yfo866 Posted May 13, 2007 Posted May 13, 2007 I've had my S1 Elise since last september. I've used it during all sorts of weather. Even tried it in the snow. For those of you who have thought about doing the same, don't. No really DON'T. What grip???? Anyway, used it last thursday to go to work in because it was full of fuel and my citroen zx mundano needed diesel. Got to work, put on roof. It rained all afternoon and evening. Leaked inside again. It started and i drove home. Stopping at Upton Warren garage to buy a copy of Classic Car Weekly. Came out and car wouldn't start. After speaking to my cousin, a mechanic, who diagnosed me flooding it, he eventually came out to look at it and decided it wasn't flooded but had got rain in the dizzy and coil. I suppose looking back, he had got the diagnosis right, i thought he meant petrol. £50 later to get it recovered back to his workshop he had to change the dizzy cap, rotor arm and coil pack. And then his bill for £90! I had heard of this problem when i saw a chap on ebay selling modified grills to replace the standard ones which prevented water getting in. After emailing him he told me if i hadn't experienced it so far, i was one of the lucky ones who had a car that didn't suffer and wouldn't need his grills... Ha, famous last words. I'm sure there are others out there who have experienced this and fixed it. I'll put up with the leaking soft top, the fact i can tell if the coin i've driven over was heads or tails up, the fact i can't hear my radio over 50 mph, the lack of sun visor, manual windows, having to take up bendy excercises again to enable entry and exit, BUT i won't put up with a £140 bill every time it rains. Has anybody got any tips out there?
AL G Posted May 13, 2007 Posted May 13, 2007 I made a cover for mine last year ) Works a treat! Took it off for Croft yesterday as thought it may melt, car broke down on the way (fixed it myself by side of the road in the pissing rain - cleaned/sanded contacts inside of dizzy cap_ then put cover back on. It held up fine with the heat, engine cooling is good too as it's very thin ali Common problem mate. You could try high temp siliconing the dizzy back on or an S2 cam cover.
Stevie Posted May 13, 2007 Posted May 13, 2007 Spray the coil, distributer and leads with WD40. (WD = Water Displacement I am told) That may help stop it happening again. And carry a tiny can with you so if it does you can re-do it - especially after towel-drying all the parts. Stevie
fentuz Posted May 13, 2007 Posted May 13, 2007 I had the same.... before the winter, I changed the leads and the distributor cap.... Went thought winter without any issues.... I like the Idea of your ali custom made cover.... ..... I going to have a thought about it...
yfo866 Posted May 13, 2007 Author Posted May 13, 2007 Thanks guys. The really annoying thing is i've driven in torrential rain, left it parked up in the rain while i've been at work and not experienced a hiccup! Then while in the garage for no more than two minutes it decides it doesn't want to play. The worst thing about it, when my cousin came out to help me, he had his Ac Schnitzer 5 Series (i know, name dropper)ticking over to charge my battery. Without either one of us noticing , it got so bloody hot it blew off it's bottom hose. Now i have the condition of his engine on my mind. It would seem that so far, so good. So i'm keeping my fingers crossed. I think tomorrow after work i'll take some ally sheet, tin snips and have a look at making a cover. I'll put up with any amount of crap a car can throw at me. Just as long as it starts, stops, and returns more than 10 mpg. The leaks don't bother me as i have owned six landrovers. Until i bought a normal car i thought all cars leaked! Has anyone heard about when some engineers from Toyota went to visit Landrover after starting to build their own 4x4's? Landrover engineers asked them how they went about checking for leaks. The Japanese engineers said,"At the end of the shift on friday night, we lock a cat in one of the cars with all the doors and windows closed. When we come in on monday morning, if the cat is dead then we know we have no leaks." "Oh, we used to do that," said one of the Landrover engineers. "Why did you stop?"said the man from Toyota?" "The cat escaped!" replied the man from Landrover. I reckon my 1961 landie with the soft top was the one the cat escaped from! Stevie, i don't know how quickly when trying to start the car with water in the electrics buggers it up. My car had killed the coil pack. 'Spiked' is how my cousin described it. I was going to go to Curborough today, but when i saw the weather forcast, had visions of being recovered again so stayed in and watched the grand prix instead. Very good race! I read in one of my landrover magazines that the 'WD' in WD40 stands for 'War Department'. It was something that was developed for the M.O.D. and was the 40th.
Stevie Posted May 16, 2007 Posted May 16, 2007 Stevie, i don't know how quickly when trying to start the car with water in the electrics buggers it up. My car had killed the coil pack. 'Spiked' is how my cousin described it. I was going to go to Curborough today, but when i saw the weather forcast, had visions of being recovered again so stayed in and watched the grand prix instead. Very good race! I read in one of my landrover magazines that the 'WD' in WD40 stands for 'War Department'. It was something that was developed for the M.O.D. and was the 40th. My old fiesta lived for years without water killing the coil. I suppose it's just luck depeding on where the water gets. And the fact that my coil probably didnt actually make much electricity would have helped! Anyway, 10 points to me! WD40 Quote Michelle... "Even I knew that!"
Daniel Posted May 16, 2007 Posted May 16, 2007 Like someone else said, get a S2 cover, it needs modifying slightly but should do the job and can be got for £20 or £30 secondhand.
yfo866 Posted May 23, 2007 Author Posted May 23, 2007 Ok Stevie, i'll give you that one. Have a gold star too The really annoying thing though, is i've used the car and left it parked at work when it's really p****d down all day and no problems. Sometimes i've had wet sills, sometimes wet seats, but it has always started first turn of the key. For my own piece of mind i'm using the two plastic bag method at the moment. One to cover the dizzy, and one for the steering wheel. So i remember to take off the other one
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