The Incontinent Elan

[Saltire]

I got back last night from a week away on business. My wife and dog were delighted to see me back.

Then I went in the garage.

The Green Monster had made its displeasure at my absence known by

2016-06-25 12.51.52 (Small).jpg

[Fredjohn]

At least it was stationary in the garage and not on motorway at 70......you've still got an engine

[Artaban]

Not a big amount of oil. Lets hope its just a hose and not a hole in the oil cooler. While you are looking how about a bit of project creep...two new horns and a re-furbed horn mounting bracket?
Andy

[Saltire]

At least it was stationary in the garage and not on motorway at 70......you've still got an engine

That was my second thought (my first was rather less suitable for a public forum )

[Saltire]

Not a big amount of oil. Lets hope its just a hose and not a hole in the oil cooler.

Agreed. I remember that last Saturday, I had to go up on the verge to get out of the way of a huge farm machine coming towards me on a single track road in the twilight. I'm positive I didn't hit anything, but I wonder if the mounting has flexed slightly and that's split a hose.

While you are looking how about a bit of project creep...two new horns and a re-furbed horn mounting bracket?
Andy

Now stop it! I already have a half-fitted replacement alarm and several other electrical jobs on the go. Next thing, you'll be encouraging me to do the radiator and mounting bracket. ("And, while you've got the clamshell off . . . ")

[Saltire]

Well . . . Good news and bad this evening.

The bad news: It's the oil cooler matrix, which is terminally b******d

Good news: the friendly chaps at Coolexperts will make me one for a very reasonable £216 including VAT and carriage. I'm replacing the feed and return pipes as well (£180 Inc VAT from SJS) as they are pretty corroded, and I should be good to go. We have managed to access the cooler through the wheel arch, so haven't needed to take the bumper off; just as well, since the bolts are utterly corroded.

I'm wondering if I should replace the ball joints while I'm in there, since I have one side disconnected anyway. Any thoughts or experiences on this would be welcome please. And I'll do the horn bracket, per Artaban's suggestion.

The really worrying thing is that there appears to be quite a lot of corrosion underneath the car. Not having seen the underside of another M100 at close quarters, I don't know what's 'normal', but I am feeling a bit depressed about it. I was hoping to keep this car, but if it's worse than it should be for its age, and beyond my capacity to fix, I may have to move it on. Which would be tragic.

Off to nurse my depression, assisted by a bottle of Cotes du Rhone.

[cliff]

You will be happy with the new cooler, Coolexperts do a very nice product. You could have had the pipes made up by a local hydraulic hose specialist for a lot less.

I think by now, most unrestored Elans will be showing some corrosion by now, have a look at my thread (among others) for an idea of what you can expect to find. As long as there no nasty holes in the lower wishbones, most of it can be sorted quite easily. Not sure which ball joints you want to replace.

viewtopic.php?f=79&t=19040

[Rambo]

The really worrying thing is that there appears to be quite a lot of corrosion underneath the car. Not having seen the underside of another M100 at close quarters, I don't know what's 'normal', but I am feeling a bit depressed about it. I was hoping to keep this car, but if it's worse than it should be for its age, and beyond my capacity to fix, I may have to move it on. Which would be tragic..

Sorry to depress you even further, but have you checked your outriggers/inner sills and jacking points yet ?

[lotusflasherman]

Off to nurse my depression, assisted by a bottle of Cotes du Rhone.

Hope this makes you smile ... It did me...

wine.JPG

[Saltire]

You will be happy with the new cooler, Coolexperts do a very nice product. You could have had the pipes made up by a local hydraulic hose specialist for a lot less.

I think by now, most unrestored Elans will be showing some corrosion by now, have a look at my thread (among others) for an idea of what you can expect to find. As long as there no nasty holes in the lower wishbones, most of it can be sorted quite easily. Not sure which ball joints you want to replace.

viewtopic.php?f=79&t=19040

Well, yes and no, Cliff. The issue is "local". The closest I could find was Bristol, which is a 2 hour round trip (they wanted the old ones as a pattern). And since the car is taking up space in a local friendly garage man's workshop, I didn't want to wait until I had a spare day to get over there.

Thanks for the encouragement over the corrosion. I'm keen to drive the Elan over the summer, and then I'll take it off the road in winter to do the work. Time to get some insulation and heating in the garage, methinks

[Saltire]

The really worrying thing is that there appears to be quite a lot of corrosion underneath the car. Not having seen the underside of another M100 at close quarters, I don't know what's 'normal', but I am feeling a bit depressed about it. I was hoping to keep this car, but if it's worse than it should be for its age, and beyond my capacity to fix, I may have to move it on. Which would be tragic..

Sorry to depress you even further, but have you checked your outriggers/inner sills and jacking points yet ?

I have, Rambo. Not bad at all. I'm going to take some photos tomorrow in decent light, which I'll post for comments.

[Saltire]

Off to nurse my depression, assisted by a bottle of Cotes du Rhone.

Hope this makes you smile ... It did me...

wine.JPG

Love it. Made me feel better already

[Artaban]

Don't get too depressed. On mine the horn mounting bracket had disintegrated to dust so I had to get a new one in stainless steel from SJ's. The radiator support frame had also suffered but a refurb was possible. However the rest of the car has been fine. Seems that area gets the worst of it and the moisture probably hangs around in that area as well. Unless you have better weather than we have in Dorset your not missing much at the moment anyway. Hope it all works out OK.
Andy

[Saltire]

Thanks, Andy. Wiltshire = wet. The A429 is a river most of the time. I hadn't seen that SJ do a stainless horn bracket, but I think mine is salvageable anyway - for the moment. I'm just keen to avoid having the car off the road in bits for months and months if at all possible.

[Saltire]

Time for an update on the incontinent green monster.

Still in the workshop.

Oh, you want to know more?

Well . . . . The replacement oil cooler matrix came from Coolex with all the bracketry in the right places, and is ready to fit. I had also taken the precaution of acquiring a set of stainless steeel wheelarch liner fixings, togther with the dapinky-recommended ball joint upgrade (thanks, Dave). The only thing left over was the replacement oil cooler feed and return pipes, which I had ordered from the helpful Steve at SJ. Who despatched them the same day via Interlink.

Who lost them, but won't admit it. They agree they collected. They agree they didn't deliver. But that apparently doesn't mean they've lost them.

So my local 'man in a shed' is making up some replacements (although getting the originals off the car took a great deal of time, enormous spanners, copious amounts of heat, and the coining of several new and satisfying swear words). They should be ready on Monday.

To remove the oil pipes, we had to take off a power steering pipe. So we did.

I don't know what fluid is in the power steering system, but it sure isn't Dextron. It feels a bit like thin engine oil. So that will be drained and the system flushed. I really want to avoid having to replace the whole steering system at this stage, so I'm going to try some stuff made by Lucas which is supposed to recondition the seals and so on, and we'll see how we go. I may end up having to replace it all, but I can only cope with so much expenditure at a time

Still, at least Ive saved money on fuel over the last fortnight