cheers both.

my anxiousness is well founded, my previous proper car (before serving some time with a hateful turd 1997 volvo v40 1.9td) was a 02 2.2 vx220, so i know what 'low volume' tends to lead to.......

that had problems before lotus even had them out of production (with a lot of help from GM) and mine had a shedload of warranty work done. so as you say i'd rather have a worry now than another roadside escapade later.

the garage has apologised that the OEM hose didn't turn up yesterday, so it probably will be a case of replace it once, then replace it for good with the silicone jobber