A couple of things

[morciii]

I noticed a small puddle under my car today, the car had stood for about 7 hours in dry weather. The liquid appeared to be clear, i popped the bonnet and traced it to be coming from the very front of the engine bay. Does anyone have any idea where it is coming from or what the cause could be?
After finding the leak i began driving home in the rain, i kept turning the window wipers off and on rather than using the intermittent wipers. A few times during the drive, 5 times in total, the engine would stutter, almost cutting out, the engine light would flash, then would go back to normal. Is this something to worry about? Is it related to the wipers or was that just coincedental? I'd be grateful for any help. I gave the forum a search before making this post, but couldn't find too much relating to my problems

[Jamie N]

Could be a leak from the radiator, often quite hard to verify exactly where the radiator is leaking whether from a hose or otherwise, you really need a very dry day and good lighting, unless of course its a bigger leak then it can be traced more easily. If the radiator has never been removed the chances are it will be a bit of a mission to get it out, lots of nasty little 8mm head bolts which will have rusted solid and truly test your patience.

The other problem sounds possibly Earth related, certainly be worth going round all of them, loosening the nuts, bit of copper grease and retightening.

[Rob P]

After finding the leak i began driving home in the rain, i kept turning the window wipers off and on rather than using the intermittent wipers. A few times during the drive, 5 times in total, the engine would stutter, almost cutting out, the engine light would flash, then would go back to normal. Is this something to worry about? Is it related to the wipers or was that just coincedental? I'd be grateful for any help. I gave the forum a search before making this post, but couldn't find too much relating to my problems

If the engine light has come on then I would presume that this means a fault code will have been logged, try checking the fault code which should then identify where the issue is. I have had the engine light come on when running rough and on both occasions it has registered a fault code 22 pointing to the TPS being either faulty or faulty wiring to it

[morciii]

Hi Jamie, i managed to find where the leak was coming from.

i'm away from the car at the moment so i used a picture off google to show where the leak was coming from. it's coming from the underside of the area circled in the picture.

Hi Rob, the engine light only flashed for a split second, will the fault code still be logged? i will download Elanscan and give it a try anyway.

Thanks for the info guys

[Enright]

You don't need to download Elanscan - just do a paper-clip test (consult WikiLEC for details - see link just below the banner at the top of this page).

[morciii]

Thanks Neil, i guess that would be easier and quicker

[Jamie N]

Thats the electric water pump you have circled, as many folks on here will verify they often stop working altogether, can you see if the leak is coming from the hose or the plastic part?, either way its a doddle to fix, i have a couple in the garage i removed from Mercedes in good (tested) working order so if you need one just head over and you can have one, not expensive either, i got 3 for a fiver .

[Rob P]

Hi Rob, the engine light only flashed for a split second, will the fault code still be logged? i will download Elanscan and give it a try anyway.

I would think the moment the engine light illuminates suggests there is a fault and as such the system should have captured it, certainly when it happened to me a while ago I was able to do the paperclip test and found code 22 had been captured which was TPS Low Voltage issue

[morciii]

Hi Jamie, it appears to be coming from the plastic bit.

I managed to find the ALDL quite easily, but i can't for the life of me find a paper clip! So i'll let you guys know once i get error codes.

[CalElan]

Sorry to hijack -
Jamie - Any idea which merc the pumps come from - I think I'm in need.. thanks.

[maz_r]

The one I bought not so long ago claimed it was from a 2002 Merc SLK 230; electrics are slightly different but it fitted fine and works a treat.

To be honest, I bought it more from to look of it in the picture than the claimed donor.

The Wiki states "The pump was originally fitted to Mercedes Benz 190D (1984-1989) and is a Bosch 0.130.002.070. This part is an exact match, even down to the plug."

[Jamie N]

Sorry to hijack -
Jamie - Any idea which merc the pumps come from - I think I'm in need.. thanks.

The ones i have are from C class from the mid 90's but im sure they are in most Mercs from early 90's to early 2000's, Bosch, and they are almost identical to the Elan one and plug straight in, i can get plenty of these for pennies, there are loads of Mercs in the yard.

[CalElan]

thanks guys

[morciii]

i still haven't had the chance to get the paperclip test, mostly due to this miserable weather!

but today, whilst i was driving the car back to its garage, i encountered another problem. It was bucketing it down with rain and i was getting the odd drip from the usual places. But there was a lot of water coming in from behind the glovebox, which is a little concerning. I think i found where the water was coming in, but i only had time for a quick look as i had to go to work. I tried to take some pictures but it's very dark in the garage.




it looked like it was coming from the foamy material to the right of the picture, although there was water dripping everywhere. I've decided i'm going to avoid driving in the rain until i know what was causing this leak.

[Andy_J]

it looks like the rain has got into the air intake for the heater, it must have been raining pretty heavily. If you look behind an to the right of the coolant tank under the clam there should be a glass fibre box fixed to the bulkhead, check the seal on this where it fixes to the bulk head. If this is you need to take the passenger side wheel off and take the arch liner out this will give you access to the underside of the intake and a short flexible pipe which runs from the wing to the heater air intake. Check the flexible pipe and the seal on the underside of the intake.

[morciii]

It was raining very heavily. Thanks Andrew, i'll take a look tomorrow and i'll keep you guys updated on my findings

[Fredjohn]

Just to add to Andy's post, once the liner is removed you will see a foam rubber "tube", held on by 2 cable ties, from the wheel arch to the heater plenum. I looked at mine yesterday and it is very powdery, but still in one piece, just! It is directly below the bonnet hinge, passenger side.

Fortunately this bit is still available from, amongst others, SJ Sports Cars. Lotus part no. A100P0096F. Page 18.13A item 1 of the parts manual. Only costs about £6 plus the dreaded.

Hope this is the bit causing the problem.

[morciii]

Paper clip test gave me code 12 six times in a row before i turned the ignition off, so no faults found.



Is this the seal you were talking about Andy?

[GeoffSmith]

No it's below that - flexible coupling for the air intake to the heater (A100P0096F):

[dapinky]

Note - if it's knackered, it doesn't have to be replaced like-for-like......

....its just a flexible joint in the pipework - a piece of rubber tube (car tyre inner tube) would be ideal - held on with a couple of cable ties - it doesn't have to hold great pressure, just keep the airflow where it's meant to go.