Lakeside Engineering, Woking.

[GPT27]

Despite a few mentions of Lakeside engineering in these forums there is not much said about them. I am thinking of taking my new Elan there for a B service and am keen to here any experiences anyone has of them.

I'm hoping the price will be around £250 all in, am I going to be dissapointed?.

Any info appreciated,

G.

[chris.t]

Hi G,

I have had my car serviced by Matt and Tim at Lakeside many times - in fact i will be taking it along to them in March. Matt and Tim worked at Bell&Colvil which is where i bought my car (15 years ago!!) so their signatures appear in the service book for 2 different companies. They are both Lotus trained with the certificates to prove it.

During a service if anything untoward is spotted they will call you and explain the pros and cons before they proceed. As for cost i would be surprised if you would get away with £250 although their hourly rate is competitive (£40ish/hour) for a Lotus specialist outfit. They have a lot of experience with M100's so no need to worry there.

If you do take it along to them say hi from me (Chris NMY) and tell em they owe me a pint for recommending them to you

[GPT27]

Just for the record the service was absolutely excellent. I thoroughly recommend them to anyone. B service came in at about £260.

Quality job and top quality guys.

[max and andy]

Removed old Gemini immobiliser as requested. ( The one the alarm specialist couldn't. )
Remove old exhaust and pre cat.
Replace with Piper and PCE plus re stud turbo.
Port wastegate.
Plugs, leads, base timing and idle.
Oil filter and change oil.
Cam bung and oil seals.
Handbrake adjustment.
New bulb in battery meter.
sought connection on dash white light.

Max and Tim said they had a lot of fun all week. We haven't picked the car up yet so we are not sure the number of hours labour charged for.
When we told Max and Tim we where going to try and pass the emissions with no cats. Tim just shook his head. I did mention a number of
well established members of LEC had passed the MOT with no cats. One producing the emissions figures recently. They just grinned knowingly.
So who's going to open the betting book? Is there anything else to do that we haven't done already to keep us under the maximum.

The total £900.32 ( They gave us a ballpark quote of £450 for just the port and fitting the exhaust, with no surprises. )

Max & Andy

[DaveB]

I followed Max and Tim away from Bell And Colvill (coincidentally) many moons ago...when they set up at Send and I was in Weybridge. I then moved closer to them...and then they moved towards where I used to be...

...I am waiting for them to move before I move again!

Highly recommended....(that has got to be worth two beers chaps!)

[max and andy]

I didn't think it was to bad what do you think Dave? Your more up to date with prices then we are. Just for the record. They had three m100s as breaker's i think. They looked like they had stood a while. But the bits seemed to be all there and they weren't in that bad condition. M&A

[DaveB]

I think that one of those 'breakers' was used to diagnose my last problem...which is a worry!

And as for their prices...they only charge for what they do, and sometimes less...

...I am always happy to go to them.

[max and andy]

Why do you think they looked so doubtful with regard to passing the emission's? And is there anything else we have missed?
Does the Everest keep the emissions down? M&A

[M100_DMM]

Why do you think they looked so doubtful with regard to passing the emission's? M&A

It might have something to do with the law. UK market S2s left the factory with cats because that's what the law required. Prior to, I think, August 1992, cats were elective on new UK market cars with petrol engines, but thereafter they were compulsory.

As I understand it, the lack of a cat on a post 31/07/92 petrol car is against the law and should result in an automatic MOT failure. But I suppose if a car looks like it has a cat and the emissions are within the acceptable range then it should get through an MOT.

[dapinky]

It might have something to do with the law. UK market S2s left the factory with cats because that's what the law required. Prior to, I think, August 1992, cats were elective on new UK market cars with petrol engines, but thereafter they were compulsory.

As I understand it, the lack of a cat on a post 31/07/92 petrol car is against the law and should result in an automatic MOT failure. But I suppose if a car looks like it has a cat and the emissions are within the acceptable range then it should get through an MOT.

I Know this is , and i have written elsewhere on this issue....

...Cats have never been a requirement in the UK MOT....

...it is all down to emmissions levels - not how they are achieved.

When the law changed, the only reasonable way to ensure that the emmissions were low enough to satisfy the regulations was to use a catalytic converter, so everyone did.
However, if you can find another way (or hope!) that the emission will be low enough, then there is no problem to remove/replace the cat.

Manufacturers will fit them because they 'guarantee' to meet the requirements for their 8-year life - they don't want customers returning with complaints every year at MOT time, and have to spend time fiddling arround to get the numbers low enough.

I have known many people with older cars having to adjust the fuel mixture by tweeking the SU/Webber carbs to get it through the MOT, only to have it running like a dog, and then re-adjust them after the test, to drive home.

[max and andy]

We have just picked the car up from Lakeside engineering. Max and Tim couldn't of been more helpful. They said the Piper was the best fitting custom exhaust that they have fitted to a car. They also said that with the new exhaust and removing the cats. That it's the fastest M100 that they had ever driven.
They said that they had driven Elan's with chip's and BBR kit's before but never that quick. They showed us the old pre cat, it was a bit cobwebby inside but in one piece. It must of been the guts out of the main cat that had blocked the back box that caused our boost problems. Now it goes like a rocket. With regard to the emissions they said fetch it back early next week and they will MOT it. Any problems with emissions and they had a cat we could use. If needed
one hours labour. . Andy & Max

[GeoffSmith]

M&A - a summary of my experiences here.