RobinB5

Eric, After a lifetime of wanting one, and a year of looking for one, I went for an S4 last summer, only because an S4s was a bit out of my price range. Truth be told I prefer the angled styling of the Giugiaro Esprits, but the S4 seems to be a more mechanically mature car, goes like the clappers, hasn't given me any major maintenance headaches and each time I drive it I love it more. I echo @Chillidoggy's comment re. the brake conversion. Good luck in your search, you won't regret buying one

Ahh, that'd be it

Mine are yellow as well. Have we done something wrong @Barrykearley?

£4k per coin for the gold ones! wtf? Ordered the cheapy £13 ones instead

Try saying 'Pay attention 007' not in Desmond Llewelyn's voice

Can't get more random than the French advertising Orangina.. If you ever doubted a goat couldn't be sexy...

Carefully.

A Garrett electrolytic carburetor would solve all these problems. Shame it's theoretically impossible.

More info on this fascinating subject : https://www.iflscience.com/brain/people-are-weirded-out-to-discover-that-some-people-dont-have-an-internal-monologue/ Personally I flit between both states (though never as Captain Picard :))

Being somewhat inexperienced when it comes to car maintenance, let alone Esprit maintenance, quite happy with having done the following without issue and not many expletives: Replaced door switch, interior and door lights now come on when door is open Lubricated the electric windows, no more fearing that they'll grind to a halt when opening or closing Hunted down the cause of the 15A brake light fuse blowing using a multimeter and the circuit diagram (a systematic approach actually worked) Fixed a loose rattly exhaust mount Sure, for those who remove engines and do rebuilds etc. the above might seem trivial, but hey, I'm happy today

@AndyPG, I bought a USB-ALDL cable from @internets , good service and got Espritmon up and running from a Win10 machine with only USB ports with no probs.

Well the short was definitely due to the CHMSL connection. The struts weren't the original ones, these had metal ball joints that ground nicely. Original struts would have been insulated from the mounting bracket, allowing current to pass through it to the other end and on to the center lights. Indicators coming on with the brakes was just a dodgy connection. Resat all bulbs and fiddled a bit, problem solved. Live and learn! Fault was intermittent due to the crappy loose spade connector btw.

Progress - of a kind.. Detaching the spade connector on the bottom of the gas strut (for the CHMSL that isn't fitted on this S4) stops the short and the rear brake lights work fine when the ignition is off, but the rear indicators come on (not flashing) at the same time though, and quite dim. With the gas strut spade connector on, resistance between the non-supply side of the fuse connection to gnd is 0.8 ohm, with the connector removed, it's 1.8 ohm. At 12V, and the spade connector on, the 0.8 ohm might cause a 15A fuse to blow (which it does), but not a 30A one (which it does as well). Any pointers as to why the rear indicator lights come on with the brake lights with the gas strut connector removed? Anything else I should look at to further diagnose?

Decided to first detach some connectors, see if it could be hunted down. Detached the rear lamp clusters individually, nope. Detached the entire rear lamp cluster, nope. As the ABS isn't there anymore, will remove the 2 wires that go to it from the brake switch and see if that has any affect...

Will check! Thank you.

@sailorbob, ABS unit has been removed, replaced with brake servo conversion.

Right, considering I don't really know what I'm doing, I've done the following: Checked for pinched wires. Nothing looks pinched, though to be honest I've never seen a pinched wire. Remove all 4 bulbs that light when braking, fuse goes pop when brake pedal depressed. Put all bulbs back, remove the brake switch, short its female connector with a bit of wire, fuse goes pop. Running out of fuses. Will order some new bulbs, but they light up fine when the lights/fog lights are on. As you might have guessed, I'm towards the 'lower end' of car maintenance experience. Comments and advice welcome, as is your patience

@Sparky, considering the 'pretty woman' brake light conversion has been done, might this have any bearing on what bulbs to check?

Removed the brake light switch, new 15A fuse, Hazards fine. Brake light switch back in, depress brake pedal, pop. Will see if the new brake pedal switch cures things once it arrives. Hopefully will be £3.93p well spent (though how a dodgy switch can cause >15A is beyond me, having said that I'm particularly inexperienced in these matters...)

Thanks all! First off, noob mistake, the 2 fog light buttons are working fine. There was a 30A fuse in slot 15 (Hazards and brake lights) that had blown. Should be a 15A. Replaced with a 15A, Hazards worked for a bit, then that fuse blew. Maybe the brake light switch (on the brake pedal) that has been on its last legs for a bit (couple of new ones on order from SJS, to be safe). Also read somewhere that pressing the Hazard button on/off multiple times can have a positive effect (cleans the contacts?).

All 3 buttons on the RHS of the binnacle have decided to stop working ('95 S4). They're not backlit when depressed and have no other effect. Indicators and other lights working fine. Any pointers as how best to diagnose the problem? Maybe it's just too cold today?

In the 2nd window that launches with the Espritmon gui, there should be a message indicating if the com port was open or not, e.g. this is what happens on mine if no cable is connected to the PC (windows 10): could not open COM7 choose another com port I use a USB-ALDL cable made by @internets (like you, no serial port on my laptop), works a treat.

It's still cloudy in Monmouth as a consequence.

Great meeting up with @Barrykearley, @dr_jayhart and Chris today for a lovely drive down the Wye Valley to Tintern.

The average man on the street will likely have a savings account. That money will be invested in a range of portfolios, most of which will contain equities. Just a somewhat diluted form of greed. Football is a funny business as it folds in tribal passion, belief and hope. Stronger and more tangible emotions than a quant type analysis of a generic business. And anyway, try supporting a 'Jewish' football team if you want to experience real 'so near yet so far' disappointment!! A team that as a business is going great guns, as a football team, less so. Don't know if it's new. Maybe rather an economic framework that's been around for a few hundred years that has pandered to the inherent greed that is in all of us. We're just a bit better at exploiting that greed nowadays.