The Lotus Grand Tourers

Thanks Pete, that's good to know they can be done separately with no extra hassle. It would be peace of mind to get the belt swapped at this stage.

I did my last belt change at the 5 year point. I'm a constant user of my Excel and can do up to 5000 miles a year. I monitor the tension regularly and had confidence that a belt on a constant in use car would last 20 - 30000 miles. Hence as I approached 20000+ miles after 5 years or so, I did the s...

I think most people go to at least 3 years and some 4 or 5. Not difficult to do. Remove bonnet and there is good access. Make sure you put the tensioner on the right way round. You haven't filled in the details of your car and different tensioners were fitted to early cars. Good video on how to cha...

Hello All, My 1984 Excel is due for a timing belt change next week. It's officially overdue as it's been 4 years since the last change, I've took my eye off the ball there :shock: or maybe the time has just flown by. Although when ordering the new belt I spoke with Steve at SJ sports he mentioned he...

Thanks everyone for the great comments! I think you have helped identify it for sure. Andy's picture from the car for sale (nice car btw) was a big help - and funnily I'd come across the majcd213 blog picture also earlier this evening - and was going to post it back here to ask you all about it !! I...

Hi Pete and Peter! Many thanks for the rapid replies! That's interesting and gives me some hope - I'll try and get a picture when the car is on the lift. One extra thing the tester said was that a 8 inch (i think he said 8") plate bolted over the existing area should fix it - if that fits the anchor...

Hello All, My car (1984 Excel) went in for it's NCT today (the Irish equivalent of the MOT :o ) and it passed on all areas except for a comment of "Advanced corrosion on nearside rear cross member - integrity of the body is affected". The tester seemed to think it would be a simple fix by bolting on...

Thanks Bash and David, It seems that hopefully there should be enough slack in the cable and that gives me a bit more reassurance that I shouldn't disconnect anything! I think I will go for LEDs and had read that polarity is important so will bear that in mind (thanks Dave). Out of curiosity has any...

Thanks Richard, mine are Smiths instruments. Would T5 be correct bulb size do you know? That's good to know the speedo cable has plenty of slack I can see where it's clipped in on the engine and will release that to help things along. So then it's just pull the dash forward carefully and I should be...

Hello All, 1st timer needing to get into the dash, although managed ok with centre console access, so hoping will survive! On my 84 Excel I noticed the bulb that should illuminate the rev counter is out and needs replacing. Is this an easy enough task? From past posts it seems rough process is there...

Hi, Just to update and say everything now seems fine with the wiper! It's sweeping across the full windscreen in a way it has never before (not straying anywhere near the body!) and wish I'd looked at this sooner... I did initially examine the spline and there were bits of debris in there as Pete me...

Thanks for the replies lads, much appreciated. I will take a look later and let you know.

I'm hoping it may just need tighten but if the splines have gone I think I read of someone who regrooved with a dremmel - not sure if that's a common fix for this issue?

Cheers

Hello All, My 84 Excel wiper is misbehaving currently and not staying on the glass, sometimes straying a good few inches on the bonnet and then when stopping it's rest position is also then wrong too. I'm looking for some advice please. I seem to recall an older thread where someone had the same iss...

Thanks very much for the detail, that's very helpful

Cheers

Thanks for the advice Chris. Are Nip / Liner issues rare enough to not have to generally think about?