Choppa

As per Atwell's post, Harry Martens the Citroen gearbox guru recommended MT-90 and told me about adding an extra 500ml when I collected my gearbox from having a LSD fitted. I think he said it was to help properly lubricate 5th gear

Grrr 10/10 cloud cover here in Dorset

Sorry for a bit of a thread hijack but @Bibs (or anyone else really) have you noticed the late brake light problem when following an EV as it slows down when it approaches something like a set of traffic lights on red. The EV slows significantly without displaying a brake light as presumably the driver takes his foot off the accelerator but only at the last few seconds when they need to press the brake pedal to come to a halt do the brake lights come on. I'm sure there will be some low speed rear end shunts involving EVs because of this. I've notice it several times with Kias strangely enough.

@drdoom I never realised until looking at your photo just now that the position of the dials on a LHD Esprit are mirror image to that of a RHD model. I replaced all of the instrument filament bulbs in mine with green LEDs several years ago as the green plastic lenses over the bulbs had started to decompose on some of the gauges. They've been fine and much brighter than the filament bulbs but unfortunately not dimmable. If those from Classic LEDs are dimmable I'd be interested to know so I can go about a further upgrade.

Suggest checking you've got their cookies enabled and if no luck maybe try using a different browser?

Had a No 1 on the rear screen on mine for quite a few years

Ooh I can get to this one!

My S3 has a fibreglass piece that runs between that bit labelled "61" and the striker end of the door. It has a hockey stick cross section, about 2 inches in depth and the curved contour roughly matches the curve of the inner surface of the door card, The curved top edge is parallel with the lower edge of that black weather strip about the same height as those pop rivets that retain your weather stip. It's very possible that the design on how the door card was fitted changed between the S1 and the S3, I have no way of knowing, but I'm sure someone with an S1 will have an answer for you.

If there is a corresponding space under the lower edge of the door panel where it sits under the box surrounding the window motor, I would have a look at the height of the "beam" where the door card hooks over, maybe that's been adjusted at some point in the past?

I tried to watch it last night to see what all the fuss was about and got to about the same point as you before deciding it wouldn't get my vote and turned it off.

My daily drive is an E400D Night edition estate and the car is great apart from the standard fit run flats on 20" alloys which are made from blancmange. I've had to have the front N/S repaired twice and then finally replaced because I caught a pot hole and cracked the alloy. Mercedes customer service didn't want to know, but its a known weakness and is all over the Merc forums. Think you may be better off with the Volvo.

Yes the needle valve to the float chamber controls the flow of fuel from the pump. If the needle valve is worn it will allow the float chamber to over fill and fuel will come out from the very small air vent at the top of the chamber and leak into the trumpet of the carb, something I learnt from experience. If in any doubt replace that valve with a Vitron tipped replacement, only a couple of pounds more and far better. Fuel pump on mine has white/purple wire from ignition, a capacitor to the chassis and wire to earth, nothing else. I believe on yours the white/purple wire goes to an inertia switch and from there to the ignition via a white wire

We brought a French holiday cottage project near the coast in the Charente back in 2004. Essentially what we got for our money was 1300sqm of land and "4 walls and a roof" in the middle of the plot. Through our efforts and by employing local craftsmen where necessary we got it habitable in 18 months and continued to improve it over the following 2-3 years to the point where we were happy to rent it out to any friends who wanted to use it, while keeping it as our main holiday destination each year until the Covid lockdowns. Points to note in our experience, it really helps if you speak the language and have local people who you trust to help out when something happens to the place and you aren't able to get out to visit The French keep the best wine for themselves You really get to know the area and the local customs well Holidays costs drop significantly but in our case, especially in early years of ownership, were replaced with building and maintenance projects, which can be "fun" in a foreign country. It is a little worrying when you know your way around the local Mr Bricolage better than the B&Q down the road in the UK. Buying and selling in France is quite different but French estate agents are miles better than their English counterparts. Ever had an UK estate agent take you out for lunch after they'd sold your place? Didn't think so. A few months ago when we sold the place, it had quadrupled in value, and even allowing for the expenditure above we made quit a handsome profit Not so good points in our experience, It hurts when you still have to pay all their taxes when you can't visit the place Frequent trips back and forth can become tedious, for example I have come to loath the Billi terminal in Bordeaux airport Not quite as much income as we were expecting from renting, but we wanted the place as a true second home rather than a rental gite, we furnished it and equipped to a high standard and were a bit selective in who we rented it to. Maintaining 1300sqm of garden can be quite costly when you can't do it yourself, and it's challenging mowing that amount of grass in summer temperatures. Getting good reliable cleaners and that whole change over thing can be a nightmare. You get to know the area too well, there are only so many times you can enjoy visiting the same town/beach/bar/beauty spot etc Capital Gains Tax is a pain

Not sure if your list covers this but have you checked the plastic pins inside the headlamp switch? Over time they can deform ever so slightly with the heat when the connection is made and prevent contact being made intermittently. This might be the issue and if you are careful you can dismantle the switch and replace the pins from a donor Lucas switch

Just joined!

I've only ever seen one S3 Turbo that didn't have the rushed trim to the door cards, arm rests etc, and the owner had had it re-trimmed by a company who said it was going to be too difficult to match the effect and that they couldn't guarantee the results. Having said that they had done a very good job and the owner was very pleased with the results.

I might be able to get along to this one!

Many moons ago when I was (still) a member of Club Lotus, I got them to do an agreed value insurance valuation of my car based on a set of photographs and a description of the car, in much the same level of detail as you've provided in the original post. Not sure if they still offer such a service but if they do it might help establish a figure for the companies to work with.

So did a P.O. build a bespoke exhaust system onto the engine in situ without any regard for how it might ever be removed in the future? That reciprocating saw is a thing of beauty in the right hands!

It scrubbed up nicely, well done! You'll get lots of people telling you to replace the cam belt before trying to start it so let me be the first! The tanks on these do have a tendency to rot especially after 30+ years of variable maintenance, they sit on foam pads which retain rainwater quite well. Alloy and stainless replacement tanks are available from a few specialist companies, PNM, SW Lotus Centre, and SJ Sportcars spring to mind and others have uses Axminster who specialise in Stainless tanks for lots of manufacturers not just Lotus, a search on the forum will throw up many others. A similar search will point you towards stainless exhaust suppliers especially useful if the manifold is toast, and there are dozens of threads on here about tyre sizes. I had the radiator on mine re- cored, but if you've noticed problems in that area, you might want to check over the cooling fans as well. Have fun, and keep posting photos on your progress

Ouch, that looks really messed up, I look forward to the next set of photos from @Sparky to see how the pistons fared. Hope they survived the mayhem. In answer to your question, and I'm sure you've looked already but the Lotusbits site lists a 107 cam @ £50 and a complete NA HC head inc valves @ £500

Years ago I fixed mine with some clear silicon sealant on the inside surface rather than buy a new tank from SJ's Drain and dry the reservoir, lightly sand the inner surface around the split/s in the plastic , apply thin film of sealant, job done. It's been leak free since I did the repair about 15 years ago.

That photo is actually the LH tank on my S3, the one that doesn't have the fuel sender. Sparky was able to pop the RH one out without a problem, with all the trunking and air boxes out of the way it took maybe 15 minutes, plus a few expletives. Mine is a 85/6 car and I've since noticed that the earlier S3 cars have a different shelf arrangement over the tanks which may mean that the tanks on both sides come out without an issue.

Never realised before that the design of the shelves over the tanks is different on the later S3 . If they had left it the same it would have saved @Sparky about 2 hours cutting up the LH tank with his reciprocating saw to get it out.

That's what my wife says