Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi all,

I am starting at last to put my Elan S3 SE DHC back together after painting it etc. As I did not pull the car to pieces there are some things that are not very clear to me. I have searched for and found some photo's of how the heater matrix is installed in the car but I am a bit puzzled at the route the the water hoses need to take to go through the bulkhead also a bot puzzled as the route the air hose to demister takes seems to me a bit of a tight bend, also my original hose is to long, I may well have the heater box incorrectly installed.

Is there someone out there who has done this job and still has the dashboard out and could send me a photo so I can see the route of the water and air hoses?

I will keep looking in the archives in the mean time, thanks in advance.

TonyW

Hi Tony

This is not an SE but an early Coupe (36/5520) that a rebuilt. Its the only photo that I could find. It is the same except the defrost (demist) hoses are not present. The defrost hoses come out at the bottom of the heater (lowest point forward) with rubber elbows and are directed outward toward each eyeball vent. If I remember they rise up fairly quickly and pass above the glove box on the passenger side and on the drivers side they are above most of the wiring and other esentials like the speedo cable and such.

Tony - you live in Perth, ditch the heater it should be way to warm for that (especially at the moment)!!

Gary & Gordon,

Thanks for the photo, I think I have the two end plates around the wrong way. Gordon, tempted to leave out the heater but I am thinking that I would like to keep all the parts together in one place...pity those from the US and UK it was a lovely 32c here today pretty much the same for the next week or so.

Tony

Tony, a suggestion if I may. When running the heater hoses consider making the RHS one past
the steering column in hard pipe/tube. I used some 13mm alum tube bent to suit. This greatly increases
the clearance past the column and impact clamp and pretty well eliminates the old problem of the
clamp wearing a hole in the hose. Run the heater hose through the grommet in the dash panel/firewall and
pick up the tube just inside the cabin. A small piece of hose is all that is required at the upper connection.