A Post/Pillar Seals Available from Lotus!

[FCM]

Mine arrived today from williams bristol 144 with the vat and they look very much like original materials the finish not perfect but a massive inprovement on the rat eaten 1s on my car.

[MPx]

Picked up mine from Peninsula today. The material looks just like the old ones. Surprised me that they come independent from the metal bit (the carrier??), but its the rubber that's ratty on mine so hopefully wont be a problem swapping over.

[Gazza]

Carrier was £25 a side 4 years ago.

Gazza

[Specky]

Here's a question...

Are these seals new...brand spankin...made in the past few months...

The reason I ask... i've heard Hethel lotus only have one of each side left...

(That doesn't mean the Lotus dealers/parts stockist have none, I don't know in all honesty)

But for Lotus to run out so quickly it begs the question were these old-new stock aquired from some where else..

TTFN

[GeoffSmith]

The reason I ask... i've heard Hethel lotus only have one of each side left...

Where did you hear that from Dave, they said they had 450 two weeks ago.

[Specky]

A reliable source...

TTFN

[quiksilva]

just got in and received and open my seals:

ordered 2 days ago and told on" back order"
yesterday told by joe at castle lotus "in my hand how would you like to pay"
are they spanking brand new? no idea as have never seen / smelt brand new before but compared with my black masticed up originals they do look a damn sight better and at £155 with vat / postage considerably cheaper than the very few ive seen on the bay.

will i fit em? probably not until my windscreen gets mashed or my carefully bodged up current seals finally give up the ghost - Great feeling to know i can change em when i want to though...

andy

[Grayone]

I went to my local main dealer today. The parts guy phoned someone in the know and was told that they had been on back order since 2005; that all the new batch had been allocated but they could find me a pair?! I am due to collect them Friday and I will then report.

[theelanman]

all the new batch had been allocated

Ill be most unimpressed if they are unavailable to us.....
and also if the 'dealers' who will have decided to buy em up start charging the old price for em.....
I'll also be unimpressed with lotus at letting em all go in the space of 2 weeks in probably great big bulk orders of 50 sets or the like

and all this after lotus had asked us to support them by buying some

[theelanman]

We have had to take 450 car sets into stock so ask kindly for as much support as you can give to help advertise/promote this resource.

Simon this is news you and the Elan Central members have been waiting for please can you get it on the forum!"

so how many of us have got a set???......not 450 I bet

[esprit888]

FCM you have PM, thanks

[Paul.P]

that all the new batch had been allocated

It would appear Specky's source may of been right after all then ?

[Grayone]

Ill be most unimpressed if they are unavailable to us.....
and also if the 'dealers' who will have decided to buy em up start charging the old price for em.....
I'll also be unimpressed with lotus at letting em all go in the space of 2 weeks in probably great big bulk orders of 50 sets or the like

and all this after lotus had asked us to support them by buying some

No theelanman I fear that you have misinterpreted my post. For this I apologise for not making things clearer - at my age I type slowly..

When I went to Lipscome in Maidstone the parts guy said that they had been on back order since 2005. He then phoned someone, I assume at Lotus HQ, who said that all the stock had been allocated but that they could find a pair for me.

I assume one of two things - either all the stock had not been allocated or that in the intervening three years they are fairly safe in assuming that one or two owners, at least, have moved on. You take your choice, and there may be a third assumption...

btw - the parts man was really nice, only wanted my address - no deposit whatsoever. Guess that is what you get for buying somthing that cost so much!

theelanman I hope you, and others, don't lose out but maybe if Lotus have seen fit to have produced some stock they may see fit to get more produced - well maybe not in a recession

[GeoffSmith]

It will be very disappointing if they have sold out as we were told that 450 sets were produced.

[Rogerf]

The reason Lotus have had 450 pairs of seals is to pay for the tooling and keep the price down.Now with the tooling paid for i would suggest that Lotus could re-order in batches of any amount and still keep the price the same.So,we should never have to worry again about availability,unless the supplier goes bust
I certainly hope this is the case anyway!
Roger

[ailwyn]

Anyone going down the route of ordering these or planning on contacting Lotus to confirm the status?

[Sy V]

I've e-mailed NL@L for clarification, but there's no way 450 pairs have shifted.

[Sy V]

... and here's their reply:
Sy

Richard will give next updates (3rd batch) on deliveries but I see it as
this....

1st batch came in and sold out
2nd batch has now come in and will all go out as now sold too
3rd batch are due....Richard?

But there is no problem, its just the 450 are not all at once but in
batches of about 50. We can, as well, get them again if/when this 450
sell out.

Cables we've now got onto him [Alan Betts - SV] as well, thx for the info, as well as this
one there are some other cables (non Elan) we need and he may be a good
source to make them too.

Headlamp Lift motor, we have repair kits in stock, but we still need to resource it
as it was used on the Esprit, the last of which we only sold in the USA a
few years ago so have an obligation to continue the parts. We have an
idea for an alternative so will investigate it onto an Esprit we own.

Again we still need to own an Esprit V8 for USA obligations, plus its
great fun to drive!

N

So, there's a chance that AB Motorsports may continue building gearchange cables, but for Lotus now.
Interesting allusion to alternative headlamp lift motors too, I thought.
Thank goodness for the special relationship, eh.

[Sy V]

Here's Richard's follow-up...

Following on from Neil's email we have 50 scheduled for delivery into us
tomorrow and then it should be 50 per week until our full order quantity
is completed

Thanks

Regards
Richard

[GeoffSmith]

Conspiracy theories no longer necessary! It's just a shame that Lotus' communication to the dealer network wasn't as good.