Mysterae

If Lotus could electrify my Esprit for £20k I'd be first in the line. Sadly I think it'll cost a lot more than that!

That's the thing with working on Esprit's, they just keep giving!

I notice that when applying brake fluid to the bore, wasn't sure if it was the seal that was biased or the grove in the bore. If anyone knows the right way round that would be good to know! Not done anything since, just waiting on some new brake pads.

Bumping a thread as I'm looking for some rear pads that I can source locally. Is this nugget of info still correct? ECP have some Pagid pads I could pick up but the images of the pads compared to my EBC pads don't look to be the same.

My favourite cheese is Applewood, yum. I don't like stinky blue cheese and I certainly wouldn't be eating any cheese-fly poop cheeze. Spoiler for the weak of stomach:

Don't blame you @Bibs. I think these travel companies have deteriorated since getting back to work after covid. I don't know if it's the staff, management or both. I wouldn't want to be travelling by public freight right now.

I found some time today . Removed the caliper and the piston from it, which came out a lot easier than before. Used some 2000 wet & dry folded and rubbed down on itself to make it a higher grit as it's all I had to hand. Some fine honing and the piston is looking good. Did the same to the bore of the caliper which although an improvement I didn't want to take too much off so some marks remain which I don't think are detrimental. The internal seal is removed in the image below. Checked the disc's trueness using my cheap-ass dial gauge I have about ~0.1mm out of true, that's not including areas of 'corrosion' where the brake pads affixed themselves to the disc when the car was parked up for ages. I'd say that okay. The aforementioned corrosion on the disc from where the pads sat for (far) too long. The is below the surface of the disc. All assembled, bled and tested with the brake pedal and hand brake. Ignore the cooked state of the brake pad, I'll get to that later! Initially it's free as a bird but then it does snatch after applying the brake pedal, but a slight movement of the caliper and it's free again. Another test drive and...it's still damn too hot! Compared to it's off-side neighbour: TL;DR - The piston and caliper are definitely no longer seized, I think the problem is now the brake pads. They are worn to such a state that they are pulling the moving part of the caliper off true not allowing it to return properly and thus creates the friction and heat between the disc and the pads. I could swap the pads from the other side to prove it (and give the other side some gas mark 9 for 30 minutes treatment too) or just get some new pads. Does anyone know what pads are equivalent so I can pick them up locally rather than paying the cost of the pads in delivery?

Thanks Andy. I've not put any lubrication on the sliding mechanism of the the caliper as it's not mentioned to do so in the service notes which I thought odd. It's cleaned up well and it was hard resisting the temptation to put a bit of copper grease on the 'sliders', perhaps some Ceratec would be better. The disc(s) are practically brand new, probably less than 1k miles on them, still have some of the 'blue' as they are supplied on the edge. However, that's no guarantee they haven't been warped by the heat, so something to check. Need to find my dial gauge... I only cleaned the piston and bore of the caliper, lightly rubbing with a plastic tool so as not to mar the surfaces. Then assembled back together with a coating of brake fluid. The handbrake mech is lubed up and working well. I'll strip it down again and check these areas once more. It's getting the time!

Thanks John, jacked it up and there is no play in the wheel at all, left to right, up and down. Incidentally I can turn the wheel by hand now (handbrake off ) but it's certainly not freewheeling, I can feel the pads biting on the disc but not enough for it to bind now. The thermal images from last night's run show the brake disc being quite hot (around 121 - 147C) which although not ideal is 100C degrees less than before I refurbed the caliper. Ambient temperatures were warmer last night and the run longer than before so there is some improvement. The source if the heat is definitely the brake pads on the disc: The pads have taken a beating in this and are about approx 5mm more worn than the offside pads.

Finally got round to removing the caliper and inspecting the lines. Externally the brake lines look okay but you can never tell their condition inside. Following @Bibs tip on releasing the bleed nipple there was no change and the piston was indeed stuck in the caliper. Removed the caliper and cleaned out the brake fluid and injected WD40 in to ease any corrosion and worked the handbrake mechanism and that eventually got some movement out of the piston. Wound it out as much as I could with a screwdriver then used compressed air to pop the piston out. Pop! Always worried I'm going to catch my fingers. That would hurt. It's not in bad condition, a few bits of corrosion but these cleaned up well. Followed the service notes and put it back together. I've had this compressed air powered bleeder for years, it's awesome for one man brake bleeding. Went out for a 10 mile test drive and although the brake is no longer seized, the wheel is still getting quite hot, a lot hotter than it's axle neighbour (I'll post some thermal images tomorrow). I know the exhaust manifold and turbo are on the side of the hotter wheel but I wouldn't think it would have that much affect. Wondering if the wheel bearing has been damaged from running so hot previously.

@RobinB5 no it's not a FLIR, it's a HIKMICRO B20. I looked in to FLIR as I've used them in the past (as seen in my avatar) but they are so expensive for the same or lesser features. You have have to spend many thousands with FLIR to get anything similar to the HIKMICRO B20. For example the HIKMICRO's B20 IR sensor is 256 x 192 and has a refresh rate of 25Hz compared to most FLIR's antiquated 9Hz.

Never thought of that, thanks. The overhaul info that @fjmuurling posted says that the hoses should be replaced every 10 years, who does that?! Makes a lot of sense, as the overhaul info says bits can break off internally and clog up the pipe or caliper. Good tip @Sparky, thanks. I tried to turn the piston as per the service notes using a 1/4 ratchet in the slot but it wouldn't budge. Many thanks for posting that info @fjmuurling, there's a lot more info in that than in the Lotus service notes! In summary: - replace the flexible hoses if more than 10 years old - going to change all four as I'm sure they are the original ones. - check the hand brake is not stiff or seized - done this and it's okay. - separate the aluminium housing from the steel frame - interesting one this as I didn't do this when I removed the piston from the other caliper. It's marked as very important and looks to be a world of pain as the spring and pin will likely to be goosed a long time ago. Anyway, I'll try this using the wedge method mentioned in the document. - interesting that it mentions to use compressed air to eject the piston if it's still too tight, which is what Lotus service notes say and what I did before. - try putting the piston in the bore without the seal, it should spin freely and wind itself down as long as the bore is circular (but put the seal back in afterwards!). - when putting the piston back in ensure it's the right way up so the groove for bleeding is upwards. A few jobs for later then.

Putin will be a bit jealous of that table.

The latest thing to stand in my way of getting my Esprit back on the road (not including fuel prices!) is a seized rear near side brake caliper. It certainly bites, just doesn't let go resulting in a very hot disc, pads and wheel. Got my trusty thermal camera out (new toy ) to see how hot and compare it to the off side rear. (First image is thermal only, second image is a fusion of thermal and actual camera). The brake disc is 251C and the wheel is 104C, a bit too toasty. Compared to the other side: Yeah, a lot cooler. I renewed the caliper seals about 6 years or so but I can't remember if I removed the piston from the near side caliper at that time (no pictures), I certainly did for the off side: Think I'll strip it down and have a look at the condition of the piston before deciding on sending it away. An upgrade to the brakes is definitely needed.

Heat shrink tubing perhaps?!

Here was the first evidence of mice I found, in the passenger door. I removed the door card to fix the door handle which had stopped opening from inside the car. Not poo thankfully, just lots of chewed up foam.

The other half already calls the Esprit the Wedge of Blue Cheese already! Didn't think the mice in the area would come round for a tasting though. I think this is the only quick option, just thinking about how to easy it would be to put the mesh back on to make it right, or perhaps not at all? The mesh isn't that atheistically pleasing anyway but it does have the purpose of stopping most objects from hitting the radiator. As @NG5 says below, I do not want to be messing about with oil coolers, I've the seen the trouble folk on here have had with them. Not forgetting the myriad of rusty fixings as @tomcattom mentions. The top hose clamp is visible and a bit rusty but that can be busted off if I can just get to it - see the top of the image below. I'm currently running without a chargecooler circuit, fuse removed from the new PNM pump; not the best situation but at least still moving.

So I had just finished installing my new electric chargecooler pump from PNM and started topping it up with water, only to hear the sound of water splashing on the floor at the front of the car. Fearing the worst of a leaking radiator I had a look to see if I could see the actual leak, which to be fair is quite difficult with the radiators all packaged together like they are. However, I found the leak and it isn't the radiator thankfully(?) Quite hard to see due to the camera's autofocus, but look closer.... Bloody mice have chewed through the hose! I've noticed the presence of mice in other places but it's been mostly foam they've gone for. Unlike before when the Esprit was in a nice (but tight) garage it's now parked in a metal shed that's very easy for mice to get in to and I haven't used the car in almost 3 years, this has gone unchecked. So, is this a strip down of the front end required or is a there a method I can use to ease the pain?

Murder most foul... it's mandatory to have the sound on!

I paid £1.80 a litre for diesel the other day there. I swear this is the petrochem companies making up for the lack of fuel used during the pandemic when (almost) everyone was at home. It's a scandal.

That exhaust looks lovely. Always toyed with making my SE dual exhaust and despite having a decat pipe already fitted, putting a cat back in. Hope you find the reason for the problems.

Yes, @Jacques I refurbed my header tanks years ago but as you say it's the insides that are rusty and not worth salvaging anymore.

Cheers guys, I'll give PNM a call in the morning. I'll ask if they do the twin header tank too, SJ's version is £195 ex vat.

I need a new electric chargecooler pump, does anybody sell a kit including the pump and blanking plug? I thought PNM did but can't find it on their website. I need some piping for it too. A new chargecooler twin header tank would be a good idea too.