Lack of power steering on day one

kitkat said:

I’m sure they are but all it takes is one defect in manufacturing or installation to make a properly radiused line to be restricted.

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Concept24 said:

Has this ever happened with Evoras?

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Eagle7 said:

This is exactly right. A brand new pump, even if it's not a great quality pump, isn't going to fail within 2 miles of installation. I'd start doing a pressure test on the lines to see if there's a pinched line, or blockage of some kind. Maybe even a bit of debris got into the steering assembly the lines are feeding into.

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CDM1855 said:

Yes debris was suggested as a potential cause by the service technician. Anyway, a third pump has been installed and lines cleaned again.

They will take it out again for a road test tomorrow morning and let me know. Fingers crossed whatever is blocking it is finally flushed out. If not It will be going back to Hethel on Monday

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Clam said:

Adding to the pile: I took delivery on May 17th last month and had a loss of power steering on June 23rd (on the way to cars and coffee no less). Needless to say, backing the car into a slot with grace was no easy feat. Regained power steering while pulling into my neighborhood. Scheduled a date with Lotus setvice center.

Lesson learned: Gotta hit the gym - always be ready...

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F1 SML8R said:

@Clam How was this resolved for you? And was there a clear root cause?

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CDM1855 said:

just to add to the reports

I picked my car up from Hethel yesterday, I’ve never driven a Lotus before, so had no idea what to expect in terms of handling

Shortly after pulling out of the factory, I noticed that the steering fell incredibly stiff and heavy. Not knowing if this was a characteristic of lotus hydraulic steering I continued on my way. It didn’t improve and it got to the point that just going round a roundabout felt like I had to pull the steering wheel down with two arms just to get it to move

It would’ve been impossible to parallel park the car given how stiff it was.

I called the guys at Lotus, who told me they didn’t notice anything wrong with the car when they moved it around. So I said I would continue with it, but if I really felt that it was not right I would be bringing it back. I drive the car around for another hour or so to visit friends who also tested it and said it was not right, and no car should feel that heavy when steering. So the decision was made to return it to Hethel this morning.

Go in the car first thing this morning, fired up the engine, turned the steering wheel, and it was like someone had switched cars overnight. Suddenly the steering was light and I could do things with the wheel that I could never have done the day before . I put about 75 miles on the car today, and it was absolutely brilliant. I have no idea why the steering wheel seized up yesterday

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