Orange transducer(?) thingy!

[Chris B]

Hi everyone, had my Elan since March and love it! It is however a minefield of challenges! My boost gauge has packed up .... the needle points straight up when the ignition is turned on. I found this website this afternoon and read the posting on the poor earths, so i ran an earth wire to the one on the light pod and the needle now goes up to the first grad on the dial when the ignition is switched on as before. Problem sorted I thought! On driving however, the needle remains there even though the turbo is working. The plastic tube however heading into the engine seemed upon inspection with the engine running to be bleeding air, i removed some insulation tape to find the plastic nipple has been snapped in the past and is leaking air. Firstly what is this? I t obviously affects the boost gauge, is it damaging the car? How do I fix it ? etc etc, any replies or advice would be much appreciatted! Chris

[Candles]

The orange transducer measures the excess pressure ('boost') in the intake plenum (shiny bit with DOHC written on it) caused by the turbo working. The fact that the hose to it has broken means three things: 1) You wont measure any boost. 2) You will leak some boost out so suffer a performance loss. 3) At idle, you will suck in a small amount of unfiltered exterior air. This isn't metered so my guess would be it is idling fast?

The solution is to fix it, either with a new plastic nipple or any other airtight arrangement. I think mine is a bit of silicone tubing pushed over. You could probably weld/glue the nipple back together with a soldering iron or something! Post a pic to clarify where it has snapped.

If this all fails, these parts are available as the engine is widely used. Someone on here may even have one!

Candles.

[Chris B]

Thanks for the reply, I have now tried that, I have added a new pipe which is airtight at both ends, still no movement from after the initial movement top the first grad when the ignition is turned on. Poking around the turbo seems VERY hot, is this always the case? It is the same temp as the engine, now having never poked around before I dont know if this is normal. Do you think something has seized and the turbo isnt working hence no reading on the boost gauge? Chris.

[F1 LOTUS]

I wouldn't go poking around the turbo carelessly, they do get very hot, literally RED HOT, MUCH hotter than the engine
The problem with the boost pressure transducer is usually cured by simply removing the electrical connections, cleaning them and refitting them. Have you tried just doing this?

[Chris B]

Thanks for the reply, has anyone a photo of which wires need to be where as one terminal has nothing on it, while the other has 2 wires to it?? God ! and I thought Alfas had spaghetti wiring! I have sorted the nipple and wire arrangement with parts from a turbo specialist and had all the wires off and cleaned up the terminals with a wire brush, i am just not convinced they are in the correct place. Chris

[ESM]

One wire, the black one, should be connected to the mounting bracket and the other wire to the terminal.

[Chris B]

All sorted! Thanks Neil, I owe you a beer! Thanks for all of the above replies, it was a dodgy earth, I had just earthed it to the wrong place!