Engine vs Rain

[alfamsp]

My Lazer Blue Elise is in transit. I went down to teh dealer the other day to test drive on and i confirmed what i noticed in the pictures i've seen that the vents over the engine will allow lots of water to get in during a rainstorm or washing the vehicle. Is this much water getting into the engine going to cause any harm? I doubt that Lotus would have designed it that way if it wasn't ok and i have seen other sports car designed with similar venting. I just cannot believe that an engine can get that wet and be fine.

[Miguel]

Should be just fine, they been making Elises for a long time and they have been driven all over England, and I bet they get more rain than we do

One thing when you park under heavy rain, or you wash you car, try to park on level ground or pointing down on a slope, there has been some reports of water getting in the back trunk, maybe a bad seal since mine seems to seal just fine and it has been under rain several times, not on very heavy rain because I wont drive it if there are flash flood warnings.

[alfamsp]

Thank you for the info. All i gotta do is sit back now and wait till the car reaches the port and goes through that whole process.

[Dave T]

I had an 1971 S2 Europa for 17 years with the same setup - open mesh air vents above the engine, with no problems driving thru rainstorms, after washing it, etc. I also had a 1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo with open engine vents above the engine with the same experience - no problems for 13 years.

I woudn't worry about it.

[stringbean]

Well, I got stuck in a torrential Southern thunderstorm the other day. The car sat in the storm for 30 minutes or so and was quite difficult to start. It usually lights off immediatly, but I had to crank it for 15-20 seconds. It was parked slightly nose-low, so perhaps water got into some of the electrical componants mounted on the firewall. Anyone else had this problem?

[Troy_Audio]

Thanks i was wondering the same..
In Prescott,AZ we get a Monsoon near the end of the summer & it really comes down..
Like you cant see across the street..
This can happin in 5min & last 15min or so..
very unpredicable

Peace Troy

[lstice]

JUst took my 06 Elise through the car wash and ended up with a trunk full of water. Ruined a lot of Girl Scout cookies I was transporting for the wife! Haven't let her know yet. No engine cut out or starting problems, just lots of water in the trunk. Had to remove the carpet and liners to dry out.

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by lstice

JUst took my 06 Elise through the car wash and ended up with a trunk full of water. Ruined a lot of Girl Scout cookies I was transporting for the wife! Haven't let her know yet. No engine cut out or starting problems, just lots of water in the trunk. Had to remove the carpet and liners to dry out.

You aren't supposed to bring an Elise into an automatic car wash. See Page 95 of your owner's manual. There can be more damage from the car wash than just water in the trunk. The car wash section of the owner's manual starts out with the following:

NOTICE: Lotus recommends hand washing of the painted
bodywork. The car is a speciality sports vehicle not intended
to go through an automatic car wash. Automatic car washing
machines and jet wash facilities may have a detrimental effect
on the paint film and the soft top. Use of automatic car washes
will invalidate the terms of the Limited Warranty.

[Yeti]

The dealer said that the new car delivery takes a couple of hours. I'll be interested to see what they say about it.

If the weather is good I am planning on picking up my car in NJ on Saturday!

[RegGuy]

Yeti, which dealer? I'm in Hopewell, you going to Sports and Specialist? I drove to and from work for six months past that place before I finally weakened.

Just curious.

[BryanPendleton]

Originally Posted by lstice

JUst took my 06 Elise through the car wash and ended up with a trunk full of water. Ruined a lot of Girl Scout cookies I was transporting for the wife! Haven't let her know yet. No engine cut out or starting problems, just lots of water in the trunk. Had to remove the carpet and liners to dry out.

You took your Elise, or any car for that matter, through an automatic car wash? Arrrrg! Those things destroy paint. Stay away from them. They often use polymers (plastics) for washing your paint, not exactly the easiest on paint. Not to mention dirt, debris and residue on the wash spools, which can potentially be even more dangerous to your paint, as what in those spools can be harder than your clear coat finish. Do your paint a favor and hand wash with cotton terry.

[lstice]

I guess I should clarify. I took it to the car wash, not through an automatic. I have read the manual and was careful to keep the high pressure water at least 3 feet from the paint and starshield. Even at that distance, a significant amount of water went into the truck space. Has anyone looked at how to adjust the latch on the trunk to pull it down a little tighter.

[jorhodes]

I believe that the water that comes through the various slots that provide air to the engine is mostly supposed to go into drain channels that surround both the engine compartment and the trunk and then dreain through a few small holes. Two of these holes are near the forward end of the trunk compartment and one is in the center just forward of the trunk into the engine compartment. When I wash the car with the back lower than the front (and this was tne case for my normal car washing location), then when I open the engine compartment lid to dry things out there, I find quite a bit of water drains back into the trunk and also the drain channels are rather full of water. So I think the car should be level and even then, if the water inflow rate from the hose is too great, the drain holes will not carry away all the water and some will end up in the trunk.

I have had relatively little problem with the trunk getting wet in normal Seattle gentle rain.

John from Bellevue

[leebagley]

I love my Elise; it is my daily driver and I have put 20,000 miles on it since I bought it six months ago. However, from the moment I first drove it, I was concerned about how rough the engine ran.

I had owned my Elise for one month in January of this year when I experienced problems similar to yours: occasional lack of power, rough idle, misfiring, missing, running on three cylinders but when it devolved into running on two cylinders and the engine malfunction lamp stayed on solid, I knew it was serious. I am quick like that.

To make a long, sad story short and sweet, I limped to my dealer 200 miles away and he immediately discovered that the spark plugs had failed because they were sitting in pools of water. The insulators had all cracked wide open and the plugs were shorting out.

He explained that the spark plugs sit on top of the engine in a depression. Water enters the engine compartment when it rains and fills up the spark plug depression. The plugs eventually fail because they are not designed to operate well underwater.

He changed the spark plugs and the engine ran better than it ever had; those insulators may have already been cracked when I bought the car because it had sat outside on the dealer's lot for a few months.

Check the insulators on your spark plugs.

Then, and forever after, park your elise on a slight slope with the left side of the car lower than the right side. The trough that the spark plugs sit in is open on the left end. By parking in this manner, the water which enters the spark plug depression can drain out.

Just another British idiosyncracy; and I'll bet you thought you were buying a car that you could use outdoors!