Newbiie, I need a new HEATER BOX!

[Murph]

Hi All, as some of you may know I am the proud owner of a lovely Ice blue Elise S2 28,000 mls however drove all the way from London with my wife then we discovered the heater in the car not working. I was not told at time of private purchase about the problem.
The car is presently with a garage with an ex Lotus technician who also work on high spec prestigious cars and have been told today at 2pm that I will need a new heater box. He says that water has got into the box and everything is ruined inside. An expensive first repair (£1000) I have surfed looking for a better price but no luck. Any Ideas where I could buy one at a decent price?
T hanks

[Victor Meldrew]

Hi All, as some of you may know I am the proud owner of a lovely Ice blue Elise however drove all the way from London with my wife then we discovered the heater in the car not working. I was not told at time of private purchase about the problem.
The car is presently with a garage who do work on high spec cars and have been told today at 2pm that I will need a new heater box. He says that water has got into the box and everything is ruined inside. An expensive first repair so any Ideas where I could buy one at a decent price?
thanks

Sounds like a load of pish to me...

Get the car back as it is and speak to Ali at SLS... do not use this "high spec" garage, whoever they are... nobody else in Scotland has a clue about Elises....


Maybe I am being harsh but in my opinion walk away, tell them you cant afford to fix it just now and the give Alis a call... could save you a fortune...

Trust me...

[MacK]

He says that water has got into the box and everything is ruined inside.

By heater box, do they mean the fan? That is a commonish problem on some S2's and requires the front clam to come of to change it.

But as JR has said, get in touch with Ali at SLS to confirm and fix it for you.

[kirk]

the usual problem with heaters not working is not the heater box itself and instead is the heater resistor which is attached to the heater box. the resistor only costs around £30 but sadly its a clam off job. The reason they stop working is that they get submerged in water and burn out the spade contacts. whoever you get to do the job make sure they drill 4 holes along the chassis area as this will stop any further water build up. Also you can now get a revised heater resistor kit which mounts the resistor inside the matrix box and this prevents any water contact with your new resistor. The revised kit costs around about £60 but is well worth the extra cost.

[Andy G]

Hi Murph

Are you sure its not the heater matrix?

Alis just replacing one for me, and i know of another thats gone south in the last week also. Quite common on S1's.

Ali's on 07961445483

Andy

[Murph]

I'll pull the car out of the garage in the morning and give Ali a call.

Thanks for all the advice

[robin]

I'll pull the car out of the garage in the morning and give Ali a call.

Thanks for all the advice

I think the guy's diagnosis is likely to be spot on. The chances are it is just the resistor pack that has failed rather than the motor itself, and so it's possible to do a repair (though Lotus would replace the box as the resistor pack is not a separate part). So you can make a cheaper repair (if lucky) by replacing the resistor pack if someone now has a source for them. You still need to remove front clam, remove heater box, replace/repair, refit.

Pretty sure Ali will know this, but I think Lotus drill some drain holes into the box at the same time in order to stop it filling up with water again (nice job!).

Cheers,
Robin

[Murph]

Thought you'd all like to know the outcome of my problem.

Took the car to Ali and it was diagnosed as requiring a whole new heater box. ( Total work around £900) what a price for warm air.

The car is running great and at last hot hot air, pure luxury.

Ali was very good and very fast. Thanks again for all the advice.

Cheers Murph