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Guys,

I recently bought an Elise 111R from a recognised seller of many of these cars. The thing is that the car has aircon (1st mistake possibly) and it doesn't work. It has also always had chatter from the front end so, after getting a bit inquisitive about this I sent it to a Lotus dealer.
Truth is I need to fix the condenser as it is banging around under the clam creating the chatter and has damaged the radiator where it has corroded.
The aircon radiator/condenser has corroded but also corroded the engine's radiator where it attaches to it so to replace the condenser only - front clam off job,
Cooling radiator only - £798+VAT = £1000

But also the sill pipes have corroded (obviously - this does happen on Lotus') so I can replace these too with the main corroded radiator also (with a race one - aluminium) which will fix the aircon totally -

Main radiator, Sill pipes = £993+VAT = £1240

Total job to fix aircon on a plastic car £2240.

What actually sounds right about this if anything?

Not overly happy - what would you all do apart from set fire to it?

You said it yourself, AC is great in theory, but probably best avoided in an Elise

If the AC was fubar when you bought it, surely the supplying dealer should fix?

What has the dealer said re the problem?

It was a Will Blackham car - I've yet to contact him. He has always been very decent so it's worth a try but he is under no obligation to help. He did want to buy the car back off me when I came to sell, I could shift it back to him but that's a bit immoral.

that's a bit immoral

It was ok for him to sell you the car in the first place, sell it back to him and wash your hands of it

I know he has got a good name so might be willing to help, or sell it and buy an Exige.

Paul, I am so tempted to do that - but get one without the aircon. I'm going to see how much it is to strip it all out and just replace the rad.

Silas - I get you bro but I'm a karma kinda guy and I'm not convinced he was doing it on purpose, maybe he didn't know - he said he had regassed it - if it wasn't for the knocking I'd just leave it in. I guess two wrongs don't make a right - I might contact him to see if he could help and then post his reply on here!

Seeing as he re gassed the system he knew there was a problem which should give you some form of comeback on the matter I guess

Yeah, I thought that too - he still sold it as 'with aircon' which you'd expect to work. The car is still with Lotus who have asked me to get him to contact them to talk it through. Apparently 'parts' are expensive - if Will can get the parts cheaper then they'll fit them - the car had had a service by a specialist prior to my purchase - they must have 'missed' the aircon. Convenient.

Just speak to Will and see what he has to say he has a good reputation that he wont want to tarnish

This is a common problem on older cars I believe which lotus recognised and fitted updated parts on later cars

You wouldn't want an exige without A/C trust me

Ads will be along soon I'm sure to actually provide some useful technical advice!

My 190 had a hard top so 'exige'ish - didn't have air con and never found it to be a problem.

The air con never works that great either - if it is fubared then I would seriously consider just binning it.
Supplying dealer should look at fixing certainly the rad. Air con is tricky as it would be reasonable to test this prior to purchase.

Ask for a breakdown of the quote - seems a lot to me.
Where a outs are you based? Might be a decent independent.

I'm on Anglesey Ads so Northwich (Chester) Lotus have the car. The servicing manager there seems totally genuine and I told him to drive the car to figure out the front end knocking. He could have come back with bushes, ball joints need replacing but didn't. I agree that maybe binning the aircon is the best idea - leave the pipes in the sills to save costs - just replace the main radiator with the new aluminium one and call it a day - but that's still a £1000 bill. Truth is that I wouldn't have minded this bill on the RS (well I would but I'd kind of expect it) but on an Elise this seems ridiculous for just aircon but I guess it's getting access etc that is the problem.

Do you reckon I just call Will Blackham and be open with him - if he wants to buy the car back in the future then this is in his interest to get this fixed? This one has me a little stumped to be honest.

I would suggest talking to the dealer. Nice calm and open. Chances are if their reputation is as it looks then they will be keen to sort something out.

Yes, most of the work and cost is removing and refitting the front clam.
Tbh, it's easier than removing say an rs4 manifold, just a lot of bolts and spacers/washers.
As long as you have a helper to lift the clam off its not hard at all and perfectly DIY-able.

Just make a note of which spacers went where (and how many).
Iirc I think the standard op time for removing and refitting a front clam is about 4 hours...

To put the pricing into perspective - an OEM plastic radiator is £129. Upgraded Aluminium one between £200 and £300 depending on spec.
OEM AC condenser, £200.

So say 500 quid... the rest will be odds and sods like coolant and labour.

I'm really surprised about the sill pipes - they are bonded in place so a royal pita to get to. Be interested to see the corrosion.

Reply from Lotus:

Hi Tim

Here goes

Option one coolant rad only and removing a/c rad but leaving pipes in sill

Radiator (alloy motorsport) £328.00

Antifreeze £ 18.21

Labour £490.00

Option two

A/c rad £383.00

Re-gas a/c £ 49.00

Add too above if required

Option three

A/c sill pipes £229.36

Labour £315.00

Option four

Exhaust heat shields £ 92.00

Labour £ 94.20

Option five

Front roll bar bushes £ 71.46

Labour £ 74.50

All prices plus vat

Regards

paul

But he has his aircon rad priced at £383+VAT but I found this for £239 inc VAT

http://www.elise-shop.com/aircon-conden ... 02121.html

...and the rad is £328+VAT from him or £305 inc VAT from here...

http://www.proalloy.co.uk/cgi-bin/sitew ... =det&p=895

Am I missing something here - I was thinking that most of the cost was labour!