Design fault? (Surely not!)

[hatman]

Returned from a short drive a couple of days ago and was intrigued/horrified to notice smoke emerging from under the dash. Bailed out and disconnected the battery pronto before having a closer look at what transpired to be steam, not smoke. Then I noticed that my left shoe (suede, damn it) was soaking wet and my foot was nice and warm.

Sticking my head into the footwell I discovered the problem - the heater return hose had sprung a leak in the middle of its run. Then I saw why. The hose is routed alongside the steering column (not the case for left-hookers I imagine) and the inner/outer clamp, with its two sharp bolt heads chafes against it when the wheel is turned through 90 degrees or more. So, clearly, the gradual wearing away of the hose has been quietly taking place every time the car's been driven over the last few years since the hose was renewed. And, worse still, subsequent examination shows that there's really no alternative route for the hose, as it has to get from the dashboard area to the grommeted hole in the bulkhead that's made for it. Looks like a design fault but, being a Lotus, that cannot be so, surely?

If anyone has any tips for remedying this I'd obviously be delighted to hear them, meanwhile it might just be worth taking a gander at your own car's heater return hose.

[1964 S1]

Hello, never heard of this one before. Was your shoe hot? Maybe a ninety degree elbow spliced stratigically on line will enable it to miss the fouling point?

[cliveyboy]

I remember a heater hose splitting once and the hot water took the dye out of the red carpet and stained my feet bright pink.
A trick I use if I think a hose will get damaged is to put a bit of plastic spirowrap around the hose. Spirowrap is a plastic helical spiral that you wrap around cables to tidy them up. The heavier duty stuff is designed for harsher environments and for protecting hoses.
That way if it does rub, the plastic will wear and not the hose.
Clive

[ElliottN]

Didn't like the sound of that so I checked. Not the case with my (rhd) S4 - clamp to hose clearance is well over 1" no matter what position the steering column is in. Maybe you have an 'after market' hole in the footwell wall? My heater hose exits very close to the top of the footwell wall & the steering column exits the wall a good couple of inches below it - and not on the same centreline.

[SADLOTUS]

I had exactly the same problem as Hatman, but caught it before anything sprouted a leak. I could feel a catching in the steering and traced it to the new(ish) heater pipe touching the steering column clamp bolt head. The heater hose had worn a few mm through - almost to the fibre reinforcement. I screwed a bent bit of metal into the footwell fibreglass which pushed the pipe away from the bolt head, this was supposed to be a temporary measure until I replaced the hose. That was in 1991.
The car's now having it's regular 20 year rebuild and I made sure the hose took a new route this time. Hope this helps.

[tdafforn]

Perhaps not a design fault, perhaps your elan was specifically designed only to go in a straight line!
Cheers
Tim

[twincamman]

a type 26 is just a type 11 with 15 more mistakes ed

[fasterbyelan]

That must make a Type 50 a disaster!

[types26/36]

a type 26 is just a type 11 with 15 more mistakes ed

As the Eleven was a sports/racer I doubt it had a heater, so if we accept the heater/hose was one mistake, what were the other 14 mistakes Colin built into the Elans (type 26's) and have Mazda solved them with the Miata/MX5?
Brian (ducking for cover)

[M100]

That must make a Type 50 a disaster!

I dare you to say that on the +2 section

[twincamman]

again with the Miatas -- ed

[john.p.clegg]

Some of us on the plus2 section do come over here now and then just to see what the "babies" are up to.........
John

[1964 S1]

I've got one of each, does all this mean my S1 has 24 fewer mistakes than my +2 ? One major improvement the Miata provides, you can't break its windshield off with one hand.

[twincamman]

no----39 more ed

[hatman]

Well, I've bodged it up ftb by cutting the pipe and inserting a length of ally tube into the severed ends, held (I hope!) by jubilee clips. Not too optimistic about the watertightness of this arrangement though, but we shall see.

Cliveyboy - like your idea about the spirowrap - where do I get it from?

ElliottN - no, it's not an aftermarket hole, it was drilled by Colin's own fair hand, in more or less the position you describe so quite how you've got an inch clearance an' I aint got nuffink is a bit of a puzzler.

SADLOTUS - what new route? out the door and in through the bonnet? (there's no scope for re-routing that I can see).

tdafforn - no it's definitely not the one designed for driving in straight lines only - that was the version exported to the US wasn't it?