Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I get a lot of water on the floor on the RH side after the cars been parked in the rain. I've never noticed any water entering when driving. The trunk (boot) also gets wet. I have put new seals on the doors and trunk lid, but it hasn't helped. Any ideas? What about the air vents? Do they have drains?

Check the seal where the wiper spindles pass through the body - these appear to have been sealed with some sort of mastic on mine, although i'm not sure if it was original, which had dried out.

The other possibility that occurs to me if it's a RHD car is water getting in through the gap between the bonnet and the body and then leaking into the car around the pedal box.

The spindles do seem kind of wiggly. It's LHD. I know MGBs have a rubber "duckbill" thing that drains the fresh air vent in front of the windscreen, but I cant find one on the Lotus. I'll seal up the wiper spindles. Should at least help some.

A British car that leaks ???? Unbelievable... Mine leak around the door "seals" just above the hinges, runs down the side kick plate inside the car and onto the floor. Or any of the holes above the passenger feet space. You might try climbing in the car and having someone spray the outside with a garden hose and see where it's coming from. The S1 and 2 trunks have drain holes up in the rear corners where the lid meets the body, in the little trough outside the rubber seal. You can run a flexible wire down those with a little water poured in to flush the crud out.

Rick, take the two small external metal grilles between hood & windshield (bonnet & windscreen) out. There is a drain hole at the bottom that gets clogged up - see if its blocked ? If it is it lets water into the cabin. Rgds John

alternatively drill a hole in the floor pan to let the water drain out - a common mod found on many an elan(and other Lotuses) !!

Actually, I just fixed anumber of holes that I understand used to be for an air conditioner. My girlfriend said it made her uncomfortable to be able to see through the floor. I no longer have drains in the floor, plus I miss the one big hole in the firewall that let you watch the front suspension work.

I just drilled a Hole in the floor at the lowest point <_< ED

Spent a lot of time this summer going over the car sealing leaks.

I found plenty of leaks in the fire wall where cables pass through into the engine bay. Also, as mentioned above, around the edge of the pedal box. In each case I used silicon sealant to plug these.

It seems that a leak above the door hinges is fairly common. On my car the door has been spaced out from the body to acheive the correct alignment. Unfortunatley it also means that there is only light contact between the seal and the inner surface of the door. I'm going to try removing one or two spacing shims to see whether a happy medium can be achieved.

Another leak that I have found recently comes from the door ashtray. Water that gets between the door window and the door window seal can collect here and eventually flow into the car. Symptom is a wet streak down the door card and wet foot well carpet starting from two thirds along the length if the door.

As far as leaks in the boot are concerned, I identified the following areas:

- rear window seal, particularly the bottom corners.
- Boot hinge gaskets.
- Rear bumber bold holes
- rear lamp gaskets.

A combination of silicon sealant and gaskets cut from bicycle inner tubes has sorted these.

Good luck!!

Simon

Hard to believe but it is possible to have a dry Elan!

Mine used to leak like a sieve- particularly on the passenger side. A fiddly job but when I painted the car I did away with the riveted rubber strips on the door aperture above the top hinge and instead moulded two drip strips from fibreglass running from the base of the screen pillar at the outer edge and another about one inch further in. The idea being to prevent water actually getting anywhere near the rubber door seals.

Water now runs across the top of the door aperture and then down the door pillar. It works because the rubber seals now never get wet (mi car is fixed head which helps). The rest of the leaks were cured via careful sealing of cables etc.

John