[sdownie]

Hello LotusTalk!
I recently look my Lotus into a Lotus dealership to have the oil line recall done, and fix the felt on the inside passenger door (It was falling down. They re-glued it). Several days after I received my car back, I noticed the passenger door scraping against the front 'A Panel'. I contacted the dealer and scheduled to have them fix it. When I took in my Lotus, they said it wasn't them and wouldn't be fixing it and that I would need to fix it out of my pocket. He said it was scrapping the lower panel (which they didn't touch during the recall), and they didn't touch the door besides unscrewing the felt panel therefore it wasn't them. You can hear the door scrape whenever you close the passenger door and i'm sure that it wasn't left like that when I turned it into the dealer.

Questions:
1) Have you ever had this problem?
2) Do you think it's possible they messed up the door? If so, how?
3) Any suggestions are greatly appreciated

I've attached and circled the problem in the attached picture. I'm supergood at using MsPaint and sorry for the title typo ~_~

 

[Deja Vu]

When they pulled the front clam they detached it from the lower panel. There are shims that go in there and room and it can be moved forward and backward a little bit when you tighten it back down. I've accidentally done that to mine one of the times I had the front clam off.

It's a fairly easy fix, but you'll want to pull the front wheel, and liner. Then there are two 10mm nuts you'll need to just loosen, then push the lower portion a bit forward, and re-tighten. If they forgot to put the shims back in there you'll need to get some of them or convince them to fix.

You don't have to do anything to the door.

 

[sdownie]

Thank you Deja Vu,
That was very helpful. The owner of the Lotus dealer said "We don't touch the bottom panel when removing the front clam. There is no way this was caused by removing the front clam". I attached another picture of what it looks like where the two panels meet. When i got to the dealership he got down at the front of the car and tired pointing where you have to remove bolts (with all the panels still on) saying that they have nothing in common and I couldn't see anything. Very frustrating.

 

[sprocket3]

Mine did that exact same thing when I replaced my clam and didn't shim properly. It's hard to tell what shims need to corrected from that photo, but it should adjust back to original fit with proper care.

 

[sdownie]

Thanks Sprocket3!
So both of you guys fixed the problem with the lower A Panel by adjusting the shims. Got it. Thanks so much! It's troubling that both of you had this exact problem (and seems to be a fairly common problem) and the Lotus Dealer said it was impossible to take off the front clam and mess up the front A Panel. They said they will not be covering the adjustment or the small amount of damage done to the paint. I could care less about the fees but I'm very unhappy with the dealer. I'll let you guys know how things shake out tomorrow when I pick up my car. Thank You!

 

[komiko]

very common occurence in these cars - my driver's door started rubbing - then stopped as i was about to adjust the shims. I'm going to wait until it resurfaces...clam was never pulled - just "happens" sometimes.

 

[Ozone]

Happened to mine which I think was caused by the extra weight when I installed dynamat.
But Lotus adjusted for me free of charge when I took it in for an oil change.

 

[tennistom]

Just got mine back from servicing and the boot lid doesn't pop back up like it used to. I need to open it by lifting up with the key or grabbing the vents. Must be hard to find techs who know and care about what they are doing these days. Add layers of government mandated fuel, mpg and safety requirements and is it any wonder it's so difficult to get things fixed right the first time, or two, or three. Today's cars are more complex then the early spaceships. I'm looking into building a Mini-Moke, they're one level up in complexity from a golf-cart to bring back the joy of motoring.

 

[sprocket3]

Thanks Sprocket3!
So both of you guys fixed the problem with the lower A Panel by adjusting the shims. Got it. Thanks so much! It's troubling that both of you had this exact problem (and seems to be a fairly common problem) and the Lotus Dealer said it was impossible to take off the front clam and mess up the front A Panel. They said they will not be covering the adjustment or the small amount of damage done to the paint. I could care less about the fees but I'm very unhappy with the dealer. I'll let you guys know how things shake out tomorrow when I pick up my car. Thank You!

Yes. I think this can all be adjusted when the clam is pulled, and if it's not set back exactly as it was from the factory you get this stuff. There is a lot of play in the attachments of the clam to the body, so it can be put on perfect. Or it can be put on really messy. If you look at 5 cars all will have different levels of quality of fit. Some have great gaps and some have terrible gaps.

That's called the "hinge cover" which you can loosen up with a couple wrenches at this point. I found it helped to slip a Popsicle stick into the gap and then squeeze it together so the gap line was straight.

If the gap is too big it will increase the amount of bowing out of the panels. You could just start with checking the gap size.

Just insert some of those U shims until the two panels are flush, not like in your photo where the lower sticks out. Those two bolts can be a pain to get threaded so I would try really hard to not let them come all the way out.

There is another point on the very tip of the clam just above this area, where the clam is bolted to the window frame area you could try to adjust. Though I would just see if these two bolts (in your photo) can make it work first.

I'm not an expert, but that's what I picked up from doing my clam R & R.

 

[[email protected]]

Hi All...
Not much to add -- except this was also the case with mine -- apparently from the factory. But the good folks at the dealership took care of it a few weeks ago -- during my initial inspection / service! Now I'm just waiting for touch-up paint to arrive. [Nothing like a fresh layer of wax in the meantime.]

 

[Joegnsx]

Mine did exactly the same. I was able to loosen one hex head bolt inside door jamb holding the top of front clam, then pulled up and out a bit, which it needed. The clam was "bowed out" along with the A panel,......fixed! All the earlier comments here gave me the confidence to just do it--thanks!

 

[sturgeongeneral]

Take it back to the dealer and have them shim the clam properly and fix the paint scrape.

 

[Brakes2011]

Lotus shims

When I had the oil line recall done back in the Spring, my car did the same thing on the passenger side. When I went to do an adjustment like described here (and what the dealer suggested) I discovered that the door hinge bolts were actually loose and just needed adjusting and tightening. You might check that too just to be safe.