Lotus Elan Central

by **MattDon** » Mon 12.11.2007, 17:49

wasnt sure where to post this so apologies if its in the wrong place, feel free to move it.

just wanted to say i bought a steel blue H reg se on saterday, and its everything and more i wanted, my dad used to restore the classic elan so the brand means alot to me, so its a big moment. Ever since ive been smiling like a crazy person.

a couple of questions though.

I know the standard brakes are crap (need alot of force) but ive found these scarey, i just keep praying noone breaks hard or cuts me up, is this normal or do i have a particularly bad one? best course of action (for the now very poor)

bubbles under the softtop at the back something to worry about?

no interior light or am i missing something?

also this might be impossible to answer without seeing it for yourself, but mine launches off realy hard and the front becomes very light and torque steer is pretty bad, is this normal or has mine been chipped? oh and an indicated 140 (on a private road) is easily achieved chickend out after that.

by **DaveT** » Mon 12.11.2007, 18:02

Welcome to the seriously grinning club...

and you bought the best colour as well

The interior light are under the r/v mirror.

If your broke the cheapest brake upgrade is drilled and grooved discs and either green stuff or pagid blue or a front/rear combo of the two, pagid on front. And do it yourself with Dads help. While you are doing that its worth changing the brake hoses to Goodridge braided. Lots of refs to all these in the brakes section. I have d&g with green stuff front and rear and it stops with no prob. You can pay a fortune to upgrade if you want. If you pay to have them done make sure they know what they are doing- some sad tales and never ending probs.

To find out if its been chipped find the ecu- behind the glovebox and see if the seals are still intact. If they are its not if they arent the chances are it is.

D

by **MattDon** » Mon 12.11.2007, 18:08

thanks for the advice mate, its got green stuff pads on already, i thought the groved and drilled discs would just reduce fade rather than improve breaking!? Dad died when i was 16, so as much as id love him to be here to see this for himself or help me out it aint gonna happen. Great news about the interior light, was struggeling in the dark the other night. oh and i heard a roumour the heater switch is from a holden, does anyone know which one as ive got family in oz who might be able to help.

by **GeoffSmith** » Mon 12.11.2007, 18:44

Welcome Matt.

It sounds like you might have a manual boot control tucked away in the plumbing to the wastegate capsule and if you're not getting fuel cutoff, then you may have a fuel cutoff defender or an agricultural chip from e.g. Superchip.

Seriously think about putting the car back to normal, sorting the brakes, getting used to it then go for a Mountain upgrade as developed by our very own ESM.

Oh and at the moment, Rushing has a problem with a heater switch:

If you can help him, the details are in this thread.

Geoff

by **Paul.P** » Mon 12.11.2007, 18:45

Matt, fit the pagid blue brake pads ( look for section Ceramic Pads ), they make big difference, also make sure sliders are free !

by **MattDon** » Mon 12.11.2007, 18:55

thanks geoffsmith, thats pretty much what im hoping to do.

and thankyou paul.p i'll look into those and check the sliders.

just checked the boost, too dark to check seals or anything else. shows 0.76 ish and i beleive thats a little higher than usual. :shock:

also i meant the other heater switch, to one which selects where the air comes from, but if i find the one im after it can be hard to find the temperature switch, hopefully.

Just tucked my baby in for the night, first time its rained here since i bought it and ive put the shower cap on. Its worrying just how quickly you get emotional involved with these cars. :lol:

by **DaveT** » Tue 13.11.2007, 10:35

Paul.P wrote:Matt, fit the pagid blue brake pads ( look for section Ceramic Pads ), they make big difference, also make sure sliders are free !

He did say he was now poor!!!!

My favorite slider
http://www.kariwuhrer.net/movie.html

D

by **rip** » Tue 13.11.2007, 12:16

The boost gauge is notoriously inaccurate. 0.65 is what the stock chip should produce though. Slight typo from Geoff, he meant a Manual Boost (not boot) Controller.

There is a good thread on brake pads in the part cross-reference section. You may find it useful.

You may find it worthwhile refurbing the front calipers. New slider kits only cost £10 a side from Halfords. It is not too difficult either, except that fitting the new rubber cover is a pain.

I replaced my fronnt pads with Ferodo 2500 (which are performance ceramic ones) because I needed to do lots of work and they were a cheaper alternative to the Pagids, and I refurbed my calipers at the same time. The braking has been transformed, but I do not know if the pads or calipers have made the most difference.

& the rear calipers are cr@p too: they have steel cylinders which seize with rust, but they only do 15% of the work so maybe you could put them off until later.

& welcome to the forum, I hope you find it useful & friendly. I know I have.

by **MattDon** » Tue 13.11.2007, 14:40

thankyou for the warm welcome, sorry for posting in the wrong section

Im not sure how many hours ive spent reading through all the posts i have (atleast 10 so far) proberly double that), but i did get the impression that new master clyinders were a good place to start, and perhaps the frodo or redstuff pads would be worth looking at, i guess that with refurbished calipers should sort it out.... i hope.

forgive the laziness but im struggeling to make head or tale with so much info on here. I am interested in smoothing out the power delivery of the turbo, would the mountain chip do that, or would i need to get a different turbo?

by **Enright** » Tue 13.11.2007, 19:59

Unless all other attempts fail, if I were you I wouldn't go anywhere near the master cylinder.

You just want those sliders front and rear to be able to move back and forth with hand pressure alone (with the caliper unbolted obviously).
Otherwise all of that effort from your foot is being wasted by going into overcoming the friction in getting the calipers moving, rather than being transmitted where it needs to be which is into the disks.

Have a careful look at how shiny the discs are (both inside and out) to see if the pads are operating over the full area. This may give you a few hints as to where the most work is required.

A Mountain chip will give you up to 40BHP more, so while it may be a much smoother power delivery than a Manual Boost Controller, it's still a very easy way into getting yourself into a LOT of trouble, especially if you don't have the anchors to get you out of it again!

I'd recommend working on the brakes to get them as good as possible before going down that route.

You DEFINITELY don't want to be even considering changing the turbo. This is a route that only a few have done successfully, and then it has been at a disproportionate amount of effort and expense.

by **MattDon** » Tue 13.11.2007, 21:21

thanks again for the advice, the brakes are a pressing issue, i have no wish to increase power, certainly not until the anchors are sorted, atleast, the reason i ask about the moutain chip and turbo was purely to smooth out the power delivery if my turbo is infact standard, as i had a quick look yesterday and couldnt find a MBC.

by **Dico** » Wed 14.11.2007, 17:28

Maybe it hasn't an mbc, and the boost solenoid valve (whats that bit on the trash can called???) has been bypassed altogether, as mine had :shock:

Bloody quick though!

But like you said, uncontrolable.

by **MattDon** » Wed 14.11.2007, 23:15

ahhh maybe, now what do i look for?

couple more questions.... lol

squeeky sort of hissing noises when i turn at low speed, im guessing that something to do with the PAS, do i need to worry?

oh and idle seems a little rough, a touch high and... well... rough. worry about it or ideas what to do?

i think thats the last of it... for now. :lol:

by **Dave Eds** » Wed 14.11.2007, 23:20

MattDon wrote:squeeky sort of hissing noises when i turn at low speed, im guessing that something to do with the PAS, do i need to worry?

..

Snakes :wink:

We've all got them so no need to worry

by **rip** » Wed 14.11.2007, 23:31

The rough idle does not sound like it is of much concern to you. I guess in time you will do the routine stuff like new plugs etc, You may find that sorts it, or maybe just driving the car will help.
If it persists, you could plug in Elanscan, but I would not worry about that yet.

Yes the hissing is the power steering. Like Dave Eds says, it is quite normal and not a fault at all. You will stop noticing it quite quickly.

by **MattDon** » Wed 14.11.2007, 23:51

ive got to say i actualy like the little quirks, im just a little nervous i might miss something important when i put everything down to lotus quirkyness. lol.

thanks again guys. just need to find out what to look for while im trying to find out if "the boost solenoid valve (whats that bit on the trash can called???) has been bypassed altogether"

by **Enright** » Thu 15.11.2007, 00:39

Russc had a similar problem in this thread.
In the post I've highlighted, I drew up a diagram of how it's all supposed to connect together (ignore the "Forge" bit - it's an extra).
Have a look through the rest of the thread too - it's very useful, especially in your case where you're still identifying bits and trying to work out how standard it is - or isn't!

by **MattDon** » Thu 15.11.2007, 01:09

thankyou, i like that alot, i know what to look for now.

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