Do you feel this was related to the fact that car is an S or would this potentially happen on all cars? Just don’t know if the S is more prone to a failure; I don’t know if the idler or tensioner is any different between the two. I’m around 34k miles in my N/A and have never heard a squeak.

 

The tensioner and 2 idler pulleys are the same between the N/A and S motors. In my case, the issue was with one of the supercharger idlers of which there a 4 additional to the n/a. The job would be much more reasonable on an N/A motor.

 

Experiencing the squeals myself at the moment. My 2011 S is going to an indy shop Tuesday for a new belt, tensioner, and possible idler pulleys. Fingers crossed it's nothing more serious. I'll check back in late this week....

 

Once in there, you have to keep going until you find the bad bearing...doing all that work only to find out it is one of the 4 would suck, as the work would need to all be done again.

 

I cannot stress enough how this design is absolute trash. Even the tensioner removal is retarded, clowns assembled my motor with the A/C hoses running parallel to the ground... So they needed to be rotated... not an easy feat through the firewall cut out which could have been 45% larger... but you know, they are lotus... total clowns, zero Motorsport applications here.

 

Yea. I will be sure to instruct the shop to dig until the squealing culprit is found. I do have a 3rd party extended warranty, which would cover all but the belt (I hope).... gulp.....

 

Good Luck. Everyone just assumes tensioner... Unless they hand you a shot bearing, just replace/overhaul all 7 pulleys.

 

Oh, and rear support bar upper bolt.. yeah lets not use a self guiding bolt... cause then we can charge them for the headliner removal to adjust the cross bar. (you can actually just use a long screwdriver and someone with strength).
It's basically a bolt in roll cage... and anyone who has fitted one can tell you the last piece can be hell if the rest is all tight. so yeah, let use a standard bolt in a recessed fitting.

 

i am both glad and sorry that I saw this today. my 2014 S started squeaking and I drove home 10 minutes later which was about 2 miles. by the time I gently parked in my drive way the supercharger belt was smoking. I turned the car off, no warning lights or heat warning temps. by the time I raised the rear hatch the belt snapped. The car was taken to lotus in nashville. I will not get a report until tomorrow due to the shift rotation thanks to CoVid 19. I didn't not need to see a $4000 quote but at least I can brace myself for the biggest expense since owning this car. QUESTION - should anyone of us consider the upgrade parts from Monkey wrench or am I way off on what may be needed????

 

i am both glad and sorry that I saw this today. my 2014 S started squeaking and I drove home 10 minutes later which was about 2 miles. by the time I gently parked in my drive way the supercharger belt was smoking. I turned the car off, no warning lights or heat warning temps. by the time I raised the rear hatch the belt snapped...

Can you tell us how many mileage your car has? If the repair cost is high, I would consider upgrading to the latest supercharger at BOE.

 

If the belt was smoking and snapped, chances are one or more of the various pulleys and/or accessories has frozen up, causing excessive rubbing to the point of weakening the belt. Depending on which spinny thing isn't working right will determine the cost. It shouldn't be too pricey, unless it's the supercharger itself that is frozen.

 

I

don’t want to even think about the Supercharger being ruined. Oh my dark thought ?

 

Only 14000 miles. I am still hoping for good news tomorrow. I’m all in however, we love this car so we are prepared to spend the cash if needed. Still not excited to spend 12k or worse.

 

I'm unaware of any upgrade parts that have to do with the accessory belt drive. Just alot of bearings to replace. Hopefully it is one of the upper pulleys.

 

Just received the news. The bracket pulley assembly needs to be replaced. $2200 from Lotus, $1789 from MWR
Total bill with towing $4569.
viper guy you mentioned changing some other police can you elaborate please since the back clam will be off

 

Just received the news. The bracket pulley assembly needs to be replaced. $2200 from Lotus, $1789 from MWR
Total bill with towing $4569.
viper guy you mentioned changing some other police can you elaborate please since the back clam will be off

Well, the bracket is just 4 pulleys with 8 total bearings... If it's the upper ones they can remove and replace without doing anything more than pulling the tensioner back.(easy job through the wheel well) Should be a hour job to do. If they find zero damage, then the bracket needs to come out to get to the lower ones... This means the motor must be tilted. You do not need to remove the clam. Most important is having a competent mechanic to look the pulleys and bearings over as the reason they are advising to replace the entire assy. is the bearings are not the problem... it's the machining of the bracket.

You can go down the new bracket route... but having seen 2 of these things and the VERY POOR machining, you can toss 2k at you car every 2 years or overhaul the bearings and fuse/loctite 660 them and be done. All this for about $300 in materials.

There is a shop in Minnesota that will overhaul your pulleys for something like $75 ea.

In my case, it was the lower most rear pulley that had it's outer race spun in the pulley (poor pulley machining). New bearing and Loctite 660 and better then new. Other methods you could use would be to strike or fuse the race.

 

My 2011 S had squeaky pulley when engine hot, and over 2k rpm. Car has 22k miles.
Good news is it was tensioner but also replaced 2 idler pulleys and serpentine belt. Used toyota parts and non lotus belt. Local foreign car mechanic did whole job, which included removal of alternator and ac compressor.....10 hrs labor, $1800 total. If you check evora labor manual, and calculate hours per step, estimate is around 10.7 hours.

 

Well, squeak is back (bird chirp), after only 200 miles since New Gates belt, toyota tensioner and 2 toyota idler pulleys installed. Had belt changed again (Gates), and again after around 150 miles, birds are back. This time, noise disappears after around 30 min drive. Could it be that Gates Toyota belt not precise fit? I'm using the gates cross reference belt for my 2011 evora S.

 

I plan to change the supercharger nose and pulley to upgrade the HP by a little

 

A great way to increase boost, but remember a smaller SC pulley increases the ability for the belt to squeal.

 

Update from my 2014 S
going forward with repair. I did order from MWR and saved about $325 on parts. After speaking to harrop directly I did order the nose cone upgrade with the 66mm pulley. it will add a little HP and there will not be any heat issues. If you go more extreme with this upgrade then yes the heat issue is real. This info came directly from Harrop tech as I do not always trust advice from companies that want to sell more parts. I will say MWR was very prompt and helpful and they did communicate with me which is way more than I can say for BOE. I have a cold air intake from BOE as well. my last dyno was 369 HP with 314 to the wheels so if I gain a little more safely then I am ok with that. I never intended this car to be a drag racer. This will be the largest repair bill since I purchased the car. I hope this is it for a while. many techs have told me that the 2014 models were very solid as it was the last year of the S. Here's hoping that is true.

 

Please post photos of the damage... did they confirm it was a lower pulley?

 

@robdom. Have you has to fit a shorter pulley belt with the larger pulley?

 

was not the lower pulley. sorry i did not get any pics of damage. I was freaked out and wanted it fixed ASAP. I have had good service from Carlock motor cars in nashville. I did discuss replacing any other pulleys or parts and they did not recommend any. it is running good so I hope it is sorted for a good while. Now I am off to schedule a protective film for the front and top. Wish I could do the entire car but not looking to spend $6,000 right after spending $5k on this repair.

 

So what you're saying is they could have just made a $300 repair?

 

It might be the other idlers near the supercharger pulley. I don't believe those are Toyota. You might be able to find alternatives based on the diameters listed.

 

It might be the other idlers near the supercharger pulley. I don't believe those are Toyota. You might be able to find alternatives based on the diameters listed.

View attachment 1268881

View attachment 1268880

What's strange is after replacing tensioner, and 2 idler pulleys and serpentine belt, chirping gone for 200 miles. If it were another pulley, logic says it would've been chirping immediately. Same thing happened after replacing serpentine belt the second time....all quiet for another 100+ miles, then chirp returns. That's why I'm questioning the Gates serpentine belt as an exact replacement for the lotus belt (I have no idea where lotus sources that).

 

eliseparts has those pulleys in stock Search Results | EliseParts

 

This thread is the first time I have seen this issue mentioned on our cars...

 

By changing the tensioner, you may have put just a little pressure needed to stop the squeal until it broke in.. For my fix, the supercharger pulley was the smoking gun. and I had the chirp after driving 30 mins... everytime.

 

Interesting. In my case, the chirp stops after driving 30+ min. How did you address bad supercharger pulley? I didn't think that pulley was a replaceable part.

 

Thank you.
This is a confounding issue, of course!
Going with conventional advice on squeaky serpentine belt, I did the water spray test, and, it immediately stops squeaking for 10 secs then resumes. This according to many, indicates belt issue as opposed to bad pulleys. But, its a brand new belt, so wtf! So, I decided to try spraying 303 Aerospace protectant, and it did stop the squeak, but I'll see how long it lasts.

 

If it is new with new tensioner, then something is wrong. If any pulleys seem polished, you could scotchbrite them to add grip?

 

Update...
Used 303 Aerospace protectant spray on the serpentine belt and so far no more squeak. I havev no idea why a new belt needed it, but it worked. No more chirping birds in the engine bay!

 

Diagnosing a chirp can be infuriating. Old school method to find a noise like this is a piece of rubber hose, one end held up to your ear, the other end directed to the suspected area until it you hear it in the hose.

 

The car wizard used that trick in this video (though for a different issue)

 

Nothing like resurrecting an old thread. I have the same squeal/chirping/repetitive pulley noise with my Evora 400. I am trying to formulate a strategy to diagnose and fix this. The design is ridiculous with 7 idler pulleys and a tensioner. The noise sounds as though its coming from the upper idler pulley assembly which makes sense because presumably all of the other pulleys are Toyota parts and unlikely to fail. Am I correct that the upper pulley bracket is also the upper engine mount? Can this be removed without taking the clam off? Once I get it off can the pulleys be replaced? Is there a better systematic approach to identifying the failed pulley(s)? The supercharger idler pulley bracket doubling up as an engine mount and a single belt with 7 idlers sounds like something Colin Chapman would have come up with...I wonder why they didn't just leave the Toyota serpentine belt as is and just have a separate belt for the supercharger like my old Audi S4? Any help or advice would be appreciated. I have a lift and a lot of tools including some thin wrenches and sockets and I don't drive the car much in the winter so I am planning on self isolating in the garage to work on this over the holidays.

 

From the service notes: "From September 2019 (approximately) a ‘Gatorback’ type belt with grooves running at acute angles to the internal ribs replaced the original multi-rib belt. A service interval for belt change by age and mileage was also introduced at this time which is 36,000 miles (58,000km)/4 years, whichever is the soonest)."

My 17 Evora 400 has the old belt. Is there any particular advantage of this gatorback belt?

 

Gatorback belts are basically supposed to help with squeal because of the design. I do wonder if they moved to this because of the squealing.

I have heard that Lotus doesn't sell the pulleys and need to get the full thing as a unit like so 2018 Lotus Evora 400 Idler bracket/mount assembly. Engine - A132E0161F | Lotus, Indianapolis IN

BUT eliseparts.com has some that should work (not sure if its been tested) Lightweight V6 Idler Pulley A132E6514S | EliseParts V6 Exige & Evora Idler Pulley A132E6515S | EliseParts

 

I can only speak for the S1 ... You can replace/overhaul the upper pulley assy. with the clam on, motor will need to be raised. 8hr job. 10-12 if doing everything. You will need slim profile bars. Not fun without a lift. And as mentioned above, I now know why Lotus will not sell the bearings (although proper mechanics will now how to obtain them). The machining on the pulleys is borderline rubbish... and after finding mine with a spun outer race, I spoke with others that had the exact same issue. So all installed with Loctite 660.

 

Does the pully have enough meat to turn the ID on a lathe to a slightly larger OD bearing? Where I could do the machining properly?