[240AM]

Thought I'd share my weekend with you guys. I was traveling to the track, had just pulled onto the ramp about to drop the hammer and merge with traffic when I heard a pop from the driver's front. Oil pressure warning lit up almost instantly so I immediately let off, turned the car off and coasted to the shoulder. The whole left side of the car was covered in oil with it running up the windscreen as well. I believe I caught things in time to avoid engine damage, no weird noises and no suspect particulate in the remaining oil but I won't know for sure until I can pressurize the system again.

So here's the culprit. The oil line popped out of the crimp connector at the oil cooler. I know this type of failure has been discussed in detail on the forums but unlike others I had absolutely no warning that anything was amiss. Car is inspected regularly before and after track days and there has never been even a drop of misplaced oil to indicate a leak or damage.

So now is as good an excuse as any to go ahead and ditch the factory oil cooler and switch to a rear mount setup. Should save me a lot of headaches in the future.

BTW. Car is an 06 Elise with 20k miles.

And the forum software decided to rotate my pictures but you get the gist. (Fixed)

 

[rwbronco]

I've got myself the OneCoolerLines from S111 and plan on doing my swap here in the next week or two. Better lines + better fittings. I don't track often if ever (location is problematic) so I could probably ditch the sandwich altogether and be ok but I don't like that idea.

I'm going to try and do it with the clam on but I know it's going to be a pain in the arse

 

[Ryephile]

Damn, good thing you keyed-off immediately.

Did your car not have the recall fix done? Nevertheless, +1 to doing a single rear-mount cooler and getting rid of that factory crap.

 

[240AM]

Im in the Memphis area so no dealership to do the fix but I planned on upgrading the system soon anyway. I just thought I had more time. Ironically I had planned to address the oil cooler system after this weekend as there is a two week break between events now.

 

[93viperrt10]

This is unbelieveable, we talked about this at the Formula 1 race in Austin.

I had an appointment to take my car in and the weather got bad so I bailed. I did a track day last weekend and my ass was puckered up thinking about it.

It now has become an priority.thanks for sharing.

 

[240AM]

I never gave it too much thought as the car only has 20k miles and passed visual inspection everytime. I guess the scary thing is yes these lines will just let go with no warning. I'm lucky I didn't get "ice mode" too bad. Although my front drivers caliper and rotor were coated in oil. Probably a good thing it happened a few blocks from my house instead of on the track at speed. I'm pretty sure I am going to go back with a rear mounted air exchanger although I am interested in the laminova set up since I will be upgrading the radiator while I have things apart this time. I will keep you posted though.

 

[Bruce]

So here's the culprit. The oil line popped out of the crimp connector at the oil cooler. I know this type of failure has been discussed in detail on the forums but unlike others I had absolutely no warning that anything was amiss.

That's typically how they fail. Anyone who hasn't had the recall done is just putting themselves at risk.

 

[93viperrt10]

I never gave it too much thought as the car only has 20k miles and passed visual inspection everytime. I guess the scary thing is yes these lines will just let go with no warning. I'm lucky I didn't get "ice mode" too bad. Although my front drivers caliper and rotor were coated in oil. Probably a good thing it happened a few blocks from my house instead of on the track at speed. I'm pretty sure I am going to go back with a rear mounted air exchanger although I am interested in the laminova set up since I will be upgrading the radiator while I have things apart this time. I will keep you posted though.

Mine also look fine so figured it would be ok. I decided let the dealer do it, scheduled an appointment for tommorrow. Having them do the Stainless Steel brakelines while its there. (another thread posted were the guy blew a line at the track)

What is it with Lotus and crimped pressure lines??????????

We will have plenty to talk about at the Canadian GP.....can not wait

 

[rwbronco]

I've had mine parked for a week because I know this needs to be done and have the lines in my garage but won't have time until this coming weekend - and there happens to be a european car gathering this weekend around when I'd want to do it. Naturally I'm super nervous about driving it ANYWHERE until I replace them but seeing as the car has 30k on it, the odds are in my favor of it being totally fine. I just know that I'm going to be in the same boat one day and have a lot more work to do because I'd "get around to it one day"

 

[turbophil]

Here's one option

more pics here

We've used this setup for a long time. Not on our website so would need to contact us directly over email/phone if interested.

-Phil

 

[Almighty]

Here's one option

more pics here

We've used this setup for a long time. Not on our website so would need to contact us directly over email/phone if interested.

-Phil

Phil, does this oil cooler kit interfere with a FF275 turbo kit installation?

 

[komiko]

i freaked out about this 3 years ago and "crawled" my car to Boe for the oil cooler relo. Among other things...

 

[LostPawn]

Here's one option

more pics here

We've used this setup for a long time. Not on our website so would need to contact us directly over email/phone if interested.

-Phil

Thanks for updating your website with some of the items you offer but it seems there are still plenty of other items we just don’t know about yet. I’m still planning out mods/costs/order and then I see some one-offs/not listed items and my plans need reevaluations.

Curious, is there enough air flow for this oil cooler, the CAI and extra ducting for the stock IC from the side scoop?