a little bit of smoke

[sprogg7]

Hi Everyone.

i wonder if some one could point me in the right direction. if i start up my elan and leave it idle for 5-10 minutes, i get a lot of white smoke out the rear end which smell very rich and petroly. once i drive off the smoke clears and then it idles fine, no smoke. i think its running a bit rich, as if the choke is stuck on.
any ideas, cheers sprogg7

[hatters]

Does it only occur on cold days or is it there all the time?
I ask the question because my Elan has always done it but only in cold weather and it soon clears when the engine has been running for a while therefore I don't see any reason to address the problem (if it is a problem in the first place )it doesn't smell too rich

[sprogg7]

Hi Hatter

to be be honest i got the car last august and didn't really notice the problem for a few months, so the cold weather may be an issue. the fumes do seem to be very rich and smell of fuel.

sprogg

[Fetnas]

IF the problem is related to the colder conditions, it could mean that the temperature sensor the ECU uses to determine the engine temp or the air temp could be out of spec. I assume you have an SE like I do and not an S2 with a exhaust O2 sensor. My elan failed it MOT due to CO levels, it couldn't be adjusted down enough which turned out to be due to the ECU seeing the engine temp as lower than is actually was and keeping the "Choke" on a little. The engine temp sensor is located near the thermostat and the air temp sensor is near the back of the throttle butterfly.

I'm guessing that when you drive the car it gets just a little hotter which moves the ECU into normal mode.

Another thing to look at is the air idle valve which is hidden underneath the throttle body. I've found that this valve gets a tar like substance built up on it (I've owned 2 cars now with this style of valve) which can slow the movement of the valve and cause it to stick. The ECU sends pulses to move the valve but the gunk stops it from moving until the engine warms up enough to soften the residue. Cleaning this gunk off the valve pintle and in the mounting hole can't hurt and certainly fixed a problem on the other car I had.

I hope this helps.

[sprogg7]

thanks for that fetnas. that gives me a great place to start

cheers

sprogg7

[JonT]

See here for CTS:
http://www.lotuselancentral.com/repair/cts.htm
I found on mine cleaning up the connector was enough to help. If you have ElanScan you can check what temp the engine is seeing and whether it's stable.

[sprogg7]

Hi JonT

that's sounds more like the problem I'm getting, thanks for the info

cheers

sprogg7