Engine Cooling System Problems of Lotus Elise

The contact owns a 2005 Lotus Elise. The contact stated that he received a recall notice in January 2012 for NHTSA campaign id number:11v510000 (engine and engine cooling). The contact stated that he tried to get the vehicle repaired but the manufacturer stated that they were working on trying to determine how to repair the vehicle. The contact stated he wanted to get the vehicle repaired but it was taking too long for the vehicle to be serviced under the recall, which had exceeded a reasonable amount of time. The contact had not experienced a failure.

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Oem oil cooling line crimp let go that is in front wheel well to oil cooler. Engine oil poured all over front tire and brakes. Even at 15 mph I lost control. This would have been fatal if driving at highway speed.

The hose connecting the two oil coolers in the front of the car failed on the freeway. I felt the car dangerously losing traction on the left side of the driver and I also saw the oil light coming on, and pulled over immediately. I had to replace the hose, it cost me $775. Two weeks from that, the hose fitting failed again, my car is in the shop right now, who knows how much the damage is now.

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On starting my car in the morning, the passenger side oil cooler hose from the engine to the front oil cooler separated at the rear crimp, quickly draining all of the oil. The oil warning light came on, and as I shut the engine off the engine made a couple of rattling noises. On attempting to replace the defective hose, I have been unable to find the part in stock, leading me to have new hoses made by a hydraulic shop. The failure is at a minimum responsible for a costly repair and clean up, that may take several weeks due to parts availability, and in a worst case may cause an accident due to oil on the tires, as well as engine failure due to loss of oil. My car is a 2005 Elise with 55,000 miles.

Said to be a 'common' problem when looking on forums;my 2005 Lotus Elise while driving down the road the oil light comes on, so naturally I see a gas station and go to pull in when the driver side front tire locks and skids to the right side . I was only doing less than 30mph so nothing bad happened . Got out and my entire crankcase of synthetic oil is all up the driver side and covering the front driver tire. I was headed to the interstate and this could have been disastrous. I feel blessed the light came on before I hit high rpm's. This would have lead to a locked up bottom engine ( thousands in repair) or sliding on the interstate causing accident. I contacted Lotus with no reply. The online forums have horror stories of the exact same thin happenin and I find this unacceptable. The repair is a hydraulic hose that cools your engine oil from rear to front. The fitting is know to be bad and just break away over time. A very costly problem if ignored. I'm out the repairs , towing, tow damage to front clam.

Oil cooler line crimp fitting failed at the sandwich plate adapter while driving onto a highway ramp. Cloud of white smoke appeared in rearview mirror and oil pressure light illuminated. Turned vehicle engine off and repaired myself by modifying the crimp that failed.

My 2005 Lotus Elise has a inherent problem with the a/c fan not working. This si a design flaw in the resistor being placed were it is prone to water intrusion.

Premature wearing on cam shaft in engine resulting in internal engine failure.

My 2005 Lotus Elise experienced a coolant leak in the p/n a12e0017f aluminum u-tube due to excessive rubbing on a oil fitting that the tube was resting on. Due to the engine vibration and shaking, the u-tube wore through the tube wall completely allowing coolant to leak out. The u-tube is located on the front side of the engine and rubs on a oil line fitting. Based on an online forum (lotustalk) and other Lotus Elise/exige owners, the u-tube rubbing is not an isolated. Apparently, some Elises/exiges have the u-tube zip-tied to the oil line fitting, but the rubbing is still apparent and only a matter of time before a coolant leak will occur. My Elise was not zip-tied, which no doubt accelerated the wearing and resulting leak. I decided to make a report since it looks like Lotus owners are still identifying the rubbing and apply do-it-yourself fixes. I repaired mine at my own expense and started a thread on Lotustalk to help other owners protect their cars from ever leaking like mines.