Lotus Elan

bonnet spring catching of radiator fan

PostPost by: andy73sprint » Wed May 10, 2006 1:25 pm

I have refurbed the engine bay and had all the metalwork powder coated.

The bonnet spring continues to catch and damage the one electric contact and the metal body work.

The fan bracket appears to be correctly fitted - according to all the pictures I have looked at - i.e the longer arm is on the drivers side (mine is RHD). I have tried wrapping the spring in foam but this doesn't last long.

The only thought I had was to turn the fixing bracket around and connect upside down so that the fan is over the driver?s side and not the passenger side.

Can anyone suggest a solution or have I lost the plot ?

Thanks

Andy
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PostPost by: Rob_LaMoreaux » Wed May 10, 2006 5:58 pm

On my S4 the spring hits the fan when the bonnet is open. It doesn't hit the wires since I have the grommet that the wires exit through positioned facing down. It may hit the motor body, but since it doesn't make any noise from that I don't care. If it were hitting and I didn't want the paint to rub off I'd probably glue some hard plastic to that side of the motor.But then I really don't care if my car doesn't look perfect, since I'd rather be driving it than looking at it.

Rob
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PostPost by: hatman » Thu May 11, 2006 8:31 am

My bonnet front edge pushes against the air horns when opened wide, forcing them into contact with the spinning fan blades, which is a bit alarming. I find that a bit of judicious pushing-out-of-the-way of the top horn gives just about enough clearance to avoid this.

A note of caution: I wouldn't be inclined to move the fan over to the other side of the rad (ie right-hand side) if I were you - it's positioned to blow cold air into the very hottest area, ie where the top hose squirts the super-heated water into the rad, thus giving maximum cooling effect. With the Elan's (undeserved?) reputation for overheating you need to stack all the odds in your car's favour to give it a sporting chance in these globally-warmed times.
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PostPost by: steveww » Thu May 11, 2006 9:13 am

Fit a modern slim line fan. Not original I know but for efficient at keeping things cool.
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