[Eyelise]

Is there any way we can find out if the Lotus boys in Hethel seat the rings before the car is shipped? They are all supposed to go out on the track before shipping. I want to know how and if I should try to seat the rings. Help I'm in the first shipment.

 

[offroadr35]

obviously the break-in information will be available before you get your car. you can chill-out a bit, still a few months left.

 

[Eyelise]

I hope you are right. I had no idea the break-in was as important as it is. I also didn't know the window of opportunity to do it right was so short.

 

[offroadr35]

it's really not as big a deal as people make it out to be. you will get a thousand different opinions but in the end the only one that really matters they will tell you when you buy the car.

 

[Eyelise]

I don't think it is quite that simple. I do agree it matters what the dealer says. You need all the facts to decide whether or not you decide to follow the recommended procedure.

 

[hermanslotus]

Re: Modernwedgie has me freaking

Is there any way we can find out if the Lotus boys in Hethel seat the rings before the car is shipped? They are all supposed to go out on the track before shipping. I want to know how and if I should try to seat the rings. Help I'm in the first shipment.

So much I hear each Elise does one lap around the track before it's shipped. Why I you worried about this? You have never bought a new car before?

Best Wishes,
Mitch

 

[Modern Wedgie]

I believe that there is initial "break-in" on the motor. There is an initial break-in where the engine goes through a complete hot cycle...i.e. the notor is brought to working temperature under mid-rpm and revved for a bit. This would be a more critical step than the break-in we do.

Then there is the second break-in procedure that we will all do according to Lotus, unless you want your warranty voided by big brother.

 

[Modern Wedgie]

The elise does NOT go around the track once, they are tested in a simulator.

 

[Genjuro]

I would imagine that the engine is tested before it is even shipped to Lotus. Doesn't make much sense that Toyota would produce the engine and not test it....

 

[hermanslotus]

I believe that there is initial "break-in" on the motor. There is an initial break-in where the engine goes through a complete hot cycle...i.e. the notor is brought to working temperature under mid-rpm and revved for a bit. This would be a more critical step than the break-in we do.

Then there is the second break-in procedure that we will all do according to Lotus, unless you want your warranty voided by big brother.

Modern,

Perhaps you can tell my why this Toyota Elise engine is so different in breakin procedure than the thousands of other new motors on the roads. I am still scratching my head on this one??

Best Wishes,
Mitch

 

[hermanslotus]

The elise does NOT go around the track once, they are tested in a simulator.

Modern,

I guess they use the track for the Euro cars only. Because my good friend who works for Lotus Car Australia since 1987 told me that every car they got had a few K's on it and they were all run on that track at least once. I guess they aren't doing this with the Federal Elise.

Best Wishes,
Mitch

 

[andykeck]

Modern,

I guess they use the track for the Euro cars only. Because my good friend who works for Lotus Car Australia since 1987 told me that every car they got had a few K's on it and they were all run on that track at least once. I guess they aren't doing this with the Federal Elise.

Best Wishes,
Mitch

I've got the 'Best of British' Lotus video that so many of us on this board have and they show the finished cars (at that point, the UK ones) not going out on the track, but rather being tested on rollers before being packed up for shipping.

 

[Vantage]

I hope the running-in procedure posted on Seloc is true: 3/4 throttle max, 7000 rpm max, for the first 1000 miles (something like that). The break in period wouldn't be so painful to work with.

 

[andykeck]

I hope that this whole break-in debate doesn't take the serious turn that I saw when I used to participate on the VFR mailing list. There it turned into some kind of holy way with lots of hot headed debate with little in the way of facts on either side of the issue.

On one side, you had the racers and power freaks that followed the 'break it in like you'll use it' rule and worried more about initial heat cycles than mileage and RPM, and on the other side you had the literalists that never even once revved past the limit in the manual. I took a few things from watching this debate for months.

1. Modern engines are so well made and precisely machined that it just doesn't make much difference. If you don't on one hand spend the first thousand miles at WOT banging off the rev limiter or on the other hand cruise around town lugging the motor at 1200 RPM you'll probably be alright.

2. The guy that writes the manual is not the guy that developed the engine. The manual guy is more concerned about minimizing warranty claims than maximizing performance.

I think in the end you end up making the choice between that last couple of percent of horsepower versus another few thousand miles before rebuild. But like everything I've said, that's just my guess. I never saw anybody come up with any hard data one way or the other. The differences people pointed at always seemed to be less than the natural variability between engines anyway.

What will I do when my car arrives? Well, there's the peeing-in-the-pants thing, but after that, I'll most likely do my best to follow the manual's instructions, but I won't feel bad at all about the times that tempation takes over. After all, if the guys unloading the car before I got it can drive it like hell, then I want to too.

 

[Eyelise]

I don't know. I saw some convincing info. on that Motoman.com site. I hope the manufacturers recomendations have sufficient room to cover all bases.

 

[offroadr35]

If you really MUST belabor the issue maybe check out some toyota forums. As i understand lotus only changed the ECU so the internals should be the same.

-Steve

 

[Eyelise]

M.W. I owe you an apology of sorts. Onefastmiata started the thread that has me "freaking". All I can say is this. My A4 2.8 was broken in on the hard side. That car was fast for an A4 consistently posting significantly better numbers than suggested by the manufacturer. I often remarked I thought it was atypically quick. I didn't put two and two together until recently. Maybe it had an ideal break-in. I guess I want to get everything just right for my Elise. I'd also like my Elise to be on the fast among Elises just like my A4.

 

[scot]

Toyota runs their engines on a dyno before sale. This sets the rings and valves, at least for the very important initial breakin. Plus it "cleans" everything up and pulls out the metal shavings that invariably form. Then they check everything out, make sure it is within tolerance and put it in the car.

Chances are its exactly the same for the engine being sent to lotus.

Scot

 

[Modern Wedgie]

Eyelise-

Dont worry about it, I mean, I'm sure its easy to confuse the 3 girls on the website...we all look the same, right?

 

[Mark]

I've got the 'Best of British' Lotus video that so many of us on this board have and they show the finished cars (at that point, the UK ones) not going out on the track, but rather being tested on rollers before being packed up for shipping.

The track is in big demand a lot (like most) car makers use Lotus to "tune" the handling of their cars.

When ever you go to Hethel you're not alowed to take cameras in as many of the cars being tuned are pre-launch.

These cars handling is greatly improved but do still not compare with a lotus as they have other considerations to compromise to. eg noise, ride,production cost, access etc.

This high demand for track time is one of the reasons why most cars are not individually track tested before shipping.