Problems with the FFS Hi Spec Rear Calipers ?

[chrisP]

I fitted the calipers over the weekend and as Nige has previously said, I get pretty much the same results after adjusting the cables so the was no initial slack.
Now with three clicks,slowly bringing up the cluch resuslts in creaking sounds at the rear as the calipers do their work. so I guess on a mild slope it would hold nicely.
With four clicks (which i can manage with one hand) the rears wheels are effectivly locked in place and can be dragged down the road.

One area I had to make a change to is the access to the handbrake adjustment area. As i need something like seven clicks to get the central armrest/tunnel cover back in place. So out came the jigsaw and an access area was cut in the metal fixing plate under the oddments tray. This was something I should have done years ago.

Many thanks to Bob again for working this through with Hispec.

Regards
Chris

[bobbrown]

For those that are interested in longer levers see this topic

If you want to discuss the merits post here not in the topic above.

Bob

[mnemonix]

I was wondering if anyone now had the longer levers fitted and could report back on the results?

My MOT is due in March and I'd like to be prepared. Although last year I fitted the refurbed/replacement calipers from HiSpec, the garage still barely scraped it through the test. Unless the levers sort the problem I'm going to be stuck again!

Cheers,

Chris.

[bobbrown]

Chris,

your guess is as good as mine as I sent out three sets as have not had that much of a responce.


Bob

[MPx]

Just thought I’d put an update on here. I’d been waiting for some months to receive some refurbed callipers from one of the daisy chains that I thought were going on. That didn’t happen for some reason, and I was concerned how long it has been since Bob negotiated the deal with HiSpec, so obviously it was down to me to make something happen. I’ve not had any problems with my callipers, but no doubt that would change in time. The car is SORN’d at the moment so ideal time for me to take the brakes off and send them back. I sent them on 30th Jan with a covering letter with full info and they were signed for at HiSpec on 31st. After two weeks I’d heard nothing so telephoned and spoke to Alex. He checked for me. The situation was that they thought that they had done all of the callipers and were not expecting any more to come in. Apparently the new parts for mine had been held up being anodised. They finally arrived back with me yesterday 20th Feb, so a 3 week turn around. Looks like a great job, though I did prefer my all gold old ones more than gold front black back – but I’ll be happier still if they continue to work for many years!

However, I think the important point here is that it was made clear to me that from HiSPec’s perspective this refurb scheme has run its course. If you’ve not yet sent yours back to HiSpec then I suggest you get in touch with them very very soon.

Meanwhile….any update on the long levers? I would prefer to fit some of them at the same time that I refit the callipers.

[ailwyn]

Thanks for the heads up.. my second set of calipers are somewhere in the daisy chain.

I've requested that Bob arrange to have a set of reworked calipers delivered to me. Hopefully he knows where they are and can get this turned around quickly.

[whippit]

Ive just sorned mine and spoke to alex a few weeks ago about sending mine back,
he never mentioned about them having done all the calipers, bob gave them a list so surly they must have an idea of how many they've done,

thanks for the heads up on these i'll ring them and make sure they know mine are on the way

[whippit]

Just a small update , i sent my calipers back for the refurb work, a week turn around not bad i thought for hispec

i started to refit them sat night five pm only now one am sun morning have i thrown the towel in,


all can say is f----------------, hispec I CANNOT GET THE NEAR SIDE CALIPER CLEAR OF AIR
five hours with a pressure bleeder and still air bubbles, in desperation i asked the wife to pump the brakes at the same time, i then asked her to pull the hand brake,
only then did i hear a hissing sound from the caliper, the hand brake mechanism is pulling in air from the allen headed bolt just below the hand brake lever,
when you work the hand brake it leaks fluid out of this bolt
only one bolt is leaking, just to make sure i plugged the head of the bolt and tried to bleed the caliper, this time no air,

these have been through there quality control, checked twice by hispec and still they send out crap,
i'm at the end of my tether with these brakes,

i shall be calling them on mon morning and telling them what i think about there product and i'm close to asking trading standards to look at this,
so to all who have had there's refurbed be warned there still not right

[ailwyn]

My Elan had it's MOT today passed everything EXCEPT the handbrake. I left my mech to do the cable adjustment and he got one side to a pass-level, but he couldn't get the other side to pass - this is with the prototype longer levers fitted.

He's not going to be able to do any more now until after easter, but at least if he got the one side up to spec then it will hopfully just be a re-bleed or something simple to get the other side sorted.

I will post more news once I have it.

[Alan_C]

I think I will just bin my rear HiSpek calipers. They wouldn't pass the MoT with the standard handbrake levers. I had even modified the cabin handbrake lever to produce essentially the same effort that would be available with Bob's longer caliper levers. Still wouldn't pass. Another issue I had was with the handbrake left applied for several weeks in my garage when the car was not in use, I noticed that all pressure would be lost so the handbrake became non effective. I can't trust a hydraulic handbrake (assuming it would actually work in the first place). A hydraulic handbrake is also illegal on a road car. I will be leaving my set of reconditioned original Lotus supplied rear calipers on, as I have the smaller front discs there is not an imbalance issue. Just put it all down to experience and that sometimes things don't always work out. Wonder what I could do with these red and black lumps now? Paper weight is too good for them.

[rip]

Wonder what I could do with these red and black lumps now? Paper weight is too good for them.

Most expensive paper weight in history
Don't bin 'em...store 'em. I believe Bob has spent a lot of time sorting out issues with HiSpec. If he can turn your failure into a triumph then that may make his efforts a little justified.

[mnemonix]

My Elan had it's MOT today passed everything EXCEPT the handbrake. I left my mech to do the cable adjustment and he got one side to a pass-level, but he couldn't get the other side to pass - this is with the prototype longer levers fitted.

This is pretty disappointing and suggests to me then that these things will never really pass an MOT as this degree of tweaking to scrape through (or allow the tester to turn a blind eye more likely) just shouldn't be necessary.

Given the investment we've made in hubs, bearings, brackets, disks etc, what is the possibility of an alternative caliper that would work with what we've got here? To be honest I don't really have the money, but the Elan is my only car, and I have no where off-road to sorn it either, so unless I can come up with a solution before the next MOT I will simply have to sell the car because of the handbrake situation.

Edit: I should say I lay the fault here entirely at HiSpecs door for the design of the caliper, not Bob who simply designed the installation and has since gone above and beyond with his aftersales help on these issues.

[Alan_C]

I don't think all the blame is on the caliper, I presume they have worked on other applications (no proof of this though), and of course no blame on anyone on this forum who has done spectacular work to get them to function, but the Elan and Elan SE do seem to have a factory issue with the handbrake, which was addressed on the S2 by a longer cabin handbrake lever. The issue seems to be the placement of the lever, it's not possible to get much force applied to it when in a normal seated driving position. If I use both hands I can pass the MOT test (just) but the tester won't apply it in this fashion. It took much persuation and the use of the Tapley meter to get them to issue a pass. Later, I changed back to a brand new pair of OE reconditioned calipers, bedded the pads for a few months, and retested (for the record, the handbrake cables were changed for new items when the HiSpek calipers were fitted). With this setup, the car acheives the required handbrake pressures, but only just, by a margin of 10 to 15%, it certainly doesn't fly through the test. Nothing is binding, all components are new or in superb condition. Again, a double handed pull will produce figures over that required. So, design fault with the original handbrake lever, later modified on the S2, coupled with possibly incorrect lever length on the HiSpecs will equal poor handbrake performance.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I also lost handbrake performance over time when the brake was left on. I've not retested since the calipers were modified, as I don't have a set of longer levers, and there's no point attempting to use the calipers in my case without the longer levers. Some of my friends live on a hill, and I would park with the handbrake on, and wouldn't usually bother to turn the road wheels or engage a gear to ensure that brake failure wouldn't cause the car to roll away, but with the HiSpeks this is all too fresh in my mind. What if I lend the car to someone? All in all, it's just too much of an issue for me to refit the calipers, the OE calipers work well when kept clean. As I said previously, you win some, you loose some. This was one of the losses.

The front HiSpek calipers are superb though, and I know some folks have got the rear HiSpeks working fine, but in my case, no. Maybe when Bob has time to make some longer levers I'll give the calipers another go. And again for the record, I'd like to thank Bob Brown for all his superb hard work he's put into this issue to attempt to resolve it, non of the faults are atributable to him, I belive it's a combination of Lotus design failing and HiSpec not supplying correct levers for our application.

[Steve A]

I will be putting my car in for it's MOT in the next few weeks so I will let you know how I get on.
I have the longer levers so fingers crossed

[ailwyn]

Sorry for the delay I've been away. Elan got it's mot and the handbrake has held for a week and the car does not appear to have rolled on a slight incline... chocks were placed about 2 inches from the wheels just in case.

I've not had a chance to speak to the mechanic to see what he had to do or how far beyond the mot limit it was.

[Steve A]

The Elan passed the MOT today

I paid special attention to the hand brake test, and the tester said "it wasn't brilliant but was 7% inside what it needed to be"

The only slight problem was an advisory on the down pipe as it was blowing and had already been welded in the past

[ailwyn]

If anyone on the list is sitting on a pair of gold calipers please post up or drop me a PM, I'd like to know where they are as they should have been in the shuffle to get the internals replaced.

Thanks

Ailwyn