Dear Wife. Gone to garage. Back in Spring

[MrWill]

The weather has been so spiteful I've decided it's time to start the other enjoyable part of Lotus ownership: Winter fettling. 

Before next year:

I'll be sending the stack control unit off to see if it is the cause of a constant fog light tell tale, and repair as necessary. 

Will try some pagid rs4-2 on the front to replace the mintex 1155.  Nothing wrong with the mintex just wondering what all the fuss is about re the pagids and if they are worth twice the price? 

Going to clean and por15 clear coat the footwells

While the seats are out an alloy 48ltr fuel tank is going in.

After new year there's what I hope will be a well judged mems3 compatible, reliable, tractable engine upgrade. Like the standard engine but just a little bit more. Many a good car has been ruined in the pursuit of POWER! So hopefully hit the goldilock spot. If it ruins the car/driving experience I'll just reverse some of the work. 

Anyone else up to any fettling over the winter; or like Ray will you still be out in all weather's maximising drive-time? 

MrWill 

[Broadside]

I'm hoping to use mine a bit more yet if the rain ever stops! I need to replace/upgrade my gear cables, find an annoying squeak that occurs on acceleration, have the undertrays off and service/check over/clean.

I thought the fuel tank was a pretty involved job? mine sometimes smells a bit petroly when I've filled up which always gets me a bit paranoid, but then again so does the coolant smell, the squeak, the temperature guage....................😂

[Phil S1]

The fuel breather hose is prone to perishing and causing a fuel smell. A tell-tale sign is if the petrol cap no longer hisses when you remove it at the pumps.

[MrWill]

21 hours ago, Broadside said:

I'm hoping to use mine a bit more yet if the rain ever stops! I need to replace/upgrade my gear cables, find an annoying squeak that occurs on acceleration, have the undertrays off and service/check over/clean.

I thought the fuel tank was a pretty involved job? mine sometimes smells a bit petroly when I've filled up which always gets me a bit paranoid, but then again so does the coolant smell, the squeak, the temperature guage....................😂

If you are removing your undertray and then take both seats out when replacing your cables you'd be half way to replacing your fuel tank.  Much easier than trying to find a squeak!  😉

[Broadside]

1 hour ago, MrWill said:

If you are removing your undertray and then take both seats out when replacing your cables you'd be half way to replacing your fuel tank.  Much easier than trying to find a squeak!  😉

It's so easy to talk yourself into 'needing' to do these jobs! 😁

[Broadside]

11 hours ago, Phil S1 said:

The fuel breather hose is prone to perishing and causing a fuel smell. A tell-tale sign is if the petrol cap no longer hisses when you remove it at the pumps.

Thanks for that info, I will certainly check that 👍

[Lithopsian]

Dropping the petrol tank isn't especially hard, but you'll need to disconnect the gear cables, throttle cable, and handbrake cables, and get the car high enough to clear the tank and in particular the spigot for the filler.  Be prepared to slice your hand up in the laughably named access hatch behind the passenger seat.

None of which is necessary just to replace a breather hose, or even the main filler hose.  You can get a decent look at them through the wheel arch, and even replace them through there with some swearing.  The hoses do tend to weld themselves on and the replacements are a tight fit. and it is hard to get full force on them reaching up from the wheel arch.

[Broadside]

On 08/10/2019 at 21:34, Lithopsian said:

Dropping the petrol tank isn't especially hard, but you'll need to disconnect the gear cables, throttle cable, and handbrake cables, and get the car high enough to clear the tank and in particular the spigot for the filler.  Be prepared to slice your hand up in the laughably named access hatch behind the passenger seat.

None of which is necessary just to replace a breather hose, or even the main filler hose.  You can get a decent look at them through the wheel arch, and even replace them through there with some swearing.  The hoses do tend to weld themselves on and the replacements are a tight fit. and it is hard to get full force on them reaching up from the wheel arch.

I'll be having the floors off and getting it on the lift for a good check over during the winter, so I'll have a good look at the tank/hoses then.

[MrWill]

12 hours ago, Broadside said:

I'll be having the floors off and getting it on the lift for a good check over👻during the winter, so I'll have a good look at the tank/hoses then.

It's quite obvious that the annoying squeak you were looking was actually the old fuel tank. If you listened carefully I bet it sounded like 'change me... Change me...' 👻

[Alex B]

Good luck with the fettling!

Been out in mine this afternoon lovely weather for it.

[Broadside]

On 12/10/2019 at 08:25, MrWill said:

It's quite obvious that the annoying squeak you were looking was actually the old fuel tank. If you listened carefully I bet it sounded like 'change me... Change me...' 👻

😣😖

[Broadside]

21 hours ago, Alex B said:

Good luck with the fettling!

Been out in mine this afternoon lovely weather for it.

Thanks, its not going away yet, I plan to get out again before the salt spreading starts if it ever stops raining. Unfortunately I was working yesterday when it was sunny (in Castle Donington ironically!)

[MrWill]

Still trying to sort the Fog light tell tale consrantly on.

After having the lights module bench tested (all fine) I sent my stack unit away to 213 performance  (ex Stack employees) for testing. Hopefully hear back soon.

I did buy a fog lights relay from Elise parts advertised as fitting my car but I'm  damned if I  can see this in the wiring diagram for the car. Does anone know for certain if the S2 has a separate fog relay?

Anyway with lights module and stack unit out, the jobs started to choose themselves: I decided I would take the dash out get it and the steering wheel boss recovered - then tidy up the wiring and clean / protect / lubricate everything else. No one will see it..but I'll know it's pristine under there.

Some of the dashboard removal guides  out yhere are helpful but could do with a few more details here and there, which I may record and provide in the tech section when I put it all back together. 

[Lithopsian]

I just noticed that nobody replied to this.  Maybe you fixed the fog light tell-tale already?

On late S1s, the fog module acts as a sort of latching relay so that the rear fog light automatically goes out and stays out once the headlamps are switched off.  More of a pain than a help since the switch stays pressed in and the fog light can only be turned back on by pressing it twice.  Early S1s didn't have a module at all, just came on and went off directly from the switch so long as the headlamps were also on.  The telltale is on the switch itself.

I thought all S2s had a switch pack and no fog module, but maybe some early S2s might still have had the module?  Any module would be located right behind the switches, and I think you'd have found it.  I think I can see the switch pack in your photos, small black box with loads of wiring from one side.  The wiring to the instrument telltale is straight from the same wire that powers the foglamp itself, not much to go wrong.  There shouldn't be any voltage on it unless the foglamp is on.  Did you ever check if the foglamp was also permanently on?  If not then it seems like a fault inside the instrument cluster rather than the switch or lamp wiring.

[MrWill]

On 01/01/2020 at 15:37, Lithopsian said:

I just noticed that nobody replied to this.  Maybe you fixed the fog light tell-tale already?

On late S1s, the fog module acts as a sort of latching relay so that the rear fog light automatically goes out and stays out once the headlamps are switched off.  More of a pain than a help since the switch stays pressed in and the fog light can only be turned back on by pressing it twice.  Early S1s didn't have a module at all, just came on and went off directly from the switch so long as the headlamps were also on.  The telltale is on the switch itself.

I thought all S2s had a switch pack and no fog module, but maybe some early S2s might still have had the module?  Any module would be located right behind the switches, and I think you'd have found it.  I think I can see the switch pack in your photos, small black box with loads of wiring from one side.  The wiring to the instrument telltale is straight from the same wire that powers the foglamp itself, not much to go wrong.  There shouldn't be any voltage on it unless the foglamp is on.  Did you ever check if the foglamp was also permanently on?  If not then it seems like a fault inside the instrument cluster rather than the switch or lamp wiring.

Hi Lithopsian

Happy New Year!

Thanks for taking pity my lonely post  After all that messing around getting the stack and the lights module bench tested, it turned out to the the Eliseparts LED lights.  So much for plug and play.  When I dug the OEM lights out and plugged in -  everything worked perfectly!   I suspect that the circuit needs/expects the resistance of the normal bulbs to function properly so I'm going take the LED fog unit out and insert a resistor into its wiring to try and replicate the normal bulb resistance.  If that doesn't work it's back to OEM units.

While messing around hard-wiring in a dash-cam I managed to break that flimsy bit of plastic which holds the interior light. It's not for being repaired so just waiting for some sheet aluminium to arrive so I can cut out a replacement.  Just frustrated it's delayed me putting the dash back in by another week.  Not that it should matter; We've some building work starting in a few  weeks which will block the car for a further 14 weeks! 

Best wishes

Will