tomcattom

The casting has sheared right between the two fitting screws @Gjk. I nearly fell off my seat when I saw the price of a replacement 😩

MOT day today; thankfully it passed. Unfortunately on the subsequent drive home Oxfordshire's pothole ridden roads claimed my rear view mirror, it's currently rattling around in the passenger footwell.

Nope, no joy with any car with a VIN ending VHA64000 - VHA64399. That one missing car still evades me.

That thread doesn't really add any more detail regarding how many domestic S4s remain on the road. That said it is interesting reading in so much as that list, wherever is originated from, suggests there were some S4s built in 1994 (x1) and 1997 (x5). The coding in the workshop manual suggests that only 1995(S) & (1996)T year codes were used in the VINs for the S4s and that tallies up with most of the data I have. The sole 1994 car (VIN 4000) is logged with the DVLA as having been built in 1994 but has a 1995 (S) year code in its VIN. The only anomaly is that according to my certificate of provenance there were 92 UK cars and I've only found 91 in the DVLA data so one is missing. Seeing that there were some 1997 cars listed in that link above, I wonder if one of them was a UK car and perhaps Lotus used the 1997(V) year in its VIN and maybe didn't update the workshop manual to reflect it 🤔. I didn't search for that combination originally because the workshop manual didn't indicate it to be a valid combination, but I might just try a search with that VIN combination later and see if it turns up the missing car...

Can definitely vouch for Royal Steering Wheels. They did the wheel on my daily during the first lockdown and did a top job and the price was very reasonable. Will take my Esprit's wheel to them at some stage when I tackle some more of the cosmetic stuff next.

Just looked back through my invoices for the car @fjmuurling and I got the switch from Bell & Colvill through their DeRoure website. https://www.bellandcolvill.co.uk/?i=1341063&MAK=4&MDL=48&TBL=12604&SMA=0&SMO=0&ST=90355463&SC=0&PBID=1024013 90355463 is listed as a Saab part, but it's exactly the same item as the Lotus part A082M6587F. Price has gone up a couple of quid since I bought mine two years ago, but does still appear to be available.

It's a GM part (90355463) used as a bonnet switch from Vauxhall's and Saab's from the nineties @fjmuurling. Not sure exactly where I bought that one, I've had it waiting to go back into the car for a while. I'll see if I can find where I bought it in my paperwork.

I got them from a seller on eBay. I'd have to check my purchase history to find exactly who. Funnily ebough I have a S4 pair from the same seller in my garage too. The seller didn't originally do plates for the S4s, despite me asking. So I bought a set of S4 plates and they sat about in the garage for some time. Then recently I found them selling S4s plates 🙄 so I ended up buying them too. I can send you some photos of the S4 plates if you're interested in buying them @RobinB5.

That on the climb up to Daisy Mount by any chance? Very sad sight to see no matter the car. Quite a scary experience too, I imagine. Hopefully any occupants were unharmed.

Been out for a test drive with the new BOV fitted today and thankfully it doesn't sound obnoxiously chavvy, which is a relief. There are enough members of the "tiny todger brigade" around here with silly loud dump valves and exhausts that sound like machine gun fire when they pop that I don't want to be assiociated with them when driving about 🤣 When I got back I fitted some cheap ebay special sill plates to cover the god-awful state of the paint on the top of the sills, until I get to stage to think about paintwork. I also straightened up and refitted the vacuum pump cover panel in the boot - it's the first time its been back in the car since probably just after I bought it. I installed a new trunk switch too.

You evidently weren't swearing in that shot because I can see it 😁

It's the swear filter for images.

Air intake pipe appears to be working well still, so all good on that front. Done a few odd jobs on the car too today. First was installation of a Forge BOV. I've also successfully installed a plug and play - up to a point - remote central locking system to the car too. You can follow the development of that little project in a separate thread here:

Battery all charged again so back on with the CDL project. Contrary to what I thought, disconnecting the loom from the existing CDL module in the footwell without removing it wasn't difficult at all. Ten minutes after starting the replacement remote CDL module was connected, albeit just hanging in the footwell for now. With that done I was able to do the initial test and the locking worked perfectly. Here is a quick video of it in action As expected the deadlocking doesn't work with the remote, so further work to be done there, but I can still use the deadlocking with the key if required, so I've not totally lost the ability. Enabling deadlocking will be the topic of the next update, when I have time to strip the door down and worked out what and how to patch the new CDL module into the existing wiring. Now that I know the remote locking works I'll get a key blank cut for the car to clip onto the remote. Unfortunately the blades supplied with the remotes I bought are the wrong type, so hopefully my local locksmith has some, otherwise it'll be back onto ebay.

If such a thing exists it's VIN would be something like this then I guess? SCC082920(S/T)H(B/F)14xxx

Mine has a 64xxx VIN too @Gareth44. I think I read somewhere, and happy to be corrected by those more knowledgable, but later in production run of the Esprit they only produced engines to the spec of most restrictive market emissions, in this case the US. That's the reason why there are some good gains to be had on the engines with verniers fitted because you can get a more optimal timing with them at the expense of poorer emissions presumably. Perhaps they though they may make more S4s and catered for it in the new VIN structure and then never ended up making them? Despite my workshop manual being dated early 1997, I wouldn't be surprised if the new schema was devised late in 1996 when they were still making the S4s, so that could explain its inclusion in the new scheme.

Here are the pages from my workshop manual @Chillidoggy Interestingly the note 1 on page three seems to diagree with the description of field 14 on the same page. The notes say 3xxx is USA S4s, but the diagram suggests its is a 95 1/2MY (S4 I presume?). The evidence from my searching either way suggest as you mentioned in your DM, that 3xxx serials indicate a US spec S4s and 4xxx indicates a ROW S4s. Unfortunately the xxx part is sequential irrespective of market based on the wording of the document and is born out in what I found in the VED data. i.e. the serials for S4s go like this: 4000 4001 3002 4003 4004 4005 3006 4007 4008 3009 4010 So I had to query all 360+ possible S4s combinations to find all the UK cars, they're not numbered sequentially per market, e.g. 4000-4090 for all 91 UK cars I found. The first UK car is 4000 and the last one is 4200 from my data. I can also infer the first US car is 3002 and the last one is likely to be 3361 I think, if the 362 number made worldwide I read somewhere is correct.

I had planned to try the new remote CDL unit last night, but the car had other ideas. Battery has gone flat despite being connected to the trickle charger; it was showing a bad battery light on the unit. It's charging again now, so hopefully it will allow me to get it out the garage later today to try and fit the unit. While I couldn't access the unit to remove it last night, I was able to shove my phone up under the dashboard and get a photo of the unit that will be replaced. It's buried deep in the passenger footwell on the inside of the front bulkhead. It's going to be an utter sod to get at and unplug I fear. I don't think I'll be removing the old unit because I don't think there is room to place the new unit in that space, so I may need to relocate it, but there does appear to be some slack in the loom to place the new one elsewhere at least.

Possibly @Rudi K. I'd need to know what the first and last year and month for the S1 and S2 are to structure queries and rough number to search for incrementally.

I guess so @Chillidoggy. There is only one part number (A082M6529F) for the CDL controller listed in the parts list I have and the picture of it matches the GM controller module for key operated CDL only, which has the 12-pin connector and what I currently have installed in my car. The remote CDL module has the same 12-pin connector and an additional 28-pin connector for a whole bunch of other features I plan to explore if/when I get remote locking working.

Don't know much about the 85 TE. The S4 comes factory fit with key operated central locking and I'm not aware its known to cause any problems, mine certainly works fine. I'm just converting it to remote operated central locking instead.

Just compared that to what I have @Chillidoggy and your pages there show a different VIN structure for the US models versus the UK too 😕 The Non-US structure on that second image looks very similar to mine, just a few subtle differences to value meanings, but nothing that changes how to lookup a UK spec S4s compared to what I have. The only notable difference is field 14, that isn't part of the serial number in the March 1997 manual, that is the model identification: 1 = S4 2 = 95MY & GT3 (to 98) 3 = 95 1/2 MY 4 = S4s 5 = V8 6 = S300

I've been wanting to try and retrofit central locking to my Esprit for a while, but rather than using an aftermarket alarm I wanted to do it in an OE manner with Vauxhall sourced parts since that is what the current alarm is based on; specifially the mk2 Cavalier, or Vectra A to those on the continent. Over the past few months in my spare time I've been researching the period Vauxhall forums and consulting various wiring diagrams to work out what would be required to make this work. Breaking it down to its simplest it seems that remote CDL is plug and play, you should be able to just replace the CDL module in the passenger footwell with the right one from a Vectra B and away you go. However in doing this you do not get the deadlocking capability operable from the remotes which requires replacement of the driver's CDL actuator with one from the passenger side and some wiring alterations to make the CDL module talk to the alarm module, which is a separate unit on the Esprit. Now all this is just information based on research at this stage and rather than muddy my main project thread I'm going to keep all the research and progress on this project in this separate thread for the benefit of others. To kick the project off I needed to buy some hardware, specifically the CDL module (with both the 12 and 28-pin loom connectors included for deadlocking) and some remotes. It seems that the Vectra B, which is the source of all the necessary parts used a number of different CDL modules throughout production, primarily Kiekert and Megamos manufactured units. The difference appears to be that the Megamos units integrates the alarm functionality, whereas the Kiekert unit has a separate alarm module. It looks like you could use either unit, but I decided that the Kiekert type unit would be easier to work with because the Esprit already has separate CDL and alarm modules too. The module I selected has the GM part number 90 564 349 and the alpha code "CG". The units on their own are reasonably easy to come by online, but I had real trouble finding one that came with any paired remotes. Luckily for me it turns out my trusty Omiscan code reader can program said remotes so I ended up buying a CDL unit and remotes separately. I also bought a 16-pin OBD2 extension loom for a tenner from Amazon to chop up and use to interface with my Omiscan to program the remotes. These are all the parts I bought. Before going anywhere near the car I needed to create a loom to connect everything up on the bench to check I could program the remotes - there isn't much point pugging in the remote CDL unit into the car if the remotes don't work or couldn't be programmed. To do this you need to connect the diagnortic K-line signal wire (pin 3) on the female OBD connector to pin 21 on the 28-pin connector on the Kiekert unit. OBD2 scanners draw power from the OBD port so you need to connect pin 16 to 12V and pins 4 and 5 to ground on the OBD2 connector. This is the loom when I finighed making it up. The CDL unit itself also needs power to program it, this is done by connecting pins 3 and 9 to 12V and pin 11 to ground on the smaller 12-pin connector of the CDL unit. You could do this by plugging it into the car, but I made up this small power lead to connect up to my benchtop power supply for ease. And once everything was hooked up I had this mess of wires I selected the 1996 Vectra B option from the Omiscan vehicale selection menus and proceded to delete the previously learnt remotes and program the new virgin remotes I bought. A word of warning, if you buy the unit and remotes separately make sure you buy the correct remotes. There are three different types that outwardly look identical but all have different innards, so you need to make sure you get Kiekert compatible remotes. This screen shows that two remotes are already programmed to the unit but are out of range (1). After wiping all remote slots now show empty on the code reader (0). Then I selected two remotes to program in and followed the onscreen steps to code them to the unit. And both now showing as programmed and in range (2). Here is a short video showing the Omiscan in monitoring mode to check the remotes are functioning correctly. The next step now will be to swap out the existing key-only CDL module on the Esprit and plug this unit in to see if the remote CDL works as expected, minus deadlocking. If that hurdle passes I'll move onto enabling the deadlocking features.

Saw it between the Cullompton and Exeter exits on the M5 heading south about 1pm-ish.

That's interesting Ian. What date is your manual? I'm working from one dated March 1997 which has different VIN structures for US and non-US cars prior to 1998MY - digits 4 through 9 and 12 having different purposes - and then it's harmonised from the 1998MY.