Water water everywhere......arse

[Ferg]

Thankfully this happened in traffic on the way home tonight and not on the way on holiday in the car tomorrow.

I'm losing coolant badly. It looks to be coming from the union of the radiator hose to the pipe that goes through the chassis extrusion on the way to the front of the car.
There isn't a noticeable leak when idling, but if I rev the engine I get a large outpouring of water out from the chassis rail. Now as I can't actually see the union I can't say for sure it's this but it's my best estimate.

When I looked at the manual is says theres an access hole but I just couldn't find it before I ran out ot light.

So I have two basic questions that I would appreciate some help with:

1. How on earth do you access the jubilee clip on this pipe union to tighten or undo it?

2. If there has been enough pressure to burst this, is it indicative of a bigger problem?

All input appreciated.

[campbell]

PM sent.

[Ferg]

BTW I've just decided to park the car up as it was surplus to holiday requirements anyway. I'll deal with it when I get back. Any tips and advice in the meantime would be great!

[robin]

The access hole is in fact just the end of the chassis rail. Be very careful as the chassis is not filed down after being cut, so has some very sharp edges & the rivets used to bond the bits of chassis protrude into the chassis rail and are sharp as, well, nails. You go from underneath, putting your hand up and then through 90 degrees into the chassis rail. If you're under the car, the access starts a few inches behind the point where the rubber water pipe goes into the chassis rail.

Depending on the age of the car, what might have happened is one of these rivets has eaten into the coolant rail itself. However, as I seem to remember it's a sport135 and thus at least a '99 the pipe fitted should be the later type with a kink in it to avoid the rivet Even so, it might be this that's bust, just less likely (10+ years of corrosion ...).

You'll need a wee 1/4" ratchet with a 6mm socket on it, put your hand up into the end of the chassis rail and feel around to find the clip, put the socket onto the clip's tightening screw and if you're lucky you might get enough room to get 1 or 2 clicks of the ratchet. I'll tell you now, it is just about one of the worst jobs on the S1 elise.

If the coolant rail itself is ruptured, you need to remove the front clam and cut a hole in the crash structure with a hole saw so that you can pull the pipe out the front. This is probably the second worst job in an elise and involves undoing the jubilee clip (see above).

Best of luck - BTW, if you're about I think I'm going to head up to Tut's this week to collect my package, so will be able to take your's up at the same time if you haven't made alternate arrangements - there will be somebody here all day if you want to drop it off, you have my number.

Cheers,
Robin

[tut]

That was the start of the momentous tow over the mountains when yours went on Stelvio 2004 Robin.

Remember feeding yourself and John beers in the Hotel's underground car park whilst you did the repair. Was it metalset that you used to plug the hole? Did you later replace the pipe or just leave it? If i remember correctly you also fixed Rob's car the same day, and did some work on mine as well. The latter is a safe bet as that happened everyday.

tut

[robin]

LOL. Yes, we bent the pipe to spec and then fixed with some liquid metal type stuff. The pipe stayed that way right up until someone spaded the car into the embankment somewhere in Stirling ...

And yes, we changed a wheel bearing or two on your car (actually you did most of that yourself) and Rob fixed a leak on his remote stat too ...

Cheers,
Robin

[r10crw]

Only for future reference, just removed coolant pipes from a 99 elise, this chassis had a small hole to get a socket through and onto the jubilee. Made changing the pipes very easy as using a ratchet blind inside the sill would have been a complete barsteward

[Ferg]

Got under the car tonight after getting back. What a difference not having to rush away on holiday makes.

The cluprit is a broken Jubilee Clip. It wasn't rotten, just split and the water hose has come off the tube to the front of the car but is butting up against it enough for the water to not leak except when under pressure. An odd component failure I reckon, but I'm grateful there's nothing more seriously wrong and it's a cheap fix.

Just need to get a replacement now and see if I can fit it without losing much water!

[campbell]

Phew (sort of!)

[Ferg]

Well it's fixed. Bit of a bugger for access, smaller hands would have helped. Thankfully as Craig mentioned there was a hole for a small socket (it's a standard 99T Elise). I wish the hose was a little longer though as you don't get much onto the pipe, enough to be secure, but as your pushing a hose against a pipe that apears to have a bit of freedom to move it's difficult to gain any depth on it. And a win for the inner pikey as I managed to fit the jubilee clip without breaking the join so didn't need to lose the coolant.

Took her for a test run and not a drip so thats a result in my book. I think if I do the rad hoses at the front sometime I might try and move a bit more pipe rearward to get more pipe inserted into the rear hose.

[campbell]

Bravo Ferg, now that you know how to do it you can come by and rescue mine when it lets go. It's a 99T as well

[Alistair]

Took her for a test run and not a drip so thats a result in my book. I think if I do the rad hoses at the front sometime I might try and move a bit more pipe rearward to get more pipe inserted into the rear hose.

Stuff like this is normally censored is it not?

[Ferg]