A pillar seals

[Noob_saibot]

Hi everyone,
Having finally got around to changing all the belts (nasty job..) I am now in a position to attempt to get the windscreen replaced. Thanks to the kind information given on these pages I have informed the screen replacement company of the requirement for new a pillar seals etc. When I last spoke to Lotus about this they were expecting a car to come in for testing the first week of september - if testing was ok they were going to request manufacture of these items from a new supplier. I am doing the right thing in waiting or does anybody know if I can get these from someone who stocked up in advance?

The whole screen replacement thing is abit woorying TBH...

Any advice greatly appreciated

[nickb]

A large crack appeared in my screen last weekend, not good news, I called my insurance company and they refered me to RAC autowindscreens, they didn't have a clue!, now in the process of trying to convince my insurance company to pay for a specialist to do the replacement.

What fun.

Nick

[Noob_saibot]

Hi Nick,
My insurance co. is Footman James as recommended by club lotus and so far they seem ok. They give you an option to choose your own screen replacement company if you wish at a £50 extra cost (on top of your excess). Maybe you can see if your ins co will give you this option.

If you get a chance download the service manual as there is a real good description of parts required and fitting procedure, you can pass these on to your fitter maybe.

I think the biggest problem at the moment could be the pillar seals as if you don't get this sorted out up front the fitters may try and reuse the old ones. As I mentioned these are on 2 year back order form lotus (which is a bit unacceptable really) but hopefully if the prototypes pass testing they may be available soon. I was hoping maybe someone else knew more about this than me.

Jon

[nickb]

Hi Jon,

Please see my other post today regarging the A post seals on test from Lotus, it a no go at the moment, the latest one's failed the test!

Thankfully my seals are ok so I'm trying to get the insurance company to pay for an independant lotus specialist to do the job and save my seals.

The only prob is the expense, the specialest has quoted in the region of £1200 for the job, although this was including the A post seals.

cheers

Nick

[Paul.P]

Nick, so are you saying your specialist has some A pillar seals ?, if so, who are they !. Sure when i spoke to Gerald at GST Performance, he said it was about £900 through him, might be worth a phone call ?

[Paul.P]

Saw Gerald today, & asked about windscreen replacement. He said it would be around £900, which is everything included, & that you don't need to disturb the A pillar seals if you know what your doing !

[nickb]

Hi paul, sinclairs quoted £1200 including the seals, so I guess it will be about the same excluding the seals,not sure why they included them in the price as they have no chance of ever getting them!

cheers

Nick

[Noob_saibot]

Hi Nick,
I know Sinclaire; I have had my car serviced there before - always an eclipsing selection of elise models though.

It does seem possible to save the seals but if the ins co is willing to pay for it then I feel a bit cheated that we don't get them. After the grief of having to have a new screen it would be nice to get something new. Mine are ok but new would be better . I may get them to order new ones and in the meantime use the old ones as it looks like these can be refitted with the screen in situ. Am I right in thinking you don't trust a 'normal' screen replacement company? I spoke to the manager at my local branch of National Windscreens and he seemed keen to do a good job once I had informed him of the difficulties.

Jon

[nickb]

Hi Jon, spot on don't trust the company my insurance co wanted me to use, when I spoke to them they were very keen to do the job and claimed they could do it, but when I asked them about the parts required and how they were going to do the job they didn't have a clue!

it's just to bigger risk to take if they end up messing up the A post seals what do I do??? I think this is the one thing that may work in my favor and they pay the higher cost of sinclairs.

I'd love to my A post seals changed, but speaking to lotus last week it going to be some time before we ever see them back in stock.

Nick

[Paul.P]

. in the meantime use the old ones as it looks like these can be refitted with the screen in situ. Jon

Jon, Gerald actually showed me how they cut the screen out without even touching the seals, so they shouldn't need to be refitted. If your screen company reakons they can't do it without new seals, then they don't know what there on about !

[Noob_saibot]

Thanks Paul and Nick for the advice, I think on reflection I will contact my nearest dealer and go from there.

Jon

[nickb]

I picked my car up from Sinclairs on saturday with the new windscreen, they have done a very good job, the original was replaced a couple of years ago by one of the national monkey chains, the fit of the new screen is much better, didn't realise how bad the old fit was until it was replaced, they changed the screen with out touching the A post seals what so ever.

Even better Admiral paid the cost after first getting an indepedant engineer to look at the car for less than a minute and confirm it was a specialist job.

Nick

[Noob_saibot]

Thanks Nick for keeping everyone up to date and i'm glad it worked out well for you. I am currently making enquiries with UK Sportscars (independent lotus dealer in canterbury, kent) to undertake mine for me. Will let you know how I get on.

Jon

[theelanman]

erm...not wanting to put a dampener on anything but I have yet to hear anything good about uk sportscars.........
It might be that the only people who've voiced an opinion are those who have a complaint as opposed to those who were happy and said nowt...I dont know....Ive never used them so it'll be interesting to find out......

http://www.uksportscars.com/uk_sports_c ... epage.html

this is the company I've heard of......is it the same???

cheers
G

[Noob_saibot]

Hi,
Thanks, I really appreciate the advice, it IS the same place. I don't know anything about the company aside from they advertise in the club lotus magazine. I just want to find someone who will do a good job to the high standards expected. It would be nice if they were local to me but not to the detriment of the quality of work. I did a quick search on UK Sportscars in the forums but nothing really came up.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other dealers in the Kent area they would recommend.

Thanks again people for taking the time to give me advice,
Jon

[theelanman]

go on lotuselan.net and ask them about this company.......
I'm on there too as I have some older elans and that was where I'd heard of uksportscars....
as I say I've not used them and they may be OK but the feedback on the elan.net site is not too inspiring

[nickb]

Jon, I would recommend sinclairs, they did a very good job of replacing my windscreen, there about 10 mins from the Dartford tunnel.

Thanks

Nick

[Noob_saibot]

Thanks for the info guys,
G, that's enough info to make me change my mind and UKSportscars did say they hadn't done one for a while...

Nick, It looks like I may speak to Sinclaire about my screen, firstly because they did my last service, and secondly as you are proof of a satisfied customer.

Cheers again and will let you know how I get on,
Jon

[paulrwebster]

A large crack appeared in my screen last weekend, not good news, I called my insurance company and they refered me to RAC autowindscreens, they didn't have a clue!, now in the process of trying to convince my insurance company to pay for a specialist to do the replacement.

What fun.

Nick

I just spotted this large crack in my windscreen

[Ekapol]