So I’ve been pretty quite as of late and don’t think I’ve seen this cooling issue addressed before. This last Friday I discovered a small cooling leak originating from the front side of the engine of my Cartoon Car. So I took the undertray off and slid under to take a look at what might be the problem. What I saw made me realize that yes, this is a Lotus alright. The coolant leak is coming from the A120E0017F Connector, which shorts a vestigial cooling run to the oil filter heat exchanger we don’t have since we have front mounted oil cooler/s. So basically these cooling lines are dangling down with a U-shaped Al tube in front of the engine. Well, the hose length on my car is just right so that the Al tube (P/N A12E0017F) rest and rubs on one of the oil line fittings. Hence, it rubbed long enough to create a pin hole leak. It’s a 0.080” relatively thick wall tube with ~0.58 OD, so it took it’s time to rub thru.
I think all the Fed Elise/Exiges have one or two front mounted oil coolers, so you might want to check to see if your U-tube is rubbing. If it is, it’s a ticking time bomb in your coolant system. Take a look at the pic from the Service Parts List (Item 20). If you are under the car, looking up, that hose assy and U-tube are basically right above the oil filter assy.
The other thing that sucks is I’ve got take the car to the dealer for them to cover the part under warranty. While I understand they need to dot all their “I’s” and cross all their “T’s”, so they can look at it and determine the same conclusion. Flat-bedding my car to the dealer ship at my expense sure seems like I’m getting shafted for a obvious poor hose routing and support from the factory:wallbang:. I mentioned I can bring you the failed part and pix of what everything looks like, but they need the car regardless. I know another local Elise owner I hold in high regard has noted the same rubbing issue, it’s bound to be a problem on other cars out there. Anybody know if there is a service bulletin floating around for this?
I’ve got the local parts department checking on the cost of the U-tube part, it wasn’t in their system, since it’s never been ordered. If it relatively cheap, I can replace it myself. I’ve repositioned the hose assy higher, so it won't rub like the original position. Now you can access the U-tube from the topside of the engine bay, still tight confines thou.
Well, as these cars continue to age, these kinds of interesting failures and oversights will continue to reveal themselves. If I get a chance tonight, I will post up a few pix of the area of interest and the removed U-Tube.
Hope this helps my fellow ETer’s.
-Frankie-
I think all the Fed Elise/Exiges have one or two front mounted oil coolers, so you might want to check to see if your U-tube is rubbing. If it is, it’s a ticking time bomb in your coolant system. Take a look at the pic from the Service Parts List (Item 20). If you are under the car, looking up, that hose assy and U-tube are basically right above the oil filter assy.
The other thing that sucks is I’ve got take the car to the dealer for them to cover the part under warranty. While I understand they need to dot all their “I’s” and cross all their “T’s”, so they can look at it and determine the same conclusion. Flat-bedding my car to the dealer ship at my expense sure seems like I’m getting shafted for a obvious poor hose routing and support from the factory:wallbang:. I mentioned I can bring you the failed part and pix of what everything looks like, but they need the car regardless. I know another local Elise owner I hold in high regard has noted the same rubbing issue, it’s bound to be a problem on other cars out there. Anybody know if there is a service bulletin floating around for this?
I’ve got the local parts department checking on the cost of the U-tube part, it wasn’t in their system, since it’s never been ordered. If it relatively cheap, I can replace it myself. I’ve repositioned the hose assy higher, so it won't rub like the original position. Now you can access the U-tube from the topside of the engine bay, still tight confines thou.
Well, as these cars continue to age, these kinds of interesting failures and oversights will continue to reveal themselves. If I get a chance tonight, I will post up a few pix of the area of interest and the removed U-Tube.
Hope this helps my fellow ETer’s.
-Frankie-
