof on Lotus's website. I am debating them on the XM radio as it says right on XM's site that the cars come with 3 months free. I did find it now says it's free for the Elise so I think they are going to tell me I'm out of luck because mine's an Exige.

I was not given any info on the bedding in of the brakes on the car so I hope mine aren't messed up because of this. I have never braked hard on them and have progressively used the brakes, I have not raced the car yet and only have had to stop hard 1 time on the highway when a woman just switched lanes and almost pushed me into the dirt.

Like I said originally they did find the rear caliper to be leaking and they said they fixed it and bled the system. The squeal comes and goes but it sounds like the rear drivers side is the culprit. I have been telling people they are race pads and they do that sometimes..I wonder if some anti squeal grease will help. I got my jack helper from Jim Clayton today so I'll jack it up tomorrow and pull the wheels for my first inspection of my own. I hope the dealer jacked the car up properly and didn't marr up the bottom of my car. I'm pretty anal if you guy's couldn't tell by now.lol

Doesn't the S240 come with Pagid blue brake pads? If so, a slight squeal when rolling to a stop with light pedal pressure is normal. You may have to just explain to people that that's what real performance brake pads sound like.

xtn

That's how I have explained all the problems.lol This is nothing compared to when my drag car would have issues.lol

I'm a second lotus owner (had an 05 elise that had issues straight from the factory, bent wheels, out of round tires, bad instrument cluster, etc.) and knew that the s240 was not going to be perfect from factory either and it wasn't...

Tires needed rebalanced, make sure to bed in the brakes (they will still squeak regardless but at temp the don't and they do a great job stopping the car), waterfall leak in hard top, crazy idle hunt and stalling (that does work itself out with 4 or 5 tanks of gas and driving, let it idle before / after for a bit and it helps), AC / Fan will cause it stall (I did notice that if you don't leave the clutch in at stop it will not stall although now I can as it doesn't stall anymore) instrument cluster froze within 200 miles (reset and fine ever since), new abs wheel sensor and abs computer, new steering rack (all parts back from steering wheel), etc. The dealer didn't have the latest tools or computer to even read diagnostics.

I had them pull in the Lotus Rep as I felt the dealer was unable to get it right. I will say my dealer tried to fix some of these issues but did not have the skill to do it all correctly. After the dealer had my car for 6 weeks I decided to never take it back to that dealer as they put huge scratches in my hard top, didn't reconnect the trip button or lights, had a nut rolling around in the dash. It was a nightmare...

I contacted another dealer do the track pack lower, corner balance and in general look over what had been done to notice that a boot was ripped and installed incorrectly on the front suspension.

My advice would be if your current dealer is not making it right to go to another dealer you can trust to make this right. Ask around and people will quickly tell you as there are a handful of great dealers that will take care of you and your new s240. Not all dealers are equal.

In my case the Lotus Rep really wanted to make this right. Reality is it came down to the dealer making it happen.

Is this acceptable for a brand new car?
No!

Do I love this car and its ability?
Hell yes and since the initial nightmare the car has driven to absolute perfection!

If you have questions feel free to PM me.

Thanks for the offer, I'll pm you for sure.
As far as dealer choices go, I only have 1 to go to,I will have to travel to NY or NJ to get to the next dealer which is 2 hrs away.
My dealer has a new Lotus tech who just started with these cars, the sales crew is new and the management is new. They have a real bad rep here on the board with multiple complaints. I told them that and they say they are all new and they will do everything they can to fix their reputation. We will see what they do if Lotus won't replace the tires. The only thing I dontlike is the fact that every time I have an issue I have diagnosed it and told them what the problems are, well they question it every time and treat me like I'm trying to pull one over on them. I have been correct with everything I have brought to them yet they still question me like I'm some idiot who doesnt know anything. I have been building, racing and tuning cars for 15 years and I have told them that. I have backed up everything so far and I hope they will trust what I tell them eventually. I'm sick of the whole"well we will have to check on that response" and not getting any answers unless I badger them.

Keep a 10mm open end wrench in the car. When this happens, and it will happen fairly often, disconnect the battery wait 30 seconds then reconnect. That will fix the problem. By the way, Lotus does not have a clue as to why this happens, maybe just because it's English, who knows. I installed the Sector 111 Braile battery with the bracket and cutoff switch. So when it happens like it did again this past Sunday. I turn the switch off then back on.

There is a good side to all of this... The car will run fine and you don't rack up any miles on the odometer rotfl

By the way, love the color, I wish mine was that color

I wish I got your color as well..lol I'm going to order the kill switch bracket as well, where did you order your battery from? I have been looking for the best price on it.
Also how do you like the wheels so far? is your TPMS fix still working?


Thanks for all the replies guy's, I was beginning to think people here don't like to talk to the newbs. I'm new to Lotus, not cars. Just take it easy on me as I didn't get to read here for years like most of you have, searching doesn't always come up with the right threads, especially when you don't know the proper terms to search for.