Skizzer’s Elite: Lotushite

[Guest Hooli]

God speed old bean.

[garethj]

The journey needs a bit of jeopardy to raise the tension, a bit like on these TV cookery shows when they have the clock counting down because if the pudding is 5 seconds late the world will come to an end.

 

For reference, I was in a meeting yesterday where one person couldn't make it as their new car broke down the day before and the dealer's replacement car wasn't available.  People get stuck no matter what precautions they take.  I admit that you're stacking the odds a bit in a Lotus that's only been driven for 3 days in the last 10 years, but you can do it!

[danthecapriman]

Oh dear!

Still, I suppose on the other hand if something screws up causing ftp it's likely to be something stupid on such an old car...

Do these cars have any manual over ride for the headlights? Some similar designs can be locked or manually wound in the up position. Doesn't look as cool admittedly but at least you can use lights.

 

I'm in the parish (sort of!) if you really get stuck down here with a fully operational Volvo if you get desperate!

[oldcars]

All my lights went off one night in the Rialto. All interior dials the works. Luckly i was only about a mile from the house. The switch on the dash was the issue. It was all gummed up. Took it to bits and cleaned up the contacts and all was good.

[Talbot]

This thread is several kinds of epic!  Using one of these over winter is brave, and using one for a business journey is just the best.  I thought I was being brave and adventureous using a 1984 CX for business journeys a few years back, but this is another level!

 

I was considering a very cheap one of these just under 20 years ago, as not only was it sub-£500, but astoundingly the insurance costs for me were not expensive.

 

Bottled it though, didn't think I had the skillz to maintain one.   Had the money then but no skillz.  Got the skillz now but no spare money.  Life is a bastard.

[Skizzer]

Good news, I made it down to the New Forest successfully, and close enough to on time. I may still get fired, but at least not for being late and making rash transportation choices.

 

Nothing else broke, although the wiper stalk gets more random when there’s lots of rain. The self-parking sometimes works now, and sometimes there’s an intermittent wipe setting but other times not.

 

I can see the dashboard having to come out for some comprehensive rewiring before I do too many more winter trips.

 

Our sales director thinks it looks like something Penelope Pitstop would drive. I say it looks like what James Bond would drive if he retired and set up a scaffolding and plant hire business.

[Skizzer]

Oh dear!

Still, I suppose on the other hand if something screws up causing ftp it's likely to be something stupid on such an old car...

Do these cars have any manual over ride for the headlights? Some similar designs can be locked or manually wound in the up position. Doesn't look as cool admittedly but at least you can use lights.

I'm in the parish (sort of!) if you really get stuck down here with a fully operational Volvo if you get desperate!

Thanks for the offer Dan, that’s very decent of you. Reckon I’ll be ok: I think it’s just the switch - the vacuum is fine as the lights stay down when driving. They aren’t stuck because they spring up again when parked.

 

I’ll probably just travel home in daylight on Saturday instead of tomorrow night, unless by some miracle I manage to fix it. This is unlikely as I don’t have many tools with me, and car electrics aren’t my strong point.

[danthecapriman]

Glad you made it and didn't get fired!! Always a bonus!

[inconsistant]

What would Colin say?

 

 

 

[richardmorris]

Next time it happens I’m at J3 of the m3 with a premier inn at the top of the drive and lots of tools and alcohol at the bottom.

[Skizzer]

Yay, Lotus got me home again yesterday - so a round trip of about 450-odd miles. My boss insisted I go home early, after the important bits of the meeting, so that I could do the trip in daylight. Of course, that didn't quite work - I got as far as the standard Newport traffic jam before it got dark, and did the last 50 miles on sidelights by tailgating vans and trucks to stay out of trouble, and being very careful of stuff coming off the motorway on-slips.

 

From Port Talbot to my house is reasonably well lit all the way, and dual carriageway apart from the last half mile, so actually fairly low risk. Anyway, no nuns or kittens died and I didn't even get flashed so no harm done.

 

Engine, cooling system, running gear (apart from the noisy diff), steering, brakes - so all the parts that LotusBits touched - are all working very happily. The temperature gauge crept up a bit in very heavy traffic, but dropped again as soon as we moved a bit more so I think that's fine. The oil pressure also drops but recovers with revs - this is apparently normal and can be helped with the addition of an oil cooler, which some cars have but mine doesn't. This appears to be a function of whether Hethel had them in stock at the time of build.

 

So the emerging list of things to do next:

- dash out, rectify loom butchery and some unseemly rattles;

- replace diff with a refurbed one, replace propshaft/gearbox seal;

- deal with any contamination of rear drums due to diff oil leak;

- the speedo cable snapped again - probably needs a new drive?

- sort out heater ducting and vacuum leak. It does demist the screen fairly successfully, so I think the heater box is ok (if a bit tired);

- it always takes five goes to start from cold. Nothing on first two tries, a splutter on the third, fires then stalls on the fourth, starts and idles on the fifth. Feels like it takes a long time to get fuel through. Choke cable? Cold start valve? Weak fuel pump?

- new door mirrors!

 

I'd also like it to look slightly less shit. I will try mopping it I think, but it really wants a respray in a more suitable colour. I think - but will check with Lotus - that it was originally Lagoon Blue, a very nice late 70s metallic like this:

 

[Skizzer]

Also, satnav took us off-roading as I attempted to avoid the jams in the centre of Bath:

 

The Lotus is fine at rallying - I simply applied my rudimentary skills from a course I did a few years ago in a Mk2 Escort.

 

Also, separately, some aluminium window trim fell off, I think on the M3:

 

 

I heard a clang but thought I’d just run over something - I guess it was this. I hope it didn’t do any damage to anything/anyone - as an ex-biker I hate debris in the road. Retrieval on the morning motorway rush would have been impossible anyway, even if I hadn’t been 100-odd miles away before I realised.

[Skizzer]

Also, separately, some aluminium window trim fell off, I think on the M3

Fortuitously, and probably not coincidentally, the car came with a spare piece of that trim:

 

 

I haven’t fitted it yet as I suspect the problem lies with the trim clips, and I don’t want it happening again.

 

My attempt to fix the light switch met with predictable lack of success. I did manage to remove the central switch panel, and also to lose the screws that attach it down inside the bowels of the car somewhere. Their positioning appears to have been designed specifically to make this unavoidable.

[320touring]

Superb work using this for work!

 

An inspiration to us all:)

[Asimo]

The Lotus Elite C-pillar: one of my favourite bits of car design and the main reason why a (blue) Elite has been on the list since 1974.

 

 

(I hope the stain is not a leaking filler cap btw)

[egg]

I think we can safely say that Skizzer was the only person in the whole world driving a Lotus Elite to work this week, unless there is stash in Dubai or something.

[Skizzer]

(I hope the stain is not a leaking filler cap btw)

It is, sort of. Series 1s (like mine) have a standard feature whereby petrol sloshes out of the filler caps when you go round corners if the tank's over half full. They put a baffle or something in to the filler necks on the S2s to cure it.

 

There are filler caps on both sides, for convenience, but only one tank. The one in that photo doesn't seem to want to unlock though.

[BorniteIdentity]

I’ve made an executive decision; something I’m grossly under qualified and over inebriated for.

 

If you can run about in this long distance, then the Sierra can cart me about more than it does.

 

I don’t know what I’m trying to save it from? It’s come this far being parked on the street and used every day.

 

Thanks for the enlightenment, Dalai Martin.

[richardmorris]

Not in the same league but my 23yr old merc did a quick and faultless 100 mile trip to oxford and back today m4 and a34 at more or less the speed limit. It was the oldest vehicle I spotted!

[Skizzer]

To be fair, I have just spent a few thousand pounds having it checked, recommissioned and serviced by a specialist (see list above), so I’m not being that brave.

 

The other thing is, there’s only so much to go wrong with a car like this. Still, I’d have been happier if my touring toolkit wasn’t trapped in the still-broken boot of the Rover SD1. I just had metric spanners, some screwdriver bits and a demisting pad.

[phil_lihp]

Yes, but in fairness, that's mostly what Lotus used to assemble it in the first place.  Except for the demister pad, that's a bit fancy.

 

Hats off for using it properly, cars are meant for driving after all!  

[Six-cylinder]

Guess what this Lotus has headlight pod issues. One raises as soon as the engine is shut off and the other creeps up in a couple of days.

 

The car is at my very favourite garage where the Gamma is, they hate customers like me and the Lotus owner!

[richardmorris]

That’s because they can’t charge properly for the time taken to solve the issues! Oh yes, we’ve found the problem with the headlamps not popping up, it’s a 50p diode ( well it is on the x1/9 anyway), that’s £600 please for the 12 hours diagnosing!

[Skizzer]

Nice looking Eclat there.

 

The only part that surprises me is that one of them stays down for as long as a couple of days - they did that when new. It might be worth telling your favourite garage this, or they really will grow old and poor trying to diagnose it. The other one will have the usual vacuum leak.

 

No news on mine yet, I haven't had a chance to look at it again. My new best friend Dave at LotusBits asked whether the lights don't pop up (vacuum pump switching fault) or just don't light up (lighting circuit fault).

 

The answer, of course, is both.

 

(I'm thinking this probably means it's the dashboard switch.)

[richardmorris]

That’s often an x1/9issue too. Because they’re not relayed. Of course they’re no longer available either. What was the problem car makers had with relays? Cost?

[Sudsprint]

Lagoon Blue on an Elite looks a great colour choice.

 

I am a complete sucker for those 1970s car brochure photos of a handsome middle aged couple leaving their neo-Georgian house for a late night drinks party.

 

On the gravel drive twinkling in the moonlight is their XJ6/Stag/Scimitar/Elite etc

[garethj]

Ginetta's like mine had pop up lights worked by a cable which went through to a lever low down in the dashboard.  Yay for simplicity and reliability, but not so good for ergonomics where you can't operate the lights if you're in 1st, 3rd or 5th gear.  Or once the lights are up you can't use 1st, 3rd or 5th gear.

 

Mine had been converted to electric pop up lights from a Fiat X19 for extra fun with a fibreglass car.  The Ginetta was also my daily driver and the build quality of that makes a Lotus look like a fucking Lexus.

[egg]

Interesting.

 

[Skizzer]

My Elite has been languishing in the shed since winter, having resisted my attempts to persuade it to start. My attempts were a bit rubbish though because today, with a fully charged battery and a bit more welly refitting the battery terminals this time, up it fired. Yay!

 

So I took it out of the shed and pumped up the tyres a bit, then went to collect Mrs Skizzer (who’s never been in it) to go for a drive, to blow away the cobwebs - literally:

 

 

Then I washed off the mud we collected rallying in the obscure lanes of Somerset back in the winter, and I drove it back to the shed all clean and - well, not shiny, the paint’s way too shit for that, but clean anyway.

 

 

Then I lined it up to back it into the shed and it suffered total electrical death as it reversed. So we had to push it the last six yards into its parking spot, which wasn’t much of an inconvenience. It’ll be an earth somewhere, I’ll investigate another day.

 

Still love this car though. It’s such a brilliant thing to drive and look at, I can forgive its temperamental electrics. Plus you have to think of it like a rescue dog - it’s been chained up in a back yard for the last twenty years, so no wonder it’s a bit nervy.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Such a fine mobile- would absolutely run one of these as a scruffy daily if I had the readies.