S2 Radio Interference

[daviesje]

I've been following the advice to put a baco-foil grounding sheet on the underside of my boot-lid, making sure it is well connected to the ariel clamping bolt. I've also wrapped the cable ariel in baco-foil for 18" or so and connected that to the the clamping bolt. This has had some benefit in reducing the HT induced (I assume) interference on the radio. However, I notice that when I have the car running in the garage, my garage radio also picks up the same interference. So, my conclusion is that the problem is as much to do with the strong HT signal that is coming off the engine as it is to do with the body shell being non-metallic. This makes me think back to my very early (metal!) cars where HT interference was almost the norm, and the simple solution in those days was to get a set of suppressors from Halfords. These were 3" or so long plug thingies which went onto the spark plugs, and then the plug leads connected on top of them. I guess they were some sort of capacitance device? Anyhow, they worked and I was wondering if anyone had tried these on a Lotus at all? If the answer is that they work but that you'll lose 50% of your horsepower then I'll guess I'll just do the right thing and rip the radio out to save some weight......

[bogie]

carbon fibre cam covers help quite a bit...but are very expensive. Theres not really that much more you can do - I havnt seen those suppressors for many years......

[daviesje]

Just went for my first decent run today to test out the baco-foil fix. It actually helps with general reception more than I had realised when testing it in my garage. However, still have that HT tick-a-tick noise. I did find a place selling the spark plug suppressors and may well get a set to try. But is the tick-a-tick problem general on Elise's or maybe I've got a lose HT lead connection somewhere?