Noobie Elan owner, 1 week in no Gears!!! Really down

[Spacey]

Hi guys, I bought a nice Elan 92for £4,900 (knocked down from £5500).

All seemed well, although it had only done 2,000 miles since 1998!!!

Seems the car was only taken out once a month, looking at the mot which was a year ago, it had only done 200 miles.

Anyhow I took it to my local Salisbury Lotus dealer because it kept cutting out when coasting or going slow after a good burst of speed. They told me the turbo is overboosting, and adjusted it.

It still over boosts to 0.9 (goes like stink though), but doesnt cut out.

I've had the car just over a week now, and after a fast geare change to 2nd to give it some hard acceleration, it wouldn't go into second at all. 4th was becoming hard as well. It would go into 2nd gear but only at low rpm, this gear changing was getting harder and harder until last night reverse went......then after 40 miles all the gears went. Nothing not a thing!

I've been towed back home, but this all sounds very expensive and I'm allready loaned to the eyballs for this car that I've wanted for so long

Any help at all would be very much appreciated.

Oh and the garage said I need to change the cambelt as even though it's only 2,000 miles old it's been sat for a long time.

[clemo]

welcome to LEC and elaning..
your new found problem may well be gear linkage cables..
whilst a bit of a job.. no where near as expensive or time consuming as a gearbox!
it too sounds very likely that if it has been stood up for a while that the cables (or infact the ends break)
if you look under the bonnet at the rear of the bulkhead on the right hand side you should be able to see them ..
to black sheathed cables that join on a fixing plate . both with circlips and a plastic head/entry point.. this is where they usually break..

sometime the gears still works on the downshift but don't have enough strength (due to the break)on the upshift

another place that they fail is underneath the gearstick cover,beneath the metal housing (held on by allen keys) is a golf ball like head. this too comes away from its surround...

which gears do you have ? if any?
i asume that your clutch is ok then?


using the " search" at the top left ..
write in
gearlinkage cables
ab cables

and see what you can find.

clemo


clemo

[chris.t]

welcome to LEC and Elan ownership. Don't let this upset spoil your view of the car. I have just bought a VX220 and i've had some right fun and games.

First of all take your garages advice - its not necessarily miles its also time that takes its toll on some of the components of your car.

Re your gears, do a search on AB brake cables cos i think you will be needing them.

sure there will be much more knowledgable peoolpe along shortly to make things a lot clearer.

Good luck

[dapinky]

Hi & welcome.

On the gear front, I ain't got a clue (but I'm sure that someone will be along in a mo who will have one).

On the cambelt front - good advice from the garage!

I was in a similar situation when i bought mine - the belt was only a couple of thousand miles old, but a few years in time. If the car stays still & doesn't get the engine turned over regularly (or occassionally!) then the belt will form itself into a set shape and be less flexible when you later move it, and therefore more likely to break.

Please don't see this as a scary story, or even a likely scenario, just a word of caution on what MAY be the case. Of course, if the engine has been run on a weekly basis throughout its lay-up, (and run up to temperature) then this (and other) problems will not occur, and you will have saved the hassle of a belt change - only you can judge on that one.

On another note, because mine had been standing for a while, the water level had dropped, corrosion had formed in the engine, the thermostat had seized (as many do) the car overheated and knackered the head gasket. This was an unfortunate (and not at all common) set of circumstances which conspired against me to cause ME grief!

But i would suggest a good check-up of the cooling system to preserve your peace of mind.

Good luck

[Spacey]

Cheers for the replies it's nice to know I'm in good and knowledgable company.

I've taken the top part of the gear leaver apart by unscrewing the 4 allen key bolts. The ball part of the gear shift assembly is in it's socket so I guess the cables have come loose.

One thing I didn't knotice until I had driven 400 miles to get it home, was that the oil level was very low indeed in the car. I added 1.5 litres of oil to top it up, and was about to do a full oil change when the gears messed up.

To answer Clemo's question...at this point I have no gears at all lol, I did have 1st 3rd and 5th, but then yesterday they all just went when I changed from 5th to 3rd. There was no bang or anything, just a very limp gear lever.

Would anyone be up for the job? I live 2 miles from Stonehenge Uk, if anyone wants the work give me a shout. I have a feeling the lotus garage will be extortion and I'm not rich by any means.

I've done a search on this site and it does look like an awrkward job. I'm good with 2 stroke motorbike engines (motocross) but cars are a different think to me altogether.

Thanks again for the help

[GeoffSmith]

Welcome to LEC. Stevieshag is your closest contact as he lives....... 2 miles east of Stonehenge!

[clemo]

blimey thats low oil....

it does sound like gear linkage cables .. buy the way you have lost one side 1,3,5 and 2,4,reverse.

the other place they break is as mentioned up on the bulk head, right hand side...
probably flapping around now with both plastic heads missing/cracked by the circlip... its a base plate , with 2 black sheathd wire in and out.. with a black rubber style bellows cover over. this is where mine broke...

stevie is you man..

[clemo]

also its not really that difficult a job..
i did a rush job write up on it .. on here somewhere!!
must find it and tidy it up..
anyway the info is on here and its not that hard...

why/how did you loose so much oil?
what was your oil pressure light reading?
did it sound ok at idle?

clemo

[Spacey]

also its not really that difficult a job..
i did a rush job write up on it .. on here somewhere!!
must find it and tidy it up..
anyway the info is on here and its not that hard...

why/how did you loose so much oil?
what was your oil pressure light reading?
did it sound ok at idle?

clemo

It doesn't seem to be loosing any oil, I thought it was leaking at the head gasket as some oil seemed to be hanging around that area...the lotus garage in Salisbury said it was just a cap that had come loose in the engine somewhere and looks like an engine block leak.

Sure enough no oil has gone to that area at all since the cap was put on. It doesn't seem to be losing any oil at all, so I have no idea as to why the oil was so low when I bought it. But I do know that the previous owner use to use it at the most once a month for either a very short spin or just to turn over the engine (he works in America but comes back to Uk once a month).

He bought the car in 1995 for £15,000 ( I have the receipt) but it has really not been used since then hardly at all.

One good thing and this is why I bought it... it has every official Lotus garage stamp and service. New twin disc's and new rear standard disks recently fitted, new tires, new hood.

Maybe I bit off more than I could chew buying this Elan, my girlfriend is a bit annoyed at me for buying it and more annoyed now I have to spend more cash on it he he, but I've looked at so many cars and nothing else will do. It's the right balance of not being a p*nis extension whilst not being to girly either he he

Do you think "Stevieshag" would be up for some paid work in helping me fix this. I've just started a new job and it is my only form of transport at mo.

[Spacey]

Here was the origional ad on pistonheads Elan ad

A family friend who runs a garage has offered to come around Wednesday and take a look, he seems to think where it's been sat for so long the linkages have gotten weak, and from the sudden new use of the car have worked there way lose.

But I don't think he has any experiance of Elans.

I'l probably need some new cables, or hopefully I could get away with fixing them back on again?

[clemo]

if you look at the cam angle sensor you will find there is an o ring located as it fit into the cam cover..
this is the usuall place for oil leaks.
looks a nice car..

as for stevie well i can't offer his services but if you drop him an email with the idea of amber nectar involved

[Dico]

if you look at the cam angle sensor you will find there is an o ring located as it fit into the cam cover..
this is the usuall place for oil leaks.

Another possible place is the blanking plug directly to the side of the cam angle sensor. I believe this is the same size 'O' ring as the cam angle sensor.

[Spacey]

I'm just glad that whatever plug/seal it was... it wasn't the head gasket he he.

Someone asked "what was the oil pressure", the oil pressure seemed healthy to me thats why I never checked it before I drove from Yorkshire to Stonehenge (via none flooded roads at the time).

Pretty sure it was between 50-75% of the meter depending on how I was driving.

I'll Pm Stevieshag and see if he can offer any assistance for some $$$