New Owner Experience

[AlistairF]

Hi everyone,

Tomorrow marks my first week of ownership of a lovely +2S, VRH314H.

Collecting on the hottest day of the year for a 110 mile drive from Evesham to mid-Lincolnshire was a great test which the car passed with flying colours and a good opportunity to get to know it much better.

I admit it felt very odd on my test drive which I concluded was all about the offset driver controls. I jumped out of an Evora into the +2 and of course their pedal offsets are the opposite. The wide sill of the Evora sets your feet off to the left and the Y chassis of the Elan is to the right. All very Lotus DNA and in each case it is not much at all, but the difference between the two is quite marked and felt very strange. 110 miles later and I just don't notice it.

I arrived home rather hot (me, not the car) and my dogs jumped in immediately and have taken a real liking to the car: clearly the +2 nomenclature is for furry friends! Another 100 miles followed of visiting friends and doing demo runs. My grandchildren think it's really cool.

An oil service and taking some slack up on the front wheel bearings has been the first set of tasks completed and I now notice my garage smells of fuel. No leaks can be seen, so searching the learned pages of this forum has me planning a weekend hunt for the fuel tank breathers to see what might be happening there.

I am making a list of minor jobs for the winter and until then I plan to simply enjoy the car and learn!

Cheers

Alistair

[jono]

Great to hear of my old car - ironically I sold it to buy an Evora and then sold the Evora to take on another Plus 2 restoration (and a S2 111S for blasts)!

I did the Club Lotus closed circuit breather mod when I built your car and it never had any 'fuel smells' - there is however a small 9mm copper breather vent which you see under one of the rear wheel arches so you're probably just smelling what is vented normally, probably worse on a hot day due to expansion?

Enjoy the car, it still holds very fond memories for me.

[jono]

your breather arrangement

[miked]

Congratulations on your purchase. Very nice car restored to a very nice standard by Jon. Some photos of us on the NC500 run in 2017.
Mike

[AlistairF]

Thanks Jono, That is really helpful and the breather arrangements look spot on so maybe you are right it may be expansion. I shall re-look for leaks and check the copper breather pipe to be sure.
Cheers
Alistair.

[AlistairF]

Thanks Mike,
It is a great car and you must have had a blast on the NC500. Pre pandemic I was up there every year as my brother lives on the route in Durness, so I generally too the West coast route or explored the more direct single track roads. The diminutive size and supple suspension must be perfect for those roads, just avoid the sheep and camper vans!
Cheers
Alistair

[miked]

Yes Alistair,

You are not wrong. Going over Apple Cross behind a camper van. We met some of these big brown beasts with the big horns. Angus? Scary as you round a bend.
Yeah some fab roads to hold the throttle on with some power driving through some long bends, feeling the grip.
Was a great trip. Me, Jon and four of his friends. 3 motorbikes and 1 sidecar out fit. Special job. That could go.

[DJW]

Great to hear the car being enjoyed as it should be

[The Veg]

Congrats Alistair and welcome! Beautiful car and beautiful pups- and they clearly have excellent taste!

[alaric]

Hi.

Re the petrol smell I have a similar breather arrangement on my car. It was fine until I put an extra 10L of petrol into the tank, then the smell was very noticeable. I got rid of the smell by replacing the 90 degree hose between filler and tank - obtained from Sue Miller, and using the wire type bands rather than jubilee clips to secure it. I'm not sure if the latter made any difference, but the original pipe was certainly loose when I first went to remove it. No smells at all now.

Sean.

[AlistairF]

Thanks Sean,

I have checked the open external breather and it is clear but no noticable odours. I am reasonably sure the odours are from the left hand side of the boot but I will check all the breather joints and the main entry hose this weekend. They all look in good condition and the tank is no more than half full.

The filler cap seal looks in good condition but I have ordered a new one anyway.

I am going to put a polythene sheet across the boot to segment it and see of I can notice any difference between any segment to narrow it down.

The breather system mods all make sense and because it worked before I suspect a split I can't see or something not quite right.

I shall let you know what I find!

Thanks

Alistair

[AlistairF]

Good morning all, no petrol smell in the garage this morning!

The issue was the breather hose connection to the spigot in the filler neck. The diameter of the spigot is only slightly smaller than the other connectors so the old hardened hose (clear plastic type) did not clamp fully down on the ridges even after tightening the clamp. I had enough hose to replace that piece and no smells this morning!

I have ordered new hose so I will replace all of it with later standard hose that survives the small amount of ethanol in E5.

Brakes next.. sticky pistons I think? Maybe after Baston Car Show?

Thanks

Alistair

[alaric]

Excellent. I also had the breather spigot braised into the filler neck - it originally had a gasket - so I may have had a problem in that area too. It's great once the smell is gone isn't it.

Sean.