Revival of Lotus Elise S1 (1998)
Discussion
About 4 years ago a good friend inherited her father’s 1998 S1 Lotus Elise. Not long after this she moved abroad and as a result the car had been left standing for a while. She asked me if I’d take a look at it and perhaps take it off her hands.
So here it is as I found it in the garage after being started once a month for 2 years and then standing for 2 years. The pictures don’t show the thick layer of dust over everything!
After checking the fluids a turn of the key revealed it would turn over but not start. There was a spark but no fuel. And so the diagnosis started.
The fuel pump wasn’t running so I spent many hours tracing wires, checking relays and fuses, hammering the tank to see if the pump was stuck etc. I soon realised it wasn’t going to be a quick fix so I hired a trailer and moved it the 1 mile to my garage. I couldn’t tow it as in most S1 Elises the towing post was very rusty!
So here it is as I found it in the garage after being started once a month for 2 years and then standing for 2 years. The pictures don’t show the thick layer of dust over everything!
After checking the fluids a turn of the key revealed it would turn over but not start. There was a spark but no fuel. And so the diagnosis started.
The fuel pump wasn’t running so I spent many hours tracing wires, checking relays and fuses, hammering the tank to see if the pump was stuck etc. I soon realised it wasn’t going to be a quick fix so I hired a trailer and moved it the 1 mile to my garage. I couldn’t tow it as in most S1 Elises the towing post was very rusty!
AndyD360 said:
Make sure you lift those mats as soon as you get a chance - they're notorious for helping the floor beneath corrode
Thanks Andy, I had read about this and will be having a look soon..............fingers crossed its not too bad. There's loads of info on these cars on SELOC so I've got no excuses, they have a pretty serious cult following.It’s a real time warp car, never modified or messed with, always serviced at official dealer and having only covered 38,000 miles in 17 years some things are very good and some have succumbed to the British weather. I’m looking forward to working on this car more than previous ones as due to the majority of the Elise being aluminium or fiberglass there shouldn’t be weeks lost to hacking out and replacing rusty metal.
The deep clean started by removing the seats………………..looks like someone spilled something under here a long time ago. Luckily it wiped off and the floors are in great shape.
I got fed up with fault finding and as you can’t remove the fuel pump with it in place decided to drop the fuel tank. I was pleasantly surprised that the floor plates/diffuser/under engine plate and rear RHS wheel arch liner all came out without a single stuck bolt………………………long may it continue! Good tip – get a hose and funnel and poor boiling water over the fuel filler and breather hoses. After this they came off easily.
Good lesson for anyone leaving a car for a while: FILL THE FUEL TANK. This avoids condensation forming which will cause rust inside of the tank.
The deep clean started by removing the seats………………..looks like someone spilled something under here a long time ago. Luckily it wiped off and the floors are in great shape.
I got fed up with fault finding and as you can’t remove the fuel pump with it in place decided to drop the fuel tank. I was pleasantly surprised that the floor plates/diffuser/under engine plate and rear RHS wheel arch liner all came out without a single stuck bolt………………………long may it continue! Good tip – get a hose and funnel and poor boiling water over the fuel filler and breather hoses. After this they came off easily.
Good lesson for anyone leaving a car for a while: FILL THE FUEL TANK. This avoids condensation forming which will cause rust inside of the tank.
Edited by Smokin Donut on Friday 4th August 12:27
I forgot to mention…. the biggest pain while getting the tank out was removing the fuel return line from the tank (fwd hose on pump). You can’t get your fingers under the hose to release the securing clip. In the end I used a small screwdriver and after an hour of messing it finally realised.
Put 12V on the fuel pump and thankfully it didn’t run! So now I had found the problem along with a rusty tank. I could have dismantled the pump unit and replaced just the pump (£60) but upon closer inspection the strainers and lines weren’t in good condition so I decided to purchase a complete new modern fuel pump unit (£260) which included the tank level sensor. I don’t want to be dropping the tank again any time soon! This has the added bonus of supporting up to 260bhp so if I ever did want to change to a Honda VTEC I don’t have to worry about the fuelling.
I also purchased a new aluminium fuel tank from JaF Fabrication on eBay for £280 delivered. The workmanship looked good and the baffles better than the original. Which is a good thing as on track the Elise can suffer from fuel starvation during long left hand corners as the pump is in the left hand side of the tank.
After a weeks wait the tank arrived and looked good, for the money I was well chuffed. However as with most aftermarket parts it needed a little fettling.
The flange welded to the tank to secure the pump wasn’t round, I guess it’d warped during welding. Fortunately I was able to slightly open the holes on the securing flange so it fitted over the studs. Plus the pump (just) fitted inside the tank flange.
Pump fitted and tank ready to go in.
Refitting the tank was easy and as the fuel filler and breather hoses were in very good condition I reconnected them and put 10lts of fuel in the tank.
Note to anyone else doing this: keep the tank securing bolts loose until you have the fuel filling hose secured to the tank as its tight against the bulkhead sound proofing and you’ll struggle to get the hose on.
Put 12V on the fuel pump and thankfully it didn’t run! So now I had found the problem along with a rusty tank. I could have dismantled the pump unit and replaced just the pump (£60) but upon closer inspection the strainers and lines weren’t in good condition so I decided to purchase a complete new modern fuel pump unit (£260) which included the tank level sensor. I don’t want to be dropping the tank again any time soon! This has the added bonus of supporting up to 260bhp so if I ever did want to change to a Honda VTEC I don’t have to worry about the fuelling.
I also purchased a new aluminium fuel tank from JaF Fabrication on eBay for £280 delivered. The workmanship looked good and the baffles better than the original. Which is a good thing as on track the Elise can suffer from fuel starvation during long left hand corners as the pump is in the left hand side of the tank.
After a weeks wait the tank arrived and looked good, for the money I was well chuffed. However as with most aftermarket parts it needed a little fettling.
The flange welded to the tank to secure the pump wasn’t round, I guess it’d warped during welding. Fortunately I was able to slightly open the holes on the securing flange so it fitted over the studs. Plus the pump (just) fitted inside the tank flange.
Pump fitted and tank ready to go in.
Refitting the tank was easy and as the fuel filler and breather hoses were in very good condition I reconnected them and put 10lts of fuel in the tank.
Note to anyone else doing this: keep the tank securing bolts loose until you have the fuel filling hose secured to the tank as its tight against the bulkhead sound proofing and you’ll struggle to get the hose on.
Edited by Smokin Donut on Saturday 5th August 07:29
Great work and hopefully it won't take too much to have it back on the road!
Very similar age to mine, though quite a few less miles. Once you've done all the oily bits, if you want to replace your scuffed side sills, I can recommend these people on ebay who do all different material and colours. They're a bit of a ballache to change ( see here!) but well worth it.
Very similar age to mine, though quite a few less miles. Once you've done all the oily bits, if you want to replace your scuffed side sills, I can recommend these people on ebay who do all different material and colours. They're a bit of a ballache to change ( see here!) but well worth it.
AndrewGP said:
Great work and hopefully it won't take too much to have it back on the road!
Very similar age to mine, though quite a few less miles. Once you've done all the oily bits, if you want to replace your scuffed side sills, I can recommend these people on ebay who do all different material and colours. They're a bit of a ballache to change ( see here!) but well worth it.
Thanks Andrew, had a look through your thread, good work, your Elise is looking ace! Getting the seats and sill protectors tarted up is on the list, (which is 2 x A4 pages long) along with a respray, new shocks and a few other cosmetic enhancements.Very similar age to mine, though quite a few less miles. Once you've done all the oily bits, if you want to replace your scuffed side sills, I can recommend these people on ebay who do all different material and colours. They're a bit of a ballache to change ( see here!) but well worth it.
A friend of mine had an early S1 recommissioned about 18 months ago - his was a little different in that it was bought without any fluids in it at all & reports that it needed a new engine due to head gasket failure (HGF) as a non-runner. He had a specialist replace all the perishable parts & various belts etc., with confirmation that there wasn't HGF as well as obviously doing the usual checks on the electrics - the alarm had been bypassed for unknown reasons. I think his bill for using a small Lotus specialist was about £700 (which we thought was a fair price given how long it probably took to sort the electrics!).
He ultimately sold the car which ended up going to Italy sadly to a collector. We were at a Lotus track day at the start of the week in Belgium and it was sad to see so many right hand drive foreign registered Lotuses that'll never return back to the UK. The S1s are definitely the ones to have, as reported in this months EVO magazine (where they've a feature on them).
He ultimately sold the car which ended up going to Italy sadly to a collector. We were at a Lotus track day at the start of the week in Belgium and it was sad to see so many right hand drive foreign registered Lotuses that'll never return back to the UK. The S1s are definitely the ones to have, as reported in this months EVO magazine (where they've a feature on them).
MrC986 said:
A friend of mine had an early S1 recommissioned about 18 months ago - his was a little different in that it was bought without any fluids in it at all & reports that it needed a new engine due to head gasket failure (HGF) as a non-runner. He had a specialist replace all the perishable parts & various belts etc., with confirmation that there wasn't HGF as well as obviously doing the usual checks on the electrics - the alarm had been bypassed for unknown reasons. I think his bill for using a small Lotus specialist was about £700 (which we thought was a fair price given how long it probably took to sort the electrics!).
He ultimately sold the car which ended up going to Italy sadly to a collector. We were at a Lotus track day at the start of the week in Belgium and it was sad to see so many right hand drive foreign registered Lotuses that'll never return back to the UK. The S1s are definitely the ones to have, as reported in this months EVO magazine (where they've a feature on them).
£700 sounds very reasonable, just the fluids and cam belt set me back £360! The S1 is becoming more collectable all the time, the prices have gone up over the past couple of years. Fortunately I know the history of this car since its birth, its never been on track or abused and always been under cover when not used.He ultimately sold the car which ended up going to Italy sadly to a collector. We were at a Lotus track day at the start of the week in Belgium and it was sad to see so many right hand drive foreign registered Lotuses that'll never return back to the UK. The S1s are definitely the ones to have, as reported in this months EVO magazine (where they've a feature on them).
Thanks for the tip re the EVO article, I'll take a look.
Edited by Smokin Donut on Saturday 12th August 12:52
I changed the engine and gearbox oil, the latter to Redline MT90 which I have used on other cars and found to be excellent at smoothing out notchy gear changes (no idea what this ones gear change is like as I’ve never driven it). The cam belt and water pump was next and shouldn’t take long as I had the excellent SELOC WIKI guide to hand………………famous last words.
Needless to say it’s the most challenging cam belt I’ve ever changed, you have to cut down a 22mm socket to remove the crank pulley which is torqued to 205nm and the cam belt has to be extracted and inserted by unbolting an engine mount…………..2 days later I was done.
The fuel filter was another 10 minute job that took way longer. The reason the rear RHS wheel arch liner was so easy to remove is it was out in 2006 for a cam belt change. The other liners had never been removed. Out came the trusty angle grinder and I soon had access to the fuel filter.
The inlet fuel hose connection (lower) is notorious for being stuck and you guessed it I couldn’t remove it. So after much consideration and rude words I decided to remove the hose and attack the filter in the vice. Luckily the outlet hose from the pump is the easy one to disconnect.
This is where the hose passes through the bulkhead.
Even once in the vice it was a struggle to disconnect the hose. However once out I was vindicated in my decision to persevere as a stream of dirty fuel ran out of the filter.
The hose was then refitted to the tank and screwed into the new filter with liberal amounts of copper slip!!
Needless to say it’s the most challenging cam belt I’ve ever changed, you have to cut down a 22mm socket to remove the crank pulley which is torqued to 205nm and the cam belt has to be extracted and inserted by unbolting an engine mount…………..2 days later I was done.
The fuel filter was another 10 minute job that took way longer. The reason the rear RHS wheel arch liner was so easy to remove is it was out in 2006 for a cam belt change. The other liners had never been removed. Out came the trusty angle grinder and I soon had access to the fuel filter.
The inlet fuel hose connection (lower) is notorious for being stuck and you guessed it I couldn’t remove it. So after much consideration and rude words I decided to remove the hose and attack the filter in the vice. Luckily the outlet hose from the pump is the easy one to disconnect.
This is where the hose passes through the bulkhead.
Even once in the vice it was a struggle to disconnect the hose. However once out I was vindicated in my decision to persevere as a stream of dirty fuel ran out of the filter.
The hose was then refitted to the tank and screwed into the new filter with liberal amounts of copper slip!!
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