Toe in bar heat shield
Discussion
Having problems with the rear near side toe-in bar ball joint (clunks when it gets hot, ok when its cold). I have read on another forum that newer cars have a heatshield fitted to minimise this problem. Any idea as to whether I can get this retrospectively fitted to my 2001 s2? Is this cheaper than replacing the toe-in bar?
Or you can undo the spring clip that holds the rubber cover on the balljoint, squeeze in a few dollops of good moly grease, re-install cover and clip and you're done for a while again..
On an S2 you should already have a heat shield on the left side where the exaust pipes run closest to the joints.
Bye, Arno.
On an S2 you should already have a heat shield on the left side where the exaust pipes run closest to the joints.
Bye, Arno.
What about these:
http://secure.eliseparts.com/index.html?target=p_47.html&lang=en-gb
Fill them with grease before putting them on, should stop the joint drying out
http://secure.eliseparts.com/index.html?target=p_47.html&lang=en-gb
Fill them with grease before putting them on, should stop the joint drying out
Cuzza, those are dust shields for aftermarket rose joint type rod ends.
Ryan, yes you can retro fit the heatshields if you want to, but just doing this won't help much if the rod end is already knocking.
A new standard rod end is apparently £17, trick is to fit it without upsetting the rear toe by changing the overall length of the rod.
As an alternative to the heatshield, which isn't difficult to fit but might need some holes drilling, just wrap the joint in some sticky reflective aluminium tape (from a DIY place).
AdrianR
Ryan, yes you can retro fit the heatshields if you want to, but just doing this won't help much if the rod end is already knocking.
A new standard rod end is apparently £17, trick is to fit it without upsetting the rear toe by changing the overall length of the rod.
As an alternative to the heatshield, which isn't difficult to fit but might need some holes drilling, just wrap the joint in some sticky reflective aluminium tape (from a DIY place).
AdrianR
Hi Ryan:
Had exactly the same problem with my S2. In a nutshell, the ball joint seized up, and the tie bar sheared. Not much fun in the fast lane of the motorway, and I'd had no knocking noises to suggest that anything was wrong. Lotus are investigating the cause of the seizure, but it appears that it is due to heating. As has been pointed out, S2s *should* have been fitted with heat shileds to prevent this from happening. I will discover later today if my S2 has these parts fitted. My S2's 3 years old, and has been fully serviced and maintained by a principal lotus dealership since new.
I'll post Lotus's conclusions when they get back to me. In the meantime, if you want to avoid an unexpected trip along a circuitous route from the fast lane to the hard shoulder, I urge you to get the problem checked out. I'm still alive, but more by luck than judgement...
More soon... ... ...
Had exactly the same problem with my S2. In a nutshell, the ball joint seized up, and the tie bar sheared. Not much fun in the fast lane of the motorway, and I'd had no knocking noises to suggest that anything was wrong. Lotus are investigating the cause of the seizure, but it appears that it is due to heating. As has been pointed out, S2s *should* have been fitted with heat shileds to prevent this from happening. I will discover later today if my S2 has these parts fitted. My S2's 3 years old, and has been fully serviced and maintained by a principal lotus dealership since new.
I'll post Lotus's conclusions when they get back to me. In the meantime, if you want to avoid an unexpected trip along a circuitous route from the fast lane to the hard shoulder, I urge you to get the problem checked out. I'm still alive, but more by luck than judgement...
More soon... ... ...
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