My 89 Esprit was stolen (Seattle WA)

[amburt]

Hey folks,

My Black 89 Esprit Turbo SE was stolen last night.  It was parked in front of my house in Seattle, WA, USA.  Plate #WA 141-CKR.  If you see it, please contact the Seattle PD and notify me.  Here's hoping it gets found.

Thanks,

Alan Burt  

[LOTUSMAN33]

Beautiful Esprit and sorry to hear of your loss, good luck getting it back soon. 😢

Dave  

[TAR]

That's terrible news. I hope they catch those responsible and it's recovered safely. 

[Escape]

Very sorry for your loss!

You don't often hear of Lotus begin stolen, I'd imagine the market is quite small and cars are too well known.

[ramjet]

I know I'm late in saying it, but welcome to TLF Alan.

I hope they recover your car intact. I also hope they throw the book at the people that stole it. Any security cameras in the street that picked anything up that you know of?

[amburt]

Well good news, it was found last night!  In Medina, which is about 10 miles from where I live.  Stuck at a roundabout just off I-90.  Just talked to the tow company who impounded it and they said it's undrivable.  Clutch pedal won't depress and the e-brake is shot.  My guess is that whoever stole it didn't know how to disengage the e-brake and as such didn't get very far.  So maybe that's a little unintentional security measure for Esprits?!!  Now waiting for my insurance to get back to me (probably tomorrow as I'm writing this on Sunday) to figure out next steps.  Fortunately I have full coverage so repair costs should be covered minus the deductible.  I'll keep you all posted.  Thanks for the well wishes!       

[Escape]

Great news you've got her back!

Fingers crossed the security company will be easy to deal with.

[LOTUSMAN33]

Fantastic news Alan, really pleased for you.

Years ago I had a Stevens turbo which got stolen, it had an immobiliser so they bypassed it and ran a live to the ignition, what they did wrong was to leave the starter engaged, the result was 100 yds and it actually sheared off the engine braking the block and bell housing! 
Pete at PNM undertook the repairs and had never seen damage like it.

Sounds like they’ve burnt your clutch out so probably cooked the flywheel as well. 
Still all fixable so let’s hope it back better than it was soon 🤞🏼
 

Dave  

[TAR]

So pleased to hear you got it back in a relatively good condition. Lets hope your insurance gets it back on the road. 

[ramjet]

Great news. All the best.

[ramjet]

1 hour ago, amburt said:

Well good news, it was found last night!  In Medina, which is about 10 miles from where I live.  Stuck at a roundabout just off I-90.  Just talked to the tow company who impounded it and they said it's undrivable.  Clutch pedal won't depress and the e-brake is shot.  My guess is that whoever stole it didn't know how to disengage the e-brake and as such didn't get very far.  So maybe that's a little unintentional security measure for Esprits?!!  Now waiting for my insurance to get back to me (probably tomorrow as I'm writing this on Sunday) to figure out next steps.  Fortunately I have full coverage so repair costs should be covered minus the deductible.  I'll keep you all posted.  Thanks for the well wishes!       

You mean parking brake for us plebians?

[Escape]

With most parking brakes now being electric, e-brake seems fitting. 🙂

[Bibs]

It's referred to an as emergency brake in the US, hence e-brake.

Makes sense with the majority of cars being auto and more than likely usually left just in park with no handbrake on.

[amburt]

Thanks folks!  Yeah as Bibs mentioned the e-brake or emergency brake is a.k.a. the handbrake or parking brake.  The car's been towed to the shop for a repair estimate.  So I'm waiting with anticipation what that will be.  I hadn't got around to installing any security yet; Dave that's interesting, that you had an immobilizer installed and they managed to bypass that!  And wow sheared off the bell housing?!!  That's crazy.  Well I'll keep you all posted on the progress.              

[RobinB5]

Good that your e/hand brake was working that well!

Interesting question though... what minor manual adjustment/modification could you easily make to render the car undrivable after hotwiring that wouldn't be identified easily by the thief?

Short of taking a wheel off

 

[TAR]

3 hours ago, RobinB5 said:

what minor manual adjustment/modification could you easily make to render the car undrivable after hotwiring that wouldn't be identified easily by the thief?

The ignition switch just connects the battery to the rest of the electrical systems so it would a be a case of fitting a switch inline after the ignition in a suitably obscure position, or you could just isolate the fuel pump. 

[ramjet]

When I had my ski boat, it had an engine isolation switch. It was on the positive from the battery. Two auto electricians both said to me that this is what everyone does, but it is actually incorrect to do it that way. They said to put the isolator on the negative (earth) cable.

Isolate that and there is absolutely nothing. What I did have to do with the boat though, was to change the switch to a dual isolator and then run the negative from the coil through the second set of contacts to isolate it as well.

[Escape]

Did they tell you why they preferred the isolator in the negative? I usually put it in the positive as well, but don't think it really matters.

As an anti-theft protection it would be better to put a concealed one in the positive, as it's easy to bypass an isolator in the negative by just running a jumplead from the battery to the engine block or chassis. If it's purely for security, I'd go for a hidden switch or connector in the wiring to the ignition or ECU as that's much harder to trace than if there's no power at all.