Replace windscreen washer bottle?

[Hal]

Good morning - I have a leak from my winscreen/lights washer bottle.

There are inconclusive descriptions on access to the bottle on the internet. Some have removed the front bumper, others say it should only be necessary to remove the belly plate. The Lotus workshop allocated time appears to be 0.4 hours for the work, so from this I read that it is only a belly plate removal…

I need the car for Wednesday though, and no time to faff around, but if just the belly plate, I can do this.

Has anyone actually done this work and will confirm if it can be done with just belly plate removal please?

[exeterjeep]

We changed the washer fluid level sensor just be removing the front under tray, removing the old one sensor, getting a bit wet while fitting the new one. The problem I had was the the sensor was saying the fluid was low when it was not.

In your case it may depend where the leak is exactly?

[Hal]

Thanks!

yes, I do not know if it is a hose, clip or even cracked botttle - but if it is only lowering the plate, then I can assess. If it needs a new hose or bottle, then no big deal to put the plate back to use the car Wednesday.

Again, thanks

[21gg]

You can get to it via the wheel well. Remove the wheel, liner and unbolt the cooler if you have one. Most likely the seal round the pump. The early cars are easier as the pump is on the outside of the tank. The later cars it's between the tank and chassis, so you have to unbolt the tank.

[Hal]

This is good to know - you obviously have done this, so I shall try through the wheel arch before removal of the belly plate. Thanks!

The urgency has gone now as my Elan is immobile and hogging my indoor space. As it is raining here all day, I shall tackle the job over the weekend if it is dry.

Thanks for the pointer to the possible cause of the leak.