moscowchris

Al, when I was living in the West of Scotland - I remember the weather.... I'm not sure if I prefer it here or there

given the weather was not so good... I was really pleased with the pics :)

http://www.supercarsofmoscow.ru/html/Zoom_Lotus_club.html nice photos... :)

There will be some great pictures coming, had a professional photoshoot this morning -- pity the weather wasn't so good.

Update after the weekend... checked everything in detail with the mechanic and we detected exhaust gas in the coolant tank - but no other symptoms (oil is clean, coolant is clean, no leaks to be found). If I drive it real easy the coolant will last a while - but when I 'give it a little bit of spirit' the coolant vanishes immediately!! It turns out the mechanic used to own the only other Esprit in Moscow (albeit 4 cyl.) so had some deep discussions about what to do. Either way the engine's gotta come out.

thank you

It is not a case of like or not like - I really like it but it is really a pain to get anything done in Moscow when there are no others on the road and no useful specialists here. As for the bill - that was mostly labour... parts here are normally only 5x the standard price in UK. (Crank Sensor from my local 'Lotus' dealer was quoted at almost

welcome to Russia everything here is crazy expensive!!! I really need to find a real specialist (or become one myself). If only my garage was free but it has another project underway in it right now. I will go and see the guy again tomorrow as I need to pick up my head from my other car and see if I can work out how he came to this conclusion... Chris

I took the car to a guy who came recommended yesterday - he came back this morning with news that in his opinion it is the head gasket and will be a minimum $5,000 repair job. The good lady has now 'insisted' I sell the car immediately Looks like my lotus experience was a short and troubled one...

All, well it seems it was the Crank Sensor as now this has been changed the car starts without any problems. Now I have a new problem in as much as the car is drinking coolant... not having much luck with this car at all

finally got back from a long business trip and was able to get to the car and have a play. London was fun - but it is nice to get back to the Moscow chaos again. So - as suggested I changed the ECU back to the stock on - no difference I used the scan tool to to check for codes - no codes I tried to cranking whilst monitoring the scan tool - no RPM signal - stays at zero I did manage to bump start it down one of the slopes in the parking garage and have since dropped it off at the local 'lotus specialist' to have a look. He is leaning toward Crank Angle Sensor - but to order one from UK he explained will take a few weeks and be very expensive! If only I had bought one last week while I as the. Does anyone know of another source for the sensor - maybe there is something local I can use instead? thanks Chris

Moscow is not that bad as for the censored part - if it is something useful could you PM me Cheers

Thanks for the reply - I do hear the fuel pump priming (or I assume that is what it is)... Chris

All, I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction to sort out this problem. I have a 01 Esprit V8 that won't start at all. Unfortunately the car is stuck in a small garage (on the 6th floor of a parking facility) so getting the car out not under it's own power is going to be difficult and the access I have to be able to do anything to the car is fairly limited My g/f thought it would be safe to keep it there while I was out of town in the UK for a month. This is the second time this has happened - first time I had it towed to the only Lotus place in town. I had given them a list of other things to take care of while they were at it too including installing a new PUK ECU. The said that once they changed the ECU the car started first time and all was fine! Typically they didn't bother to look for any real problems. Symptoms are as follows: 1. turn the key and the engine turns over but does not fire - so seems like it is not getting fuel or spark or both. Tried also to do it with a bit of throttle but that also made no difference. The battery is fine - I had also attached an auxillary power pack just in case so that is not the challenge. What have I tried so far: 1. I thought it may be the immobilizer - so before putting the key in ignition I touched the stick to the receptacle in the center console before starting (red immobilizer led stops flashing). No difference. 2. I have reset the ECU (by removing the 5A fuse B2 in the rear compartment and leaving it 20 minutes). Ineterstingly enough if I try to start the car with the ECU 'disconnected - ie. fuse is out) the symptoms are the same as when the ECU is connected - suggesting that the problem is related to that. 3. I have checked all the fuses in the rear fuse compartment and they are all fine. -- So where can I go from here - especially given the space limitations I have. I do have a workshop manual but not the one that covers the engine I have reasonable mechanical abilities (although still to be proven on the Lotus as all my other cars have the engine nice and accessible in the front - not sure even how to attempt to get to the front of the lotus engine. Any suggestions greatly received - especially if you can show me a picture of where and what to look for. cheers Chris

Iconic Ride, if you went through the airport now you'd notice it was pretty much like any other in the world... a lot of holiday makers and business travellers.