My new S4s has let me down!

[pete]

anybody would think you are the first

[Stimpy]

Bugger me, this is worse than Twitter.

 

Hey!  I didn't take a picture of what I'm eating and posted it here!!

 

(I'm not eating, but that's not the point)

 

I had a thought that's either brilliant or obvious - see what you think.

 

 

Find fuel pump (I pretty much know where it is)

 

Feed an IGN-on cable straight to it (via inline fuse).

 

So the question is - Is there some weird special way that the Esprit petrol pump operates or does it just need 12v from the battery when the key is switched to IGN?

I'm thinking of this as a temporary step of course - just to test whether the fault goes away.

[Escape]

You do not want to run the fuel pump directly, but via the fuel pump relay. Normally the ECU activates this relay, by switching it to ground. The other terminal is ignition live. So not quite as easy as you'd think. But if the problem is indeed some remnants of an immobiliser or bad wiring, you could replace the wiring from the relay to the pump with a single cable, bypassing the inertia switch and possibly immobiliser additions. If you really want to be sure, you need to run a separate (ignition) feed to the relay to make sure the wiring or immobiliser isn't causing problems before the relay. To do that, you do want to familiarize yourself with the electrical manual, it's not that hard, once you look at it long enough. ;-)

 

Incidentally, because of the rain today, I've decided to leave the Stag inside and take the Esprit to a local meeting. Her first real run in 1,5 years!

 

Filip

[Trevsked]

I may have missed it as I've not read all of this, have you replaced the fuel pump relay?

Trevor.

[dodge1979]

Start with simple solutions before jumping ahead to try and by pass things replace etc. As trev says start simple..check the relay.

Oh n I only scan read it too so if ive missed that sorry..

[Stimpy]

Blummin heck - so giving power straight from IGN is not recommended - even for a 'get you home' scenario.

 

I guess what I should do is take a voltmeter with me and see if there's a +ve being supplied to the fuel pump.

 

I've thought of an idea that might just work.

 

There's a local car hifi place that I use that also fits immobilisers and alarms.

 

It seems a good idea having an immobiliser for obvious reasons. On a convenience front I would be able to press a button to unlock the doors (use the key? in the 21st century?).

 

I might try and arrange them to fit the immobiliser and leave it with them to disable the remnants of the half dead immobiliser.

 

Right.  I think I will do just that - another advantage is I can take the car back to them if the symptom doesn't go away.

 

BTW - I ordered an ECU cable from Chris today - however I realise it won't be able to tell me about my particular issue.

 

Driving the Honda to work today was - kinda - 'grey' if you get my drift.  And - no - after repeated test runs I cannot get the damn thing to fail (I just realised what a strange thing that is to say!)

 

 

Incidentally, because of the rain today, I've decided to leave the Stag inside and take the Esprit to a local meeting. Her first real run in 1,5 years!

 

Filip

 

Even if I garage the Stag it still seems to fill up with water if it rains :-)

[Chillidoggy]

My Stag used to leak onto the back seat squab. The black basket-weave vinyl would off course hide this, and the rainwater would soak through, sitting in the trough underneath. When someone sat in the back, the water would gradually seep back through the seat, in turn gradually soaking the occupants trousers/skirt/underwear.

My Scimitar GTC on the other hand, used to leak over the driver's seat. If had to leave it outside overnight one winter, and if it had rained and was cold enough, I would get in and sit on a seat which had actually frozen. Not comfortable, I can assure you.

[Sparky]

You should've gone up a ladder to sort the Scimitar roof out.

[Chillidoggy]

What, and fallen through it? Have you any idea how much they cost?

[Sparky]

What, ladders?  You must be getting through a fair few.

[Chillidoggy]

Not "getting through", "fallen off" would be a better term.

Still at least I'm able to move my right arm today, and Ayer's Rock on my left elbow has receded to the point where it's taken on the appearance of a neolithic long barrow.

[Stimpy]

My Stag is with a clssic restorer having some body work bits done.

 

Did you know that Owning a classic -or classic-to-be car is a better investment than any other means except property ?

[Chillidoggy]

In my case every classic car I've ever owned has never made me any money when I sold it, because by the time I took in the running, maintenance and restoration costs, I'd lost money.

It doesn't stop me from buying them, though!

[Stimpy]

It's a recent phenomena - which has bitten two people I know - my dad sold his e-type about 5 years ago ...had he have kept it........

 

The worst example is my friend who had 3 escort mk1's  He sold them a few years back for a couple of hundred pounds.  One had the word 'Mexico' on the  back - which is current valued at around the 15k - 20k mark.

[Stimpy]

Back on topic....

 

I'm going to get my local car hifi store to fit an immobiliser - I'll ask hem to remove all traces of the old immobiliser as part of the job

 

That would be a cheaper option than to ask SGT to do the task although SGT will know the electrics better than the car hifi place

[mdw]

As long as you can trust these people to do what you have asked!!!!.  Otherwise do it yourself.  The old imobilizer should be fairly easy to find and trace it back from there. 

Look at an  autowatch 171ppi , I had one on my old excel and have one on the esprit with no problems.  The excel one was fitted by an  auto electrician and I did the esprit as I had the dash out  at the time and could integrate it fully into the loom.

 

As another  point, do these get nicked much?.  Would you be better spending the extra on more insurance cover  and a piped fire suppressant  system as fire seems to be the thing that gets them at the moment. 

 

For peace of mind and reliability its got to be the total removal of the old imobilizer back to the cut into the fuel and starter lines that's most  important.  If it were me I would run it for a month with NO imobilizer then you can guarantee that was the problem.

[Bibs]

I've heard of one Esprit being stolen 7-8 years ago up in Manchester. It was recovered shortly afterwards.

 

They aren't cars that attract crooks.

[Chillidoggy]

Whilst we are on the subject of immobilisers, was the Esprit not fitted with one as standard? I ask because I have some documentation that says my car has been fitted with one post sale.

[Stimpy]

Th insurance people seem to think that there's a Lotus system in there.  Not convinced.

 

Re: things being nicked.

 

I'm afraid that the Esprit joins the stag and mini in this respect - people don't nick them to drive them - they nick them to strip them down and sell the bits on ebay

[pete]

don`t recall that happening to an esprit 

[Bibs]

Hasn't happened. It's not like there are 15,000 Esprits in the UK, we generally know pretty much every one and if one is parted, it wouldn't take a genius to recognise parts of his own car. It's an Esprit, not a Stag or a Mini. They're all fairly unique. 

[sailorbob]

An Esprit was stolen in the Birmingham area three years ago and I recall one going in the north east too. Probably more than you think if you look closer at this depressing subject.

 

It's not uncommon for someone to fit an aftermarket immobiliser in addition the the factory one.

[Bibs]

I'm sure there was more to the Mangel incident which we don't know to be fair and the North East one I thought was Manchester as mentioned above, was recovered very shortly after. 

 

No harm in having more security, but it's not like these cars are often targetted by thieves. Sadly, they're not worth enough money. 

[Stimpy]

At least I can sleep easy at night knowing that the lucrative selling of Lotus parts on the web or in the pub never happens to Lotus Esprits.

[Stimpy]

Update - car booked into ICE store to remove all traces of immobiliser.  Better them than me!

 

Also - re classics stolen - the real mini community has been having problems recently.  There has been seemingly a large collective effort in the trade of mini parts from stolen minis.  The rarer the better.  The fact that the door can almost be opened with a screwdriver makes it easy picking.  The thought of breaking a mk I cooper makes me cringe.

 

I have a riley elf and a mini - so best get the steering clam on there...