leak over door sill plate

[antelope]

Hi. Just given my car it's first heavy rain test, and yes it leaks. There's a fairly nasty one over the passenger seat, getting in at the corner of the roof, but there are also puddles of water sitting on the plastic cover over the sill [the 'footplate'?], when I open the door. Any more [this was in a heavy shower] and it would have spilled over onto the carpet. Does anyone know how it gets there? I can't work it out.

Cheers
David

[John_W]

David,
See here for a recent thread on the subject.

The water gets onto the sill plate from drainage holes under the door, and by running down the A & B posts. On the SE there is a very small lip on the plastic door sill, as you've noticed: S2s have a much taller lip. It's to stop the water which runs down the A-pillar seals or B-pillar pouring into the car instead of out under the door. There may also be a couple of inverted V-shape notches cut in your door seal at the bottom to let the water drain out (point 4 here)), or a couple of plastic nipples to break the seal at the bottom and let the water out. In addition, I extended the sill lip by Sikaflexing a bit of rubber beading onto it.

Also see here for the waterproofing addendum to the Service Notes. Have a read of pp 55-73 to get some ideas. One thing - if your front hood seal is leaking, don't follow the "drain tube" advice on P73, but rather add some extra foam seal to the top of the windscreen (or silicon sealant - use cling film on top while curing to prevent it glueing itself to the hood seal) to prevent water getting in past the header seal in the first place and dripping down at the A-pillar.

John

[antelope]

Many thanks for that John..I'll get onto it all straight away.

[antelope]

As a matter of interest, can the higher lip S2 sills be used on an SE?

[John_W]

As a matter of interest, can the higher lip S2 sills be used on an SE?

If you can find them. However it's not a silver bullet. You still need to do the other stuff.
John

[antelope]

Gawd...I have to ask, as I'm sure most people do, why on earth Lotus didn't design the car to be waterproof in the first place, and having failed to do so, at least offered a comprehensive remedial service to make up for it.

I'm not sure I'm up to all these mods...I don't really follow what much of the service book is saying...does anyone know of anyone who will take the car and do all that's required and do it well and professionally for a fair price?

[J46_MAV]

I bought mine in 1991 and had fairly disastrous leaks from the start. After a bit of corespondence with the factory, they took it back for a week, gave me a free hire car and did all the waterproofing mods under warranty. Couldn't fault them for service and they even gave me a tour of the factory.

I still don't leave it out in the rain though.

[rip]

Gawd...I have to ask, as I'm sure most people do, why on earth Lotus didn't design the car to be waterproof in the first place, and having failed to do so, at least offered a comprehensive remedial service to make up for it.

Maybe because they spent so much designing/testing/manufacturing the chassis that to get the other bits right too would have put the cost up so much it would make the car completely unsellable?

[Alan_C]

You have to remember Lotus is a small British company, Lotus didn't have the millions of pounds that GM or Ford had to design and develop a new car. Every car was hand built, by humans, not robots or automated machinery, and only in small numbers, a few thousand. How many Ford Escorts or Vauxhall Astras were built (and how many that are the age of Elans still exist today)? This is what makes our cars unique. You should revel in it's uniqueness, and quirks. Without these, it would not be a Lotus. The car is not perfect, it never was, it never will be. Owning an older Lotus entails much head scratching when something unexpected happens, these cars are approaching 20 years old. They were not perfect when new, now age has moved indifferent imperfections to major distractions. Mostly nothing insurmountable or overwhelming, but certainly niggling. How many of us have had door window trouble? Engine running rough? Rear brakes won't work? Hood leaks? Gearchange issues? The list can go on. Then that new spare part you require is no longer available. Trawl through LEC and you'll find the answer to these problems, or rather niggles. This is what owning a Lotus Elan is about. This is why LEC exists. If you're not prepared to embrace this, then maybe a Lotus Elan isn't the car for you.

[antelope]

I understand this Alan, and I don't have a problem with it. I've owned older classics in the past...sunbeam Alpine, TR6, Spitfire...and enjoyed this aspect. But I confess that there's someting particularly dispiriting about the sheer scale of the water ingress issue on the Lotus, that I find defeating. I think if I could hang it over to someone to apply all the mods, I'd at least know that the car is being made the best of. I'm OKish as an ordinary diy mechanic..identifying problems and simply replacing parts, but these mods for water ingress I feel are in the territory of the serious enthusiast mechanic/fiddler, and I'm not one. I love the car, and see it as just the right car for me...but with the niggling worry that actually it may only really be suitable for serious mechanic types.