I blew a motor when it let lose on mine. I went right to Lotus and they said they would replace the motor under the recall. There was an open recall for my car at the time. This was in 2014, if I recall. They may have stopped doing that, I don't know. Would not hurt to call them up and ask. Otherwise, it's New Motor Time.

 

Hoping they’d honor it given its the same one! Will call lotus tomorrow.

 

My first failure was a fitting at the sandwich plate (46k miles), the second at the front passenger side (61k miles) and then the front driver's side failed (95k miles). All three times I was fortunate enough to be traveling <40mph in areas with safe pull offs. I repaired the first two myself but decided to get her to the Dealer for the official recall service to be performed in 2014. The Cams were inspected and found to still be in "Good Condition" at the time. Albeit messy, you can get the Oetiker Clamps and DIY...

 

I have 32k on the car so it sounds about right. its at the sandwich plate and the car sat for while so the rubber must have dried up. Really hoping they’d honor it. It’s odd the recall is not open on mine.

 

I will still push the dealership to have it done. That was a well documented issue and recall. Does the clam needs to come off??

 

Yes its a clam off repair! The dealer told me to contact lotus north america. Fingers crossed!

 

Which fitting failed? The two at the sandwich plate are easy to access from below, just like changing the oil filter... The fronts are not as easy to access. Some have damaged the cooler fitting(s) trying to remove the lines. Here's some reading material:

Step by Step Oil Cooler Line Full Repair

My LH (driver side) oil cooler line tore open with a little hole and the recently changed oil was dumped all over the road and the driver side of my Lotus. No oil light came on and I feel confident I turned it off before any damage occurred. It happened during the day so I was able to see the...

www.lotustalk.com

 

It’s the one at the plates by the filter. I feel like fixing one at a time is risky. I’d rather get them all done so i dont have to deal with this again! Thank you for the reading material

 

I wonder if by closed, they mean it's been performed. Which of it has been that means it's possible for them to fail after it's been done.
I hope that Lotus works with you on this. Do you have any photos of the failed fitting?

 

I wonder if by closed, they mean it's been performed. Which of it has been that means it's possible for them to fail after it's been done.
I hope that Lotus works with you on this. Do you have any photos of the failed fitting?

No they just dont see it as applicable to my Elise. The fittings i have are the original old style and not the new ones.

 

Surprised no one has mentioned that it is easy to tell if the oil recall has been performed already (which may explain why you were told its not open on your VIN). Recall repaired lines have a visible external clamp on the hoses at the oil sandwich plate. Does yours have this? Lotus also should be keeping track of which VIN have had this performed - did the dealer indicate this was the case for your car?

Since this is a safety recall, I didn't think they could close it out... unless they performed the action on you car, in which case it would be closed to you.

 

I dont have clamps its the old crimped style for sure. I emailed lotus directly today and I also didnt see the dealer i called listed on their website! maybe the license got pulled from one I called? no clue but hoping to hear back from them soon.

 

Sorry to hear this. Hoses that have been recalled have the external clamp as 'jds62f' mentioned but also a small white tag clamped between the clamp and hose. This is easy to spot.

If you have to undertake the work yourself, have a look at our ULTRAliteLINES. They are a sweet alternative that we developed before Lotus initiated the recall. See them: HERE

 

Thanks Shinoo. Mine are not upgraded and are the old style. I will check out the link. Appreciate it!

 

UPDATE - Lotus cars North American got back to me confirming the recall is open. My local dealer is either not using their system properly or something fishy is going on. Either way I will be taking into another dealer for the recall. Thank you all for the info and responses. I highly recommend to anyone that has an Elise reach out to lotus and make sure the recall has been completed as it can be catastrophic if not addressed or goes unnoticed for a while. Cheers!

 

Great Christmas Present from Lotus!

 

That sucks OP. This is for Exiges too? Is there to determine whether a car had the oil line recall done? or Must call Lotus?

 

Look at the fittings on the oil line at the cooler. There are pics on here of bad and new.

 

As a new data point, I just got the oil line recall done for my '05 Elise at Los Gatos Lotus. After procrastinating for years I finally decided to take the car to the dealership. Lotus got the parts delivered in 2 weeks.

 

Here is oil cooler hose end fittings recall info. VIN ranges on page 10.-

 

I just acquired an Elise last month and called the two dealers closest to me about the recall; both said it was open and recommended I bring it in, but one dealer said it wasn’t certain that Lotus would approve the work. They would have to check it out and contact them and wait for approval. The other dealer made no such qualification.

Would it matter which dealer I use as far as getting the job approved under the recall? The dealer that warned it might not be approved is 90 minutes from me; the other is 3 hours.

 

It shouldn't matter. But list the dealers and get some feedback. I had a choice of 2 dealers. One was sort of like "Lotus, who makes that?" and the other was "we'll have a trailer down there for it next week..." I went with the 2nd one. The first one is no longer a Lotus dealer, but I did buy a Land Rover from them.

 

One is Star Motor Car in Houston. i talked with Rick. The other is Hi Tech Motorcars in Austin, I spoke with Jean.

both people seemed knowledgeable about the oil cooler situation. Rick looked up the recall status immediately; Jean told me she’d have to call me back and she did promptly the next morning.

 

I don't think you can go wrong with either. Do a site search with googlez for recent comments.

 

I went with the Austin dealer because it is a lot closer to San Antonio. They sent a trailer within two days, got approval from Lotus for the repair including new oil coolers within 3 days. Parts were in a week after that and work was done within 3 more days. It's ready to pick up now. It will have been about three weeks total. Glad to get it done.

 

Is there a picture comparing the old hose clamp to the new ones? So people can see if they have the new updated ones.

 

This is the old hose clamp style:

The replacements have the hose on the hose barb with a clamp over it, not the crimped one like shown above. There's some pics here of the new ones but I can't find them.

 

Hmm... that crimp style is exactly like today's standard hydraulic hose fittings which are rated to 3000+ PSI. We have a lot of custom hoses made with exactly that style. What is the failure mechanism?

 

Yeah, looks like hydraulic hose fittings. The failure mechanism is discussed here somewhere. If I recall, the hose size may not have been correct for the fitting, or the things not crimped enough, or the ends not right (the bump on the end), or something along those lines. The replacement ends have a larger bump for the new clamps to work against.