Leak Updates on Plus 2

Leak Updates on Plus 2

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Discussion

yosini

Original Poster:

265 posts

148 months

Thursday 4th September 2014
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Morning all,

Updates on current leaks, and new one to ask about...

The Twink is still using oil, but by the look of the garage floor I think I know where most of it is going.

Water still being used, but temperature still perfect even in traffic, and I did one of those head gasket sniff tester things and there was no evidence of exhaust gases in the radiator = still a mystery.

Brakes now bled and working fine, the fluid in the reservoir looks very oily though (similar to how oil looks when sat on water, globules of oily stuff in the fluid- weird, any ideas?). All topped up and after the first drive I checked again and the level had dropped to almost half way, not sure if this is 'bedding in' (surely not relevant in a hydraulic system?), or there is a leak somewhere - must be inside the servo as nothing visible anywhere else. Keeping a close eye on it...

So, onto the next leak....The previous owner told me that the arrangement of petrol filler cap/pipe/tank meant that it is possible to overfill the tank and the petrol will slosh around and back out of the filler, this has definitely happened to me on a few occasions and the boot and cabin stink of petrol if I put in more than about £25 of petrol (luckily that will get me a long way). Does anyone have a good 'upgrade' to deal with this? Is anyone using foam filled / baffled tanks? Any other ideas?

Cheers

Joe


Lotus 50

1,009 posts

164 months

Friday 5th September 2014
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Hmm yes, they're quite good at leaking oil as you're finding out!. With the water loss, you do need to check that the water pump bearings are still OK (grab the top pulley at the front of the engine and if there's noticeable movement then the bearings are on the way out/dead). If I remember correctly there is a small drain hole in the cam chain casing under the pulley that allows water getting past the seals to escape without getting to the front bearing. Water escaping this way is often hard to see as it leaks when the engine is running (i.e. hot) and will evaporate. Any leftovers will sit on the top of the front cross member behind the rad where it is hard to see...

The "oily" look to your brake fluid suggests that there might be a bit of water in there so it may be worth changing all of the fluid. I've had similar experiences to you where the fluid level drops over time but there are no apparent leaks and as you've surmised it was leaking into the servo. Eventually the servo started to fail (one big give away is that the car starts giving off white smoke via the exhaust as the vacuum from the inlet manifold sucks brake fluid into cylinder no4) and I changed it, more or less fixing the loss of fluid.

Finally the fuel smell... there are a number of things that can cause this. Firstly check to see if the fuel cap has a breather in it (locking caps usually do - there's a small hole in the middle of the plate that seals onto the rim of the filler pipe) this isn't needed as the tank has it's own venting system (in standard form). The cure is to remove the cap and block the hole with araldite/solder which should stop petrol sloshing out when you go round a right hand bend. Another issue that can cause really bad petrol fume build up inside the car is that the plastic breather pipes that fit to the top of the tank on either side can break down when exposed to sunlight and fail. Any holes that result then allow petrol fumes to vent straight into the car (and if you fill the tank up it could allow petrol to slosh out of the tank into the car). If you look in the bottom corners of the rear windscreen you may just about be able to see these pipes. Failing that you need to remove the parcel shelf to see the top of the tank and the two breather pipes. If they have degraded it's a case of removing the degraded sections of pipe and splicing in new (you'll need to use jubilee clips and a short piece of metal pipe to join new to old). +2s do tend to smell of petrol as the vent pipes are quite big - but you should only notice this if working under the car (the pipes exit into the inner sills just in front of the rear wheels) or if it's left in the garage and fumes build up. If it really stinks inside the car then there's something wrong, either with the breather pipes or you have a leak in the fuel line at the bottom of the tank etc. Does the car seem to lose petrol?

The Lotus +2 workshop manual is a very good thing to have if you haven't got it already!

Good luck!

Edited several times by Lotus 50 on account of speeling and grammur



Edited by Lotus 50 on Saturday 6th September 10:44

Lotobear

6,232 posts

127 months

Tuesday 9th September 2014
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Joe,

To fix the petrol filler cap leak you need to remove the main rubber disc by pushing out the roll pin and metal disc holding it in place. Underneath it you will find a secondary seal. The secondary seal does not compress enough to prevent leakage on cornering.

The fix is to pull out the secondary seal and replace it with a snug fitting rubber seal which is longer than the standard one. A suitably sized offcut of fuel hose will work but I used a cable grommet to good effect and it is now cured.

Jon

vxah

101 posts

198 months

Tuesday 9th September 2014
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The tank has two baffles in already but the fuel cap should seal up fully as the tank is vented by the two large hoses that go over the roof. Those two hoses are a rather nasty design as far as i can see and due to the large diameter always make the car stink of petrol fumes whenever parked.

Best is to do away with these hoses and use a modified filler neck with vented cap, i think the locking type may all be vented (it's an indirect vent hole so would be difficult for fuel to leak out)

There are a good few threads about the mod i think on lotuselan.net
Just google immage elan fuel filler mod and you will see what is involved?