Lotus Elan Central

by **TheBard** » Sun 10.12.2006, 07:18

OKay, I've avoided a project for so long as I didn't believe my daily drive was worthy of the title. However, I now realise it stops me from posting elsewere, and will let me keep a "to do" list along with the helpful hints of other owners, so here we go...

Story so far:
Car purchased on January 15, 2005 by a guy with no previous experience of "classic" or "exotic" car ownership. The dealer saw me coming and gouged me for about $5000 more than I should have paid and about double what it was worth, but no regrets, I got my Lotus before I was 30!
Immediate $3000 "rebuild" of engine, which I have since realised could have been fixed by a replacement of the CAS/HAL and a god service.
Two further expensive main dealer (only dealer) services, plus a lot of reading on LEC.
One request by dealer for $10,000 engine rebuild to solve CAS cam seal leak, resolved by LEC intervention for $0.60 O-ring.
Samco hoses ordered, not fitted, pending the FED specials, but very excited.
Marie's Roll Bar ordered, and pending delivery/topcoat/fitting, again very excited.
Both headlight motors rebuilt, and I only bled the once!
Both door window sliders replaced, driver's (left) window motor rebuilt.
Front and rear speaker upgrade to modern (non-rotted) equipment, removal of factory installed mouse in rear speakers.
Rear proportioning valves upgraded/replaced. (Trust me, you should not DIY the repair of this part, get the Esprit upgrade!)
At least one of every bulb replaced, including new tactics for the removal of a rusted third-stop. (Never be without a Dremel)
Replaced CV joint boot, and yes I scrubbed and used "Back to Black" to get the wheel arch liner clean.
Many hours spent tinkering with hood seals and hood fit.
Four new tyres, three dealer services, one non-service oil change and home service, and I think that covers it...

by **TheBard** » Sun 10.12.2006, 07:23

First heavy frost in Virginia last night, and so this morning I realised that the left most coolant pipe (lower right from driver's seat, rubber to metal pipe piece) was dripping slightly in extreme cold. So it'll be an early start tomorrow (avoid the Christmas rush) and I'll tighten the piece.

I believe this is one of the FED unique pieces, and so will await the extra hose. Having seen what age has done to a few of the others I know I've got to schedule a weekend to replace the whole lot after the FED specials arrive in January. Watch this space for photos...
Cheers,
Ian

by **TheBard** » Wed 13.12.2006, 04:01

After tightening the leak appears to have abated. Unfortunately, the last few days have been warmer, so no hard frost to test my theory that it was the cold that caused the leak. A check of the header/expansion tank showed it was still healthily just over the MAX line.

After the worries with the rear proportioning valves I also checked the brake fluid, and it looked beautifully clear after the full flush. The new fluids colour is so shockingly different I wonder if it had ever been changed in the last two years of my stewardship of the car. I'll have to check the service receipts and see what happened.

As is typical though, whenever you open the bonnet up you find something new to wonder about. The small plate on the engine which had initially led me to find the cam-shaft blanking plate leak was again very slightly slick. So either my O-ring wasn't quite right, or something else may be seeping slightly. No serious concern yet though as the oil level remains healthy.

Last off, I really should wash her down this weekend. The rear is looking a little greasy and sooty around the exhaust. Again this is no real worry as she is running strong, and smooth, has no smoke on startup, or at any other time, isn't losing oil, and has no warning lights with all gauges reading normal. Anyway, she's always been a bit dirty after a few days hard driving since I cleaned the cat out.

by **Aurora40** » Mon 18.12.2006, 23:23

TheBard wrote:Last off, I really should wash her down this weekend. The rear is looking a little greasy and sooty around the exhaust. Again this is no real worry as she is running strong, and smooth, has no smoke on startup, or at any other time, isn't losing oil, and has no warning lights with all gauges reading normal. Anyway, she's always been a bit dirty after a few days hard driving since I cleaned the cat out.

Two cents... If it's just the whole back of the car that gets dirty, this seems to be more common on sports cars. Not sure if it's because they are lower to the ground, the tires are less shielded (or wider) or what? But the back of my car gets dusty 5 minutes after washing it. Our other cars don't do that.

If it's soot just around the tailpipe, it sounds like your car is running rich. Eventually that can foul the plugs, possibly foul/plug up the remaining cat and possibly the O2. It's not really the end of the world, but better to have it running just right than rich. Rich at part throttle might indicate a bad O2, as otherwise it ought to compensate. If you tend to drive with your right foot to the carpet a lot, maybe it's just rich at WOT. A possible thing to check would be the fuel pressure regulator and any associated vacuum hose?

You could always try accelerating away from someone at WOT, and have them watch for smoke. Sometimes it'll be rich enough to smoke, but not smoke so much that the driver can see it. I'd guess a little black smoke is nothing to worry about, it's pretty common for performance cars at WOT.

by **TheBard** » Tue 19.12.2006, 05:08

Hmmm, O2 sensor could be a good place to start, but she is running well right now. It will be a good excuse for us to get Elanscan up and running again in the new year mate!
As for the amount of smoke, I hadn't washed it before the karting Sunday and as nobody mentioned it then I haven't washed it since either

Marie's rollbar arrived last Thursday, and is now neatly sprayed matte black and curing in the workshop/laundry room prior to fitting. The rain predicted for over the Christmas weekend might hold things up, but gives me time to order in a fuel filter to swap as the job gets done.

by **TheBard** » Sun 07.01.2007, 17:47

So had a longer than usual drive today, and did my normal "out for the day" pre-drive checks. After the normal tyre pressures, brake fluid, oil all being okay, I decided to check the coolant level.
At this point I will say the car had sat parked up overnight and was cold. As I started to loosen the cap there was a definite hiss of pressure, and bubbles blowing back into the tank. Now I'd guess that this isn't normal behavior as I'd have expected any pressure buildup to have reduced overnight. There was no crud or contamination visible in the fluid/tank, but a quick check on LEC found;

Don't want to alarm you but a leak in my system, emanating from left hand side of the rad, was the first indication of a head gasket failure. It transpired that combustion gasses were passing from the cylinder into the water jacket and pressurising the system beyond its capacity, forcing coolant out. There were no other apparent signs, oil or water contamination other than the release of pressure when the header tank cap was released. Hope yours is a more straight forward explanation!

I've noticed I've had a similar leak, with no noticeable lowering of fluid in the tank a couple of times a week for the last month or so. So time to start working my way through the list here LEC/Problems/Bubbling_Coolant

by **TheBard** » Sat 20.01.2007, 18:54

Well time has passed, and after multiple checks I've been unable to repeat the previous hissing... so now I reckon it was just some air trapped in the system from when I swapped a hose just before Christmas. As all seems well I'm not going to tempt fate by messing with it. :roll:

In other news the clear coat failure on the spoiler and coffin lid continues. Careful treatment and care has slowed down the creep, but there is nothing I can do apart from accept that I'll need a respray sooner or later.

On the to-do list:
#1. Fit Marie's roll bar.
#2. Fit new louder air-horn to allow me to scare small children and 18 wheelers.
#3. Wash the car when it warms up a bit outside!

by **lotusgirlmarie** » Sat 20.01.2007, 19:01

So ya still hacen't fitted the bar..... shame on you

by **Ekapol** » Tue 23.01.2007, 04:37

TheBard wrote:
On the to-do list:
#1. Fit Marie's roll bar.
#2. Fit new louder air-horn to allow me to scare small children and 18 wheelers.
#3. Wash the car when it warms up a bit outside!

On Stripey list.
#1 Done. Easy job for me watching Marie did all the hard work under the car :oops:

#2 Done. Easy job but took me a while cleaning under the inner liner.. Still scare of those 18 wheelers.
#3 Done. Pretty cold yesterday but the wheels are shiny now :-D

Funny 3 done, 4 more popped up on the list ;-)

by **TheBard** » Sat 10.02.2007, 01:24

Driving home this evening I had to brake sharply when an SUV dived in front of me and the Elan gave a worrying tug to the right. Instantly my mind is filled with dread at the thought of more expensive proportioning valve worries. So I find a clear, empty straight stretch of road and stomp again. Sure enough the car gives a tug right and I hear a squeek from a slipping tyre. Okay thinks I, drive on home and try not to worry about it.

At home I walk around the car feeling the wheels, the proportioning valve was found via the leak, but would also increase the heat of the right rear after some spirited braking. So around the car I walked...

Left rear (from driver's seat), cool to touch as expected.
Right rear, same as the left.
Right front, ouch! Damn me that thing is hot.
Left front, warm, but barely a third as warm as the right front.

So it looks like the right front pads had been sticking, I'd kind of guessed this when bleeding the brakes after dealing with the proportioning valve issues, and have already ordered a slider kit and have it waiting for me in England. Fortuitously my brother will be flying over in two weeks time and I'll get him to bring the bits with him. Until then I'll whip the wheel off and give the area a clean, but only after I've risen early to watch the 6 Nations games in a bar in Alexandria tomorrow.... actually might just wrap the car up until Sunday...

P.S. Marie, I've still not fitted the bar, terrible I know, but I'll get there as soon as it is warm enough to get outside and work on the car.

Oh, and I washed the car last weekend, and had to give up when I realised the rinsed water was freezing on the street, and if I didn't dry a panel the second I did it the body ended up covered in a film of ice too! Then Tuesdays snow and the salted roads meant my three tone pink (Calypso red honest) ended up a hazy white!

by **Paul.P** » Sat 10.02.2007, 07:59

Sounds like you've been having fun Ian !, keep the good work up .

by **TheBard** » Sun 11.02.2007, 19:39

Would you say the caliper was seized if you can barely turn the wheel by hand, and when a helper pumps the brakes you see next to no movement at all. If so, boy am I in trouble

After an hour with brake degreaser, and dripping anti-sieze onto the sliders I'd say things are tighter now than when we started which doesn't bode well. Now I'm off to check the cross-reference list for hints. :roll:

**** UPDATE ****

Fortunately my tool kit includes a neighbour who used to be a mechanic, and with his experience and willingness to work on something 'new' we rapidly had the caliper off, cleaned up, and the seized slider working again. The upper of the two sliders had jammed solid and took some gentle convincing to get free, but all cleaned up and greased later and we've just returned from a successful test drive. All set for the drive to work on Monday morning :-D

Makes a change starting a job on the Elan Sunday lunchtime and finishing the same afternoon! :lol:

by **Doug** » Mon 12.02.2007, 03:59

sounds like the fix you needed.

if you are keeping the OE front calipers then stock up on the slider kit seals and grease kit from Lotus!

by **TheBard** » Mon 12.02.2007, 13:56

True words Doug, and the funny thing is I'd bought some on the last sales list from Lotus, and had already arranged for my brother to carry them over in two weeks time.

Running on my minimal experience/minimal budget I think I'll be keeping the brakes stock for now, but will be investing in some better pads after I've finished reading the "brakes section".

Cheers,
Ian

by **TheBard** » Mon 19.02.2007, 18:36

The bugger started sticking again on the drive in to the office this morning. Bloody typical...

Ah well, my little brother visits from the UK on Friday and has a new set and seals already packed in his luggage!

Looks like I know what we'll be doing on Sunday!

by **Doug** » Mon 19.02.2007, 19:14

c'mon, you know what you really need . . . :smt064

by **TheBard** » Sun 01.04.2007, 23:41

Well to confound Doug, and avoid the cost of a brake upgrades I went and collected a whole heap of Halfrads parts on my trip back home. I'd also taken advantages of RD's stock sell off to get a set of nice Tech C Mintex pads.

With the car pulling noticeably to the right under anything other than the lightest braking I knew it was time to even out the pads by replacing the previously worn down pads on the stuck right slider. It had to be done if my approaches under braking were ever going to stop looking like a stone skipping across a pond in a series of arcs.

Pad replacement went well, and all the parts that had to come apart did. They all cleaned up well, and they all went back together with only an expected level of encouragement. It was all too easy...

The drive home from working on the brakes (I have no garage to roped in a buddy to lend a hand and a warm work space) involved a stretch on the Dulles Toll Road/Greenway/Route 267 (why can't they just name their roads once over here?). So as I approach the toll I wind down the window, all seems well. As I pass though, I wind the window back up, and the motor doesn't stop turning over when the window reaches the top. It stops when I remove my finger from the button, but when I press for it to go down the window doesn't move although I hear the motor turning.

Get home, swear at the car and dismantle the door. Turns out the plate that covers the window cable on its circular gear has lost the screw that holds the plate down, forcing the geared cog against the motor. Then as the window has slid down during the drive it has bent said plate at a slight angle.

So now I know I'll be car-pooling with Laura again for the first couple of days this week, then removing the damn motor and window "bow" cleaning and regreasing and then re-securing that plate! I am sure these cars know when we're looking forward to just enjoying driving them for a bit!

Oh, and the pad replacement appears to have worked, the car didn't pull at all on the way home. However I want to bed in the pads before doing any serious testing. The window repair will be a higher priority too...

Ekapol, wanna come and rebuild another window motor? :wink:

by **Ekapol** » Mon 02.04.2007, 18:35

I've just done my pads replacing/upgrading too. A while back I had the car pulling to one side under harder breaking but that was because the brake fluids were leaking from the left steel hose. (around banjo joint).

TheBard wrote:Get home, swear at the car and dismantle the door. Turns out the plate that covers the window cable on its circular gear has lost the screw.

Slowly reading through your writing... I'm guessing along the way, heart accelerating... faster breathing. I knew it

That the same reason that I had to rebuild my right many times. That screw doesn't really want to hold on to the thread once you open the Pandora box

The window repair will be a higher priority too...

Yep, amazing how high priority they are in our cars :evil:

Your replies helped me a lot too.

Ekapol, wanna come and rebuild another window motor?

Yikes! Just get a Peugeot one like what I did in another thread. Cheaper, easier, painless / no greasy hands, been working just fine for my car since then. :smt023

HERE

by **TheBard** » Mon 02.04.2007, 20:14

Thanks for that Ekapol, now I know I'm in for a world of pain again. Did you use the Peugot winder/cable housing, or was it just the motor you needed?

My motor is fine, but the spool winder housing popped open just as you described. I'm wondering if I can drill it right through and use a bolt instead of the implausibly small screw. That way I can ensure a solid fastening.

I'll keep you all updated.

Cheers,
Ian

by **Doug** » Mon 02.04.2007, 21:06

dude, You should order a Pug part and give Ekapol a call to go over the nuances if you want to get it done ASAP!

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