ARGGG....GAK! Part 2

[MGFCrasher]

Hi again,

When they were new these were supercars in their time.What do any of us expect..to run a supercar for the same as a Mondeo?? Emotive point I know.

When they are right there is nothing else that compares but that comes at a price.I love them but thats the whole reason I got rid of my last S4,simply because I can go and buy one with the knowledge that I have now, that has already had some other nice person(mug) spend 10k on getting right.Who then has to sell because he or she is broke.I know because I have been there.I now think I know where to draw the line on repairs before cutting loose.......

Having said that unless you are very lucky you are still going to incur some large bills because they are 14 year old cars.

It sounds like you are almost there Tony.I sincerely hope these are the last of the troubles for a while.

Rich

[Jonathan]

Love to meet someone who's had an 'old' esprit who's not said once (and be honest) "F*&kin car !!! Selling it tomorrow blah blah" - ok there might be the odd one or two but I've done it plenty of times hehe.

So whats the jobs that need doing in bums rush order on this ?

I would have thought the oil is 1st - can you take a picture ? (picture speaks 1000 words dunit)

Personally I would get the gasket on the cam tower and the end of camshaft seal looked at (more than likely the camshaft seal imo) - do the easy stuff before exploring whether the headgasket has gone. If so merge that with the cambelt change and save some notes that way.

The brakes - no chance of getting a replacement caliper ?

My x ref file says they're off an 84 Toyota Celica - scrap yard, eBay, 50 quid ?

Dont suffer in silence, no one minds helping.

[ChrisH]

That is the beauty of owning such a car and belonging to the lotus Forum that someone somewhere has done the job or jobs or modifications that you are about to undertake. I agree that frustation can creep in, spanners, sockets get launched but the satisfaction is when you have done whatever job that you yourself did it, well it is for me at least

[andydclements]

The brakes - no chance of getting a replacement caliper ?

My x ref file says they're off an 84 Toyota Celica - scrap yard, eBay, 50 quid ?

Why would he keep the Toyota based ones when he's managed to acquire a set of Brembos?

His method of getting the car to the dealership for the brake replacement was great, leave really early to avoid traffic, don't use the foot brake, just the handbrake.

Andy

[Jonathan]

Why would he keep the Toyota based ones when he's managed to acquire a set of Brembos?

Mebbe I didn't know that ?

[andydclements]

Mebbe I didn't know that ?

Check the below thread, and try not to laugh, at the realisation about the mountings for the discs and callipers.

I failed on the latter.

http://www.lotusespritforum.com/forums/ind...showtopic=13666

[Jonathan]

In all seriousness thats not an altogether hard mistake to make.

The very early S4 cars had toyotas and the later had brembo so even if you ring up and ask for brakes for an S4 you'd forgive them if they sent you the brembo ones. I've had dealers ask me what year my Esprit is and then goto the V8 folders not realising the GT3 is a '97 car.

I can't tell you how many times I've read - "S4's are better than SE's because they have brembo brakes".