Help re:Lotus Elise 1.8 K-Series losing water

[Simon]

Not straightforward 75 or ZT stuff but still within the same family because the Lotus Elise does use the Rover K-Series 1.8 engine, albeit a different cooling system layout and other differences but a 1.8 K-Series nevertheless.

Anyhoos. My brothers Lotus Elise is loosing water. He's not that technically/mechanically adept but has managed to change his spark plugs and is getting better at this sort of stuff. I'd thought the wealth of information and knowledge available in these forums could give me and him some pointers on where to start looking and what to check first. He tells me there is no mayo under the oil cap (yet) but he did here some odd 'gurgling' noises today that he hasn't heard before.

Any help much appreciated and I'll pass it on to him. :)

[Pete]

Without wanting to come over all Corporal Fraser, Lotus were never much kop with engines. Even when it was from someone else they could find a way to make a good mill turn bad. Takes skill, that does........

There's a few places where you may get some decent tips, and I've listed a couple here. www.elises.co.uk appears to contain some info and there's an faq site too called elise-faq.info (note no www in the URL) which has some info on cooling. One fault appears to be the radiator becoming holed and leaking, which may absolve the engine of any blame.

[Simon]

Thanks for the info Pete - we'll take a ganders over those sites and see what we can come up with. :)