While preparing the Europa for the drive to Bloomington and the Champagne British Car Festival last May, I thought it would be a good time to change the gear oil in the transaxle. I had bought a couple of quarts
The Great Gear Oil Conundrum
Extraction Of A Broken Water Pump Bolt
My fellow-7-owner had been looking over the engine in a moment of dry calm on an otherwise wet Driver Education Day at Blackhawk Farms. His sharp eye had found what I hoped was just a vibration-assisted backed-off bolt. But a
Keys for M100 Elan
by Ken Olendzki For years I have only had one set of keys for my M100 Elan. Lotus no longer supplies them, the Elan Central Forums threw their hands up on how to source them, and I stopped looking a
Horn-ary Stent Surgery
Tubular structures break. Especially if they are attachments of a line which extends from a fixed structure: something’s got to give sometimes! When it happens, it usually renders the part useless. And THIS backyard mechanic hates to be victim to
Painting Upside Down
Transcribed from Steve Styer’s educational minute at the October 27, 2016 member meeting. I came upon something just within the past couple of months that I never realized. I thought I’d pass it on to you folks tonight. I’ve been
Elise Tech Tips #3
For this edition of Elise Tech Tips I would like to examine a few service issues that have been brought to my attention and pass along some winter storage tips that are specific to the Elise. All of the service
In search of Unobtainium
Some Lotus Elan parts are harder to find than others. But we are lucky to have several Lotus parts suppliers that supply parts without crazy mark ups. They also will not hesitate to have parts made. Ray at RD Enterprises, Dave at Dave Bean Engineering, or Jay
Elise Tech Tips 2
For this installment of Elise Tech Tips I would like to cover a couple of technical issues that are fairly easy to address, yet dramatically increase the pleasure of ownership of the Elise. I also want to bring to light a relatively new failure that is being reported
Elise Tech Tips
When Lotus introduced the Federal Elise S2 to the United States back in 2004 as a ’05 model year it set the sports car world on fire. Finally we were offered a new Lotus that was built around the traditional Lotus values and philosophy of the vintage Europa
The next time you change your oil in your Elise …
Every time I change my oil, I take the opportunity to check or tighten the toe link. It’s probably more important to keep a check on this if you’re doing a lot of tracking, but there have been failures with