New member in the Pacific Northwest

[Luvmeadeadpedal]

Hi folks,

I just finished the purchase of a lovely 1991 Elan in red - 44k miles on the clock.

I have a nice letter in the file from Ronald Foster the CEO of Lotus USA telling the original owner that this car was the very first new Elan sold in the USA. Pretty cool really.

Good - all the bits are there for the most part and shows little wear for its age. Good interior, reasonable patina on the paint (needs the deck lid refinished) and tires that are still in date. Great service history and more recent work done including timing belt, water pump, seals, idler and tensioner pulley. No rust on any of the A arms or other suspension bits which is pretty amazing given spent a good portion of its early life out in Maryland land of hot and humid in the summer. Lights flip up perfectly and all the bits seem to work as they should. Brakes feel firm and fluids changed a few years ago.

Bad -

Injectors - previous owner (second owner) had too many cars and did not exercise the Elan enough and tried to start it with very old gas in it. It of course fouled #2 and #3 injector. PO mostly had professionals do work but he had a local mechanic stop by and remove the dirty injectors only to disappear off the face of the earth.

I need to get at least two injectors but leaning toward just replacing them all given it is all apart and the costs are not terribly crazy. I have interest in a mountain chip but I don't know if those are still available for sale any longer and wondering if I am already replacing the injectors should I up the size a little bit from the stock ones to slightly larger for a bigger margin for fueling. I would be happy to accept your sage advice on this topic.

Window seals - In checking out the window motors both outside window rubber seals failed. I see a few short mentions of perhaps using some Honda parts to replace them but I could not sort out which parts I should look at ordering. This will need sorted for certain.

Seats - Seats look good if a bit hard given their age so I plan on pulling off the covers and adding some new foam to freshen them up a bit. Perhaps install some heated seat pads while I am in there.

Recognizing this is a almost 32 year old car I sort of expect some of these wear items needing servicing but I am excited for the project.

I also have a Morgan 3 (my gateway drug to British cars) and an Elise to keep the Elan company.

This website is a fantastic resource and I need to know how to contribute to it's continuation.

thanks

David

[dapinky]

Hi David,
Welcome to LEC, and Elan ownership!

It sounds like you have a nice example there, and it will be even better once you have done the initial work on it.

Should you ever find yourself doing the short drive over to the seaside at Astoria, then the LEC founder/guru Doug lives there - but no longer has his elan.... maybe if he sees yours, he'll actually get round to buying another one!

[FunElan]

Greetings from Los Angeles, glad someone saved that car. I was tempted!!

I used these injectors and they work fine: https://www.ebay.com/itm/191637275013?_ul=DO

The window rubbers are a bitch. I just replaced them while repairing my regulators, and I used some over the counter weatherstripping that I glued onto the top. Looks a little different than stock, but still looks fine!

[Luvmeadeadpedal]

Thanks for the nice notes.

Honestly I was a little nervous embarking on my adventure to Palm Desert to see the car. Pictures were ok but not great and the car presented so much nicer in person than on the craigslist add. PO needed it gone out of a garage owned by his inlaws and the stars aligned. I have a long service history here in the folder for this car and it has been "professionally" loved for every service except this last episode with the injectors. Easy fix to drain the tank, swap fuel filters and install new injectors.

I will check out those injectors you suggested - thanks for the tip. I am sure I am missing the electrical plug clips as well as the injector to fuel rail clips so when I source a new set I will need it complete.

I have been reading this posti:

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=27476

About the window seals but of course it is from 2005 so they are becoming a bit harder to source now. If anyone else has more recently done this it seems like a straight forward fix.

Because Red - the car needs to have the trunk lid repainted as the clearcoat is failing. It happened on my Elise and my Miata (funny both red) and I even live in Portland where it is only sunny 1/2 the year.

Seats need some foam and I need to figure out how to repair the seat recline know which is not working.

I also have a question as to how fragile the shifter cables really are. Some posts I have read say yes but it might be another item on the checklist of things to update.

Excited about my winter project - thanks in advance for any wisdom you can bestow.

Happy Holidays

Dave

[TorqueHorse]

Welcome!

Oh wow, I thought that craigslist ad was a fake. it sounds like you scored a great deal, congrats!

[steve matthews]

Merry Xmas David, Post some Pic. we love Pic.

[Luvmeadeadpedal]

Car is on the way and arrives on Wednesday.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VPWm9DT5dJjD2kHV6

I thanks to some tips delivered here on this exact post I now have a new set of injectors.

I need to flush the tank and swap out the fuel filter and see if I can get this car running.

Next - brakes with a plan on an upgrade front and rear. Stopping is important.

[Luvmeadeadpedal]

Well deferred maintenance is the word of the day.


Combing through thru maintenance history I see a recent thermostat replacement upon a coolant exchange. Led me to want to check the operation of the fans and recirc pump. Fans yes! Pump no (boo). Great write up on a MBZ van replacement and carparts.com to the rescue. Also tested the thermal switch which was dead but sourced a generic 190/205 fan switch on amazon for $11 and will give it a try. The threads are not tapered exactly the same but it is 3/8 npt and more than 1/2 fit I so I think I will be ok. Custom wiring for both the fan and recirc pump to make them go. Blown fuse on recirc pump tells me this was a for sure necessary fix.

Carparts.com also came thru with a $99 Re manufactured alternator that looks correct. Next week I hope
To tackle that and a new battery.

Front brakes while looking good upon inspection found the sliders to be frozen solid requiring some judicious application of force to free them. Some lube and they were good as new. Tackle the rear slider pins next as I expect to find the same. Let me know if there are any tricks.

I am beginning to feel like an episode of road kill because I have a chunk of cardboard list in sharpie pen showing all my to dos.

New tires have been mounted and two of the wheels show grease on the inside of them. Rear wheel / brake assembly look clean. Front cv boots look almost new and clean so perhaps then they were done nobody bothered properly scrub them clean??

Britt-car-guy John C has been a champ in helping me source some bits including a brand new shift handle!! I just got my momo wheel hub so I can remove the ugly airbag wheel and install a fancy new one. He also had a federal mountain chip and adapter which I will install post alternator fix.

Keeping at this with hopes to debut at cars and coffee when the weather clears a bit.

Dave

[FunElan]

Love to see progress. Curious how you find the alternator job. I've heard it's not much fun. Is there a reason you're changing it?

[Luvmeadeadpedal]

Charge light came on intermittently when I first started the car and upon testing shows less than 14v so it had to go.

It’s tight in there but I will figure it out.

I was able to change the trans fluid and it can’t be much more difficult than that.

[lotusflasherman]

Thanks for the nice notes.
....

I have been reading this posti:

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=27476

About the window seals but of course it is from 2005 so they are becoming a bit harder to source now. If anyone else has more recently done this it seems like a straight forward fix.
.....
Dave

Check out this thread for the quick & easy weatherstrip replacement.
http://forum.lotuselancentral.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=26721#p341241
It's still looking good in January 2023.

[FunElan]

I did the above glued on weatherstrip replacement and couldn't be happier with how it looks.

[Luvmeadeadpedal]

Thank you for the tip on the window seal.

I did purchase the seals from PNM but was NOT looking forward to taking the door apart. I am going to give this a try as an interim step as I can always go the full route and replace the seals if this ends up not working out.

Awaiting my alternator rebuild and I will be back on the road!

[Luvmeadeadpedal]

The weather finally cleared and I got the Elan out to the DMV for a VIN inspection and paperwork and I am all legal. I was able to register as a "special interest" vehicle an not have to deal with emissions inspection and yearly tags if I agree to only use it for shows and events which is what the car is being use for anyway.

I had a long laundry list of old car issues to sort out and I have been making steady headway.

Cooling system - when I purchased the car the neither the fans nor the recirculation pump seemed to be working. Following the wiki instructions I shorted out the thermo-switch lead and got the fans to work but the recirculation pump had a bad fuse. It had a bad fuse because the pump was seized. Again the wiki to the rescue and I purchased the Mercedes van replacement pump and it fit in perfectly with a little bit of wiring modifications.

I also sourced a new thermo-switch and all seemed right in the world until this week with some very hot 95 F days and I had the needle buried at "H" in some stop and go traffic. Fans whirring away but still not cooling. I replaced the thermostat today and it was so much better than before but after my test drive I let the car sit in the driveway for 6-7 minutes at idle and the needle slowly climbed again toward "H" with both fans running full speed. If I am moving at all this is not an issue but standing still or stuck in traffic it seems to run hot. I texted with the previous owner and he says his experience was it would run up to 3/4 on the temp gauge so perhaps the sending unit / gauge are not a particularly good match - recall my car is a very early one and perhaps they sorted this out later? It is not boiling over but it is a little concerning when you see the gauge climb that high. Water pump, thermostat and thermo-switch are all new and I use a device that creates vacuum in the system to refill the coolant so there are no trapped pockets of air and I am wondering if I need to look at replacing the radiator. Perhaps this is just how this car behaves but I wanted to check with the brain trust here to see if you had any insights.

Brakes - I did tune up the brakes and I am glad I did because I had two calipers that were not moving at all on the pins. Cleaned and re-lubed everything and they are working as good as they ever did. I did spring for a set of new front brake calipers from PNM and I am just awaiting their delivery.

Wheels - I was lucky that I did not have any rash whatsoever on my rims but a few of them had seem some potholes in the past so where a little out of round. I had a local shop straighten them up and they are running true and smooth.

Tires - replaced the very (very!) old tires with some new 200 treadwear Falken Azenis tires. A friend runs them on this endurance race Miata and they seemed to be a good bang for the buck and even on sale.

Cosmetics - I am really down to cosmetics now as I have all the parts to do the window seals and will swap out the door speakers while I am in there as the foam surround has vanished.

My car is red fading a little toward pink in a few spots and I have been slowly working correcting the paint where I can. It is slow going trying to sand off just the failing clearcoat and even when successful you now have a beautiful red next to a slightly pinkish red side by side. It looks great from 5-6 feet away but when my ocd kicks in I can spot the bad bits. The car is not a show car but it is very nice and I will do as much as I can without having repaint it in the near term.

Interior - I plan on pulling the seats to dye them black to hide a few blemishes and fully condition the leather to soften them. I purchased some 1/2 foam and plan on pumping up the bolsters and the seat bottom a bit when I get the seats out of the car. I am still waiting on a backordered wheel hub adapter as I have a very nice vintage Momo Monte Carlo wheel I want to put in the car to replace the ugly GM airbag wheel.

A/C - I have in my file of maintenance records from previous owners that the car was converted to R134 in the past but it is not blowing particularly cold at the moment so I am going to try and see if I can't get it serviced and find out if we can get it running properly again.

After a long winter I am finally making some headway on the project and it feels good to start ticking items off the list.

I took it to our local Cars and Coffee show this last weekend and it really had a crowd around it as nobody had seen one other than in magazines back in the day. It is a fun car to drive and I am happy that I purchased it!

Let me know if you have thoughts on the cooling situation as I would be grateful for the shared wisdom.

[FunElan]

Great progress!! I've done the door job twice so if you need pointers, let us know.

With the cooling system, it definitely shouldn't get that high. Do you have an infrared thermo to verify that it's actually not cooling down?

[Saltire]

Re the cooling issues: my car runs at around 1/4 on the gauge on the open road. If we’re in traffic, it gently climbs to 3/4, whereupon the fans kick in and the gauge drops. I’ve only ever had the electric pump come on a couple of times in the 8 years I’ve had the car (but I do have a new alloy radiator). Now, my experience is gained in the UK, although from what I hear from my brother in BC, the weather’s not that different with you.

If you decide you need a new rad, I can recommend these folks. Bear in mind that the LHD/Federal and RHD radiators are slightly different. There’s discussion on this forum about the differences - notably here, but I’m told Coolex do have a Fed-compatible solution.

[Luvmeadeadpedal]

I do have an IR thermometer - what should the reading be at the radiator? The thermostat is set for 180 degrees F but I am betting it will be higher than that at the radiator.

If anyone has a range of what it "should" look like I will give this a try and see if it is just a gauge / sending unit issue and not really running that hot after all.

thanks for the help!

Dave

[FunElan]

Fans should come on around 97C. 1/2 on the gauge is 90C I think

[dapinky]

If you have a look at many of the published Elanscan results it will show the exact temperatures at various stages (ie, when the thermostat opens, when the fans cut in, what it runs at when the fans stop etc etc).

This is one of my old runs when I was in the Isle Of Man on the Mountain Route....

It shows the thermostat opening at 83C, then allowed to warm up to get the fans to cut in at 89C, then generally dropping to the 82-84C range during the run

[Luvmeadeadpedal]

** Updates 6-9-2023

After much testing it seems the gauge sending unit is misbehaving. Running a few different laser IR thermometers we are seeing ~180F leaving the thermostat housing and ~40-45F drop in temperature when checking the radiator outlet.
My gauge is reading 1/2 at warmup and fully to hot until the fans kick on and then drop down to just above 3/4. It is not smelling hot nor am I having trouble overheating but I don't like seeing the gauge so far toward "H" when I am driving. I honestly don't have the history if it was at some point replaced but sourcing a new sender now.

PNM big brake kit arrived and was easily fitted to the car. I think the hardest part was getting the old bits off and removing a stuck tapered allen bolt holding one of the discs to the hub. Only one small 1.5mm shim needed to get the caliper body exactly centered over the disc and I am braking like never before. Big improvement and highly recommended.

Next up will be tackling the window seals but I am going to wait for some bad weather to arrive as of now I would rather be driving the car.