angliamotorsport
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 09:16 AM |
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lotus elise
Hi, does anyone have any experience of the elise s1 as I'm thinking of selling my van diemen multisport and replacing it with an elise.
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beaver34
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 09:22 AM |
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not an elise but i have a vx220 which is similar
what do you want to know? i looked at elises before buying the vx
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angliamotorsport
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 09:29 AM |
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lotus elise
Thanks for reply.
What I should look for eg, if there are any faults that are specific to the elise, well for this purpose forget the body, I'm thinking chassis,
running gear, steering, brakes, engine, K series I'm aware of the head problems etc.
One I am going to look at has been used for some track days and has upgraded brakes and engine, head work done and upgrades gaskets etc. My intended
use would be road, sprints and some hillclimbs.
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marmot0
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 09:31 AM |
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Check for corrosion under the drivers mat and around the suspension pick up points, they can corrode as steel meets ally,
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loggyboy
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 09:50 AM |
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My dad has an s1, and there's lots of bits to look for. Seloc is a good source.
Mistral Motorsport
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emwmarine
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 09:59 AM |
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You want to read this:
http://wiki.seloc.org/a/SELOC_TechWiki
I had a tuned S1 for many years. Didn't lose a penny on it - but spent a lot on upgrades.
Fantastic cars. Light fast and agile. Cheap to run and reliable. The S1 is from 8k - 11k the s2 is from 12k upwards.
Watch out for previous crashes as the chassis cant be repaired (legally).
Building a Dax Rush.
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scudderfish
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 10:42 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by emwmarine
Watch out for previous crashes as the chassis cant be repaired (legally).
I went off a roundabout with mine and bounced over the kerb badly. This cracked the glue in a joint near the rear suspension mount and that was
enough to require a new chassis. As I also put holes in the front and rear clams, the car went back to Hethel, they took the engine and interior out
of it and basically built me a new car.
SELOC has a lot of good info, but is nowhere near as friendly as this place.
Regards,
Dave
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rodgling
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 11:00 AM |
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I had one, brilliant car. Not the most comfy but a lot of fun to drive. Quite awkward to work on due to lack of space/access though.
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Dooey99
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 04:14 PM |
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i work for a lotus race team,
things id look at...
-compression test
-sniff test on the header tank
-pressure test on coolant system
-check the heater unit (just behind the rad in front) they are prone for the terminals on the relay rusting and ruining the heater
-check all the arms as they suffer from really bad rust (the earlier original s1 arms the least likely to rust as they are coated in better more
expensive stuff
-check the upper front arm mounts
all in all there good cars as long as they are well maintained and have had money spent on them as and when they need it, everyone moans about k
series head gaskets but in our race cars that are getting constanlty thrashed to the limit we have never had a head gasket blowing, we use silicone
gaskets which are not what rover originally used when building the engines but most places put them in if they do get a problem
Less weight more speed, more power more speed
If in doubt, give it a clout
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Dooey99
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 04:14 PM |
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i work for a lotus race team,
things id look at...
-compression test
-sniff test on the header tank
-pressure test on coolant system
-check the heater unit (just behind the rad in front) they are prone for the terminals on the relay rusting and ruining the heater
-check all the arms as they suffer from really bad rust (the earlier original s1 arms the least likely to rust as they are coated in better more
expensive stuff
-check the upper front arm mounts
all in all there good cars as long as they are well maintained and have had money spent on them as and when they need it, everyone moans about k
series head gaskets but in our race cars that are getting constanlty thrashed to the limit we have never had a head gasket blowing, we use silicone
gaskets which are not what rover originally used when building the engines but most places put them in if they do get a problem
Less weight more speed, more power more speed
If in doubt, give it a clout
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Nickctp
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 04:21 PM |
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Hiya,
I have had a couple of elises - they are great great cars. There are a few things to look for though so be wary.
. Check the floor pans under the mats in the foot wells, they did a recall on all elises (a foc repair) as the glue that bonded the mats to the floor
corroded the ally, if they are still glued down it's about 1k to fix now. If the repair has not been done make sure that the mats have been
unglued and the panels washed with a chemical cleaner to avoid further corrosion.
. The biggest problem with the s1's is the head gasket going (especially the k series). Ensure it HAS been replaced by a lotus specialist with
the multi layer gasket and steel dowls fitted - If the car has done over 30k it is a must.
. The original suspension that was fitted is P**s poor, the most common upgrade is the s2 Bilstein suspension (yellow not red). More serious drivers
will have fitted the GAZ gold shocks or the Nitrons (Nitrons are seriously hot on the elise so big plus if fitted)
. Lotus factory fitted plastic end caps on the rad which WILL split over time. Look for one that has had an Alloy upgrade or at least had a new
radiator fitted.
Breaks, again the standard are pi** poor so look for one that has had at least EBC turbo grooved discs and green stuff pads, if your doing track days
- best option for the S1 is Ally belled discs and pagid pads - Cant go wrong.
. They hold their price VERY well now so be extra cautious of cheap ones. Having said this you can get a CAT D for a real steal now. But make sure
it's been repaired by a specialist.
What else would you like to know? U2U me or carry on this thread if you need more info. As people have said - Seloc will tell you everything you need
to know and they are all a great bunch. 9 times out of 10 an s1 owner is registered there so you can pretty much always get the history of the car.
If it's not to soon - I have one for sale right now for a friend. It has everything you will want in an s1. is Azure blue in colour and he is
letting it go for a great price. It has all the track day upgrades, close ratio box, ported and polished head, 52mm throttle bodys etc. It's not
gone on the market yet as he only picked up his new exige today so if you may be interested, get in touch and I will put you in touch with him.
Cheers
Nick
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angliamotorsport
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 05:27 PM |
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Lotus elise
Thanks guys, lots of good information, also have looked at seloc, information in abundance.
Just need to sell the Multisport now.
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britishtrident
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| posted on 16/3/13 at 07:13 PM |
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The real truth about K series head gaskets.
Around about 1993 rover revised the K series block to an open deck design, the design was and is sound but combined with the later increase in
capacity to 1600 and 1800 and the installation into other vehicles particularly the MGF, Elise and Freelander it highlighted problems with the
head gasket and some of the parts of the cooling systems.
Contrary to what another poster has written the original Payne cylinder head gasket used by Rover the silicone beaded aluminium gasket, the weakness
of this gasket is the silicone tracks eventually after X number of cold start cycles detach and weep oil into the coolant and coolant into
the oil. This gasket tends to have a finite life in terms of cold start cycles but is more forgiving of out of tolerance cylinder liner heights than
the later MLS gasket.
The later gasket is the Freelander MLS multi-layer gasket in normal tintop use this will last a lot more cold start cycles than the earlier type.
When this gasket was introduced Ford specified it should only be used in conjunction with a revised bottom end oil ladder, in practice this has been
shown not to be essential.
Contrary to some published information the revised oil ladder is not a stronger design however it made of a heat treated light alloy that is more
resistant to stress relaxation (low temperature creep) over time, that is the tension in the cylinder head bolts doesn’t reduce so much over a period
of time. Essentially this gasket is a four cylinder version of the gasket used to solve the Rover 800 KV6 gasket problem.
There are at least two other gaskets types around but I don't want to add to the confusion.
Steel dowels replace the plastic ones from around 1999 and are supplied with new head gaskets as a result I haven't encountered plastic
dowels in K series for nearly a decade. The change to stainless steel dowels was a measure to reduce "head shuffle" during cold start
cycles.
Part of the problem with cold start cycles is the location of the original thermostat in the cold side of the cooling system. The reason for this
was to provide a quicker warm up for fuel economy and emissions reason the downside was it increased the differential expansion between the
cylinder head and block.
Towards the end of UK production MG-Rover deleted the original thermostat introduced an external thermostat sometimes called the PRT or PRRT
(actually a Landrover Discovery Tdi part) this greatly increased the by-pass flow during warm up and during warm up opens under flow pressure to
allow flow through the rad allowing a more even spread of heat through the block and head. Using 20mm bore hose for the by-pass flow I have converted
a number of R75s to this type thermostat at minimal cost with great success.
With a rear engined car I would suggest fitting a PRRT in the front compartment.
The another problem that is very common is minor water leaks from the corners of the inlet manifold gasket and the joints in cooling system pipe
work particularly at the rear of the water pump. Rover revised the gasket used with the plastic inlet manifold in 1998 and the gasket should be
renewed whenever cylinder head work is carried out, it also pays to renew the nuts and use extra thick washers under the nuts to avoid them becoming
thread bound.
Leaks in the pipe work at the water pump are usually down to the support bolts for water pump inlet tube being left off by lazy mechanics.
With the rear engine cars bleeding out airlocks is going to be even more essentdial than the FWD cars.
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
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angliamotorsport
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| posted on 17/3/13 at 09:10 AM |
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lotus elise
Thank you British Trident, I've got a headache now, lol.
So if this particular elise has not had anything done cooling wise, you think it would be a good idea to fit the Discovery part somewhere in the front
of the car with long hoses back to the block.... bleeding problems, maybe introduce a bleed valve somewhere?
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Mark Allanson
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| posted on 17/3/13 at 11:39 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by emwmarine
Watch out for previous crashes as the chassis cant be repaired (legally).
Strangely there are no laws on what can and cannot be repaired, if you repair an Elise chassis, you are not going to be arrested, it is that Lotus do
not recommend that one is repaired.
It is possible to repair the Elise chassis, but is such an involved process, it is rarely worth it.
If you can keep you head, whilst all others around you are losing theirs, you are not fully aware of the situation
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britishtrident
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| posted on 17/3/13 at 03:25 PM |
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The Landrover thermostat is shown in this ebay ad.
Land Rover Defender TD5 Thermostat PEM100990 | eBay
There are a confusing number of home brewed solutions to fitting this thermostat but basically the procedure is to take most of the guts out of
the original thermostat leaving only the outer ring (to provide some restriction) then cut the hose leading to the water pump inlet and
insert the external into it. Cut the hose leading to the top of the rad insert a T piece into and then connect the side branch of this to the
by-pass spigot on the external thermostat.
http://www.the-t-bar.com/en/forum/9-mgf-tf-pitstop/48707-front-end-prrt-mod
There is an alternative simpler option of simply taking the original thermostat and drilling a couple of 2 mm holes in it. This has the advantages of
making the thermostat respond quicker and allows air to bleed through the system more easily the downside is that the coolant takes longer to reach
working temperature.
Any time the coolant is topped up after a significant drop on K series engines the bleeders should be opened to prevent airlocking
[Edited on 17/3/13 by britishtrident]
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
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