Cam Belts...?

[Pierscoe1]

Hi all,

I'm considering an S2 111S as my next car, and have been searching through the classifieds, and noticed quite a few ads mentioning the "Big C-Service at 16,000mi inc. CamBelt"

What's this all about? AFAIK the 111S uses a factory stock (apart from ECU) 160ps VVC engine from the MGF Trophy.. I've never heard of a K-series needing it's cambelt changing at 16000Mi !?!?!?

Is this correct?
Why is the interval so crazily short for the Elise (it can't be like that on the MGF surely?)?
Does it need to be changed EVERY 16k miles? or just the first (and why?!)

Thanks all..

Piers.

[TIPPER]

Hi Piers. Just to clarify the situation on servicing:
Services run A,A,B,A,A,C,A,A,B etc. The services should be carried out every 9k miles or annually whichever is earlier.
Cambelt replacement was originally part of the C service but Lotus changed the schedule to seperate out the cambelt change which should be done every 48k Miles or every four years, whichever is earlier. The original schedule meant that it could be up to six years of 54k miles before the change. The change would refelct the fact that some belts had given up before the original scheduled change. The 9k or annual service interval remains unchanged.
Its therefore quiet possible that a low mileage 111S would have had a cambelt change: they deteriorate with age as well as use.
Hope that makes sense.

[Pierscoe1]

ah.. ok, so by that a,a,b,etc any 6-year old car would need to have had it's belt done, even if it'd only done 10k.

Thanks for clearing that up!