S4 Oil Cooler Hose Replacement Options

[S4-94]

Hi

Does anyone have a pic of the drivers side oil cooler on an Esprit S4 in situ as I’m just trying to understand whether I could fit a connector between the cooler and the hose connection?

Thanks

Karl

[Chillidoggy]

There’s no connector. The female hose union screws onto the male union of the cooler. It does however have a locking nut which screws down on each male cooler union to hold it in place.

You can check the Lotus Parts Manual for an illustration.

 

https://www.bellandcolvill.co.uk/deroure?qs=1&preview=1&make=1&model=15&groupid=1578

[S4-94]

Thanks Chillidoggy.

I know there’s no additional connector but I was wondering if there was room to put one in? That way, if the hose needed replacing later, I’d be able to get a steel connector off another steel connector whereas steel straight onto the aluminium never comes off without damage.

[tomcattom]

I presume your referring to the lower hose union? There is room to fit an elbow adapter on that one for sure, mine had one fitted when I got it, for reasons I could never make out.

There isn't a great deal of vertical space between the cooler union and the lower corner undertray when fitted, so you'd need to take care of the size of connector you chose to use.

Here is the standard fitment on mine, without the undertrays fitted in these photos.

[tomcattom]

This is the elbow that was fitted to the bottom of my RH cooler when I got it.

I don't have any good photos of it before I removed it, but you can just about make our how the hose was exiting the cooler at a 90 degree angle from where it should have been and this had necessitated the previous owner butchering a notch in the rad tray to allow the hose to reach the elbow. The hose should normally exit through that "U" shaped cut out in the undertray just to the right of where the hose is in this picture.

[S4-94]

Thanks for this. That’s a huge help. I wonder if the person who fitted that elbow had the same as me?! Either way, those photos are a massive help so thank you.

Once you’d changed them, how did you then reprime the system with oil? I’ve heard stories about oil starvation if the system has been drained so how did you refill?

Thanks again!

[fjmuurling]

Disconnect the hoses from the sandwich plate and fill the coolers/hoses from from that end. Keep the open ends as high as possible.

[Chillidoggy]

Why do you you want to fit a steel connector? Is it to drain the coolers every oil change?

[tomcattom]

17 hours ago, S4-94 said:

I wonder if the person who fitted that elbow had the same as me?! Either way, those photos are a massive help so thank you.

Not sure if I've missed another thread somewhere, because I'm not sure what problem you have that requires a connector. In my case the hose was okay and went back onto the new cooler that I bought for that side. I can only assume the elbow was fitted to cooler on my car after the accident the car sustained under a previous owner in 1999, but why they felt it was needed I don't know.

17 hours ago, S4-94 said:

Once you’d changed them, how did you then reprime the system with oil? I’ve heard stories about oil starvation if the system has been drained so how did you refill?

I did as @fjmuurling suggests and filled the oil cooler circuit as best I could from both hose unions at the sandwich plate on the engine. I couldn't get the hoses high enough to fully fill the system, so after running the engine it effectively self bled the oil coolers and I needed to put another litre of oil in the engine.

In my case I had to wait for the engine to get fully up to temperature before it bled because I have an aftermarket thremostatic oil plate fitted instead of the "open" one that comes fitted from factory and had to wait for the oil to get hot enough to open the stat for oil to flow into the coolers.