Engine Burning Oil Problems of Lotus Elise

I was on the freeway driving at freeway speeds in the #1 lane when I smelled burning oil. I hadn't noticed the car performing differently so I looked ahead to the forward cars for the 'gross polluter' causing the smell. I didn't see anyone with my first forward inspection. I then immediately noticed the oil light lit on the dash. At the same instant I looked out of the side mirror and saw smoke pouring from my car. (this happened very quickly and I may have noticed the rear smoke before the oil light. ) I quickly put the car into neutral, drifted through 3 lanes of traffic to the next exit which was within 1000 or so feet. I drifted off the exit onto the main street and into the gas station on the corner. My wife came soon after and noticed the large oil spill on the freeway road surface where it occurred. When I went to inspect the car when I stopped at the gas station I saw several oil puddle forming in the rear on the ground (in the middle and on the passenger side), the rear of the car was covered in oil, the passenger rear wheel was covered in oil including the braking system on that side, oil was dripping from the bottom of the car onto the ground, and smoke was pouring from the engine bay. When I opened the engine bay it was smoking and covered with oil. I was a little concerned that it could catch fire, however it didn't. I called a tow truck and towed it to my mechanic. After the event I was wondering about the cars behind me on the freeway and what it was like for them following me after my car released 10 quarts of oil onto the freeway and onto their windshields. I later found out that the oil line coupling had failed in the rear. This was the second time that this occurred to me with this car.

See all problems of the 2007 Lotus Elise 🔎.

I was driving home from work, and after about half of a mile I started to smell burning oil and thought to myself "boy, I'm glad that smell isn't coming from my car!" I was traveling at about 55 mph. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a thick trail of oil following me and looked at my oil light and saw that it was on. I immediately pulled over. There was oil covering the right rear tire, brake assembly, and suspension. The remaining two or three quarts came out while I was calling the tow truck. The shop mechanics said that the oil cooler hose slipped out of it's crimp and he showed me a photograph. I found out later that there is no easy fix. According to the experts in the Lotustalk forums, it's common for the crimps to come undone. Although I had shut down the engine in time to avoid a complete seize up, the repair cost will still be around $2000 to replace the hoses and clamps. Most of the cost is from labor because it's difficult to pull the hoses through and the front clamshell needs to be removed. There are aftermarket kits to replace these oil cooler hose/clamp systems. I haven't figured out how I'm going to do the repairs yet because the nearest Lotus dealer is $250 miles away. Although I was uninjured, I can see how this could cause injuries - either from the brake rotors getting coated with oil, fires, or the engine seizing up in the middle of a busy highway. The Lotus Elise is a great car, but the oil cooler hose clamps in the earlier models are a big problem!.

See all problems of the 2006 Lotus Elise 🔎.