A newbie from Orpington

[Rice crispy]

Welcome to the LEC, there are a few others not far away from you including me just over the bridge in Brentwood. Happy to come over with mine as well which has a few mods, brakes, suspension, seats, Everest chip.
David

[Ian T]

Thanks to David (dmc) for popping round in the week ant taking me out for a spin - great chap and lovely car, which proves that good ones are definitely still out there.

I have been trawling eBay and the likes of carandclassic to see what is available at the lower end of the market initially. Missed out on that white one last Sunday, which was a shame as that would have been my favourite colour and I only didn't get to see it because the owner was away all of the weekend leading up to the end of the auction.

I have been talking to the owner of a blue one up in Lincoln that is offered for £3950 but I feel it may be overpriced. He seems to be very genuine though and might be open to an offer but I have to ask myself if it is too untidy (I'd prefer a faulty tidy one). I have put a link to it in the eBay thread here: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=4973&p=295464#p295464

Next on the list is a red one in Essex that is only an hour or so away from me, so I will go up and have a look at it. In the photos it looks faded and as though the wheels might have been painted with an aerosol, but no other detail is available. It is at a dealer that generally sells £4k BMWs so might be a trade in and might be an instant money pit.

And to offers of a ride out - yes please. I will try to moderate my impatience to buy one, so anything I can learn in the interim is good and really appreciated.

David (lansledj) I'll drop you a PM shortly.

Ian.

[Rice crispy]

No problem let me know

[Ian T]

No problem let me know

I've been trying to contact the seller of this car to go and look at it, but so far to no avail.

image.jpg (29.9 KiB) Viewed 5385 times

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271506389044

If I do manage to get hold of them, and you're about I could meet up with you on the way past, or if you want to have a onset at it, you'd be welcome to come with me to look at it.

Bottom end of the market though, probably, so this may be more for research purposes unless it looks genuine.

Ian.

[Rice crispy]

Ian,
I'm in Maldon tomorrow at the car show in parade park. Happy to take a run down to have a look with you if you get hold of them even if its not tomorrow.

[Ian T]

Ian,
I'm in Maldon tomorrow at the car show in parade park. Happy to take a run down to have a look with you if you get hold of them even if its not tomorrow.

That would have been great, thanks. Looks like the trader is closed this weekend and despite me having the cash burning a hole in my pocket and a trailer on standby to even buy the right non-runner so I am out of luck. I may travel in the opposite direction then, to Dorking to look at a blue one. I'm trying not to be too motivated by the design of the interior or colour of the body, but I find the later half leather nicer, but that might just be because the striped leather I've seen so far is mostly looking saggy now.

Left to own devices (if all cars were of equal quality) I'd probably go for a white one, with black, red, blue, green, silver being the order of preference. The nature of buying old (I mean classic) cars like this though is either one has to be really patient or not too picky and let the head decide rather that just setting the heart free. Chrome don't get ya home and all that.

Ian.

[dmc_firstlotus]

Ian
Great meeting you last week and hang on in there with the search. As you saw, everything was running fine on mine the day you saw it, but the very next day some noise has started coming from the pop up headlight that was fixed a couple of months ago - typical of the absolutely endless niggles you get with Elans!

[Ian T]

David, it was great to meet you too. Is all the mechanism easily accessible from inside the bonnet? I can't imagine it would be hard to fix. Does it still pop up and down OK?

If it still moves up and down OK, and continues to make a noise in one direction only I would suspect whatever it uses as a limit switch (how it knows whether it is open or closed).

If all of that describes the fault, it probably isn't doing itself any favours while it's making a noise so it has to be worth looking at sooner rather than later.

Ian.

[maz_r]

Ian,

this one might be worth a look? As the guy says, it's a project, but drivable...

[Ian T]

Ian,

this one might be worth a look? As the guy says, it's a project, but drivable...

Might be worth a look, got to wonder why it needed paint from a next door neighbour...

I found the original listing though - http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/henga123/m.ht ... te=1&rt=nc

Certainly looks bad, I'm surprised that it sold for £1900 the first time as I can't be too sure the body hasn't been affected by using the wrong paints on it. Guess you'd determine that by attempting to flex it somewhere and seeing if it cracked, but there's no way I'd be doing that on someone else's car! It would presumably need lots of time consuming prep to get that old paint off and back to a sensible base for respray. Not insurmountable, but if paying for labour, that won't be cheap.

He says the seals look goosed but in the photos at least that look fairly tidy. Suppose that could be duct tape.

I will probably drive out to Maldon this week to look at an early red one, but Colchester is on the way there so this might be worth a look for comparison...

Thanks for the link - I will watch this one to see what it goes for.

Ian.

[Ian T]

I went to look at the blue one in Dorking today, it is superficially good looking and the mechanicals look fine, front wishbones might have been replaced, one seemed to be dripping with oil or something, could be waxoyl I guess.

I can't help wondering what has happened to it though, as it has all been re sprayed and there is bubbling where the clam meets the top panels, plus a poor fit of both front and rear bumpers to the top panels. I'd say that was as a result of a wax polished car going in for a respray and the preparation not going into the edges of the swage lines.

Could someone post a photo of the bottom rear corner of the door shut on the drivers door (with door open) where the sill meets the b post please? That car seems to have something like seam sealer there and looks as though it was previously cracked, repaired and painted over, but I can't determine whether that was how it was supposed to be or a repair.

The fit of the front bumper was correct at the centre, then about 8mm too low on either side. I can see in the manual that there is an adjustment screw bonded to the top front panel but without taking it to bits I don't have enough confidence that it's just an adjustment issue. There are cracks at the corners of the inner front panel between the headlamps, where the moulding makes a tight right Angle, again, I don't know if that's normal or not.

Similarly, the rear bumper is sitting at least 10-12mm below the rear quarter and looks wrong, the paint finish on the back face of the boot lid is a bit poor as though the prep was faulty or some filler was a bit bubbly, but the paint (majority of it) is pretty much unmarked and as I say it is superficially very tidy.

The owner runs a body shop and had some work done to it at the front when he bought it as a weekend toy to replace his other one that was stolen and since recovered, so he has fixed that again and wants to sell this one.

This car might be completely genuine, and it might just be my inexperience of looking at them that made me walk away from this one today, but some photos of these areas would help me to know whether I should go back...

1) open drivers door, sill corner with b post
2) fit of rear bumper to rear quarter panel
3) open bonnet, front vertical edge of light pod housing to flat centre section between lights

I will circle the bits I am talking about if that helps to spot normal wear and tear vs damage.

Cheers,

Ian.

[Ian T]

Well, it is done.

I saw several cars and went for one that fits my requirements, it's mechanically seeming pretty good (but needs a set of injectors) and externally good, but the interior is a bit tired.

The condition is reflected in the price paid and I brought it home today, with a bit of a smile on my face at times. It drives pretty well, but already I have homework. The temperature gauge works fine but while on the move, it drops down to very nearly zero, and therefore the thermostat is obviously 'passing' (leaking).

The drive back was pretty uneventful and I will have some fun getting to grips with the car. It needs a really good clean as it has been sat around for a few months, but apart from the wiper stalk being dicky, the door mirrors being held in place with foam and the heater fan resistor being dead on speeds 1 and 2, the rest of it seems to work. One thing I'd like to get my hands on mow is an interface that works with Elanscan.

Oh, and it's an early one, May 1989 iirc.

I will have to start a project thread.

Ian.

[Rice crispy]

Congratulations Ian, the temp gauge on mine rarely gets up to the first marker so that's most probably normal. I've got an elan scan lead but no laptop to run it on. You are welcome to borrow it.
David

[Fredjohn]

Well done Ian happy motoring and happy tinkering!

I agree with Dave's comment about the temp gauge: normal running temp on the gauge is between the 0 and the first mark. Leave it standing and running for a while: it should go to about 3/4 up the scale at which point the fans will come on. Temp gauge will gradually go down, fans will stop, gauge will go up, fans come on etc etc through this cycle. Take it for a run and the gauge will fairly quickly drop back to normal, barely reading. If all this happens, I would guess your cooling system is functioning OK.

If I've missed something someone will chip in! The temp gauge is just one of many little quirks that make the M100 interesting to own and drive. Another is the position of the clock on the SE: impossible to see and even when you can, impossible to read in bright sunlight!

There is also somewhere on here advice on fixing the heater fan switch: it's a question of resistors being replaced I think, but I'm no electronics expert.

Enjoy!

[Brit-Car-Nut]

The heater resistors are dirt cheap on the Aftersales List.

[TrevorB]

Well, it is done.

Congratulations Ian, don't forget to post some photo's. I am still available for that meet if you are still interested, as I said
in PM though it won't be until next week. I am taking 'Merlot' to a show at Kent Life showground near Maidstone on Sunday 20th
if you fancy a family day out.
http://www.kentlife.org.uk/discover-ken ... _show.aspx

Trevor

[Ian T]

Thanks all, appreciate the advice.

I'd love to borrow your interface David and might be able to help you with a laptop. What sort of port does it need - USB or serial?

As soon as I can identify the correct interface to buy I will do so, I just need to confirm which is correct.

GM ECUs of this era all used 8192 baud, which was a challenge for many PC serial data chipsets and so the normal way to talk to the interfaces used to be via the parallel port, but it was hard to get working and so I bought a Tech1 (I had a Cavalier S well as the Mk2 Astra at the time).

I have been searching the forum about thermostats, it seems the correct one is rated at 82 degrees, which would potentially account for the oddly low reading on the (presumably unmodified?) Vauxhall gauges. Another idiosyncrasy I need to get used to perhaps. Along with a wobbly speedo needle at low speeds, which I have never seen on a Vauxhall so I might have it to bits and see what went wrong with its damping.

BCN: thanks - I will look the resistor up and find a supplier. I was at a Vauxhall show earlier and saw Astra heater resistors for £15 new and couldn't help but wonder if they are the same - I will kick myself if so!

The other bit of luck was I managed to pick up a nice tidy (and hopefully functional) wiper stalk for £2 so I will be able to get rid of the current one that doesn't work correctly (I currently have to hold it between positions to get the wipers to move).

Trevor: yes, I'd still love to see your car, comparisons against better cars will help me to understand where to put my efforts into mine. Also understanding the extent to which everyone else is afflicted by poor warm starting would be good as well.

My Vauxhall 10 is being picked up in the morning following sale, so I should have the Elan in the garage to dry out and begin its improvement process. In the mean time... I need to sleep...

Ian.

[Fredjohn]

Ian
Elanscan leads/interfaces are available from there's only on f in Geof Smith. There is link from his signature to them. You can have USB or serial. And it will work with Vista and Windows 8.
Resistors are still available from Lotus dealers, you don't need to hunt! The Aftersales list BCN refers to is a list of old parts you can still obtain from dealers. It's in elan parts for sale section in excel or pdf format.

[Ian T]

Ian
Elanscan leads/interfaces are available from there's only on f in Geof Smith. There is link from his signature to them. You can have USB or serial. And it will work with Vista and Windows 8.
Resistors are still available from Lotus dealers, you don't need to hunt! The Aftersales list BCN refers to is a list of old parts you can still obtain from dealers. It's in elan parts for sale section in excel or pdf format.

Thanks John, I have PM'd Geoff as the link in his signature and the forum doesn't work. Hope he hasn't stopped making them as I would far rather have something well made than a veroboard lash-upthat I would no doubt build for myself.

Fitted the 'new' wiper stalk this morning and can cross one job off the list. Also spent a little while playing with the CTS to see if that might be the problem, but it doesn't appear to be (at least if it is faulty, it is not the only problem).

At the tperature when the radiator fans come on, the CTS is about 210 Ohms giving a Voltage to the ECU of about 0.5V Max. I don't have a look up table of Volts or Ohms for this sensor to know how the ECU should interpret that and will stop looking at it for now until I have an interface. I have searched the forum and web but it doesn't look like this information is available - I will derive a look up table using Tech1 / Elanscan when I get either up and running.

Next job - sort the hand brake - the lever comes all the way to the top before stopping the car, so at best it needs adjustment, more likely the auto adjusters are seized and need freeing off.

There's an advisory on the last MOT for play in NSR wheel bearing, so I will investigate that as well.

Ian.

[Rice crispy]

Ian, 99.9% sure mine is USB. My car is at my mechanics having a service, driveshaft Gators and a wheel bearing being done but should have it back by the middle of the week. Let me know when you are free
David