Commiserate with me - I shouldn't buy a Lotus Elise, Update: But I just did.

[Greenman]

And fate strikes again: During routine maintenance, the shop noticed the car running hot, and a slight film of oil in the coolant.
Sniff test concluded no CO2 leak, so while the oil has come from somewhere, that alone shouldn't be sufficient for the temperature increase.
First swap was done on the thermostat, but that didn't cure it.
Now they'll swap the water pump (hooray), and we'll hope that that fixes it - but the waterpump was just replaced two years ago, and the error mode is certainly not common.
Since higher revs make for worse cooling performance, it is the most likely cause though, so I hope this premature belt and pump service is going to get the car back in my hands, before the autumn season kicks off. At least July saw no driveable days, so so far the loss wasn't immense.

I was annoyed this morning because my 11 year old truck left a tiny oil spot on the driveway. I'm going to go hug it now and be thankful that I don't own a bottomless money pit.

 

[_Rick_]

I was annoyed this morning because my 11 year old truck left a tiny oil spot on the driveway. I'm going to go hug it now and be thankful that I don't own a bottomless money pit.

Believe me, if hugs worked, I wouldn't have to worry

 

[Greenman]

Believe me, if hugs worked, I wouldn't have to worry

It really doesn't sound like a fun car to own.
My truck is fun to own, it has air conditioning, and not much else.

 

[_Rick_]

It really doesn't sound like a fun car to own.

Well, the Rover engine sure makes some things more complex than others, but by now I believe that except for catastrophic clam shell damage and broken glass, everything that could go wrong, pretty much went wrong. Well, I also didn't have any engine-out maintenance quite yet, I'm still awaiting that the block will need a weld, or the head gasket finally goes. I think at that point I might seriously consider a Honda swap, if I see any hope of getting it through the required road-worthiness approval.

 

[Greenman]

There is maintenance that requires pulling the engine?

 

[_Rick_]

There is maintenance that requires pulling the engine?

Not maintenance thankfully, but potential "known issues" - which for a 23 year old car starts boiling down to the same thing eventually