blue harbour

Hi Dave, we've managed to sort new keys and locks out already hopefully, and for not much money either seemingly which will be nice if it works out, the alarm and immobiliser though is a whole different kettle o fish as it will have to be removed completely and then a new one installed, so it's gonna cost to get the old one removed and then again to get the new one fitted!!! Hopefully though it won't work out too costly in the end fingers X! Re the new door locks for ya house then i know a chap at work was looking into this recently and everywhere he tried had sold out of the size/spec he wanted!! Must admit i didn't really struggle with getting mine as it was the 2nd place i called at where i got them, and it was only a 3 minute walk up the road from Screwfix where i'd tried 1st!

Hi fellas, I've already addressed the lock situation, been out n got some new ones to replace the standard crap that's in, hopefully new ones will be MUCH tougher to get round!

As per title my house was broken into yesterday in the wee hours by a/some theiving scrotes, and to cut a long story short ALL the keys and alarm remote fobs have been stolen so i now cannot start/move/open or even further immobilise the esprit (A 97 V8 TT if it matters!) as i cannot get into it or disable the alarm (for obvious reasons!) I have spoken to my insurer and they WILL NOT honour the Boomerang Tag key replacement cover i have because i forgot to put on the TAG on the car keys (stupid me dropped myself right in it!), and our house insurance apparently does not cover us for loss/theft of any car keys either - so i'm now left with the hassle and expense of getting all the locks swapped out, and the aftermarket alarm system ripped out too so we can make the car mobile again!! Now what i need to know IS, where can i get new locks (doors/ignition etc) with the relevant keys to match so i can go about making the car more secure and actually allowing me to use/move the car, and can anyone possibly advise how much it will cost for new locks and keys too (i simply have NO idea!!) I'm hoping that the esprit is just 2 locks (drivers door & ignition!), and being a 97 model with the old style VX key there aren't any transponders or anything like that that will need to be recoded etc etc! Hopefully this WON'T be a rediculously expensive job as we cannot really afford it, but as you'll understand we definitely need to do SOMETHING to get us access to the car and to allow us to further immobilise it too until such time as we CAN make in-roads into replacing all the relevant locks etc! One last thing that may or may not be relevant, but the alarm and immobiliser system is an aftermarket jobbie, and nothing that Lotus may have started fitting to later models (assuming they DID!) many thanks, Matt! Also - If you haven't seen my other post from today - please as many of you as poss, please read THIS:- http://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/49978-urgent-please-as-many-of-you-as-possible-read-this/

Hi peeps, Below is a post i put on seatcupra.net last night in an attempt to warn as many folks as poss about an alarming issue that i myself have now become victim of!!! I know a lot of you will probably be aware of this issue, But just incase you're NOT then i'd like to take this oppurtunity to warn as many of you as i can so you can make pre-emptive manouvers to potentially atleast SLOW DOWN if not stop potential theiving scum from breaking into your house and stealing your car keys and valuables etc! Basically My house got broken into this morning whilst we were asleep and several items have been stolen, but it looks like the the theives were focusing on getting there hands on CAR KEYS, and according to the police etc they think they were actually going after they keys for my Leon (which they luckily DIDN'T get), but unfortunatley they DID get the keys and remote plips for my late Fathers Lotus Esprit (aswell as some of my mums jewellery and some antique guns of my dads aswell!) Now bear with me as i WILL get to the point's i'm making, but suffice to say alteast they weren't the REALLY violent kind and they didn't come upstairs and threaten either me or my mum in order to get the keys for the Leon or any other valuables, they stayed downstairs so no one was physically hurt! Anyway to get in they went to the back of the house and broke the lock out of the door to gain access! Now the reason WHY i'm highlighting this particular issue is because of HOW EASY it is to break the standard door locks on UPVC doors to gain access to your house (should you have them fitted!) If you want to see how SHOCKINGLY easy it is then go on YouTube and type in "lock snapping" and see just HOW EASY it is on standard UPVC door locks!!! I'm highlighting this issue for any of you that DON'T know about this as i'd hate anyone else to have to go through WHAT we're having to go through right now, and if you can Pre emptively DO something about this before this happens to you (if you're unlucky enough!) then atleast this post has hopefully helped inform some who maybe did NOT know of this issue! As a side note you CAN buy new MUCH better/stronger locks that are direct replacements for your existing locks that are Anti snap/Anti drill/Anti Pick - they cost quite a lot more than the ordinary type you normally get, but if they deter/stop or atleast SLOW down the ******** then surely it's GOT to be money well spent! Might also be time to maybe think about getting a decent alarm system installed too if you haven't already - it's got to be better to be pro-active and do what you can to make your home as secure as possible - rather than doing what we're having to do right now which is be re-active and sorting things out AFTER the damage has been done! MODS - I hope i'm NOT breaking any forum rules posting this, and i appologise if i am as that is NOT my intention! i certainly DON'T think i'm giving any potential theives who may be lurking any pointers as the footage of how easily UPVC door locks CAN be broken is on the web for all to see! To ALL who'm may read this though - Please Please DON'T let yourself be an EASY target for these scumbags - We've ALL worked hard to get what we've got - WHY should we make it easy for them to take what ISN'T there's!!!!!!!! If this post helps/informs even just ONE person i shall consider it a success, and to anyone who'm may read this - tell AS MANY of your buddies as you can to atleast "look" at the footage for themselves Via Youtube! ANYTHING WE CAN ALL DO TO MAKE THEIVES LIVES AS DIFFICULT OR AS "OFF PUTTING" AS POSSIBLE HAS GOT TO BE WORTHWHILE HASN'T IT!!!!!!! Hopefully you've ALL had the patients to read this (i know it drags on somewhat!) but all i'm trying to do is help as many as i can from potentially becoming "victims" as i have! Thanks Matt! P.s - side note - they DIDN'T pinch the Lotus this morning for some wierd Reason - just incase you were wondering, and we've done as MUCH as possible to secure the car as we can to atleast TRY and stop them from taking it!

As an end to this and for anyone who's interested the car was shipped off to Peter smiths for this fault to be sorted aswell as a knackered starter motor, and it turns out it was the ABS unit itself that was knacked! Ended up having a bill for nearly £4k for a replacement stater motor, new ABS unit and replacing a pair of outer rear CV boots that had split! Seems like even simple jobs with what you'd think would be cheap parts cost ££££'s to put right with this car (ABS unit being the exception - yes!)

Muchas Gracias fella! Just what i was looking for!

As per title can anyone provide me with a guide (maybe with pics!) on how to get the dash binnacle off please - this is the bigger/older style binnacle by the way! We need to get it off as the odometer and trip counter have packed up on the speedo unit and we need to remove the speedo so it can be sent off for repair! Many thanks in advance Matt!

As per title my car has developed a fault on the ABS system somewhere and now the ABS light is permanantley on (when driving the car!), We have had the wheels off and popped all the sensors out and cleaned them and also looked at the reluctor rings for signs of damage to the teeth etc, but they all seem fine, We were also adivsed that we could use a multimeter to test the sensors to see if they are Ok (test them for resistance) and all then sensors had the same kind of resistance to them too! We have also had a quick look at fuses and at the ABS modulator block assy to see if there were any obvious broken wires/loose connections but there was nothing obvious so were now stuck as i think we've exhausted all the DIY checking routes we can go down so my question to you peeps is "What next"?? Am i now at a point where i'll have to bite the bullet and take the car to a specialist to get the fault codes read that the system should have logged or is there anything else we can easily check?? (there's nothing "obvious" that we can see!!) Fyi I "think" the fault occured coming back from this years Festival of Speed at Goodwood (can't be sure as i wasn't driving at the time) we were just getting close to Tamworth services and hit a bad pothole on the M/way (went with a pretty loud "bang"!), and i am assuming this will be when the ABS light came on after we hit the pothole, but as my cousin was driving at the time (we'd split the driving duties, and it wasn't till i got back behind the wheel when we swapped back at Tamworth that i noticed the ABS light on!) I have a horrible feeling this is gonna cost £££'s to sort as nothing we've done so far in terms of maintanence or repairs has been cheap with this car!!! What really gets me is - if it wasn't for this we'd have had a fantastic/trouble free weekend with the Esprit - it'd been surprisingly very good on fuel (for a V8) and we'd covered a lot of miles going down to goodwood n then trekking from the campsite n back Sat/Sun n then we went a trip down the coast on the monday n went to Bournemouth for the day to finish the weekend of in style! We were MOST of the way home too when the fault occured - just to put a dampener on the whole thing! Is it ANOTHER trip to a specialist then ?????

As another possible source - can any of you guys advise as to whether it's possible to source new parts more cheaply for the complete assembly!? I've been looking on SJ and the parts catalogue I have and it appears that if we go for proper lotus parts it will cost over £2k for the whole thing as you have to buy the bumper/valence and splitters all separately, But when you look up the part numbers on SJ they don't list the lower front valence for the V8's- just the bumper!!! Are they selling a copy of the lotus parts as a complete assembly instead!? (I did try ringing them several times yesterday to confirm, but i could never get through!) Really would like to avoid shelling out £2k+ if i can, but if we have to i guess we have too!

As above does anyone have a complete front bumper assembly (the bumper/valence & lower splitter assy) to suit a 97 V8 esprit???? I was out in mine last night (already been a good 35 miles in it) & was almost home aswell, when i turned off the main Rd onto a side road to go into Wingerworth - I was only doing about 15mph in 2nd and as soon as i breathed on the throttle to start pulling me up the hill (& i do mean breathed i was being soooo gentle because of the conditions!) the inside wheel broke traction and spun up and the car spat me side ways into a grass verge and it's basically ripped off and trashed the front left hand splitter and cracked the bumper and valence irrepairably too! Doesn't matter WHAT colour the bumper assy is as obviously it will be getting painted, but it must be in pretty good condition! Need this ASAP to get the car sorted and back on the road! Can anyone help!??? Btw there is a car at douglas autos breakers, but i rang them n the front bumper has already gone! Cheers Matt! Been back to the same corner since and there's something on the road as the surface is like ice it's sooo slippery, and i was in my civic aswell which just understeered and again span the inside wheel up until the VSA caught it at the same spot so there's definitely something on the road surface!!!

Hi Mike, You're right i suppose i could do with getting hold of a w/shop manual, But due to the fact that i'd have to buy new kit to set the actuators up i think i'm gonna simply take the car to a specialist n let them do it!

Just a wee bump of sorts, But as above What is the proper setup procedure for the actuators please!? We've got the alloy actuators fitted in place, and have roughly "guessed" how to set them (the rod end is adjusted so it's "just" holdding the wastegate shut! - or so we think anyway! I tried without luck to source a hand pressure pump with gauge yesterday so we could pressurise the capsule with 5psi and see if the actuator rod moves, but tbh I have no idea "how much" it's supposed to move when it does, and what the correct procedure for setting them up is anyway! If we get done today i did have plans on taking the car out and gingerly winding her up bit by bit to see what boost levels we hit, but even if we do manage 0.35bar or whatever it's supposed to be, then were not gonna know whether that's balanced across both sides equally or not! Push comes to shove i'd like to think i could actually drive the car to a specialist and get the wastegates properly setup there - just to be sure! Cheers Matt!

Well were "nearly" there! We've got all but one of the pipes fitted (you can probably guess which one has been left till last!) What i could do with knowing is whether (when we attempt to/look at dropping the AC compressor) will we need to drain it, or can you leave it connected!?? I ask because the pipes that come off it are metal jobbies and not flexi's so i can see it being a huge PITA, and from weve been told even after dropping the compressor there'll still be little room to work! This is NOT a job i'd ever want to do again- everything has been a massive PITA, from stupidly innacessible bolts/unions to having to cut spanners or shave down 1/4" drive adaptors to get us clearance to put ratchets on sockets! Really horrible job, and imho anyone who tackles and conquers this job (especially in the way we've had to do it!) deserves a flippin medal like a bin lid and a looooong well earned rest! Just hope we CAN do this last (worst) hose as this will have saved us £££'s in labour costs!

Hi Mike- Cheers for the reply! I do know that there is a heatshield that's going/rattling, but because of how much i've already spent i never ordered any as it's not that bad atm, Question is though if whilst were doing the pipes we do find the culprit and we do decide to try and remove it is it a must that it's replaced!?, or do some folks run without them!? I did see some uprated jobbies on Ramspott, but like i say i didn't commit due to the money i've already committed so far! Cheers Matt!

As part of attempting to do this job tomorrow (oil and collant pipe renewal) I have been advised that we'll need to drop the aircon pump out of the way to get access to one of the unions/pipes - is this accurate, and if so how do we relieve the tension on the serpentine drive belt!? Is it done by going off the bolt on the tensioner itself and cranking it counter clockwise or i see there is a square slot further up on the arm- do you use this, and what size is this whole (1/2"???) We will be doing this without the aid of a ramp btw (don't know whether that will have any bearing!?)