Steve4012

Hi. I have read that members here have taken a look at their carbs to check basic operation without taking them apart or refurbing by taking a cover off to check bowls, floats and needles. Is that right? There is never that much more detail about this procedure so if this is possible would someone elaborate as to the procdure? Many thanks.

Less than £150 for 85 turbo. Really pleased with that and included free legal cover also. Thanks tlf for sorting this out.

Probably the longer I own the car and learn how to maintain and fix it'll move towards diy. If I can balance that with a 2 or 3 yearly service at a garage to get a stamp then that probably gives the best of both. I do like your spreadsheet though Daniel and I'm sure that'll hold up to scrutiny well if and when a car is for sale.

It's fairly steep but not too bad. Enough to warrant leaving it in gear as well though

Hi. Just trying to work out how to balance doing some diy servicing vs having it done at a specialist. I'll be doing around 1000 miles per year in '85 Turbo. The main pro for diy is cost saving as well as the satisfaction of working and maintaining your own car but the downside is the lack of a stamp in the service book. I'm thinking a diy basic A type service at 12 months then get a B or C service at a specialist at 24 month intervals and have the cambelt done at the same time. The other possibilty is that for a 31 year old car the A,B,C type services no longer apply and every 2 years have a specialist do the cambelt and any other aspects that are required due to elapsed time as the mileage will be minimal, as well as diy oil change etc every 12 months. How do you deal with your servicing?

Thanks for nice comments. The black under valance will have to go but I'll probably stick with the black bumpers as I quite like them. Not planning to sell so doesn't necessarily need to be 100% factory original. As for the chickens... er no but I'm sure my daughters would like that!

I've been learning through this forum for a while and now I've finally got my hands on a 1985 Turbo Esprit I thought I'd say hi! Although I've discovered an oil leak from somewhere around the sump I'm delighted with the car. The previous owner painted the bumpers black and although it would have come from the factory with them the same colour as the body in pearlescent white, I quite like them like that so I'll leave them as they are for now. Painting the lower section of the rear bumper black as well though seems a bit strange. Anyway, I know pics go down well here so here they are! Cheers, Steve.

OK Thanks. I've been trying to buy my newly acquired '85 Turbo for for more than 2 months and have finally completed the sale and have it safely tucked up in my garage at last. During that time, I've been busy reading through the fantastic resource that is this forum. Firstly the cambelt has just been done last week by the previous owner so no worries with that. The other thing that is mentioned a lot is the fuel lines as per the topic of this thread. Mine appear to be original with the crimp style connectors rather than jubilee clips or similar and should probably be replaced soon. I've seen on Ebay fuel line and of course SJ/ Lotus will sell this so just wondering the best route to purchase and wondered what you guys have done and whether rubber or braided. Any input to particular fuel lines that are more prone to failure than others would be appreciated or is it just a case of looking at the parts list and replacing all? Really looking forward to getting to know and learn about the car so will be asking for a lot of questions! I'm in Surrey near J7 M25 if anyone's close by?! I'll post some pics in the intro section later tonight or tomorrow

Hi @Chinsterb did you end up getting fuel lines from sj or other? I'm taking delivery of an '85 turbo esprit tomorrow and this will be one of the first jobs to do so interested what you found the best solution to be.