soldave

Yeah I have. The push switches come out fairly easily; the sides of the switch have a bit of raised plastic that keeps them in position. If you get your nails on the top and bottom of the switch and wiggle/pull, they should come out. The light controls are a little more complex and the heater controls require the console panel taking out to get at them; same with the radio I think.

Do you mean the switches in the centre console? Switched up (as in top half of switch is in) is off; switched down is on.

Yeah, o-ring is off the car and I had already noted it needs replacing. When checking the nip and with retaining plate pushed hard against the backplate, I tried the inboard driveshaft and there was still that movement. The only thing I can think is that perhaps the collar is right up against the bearing and the inner race of the bearing is tight around the driveshaft, but possibly a mm or so away from where it should be sat. That's all i can think that would explain it, but if that's the case it must have been like that for a couple of years (possible, and I've just not noticed it. Thanks for the continued advice and thoughts - it must seem a lot like the "let's help Dave try to understand mechanics" thread!

Right - the garage temperature finally dropped below a million degrees so I've been measuring some nip. Looks to be 0.15mm or thereabouts which is right in spec. So doesn't look to be the source of any issues.

Will take some measurements mid-week and report back

Thanks, guys. for the thoughts about the nip and maybe shimming it. So theoretically I may be able to shim the retaining plate out enough so that i cancels out the in/out movement of the shaft itself. That's encouraging. I'll report back on Wednesday when battle resumes between myself and the Eclat. If I attempt to work on it tonight or tomorrow I'm just going to be found collapsed in a pool of sweat and diff oil in the garage! I'll get the hub carrier off too whilst I'm there as I really want to give that bearing and UJs a once-over.

Yeah, just been out to check. All four bolts on the bearing retaining plate are torqued to spec. But I did manage to get a bit of luck and after loosening the retaining bolts the inboard drive shaft slid right out. Now there is no obvious movement in the bearing, and the collar appears to be right up against it. All I can think of is that perhaps the bearing and collar could be a couple of mm further down the driveshaft towards the retaining plate (i.e. outside). I can't see an obvious gap but it's all I can think of. Interestingly, I looked back at my notes and this thread, and it seems like I have had issues in this area before. Back in 2016 I had similar play in on the driver's side output shaft (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/o61-B47tuMQ), and then in 2019 I had grinding on the passenger side (i.e. this side) bearing and so replaced it, collar etc. If so I might have had this movement for a while and only just noticed. Which goes back to me wondering if this has any connection at all with the wheel stickiness and heat issue. And people wonder why I sound stressed!

Well the plot thickens, and potentially not in a good way. Wheels off and still had the movement which I traced to back brake drum. Drum off and diff output shaft (aka inboard shaft) was pulled in and out, and there's a bit of movement (see video below). I'm imagining that means the output shaft bearing there isn't in great condition if there is movement. No grinding as it goes around but ir's movement that translates to vertical movement in the wheel My understanding is that this is a diff out job to replace these bearings which is an absolute nightmare, and with a newborn son could mean the car is on jackstands for quite a while . Now could that cause the rear wheel to get so much resistance that the wheel would be ho to touch? Well I'm not too sure about that - if so then the heat at the diff must have been pretty damn high. Both UJs seem to be in good condition though and there's no real growling from the bearing when it's being rotated so that part of the mystery is still not solved. BTW, I'm just south of Wakefield, 5 mins off J39 of the M1. It was tightened to 200lb and then just tightened a tiny bit more so I could get the pin in.

A couple of people on Facebook have suggested checking out the U-joints too. Not sure it would cause this issue, but other than the bearing moving inside the carrier and then locking up I'm not sure what would. Hub nut is torqued to 200lb-ft which I think is factory spec.

I know what you're thinking: "Oh jeez...it's this guy again!". Yup, like the proverbial bad penny I just keep turning up with more random videos to show you. Before you watch the vid below, please just take a minute to read the context below. If you've been following my Eclat rear wheel bearing woes you'll recall I said I felt like the wheel kind of "dropped" when I rotated it after it had decided it didn't want to turn so well. Jacked the car up tonight and it did the same so I tried lifting the wheel up; it seemed to clunk back up and down when being lifted by the wheel. I've tried to take a couple of videos of this, the first using a lever under the wheel (a spade - just call me MacGuyver!), and the second with me lifting the wheel from the bottom. Hope you can hear if not see the clunking up & down. Hub carrier doesn't seem to have any equivalent clunking which is making me think more and more that the wheel bearing is on its first and last legs. I get, of course, that when you lift the tyre the suspension will raise will move. But I don't believe there should be that much movement and notchiness in there using relatively little effort lifting the tyre. After that notch everything feels tight. The only thing I wasn't able to do was lift the wheel and then try rotating it. But from what I've read and those visa, does that seem like a fair diagnosis?

Awesome looking car, both inside and out. What are the maintenance jobs you've got planned over the next few months? Will definitely be keeping an eye on this thread 👍

Been down that route and you struggle to find anything in stock. NOS with surface rust goes from £80 on eBay. There is one member in South Africa who's been looking to make their own bearing using a number of other individual bearings and then grinding down the bearing carrier a little (https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/115798-s1-eliteeclat-rear-wheel-bearing-specdimensions/). From an SKF point of view the bearing kit is SKF VKBA737. The bearing itself is BA2B 417308.

That price is from Lotusbits, SJ, and Southwest Lotus Centre. All within a few pounds of each other. Yeah, the rear bearings are rather expensive. Bearing I bought most recently was pre-greased and seller (Lotus parts supplier) said no further greasing was required.

Rears are normal bearings, and around £120+VAT each. Just got one three weeks from a Lotus specialist, installed as per the factory manual and I think it's failed almost right away. Felt something strange when I was on a short drive last weekend; got home and the rear passenger side wheel was hot to the point I couldn't hold it for more than a few seconds. Inboard brakes so if it had been the brakes locking to make the wheel that hot they should have been on fire pretty much! No movement in the bearing but am a little nervous about another test drive given the heat that was in that rear wheel. The driver's side bearing is the opposite side I took off this evening.

Right, using up my hall passes with the wife rather quickly but I may have solved this particular mystery, Was measuring the height of the lower links to the ground and also found the passenger side was lower than the driver's which confused the hell out of me, but then I looked again. If you've not spotted it, the spring isn't seated on the damper base on the driver's side (the side which was higher). Now I'm not a betting man but I'm guessing that might be a big contributing factor in the height issues. Had to take the whole suspension apart to get the spring mounted correctly on the damper but I got there in the end. At least it meant I was able to take a look at the spring insulators at the top. Whilst not perished, the rubber probably wasn't as flexible as it once was! Oh, and to top it off it sounds like the wheel bearing on that side is grinding. If the new one on the passenger side has died on installation then it means I've gone through three rear wheel bearings in 6 years and around 6,000 miles which is quite depressing and expensive, but there we go.

Yeah, they're probably due to be replaced regardless of whether they're causing this particular issue. As far as I can remember, everything was tightened to spec when the car was back on the ground, but I might be mistaken. I might do that with the other three corners this weekend just to make sure everything is where it should be on that front.

Whilst trying to diagnose my rear brake/wheel bearing issue, I noticed that the car is running about 2.5cm lower on the passenger side than the driver's (measuring the height of both front and rear bumpers); with the driver in that drops to just under 2cm but that's still quite a difference. I'll try to do some troubleshooting this weekend but wanted to check with you guys in case I miss anything obvious. On my to-do list I have... Check tyre pressure. Almost positive that there can't be almost 2cm of difference but it's the lowest of low hanging fruit loosen up suspension bolts on driver's side and tighten again when at ride height (had passenger rear suspension off and tightened everything to spec when the car was back on the ground so that should be good. Check passenger side springs. Rear springs were replaced 5 years ago and I didn't notice there was any issue with them on the passenger side, but I'll take another look. Spring insulators on both rear shocks. Both are rock hard and probably perished but I don't think there would be that much difference.from passenger to driver's side I might try to take some measurements across the front of the chassis to see if it's the chassis or the body that is not parallel to the ground. Might not be easy given the clearance at the front though. Am I missing anything obvious there? What just seems strange to my uneducated mind is why both front and rear on the passenger side seem to be the same amount lower on passenger side.

And of course with the open diff, any drag one one side will cause the hub not to rotate. But doing that did reveal to me that the passenger side brake drum was dragging possibly a little more than it should (give the hub a good spin on the driver's side and it will keep moving a little; do the same on the passenger side and it stops almost immediately and you can feel the show rubbing against the drum. Loosened the brake adjusting screw on that side and typically now the drag has gone mostly but the handbrake has lost its effectiveness. It's that damn balance between seriously dragging and getting virtually no handbrake. It will need tightening up a tiny bit on both sides but I should be able to do that using the holes in the drum itself. EDIT: Just jacked the car up again and tried again with wheel on. With a good spin I get 1/2 turn on the passenger side before it stops; driver's side gives me 3/4 turn. But doing this may have helped with the issues I was having a few days ago. The first time I went to spin the passenger wheel, I just started moving it and it felt like the wheel dropped a little. The hub carrier and suspension didn't drop; just felt like the wheel and then it started moving. Which is making me wonder more and more whether that bearing died when it was fitted.

It's a good call running it in gear with the wheels off to see if anything looks strange. Will try that once I've checked the hub nut torque, maybe added a little grease to the bearing itself, and taken apart the brake drum to have a look.

Wondering more and more whether the guidance by a Lotus specialist where I bought the bearing from that it didn't need any additional grease was incorrect.

I know, right! And if the bearing had got so hot that I probably couldn't have kept hold of the wheel, you'd have thought the wheel would be wobbling all over the place. Wasn't able to get my hand to the driveshaft when I got back from my drive unfortunately so could only check the wheel itself. But with the car jacked up, something clonked into place and it became smooth again. Going to check torque on hub nut and also get the drum off tomorrow night i hope and see if anything jumps out at me.

Spal make some good fans by all accounts. Don't have them on mine (am far too much of a cheapskate!) but when I was upgrading a previous car they were always the go-to for fans.

I guess it could have been. Handbrake setup was replaced with new a couple of years but something might have caused it to engage randomly.

Well that was strange. Given a 15 minute hall pass to jack up the car and check for movement. Hub and wheel have no wobble so then tried actually turning the wheel. Really didn't want to move and then something just seemed to slot into place (slot sounds quite smooth; this wasn't) and then wheel moved like a rear wheel attached to a diff does as usual. Rotated it a bunch of times and couldn't get it to replicate the issue. Very wary of driving until I am sure it's fixed for good but what could have caused that? I'll check driveshaft nut torque and get the brake drum off maybe but it didn't feel like brakes were grabbing and then suddenly released. Plus I drove for 5 miles yesterday with no issues so can't see them being seized after that. Whatever it was, it caused the wheel to get damn hot and me worried, especially if I can't pin it down to anything.

So much for the rear wheel bearing replacement being done. Went for a drive this morning and car felt a bit off. Got back and it was having trouble rolling into the garage and the rear wheel is hot to the touch. Back on jackstands tonight. The wheel was turning fine when i reconnected the driveshaft so I'm wondering if the bearing has just failed straight away. These things get you thinking about what you did or didn't do, and the parts supplier (a Lotus centre) told me the bearing was pre-greased and no more needed to be added. I hope that was the right guidance.