Eclat info / new to forum

[mat grant]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum - I've just bought a lotus eclat 521 with a few electrical problems. The windscreen wiper doesn't work, the reverse and brake lights don't work as well. The washer is working, so the volts must be reaching the switch on the steering column.

I've got the workshop manual and it has an elite wiring diagram, but any advice would be appreciated.

Also the pop up headlights don't go down any more, they did when I got it, but i pulled the headlamp flasher while they were down, and they came up and now don't go down at all.

Other than that it's a great car, I'm hoping to gradually restore the car, but I really need to fix these electrical problems first.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Mat.

[terry]

Just a thought, there is a position on the light stalk "O" I think, on the Excel, so that when you flash the lights, they stay up for servicing etc.

You may have inadvertantly found this!!!


Terry

Other electrical faults will follow normal route, check fuses, check earths, then use meter or light to follow lives.

[lambert.john]

Because of the glass fibre body, many electrical "faults" on these cars are down to poor earthing, so this is generally my first port of call. The pop-up lights on the elite/eclat, however, are not electrically driven; they are vacuum driven and notoriously unreliable. Each "pod" has a valve behind it, in the vacuum piping circuit, which fails after a while. These can usually be cleaned out to give some extra service but if they need replacing they are horrendously expensive. I paid over £90 each for a couple several years ago. One tip - if you get one to work you can pipe both pods through the same valve. The lights may not respond quite as quickly as with two, but you save £90!