Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

hi there,

Not sure if this is a simple problem, but my headlights are closing (72 Sprint) when i accelerate in any gear. Literally anything other than very mild acceleration is causing them to close up... and on lifting the throttle, they pop open again.

Any suggestions for cause/cure very welcome.

Best

Will

One thing that could cause this is the one-way valve vibrating to engine revs(mine did) a quick solution is to put another in line with it.
John

Check the one way valve, its screwed into the end of the manifold then the vacuum pipe goes onto it. It should only pass vacuum one way.
Brian

Check out the "Headlamp" article on the Golden Gate Lotus website.
www.gglotus.org

Then go to "TECH" and check in the "ELAN" Section.

Kiyoshi
GGLC Webguy

Hmmm--Sprints theoretically should have the Failsafe System, which means they should OPEN when vacuum lost. Regardless - I had similar symptoms (except opened upon slight acceleration, and my one-way valve innards had vibrated loose. I simply unscrewed one end of the pencil shaped valve, put a dab of lock-tight onth inner threads and tightened the inner valve body a few turns until vacuum operation was restored. Voila! My valve was purchased from Bean -so if yours is different - look for a similar adjustment.
Good luck
Paul Zimmerman
65 S2 with converted Failsafe headlights

Not sure about Sprints having fail safe lights. Mine is a very late 72 UK spec and its always been non fail safe. Maybe it was just for export markets?

M100 wrote: Mine is a very late 72 UK spec and its always been non fail safe.

Same here,mine is October 72 and also a non-failsafe.
Brian.

Thanks for all your advice - will have a go at the weekend!

Best

Will