Drawfiler

Thanks Dan I have soldered a wire to each blade of the fuseholder and run them to a floating fuseholder to see if this solves the problem, when it stops raining I will do some more tests.

Sorry I didn't make it clear, yes my lights are in recesses in the front bumper/spoiler assembly

Thanks Mike. My testing has been with the car stationary, the car gets up to 'fan' temperature , i.e. Just over 90 degrees on the gauge and the fans come on,. Quite quickly they go off again, when things settle down, they run for no more than half the time, the fuse holder gets hot while this is going on but only at one end. I have cleaned the holder as best I can with wire wool contact cleaner etc. The fans turn freely and the water pump is in good order, it was rebuilt by Lotusbits recently and checked when refitted to my rebuilt block. My next experiment is to to solder a wire to each side of the fuse holder and run these wires to a separate new fuse holder and try that. Peter

Hi I want to replace the fog lights on my Eclat, how do you get to the back of them to het them off? thanks

I am running at just to the right of centre on the gauge in the recent hot weather. The fans come on and off when standing idle and at a fast tick over,I think this is OK. The problem is with the contact between the fuse and the holder but I have cleaned and polished the surface but still the holder (the actual brass spring clip) is hot to the touch when the fans have been running a while. I think that I will explore a separate fuse arrangement for the fan supply, I am pretty happy that the fan motors are not drawing to much current as the fuse doesn't blow.

Like many others, I have had overheating problems in the Eclat, I have two fans, ok thermostat and well flushed system, I rang Mike Taylor and he was full of gloom talking about cracked liners and blown gaskets, I had no gas bubbling out of the rad filler cap and no mayonnaise in the sump or gas coming from the oil filler. I found that I had a vapour lock in the top hose leading to the thermostat housing so loosening the jubilee clip and pulling the hose off and filling both the casting and hose. This solved the problem but after a long run I suddenly had overheating again. Much head scratching revealed that the fuse was overheating at its terminals, this caused the fuse body to soften and collapse slightly so the fans stopped, on cooling down the contact was restored. I cleaned the terminals to reduce the volt drop however there was still overheating so I temporarily put in a solid link , £1 coin, and this solved the problem so I need to rethink the fusing.

I spoke to Mike Taylor about this and he uses Valvoline red additive, so it is red for me.

I am confused about which coolant to use in 900 series engines, I know I could go for waterless but for now I want to use water and additive, my question is do I use red or blue, which one do I buy?

If you buy new liners from Lotusbits, Mike Taylor will sell you some magic grunge that he uses on his rebuilds.

I think I would replace the liners and piston rings while I was in there.

A posts are a problem, there is a piece of quite soft plastic foam in front of the roll bar tube to fill the space between it and the inside of the windscreen, the liner also reaches down to the dash. i cut the liner and painted the adhesive onto the A posts and the liner, let it go off and then paint new adhesive into the gap between the a post and the glass, you will get it on the glass but dont worry. Push the liner into the space using a plastic pusher while the adhesive is still wet when you are happy wrap the liner round the post. You will be covering the rear edge with the door seal. if you have to replace the rectangular finishers tha fit round the seatbelts, you are going to have to remove the belts, however if you take care, you can cut through the long side with a piercing saw fit it round the belt and then glue the gap,with Araldite. you may have trouble fitting the rear cant rails, these have two clips that are almost impossible to locate and then break. In desperation I carefully applied a dollop of builders expanding foam to both brackets and to the inside of the rail moulding, put the rail in position and held it down here while the foam cured, it works! good luck to all trying to do this, with care you will get a good result, your investment in material is not excessive so if all fails, you have just spent your time.

Coat one side of the sheet and a band 1" wide on the revers side. Cover all of the liner, and a corresponding 1" band on the sheet. Carefully stand the sheet vertically on one edge about 1" in from the edge of the liner and lift the 1" strip of liner and stick it to the sheet. Lie the sheet down and pull the liner tight and bring it down onto the sheet, use a paint roller to make sure of the bond. mark the centre of the back edge of the sheet and put a corresponding mark on the rear window both with masking tape. coat the upper side of the sheet and the roof. Climb into the back of the car and lie on your back with the sheet above you, carefully line the marks up and push the sheet into place. more later

I have finally finished reliving the Eclat, I can assure you all that the learning curve is pretty steep so I have decided to pass on my experience for the other poor souls who want to have a try. Firstly the equipment roll of brown paper stanley knife scissors straight edge masking tape disposable gloves work table set plastic levers paint scraper glass scraper correcting fluid (tippex) plastic bin liners liner heat resistant glue sheet 3mm pvc sheet coarse emery cloth acetone or equivalent for cleaning paint brush clothes pegs My procedure Remove front seatbelts from B pillars, pull door seal from right B post and the plastic former complete with its covering. Mark the inside of the former with tipped with an arrow pointing to the front of the car, B . Repeat with left B post . Remove interior light from roll bar cover and again mark with arrow for the front. Pull off both rear cant rail covers again marking with their sides and arrow for forward Unscrew rear view mirror and both sun visors, pull down the door seal half way along the top of the doors to reveal small metal plate tucked under it. Gently remove the goal post shaped former from over the windscreen and doors., there is a clip in the centre of the doors. Pull down the rear headlining from the roof, marking with an arrow for front and R for rear Repeat with the front roof Pull the liner from the A posts leaving the foam former that goes between the front roll bar and the screen in place Carefully peel the old liner from each of the formers, again marking each with an arrow for the front and where it goes. Scrape old glue from the formers and then abrade with the emery cloth in the glue area Scrape old adhesive from the inside of the roof and abrade with the emery cloth Clean out the interior of the car, wipe glue surfaces with the solvent. Take each piece of old liner and place it face down on a piece of brown paper and draw round it, again mark the paper with front and what part it is, cut round the line to make a pattern Wipe down all the formers with solvent Clean work table and cover with brown paper Put on dizzy gloves and roll out some new liner face down, put the pattern on the liner and hold down with the clothes pegs,then cut out the liner and put into a bin liner with its pattern still held in place with the clothes pegs. Warm the adhesive in hot water to make it more runny Carefully coat one liner with adhesive on the inside and the inside of the appropriate former, when dry put on new dizzy gloves and fit the liner to the former. It is good to practice on a simple former like the rear cant rails, B post formers have concave surfaces and will be glued on the show faces so leave enough slack to push the material into the corners. When you have a former finished put it in a bin liner to keep it clean Measure the rear roof area carefully and cut a piece of the plastic sheet to fit , abrade both sides. To be continued!

Although I agree with sourcing a replacement diff from Lotusbits, if you do so look at a refurb on the brakes, new oilseals and bearings on the dif. If shipping a dif is too expensive, you might be able to get yours rebuilt in Australia. so pleases you are bringing the car back into use as they are a real head turner.

Some people have left out the deflector that fits between the fans and the engine, it guides the air over the top of the engine and out of the slats in the bonnet. If this is missing you will get overheating. Also check that the otter switch is not playing up.