Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Looking for a recommendation, I have my little +2 in for some restoration works, talking with my mechanic he would like a specialist to look over the electrics before he fires her up.

The car has been sat dormant for the last 5 years I have had her and a good 10 years before that. He has fitted a new Dynamo (reading the posts perhaps I should have gone for an alternator...maybe next year) amongst other things.

Does anyone in Lotus Elan Land know if a good reasonably priced auto electrician in the Attleborough/Norfolk area?

Regards
Steve

What do you think is wrong?

Aside from the generator, the cars really suffer from oil eaten wiring in the engine bay, bad connections everywhere outside and poor light sockets. Most of the stuff more or less works......

I guess I am saying plug in a battery and tell us what is not working

It's not that stuff isn't working, more that when the car is running, will it short out, is the existing wiring too old and brittle behind the sheath and I end up in an inferno (worst case). I'm not to keen on the suck it and see approach having spent a considerable sum on getting the mechanicals sorted, another couple of hundred on an electrical health check would be money well spent in my opinion.

Full disclosure I built a new harness for my car 20 years ago.

However, the car never burnt on me or died on a regular basis. it was just the ongoing maintenance and in particular the rotten engine bay harness, which can be replaced on its own

A good electrical mechanic will bleed you dry fixing one thing at a time, and not through ill intent.

I had an uprated new harness made by Autosparks. They did a fine job.

I now have many fuses and additional relays. Not a bad idea.

You may wish to replace the battery cables . I bought a LARGE crimping tool to set the terminals. A battery shut off is also a good a idea. If you use a remote (in boot) mounted solenoid powered switch you can turn the power off without having to open the boot.

Bob

Thanks Lotus Elan Land people, I'll have chat with my mechanic and see if a new harness is something he feels up to doing for me, I have been putting it bit on him lately.

Many Thanks
Steve

Steve,

I am in agreement with gus. I found so much wrong with the wiring that repair was not sensible. I replaced everything, and installed more fuses and relays.

Richard Hawkins

From my experience! Check the earths and when you've done that, redo them again. Was looking at a beautiful rebuild of an Elan, no expense spared. Says during the conversation "can't sort out the loom. look at this, there are no wires for it""

"that'll be because you have an alternator and matching loom and that's the regulator box for the dynamo!"

Beware!!!

The classic British approach is to fix the odds and sods that are not working or are intermittent and hope the rest of whatever it is keeps working. This applies to car electrics as well as more important projects such as house renovation, IT system modifications, infrastructure renewal and airport redevelopment
In my experience (which is mainly in house renovation, IT system design and classic British bike and car restoration) its not worth faffing about - in the long run its cheaper to bite the bullet and replace (in the car and bike case) the whole wiring loom with a new one of decent quality. Clean up all the connections as you join the new loom to each existing component, and for things like lights clean up the bulb carriers as well. Pay particular attention to the earth points. Your current loom is well past its design life now and will be suffering from corrosion, brittle fractures and degraded joins which will give rise to strange and intermittent faults......