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Long overdue maintenance begins!

3K views 25 replies 12 participants last post by  Laser Bob 
#1 ·
Its been way too long since I've done serious maintenance on my car. I've decided to do almost none of the work myself, and instead turn it over to Waldir at Intermechanica of NY. I've read/heard good things about them.

I'm doing engine-out fixes: timing belt, water pump, valve adjust, all leaks fixed, tranny seals done, clutch, radiator, misc old hoses, and shift lever replaced. Also all suspension bushings replaced. I'm thrilled that I finally have the resources to do this work to such a beautiful car. I do have a budget to sort of stick to. Can't wait to get the car back in the spring. A bit of payback reward to myself for the last 6 or 7 yrs doing everything myself and tight budget.

Only one concern - that shift lever & knob assembly is hugely expensive relative to the cost to make it. Sure I understand its a 30 yr old part so not many left. But still, $795 for it? Anyway, in the bigger scheme of things its not a big deal.

So, after the mechanicals are sorted, and I use it for a year, I'll be repainting the front & rear bumpers and fixing a couple really minor cosmetics. Maybe I should paint the entire thing? Also, I'd like to redo the seats to original or source nice looking newer lotus seats that give a bit more hip room.

I'll keep you all posted on progress, but since I'm not doing the work, I'll just send pics & updates once completed I guess!

- Mel (aka UnderDog)
White '89 Esprit SE
 
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#3 ·
Only one concern - that shift lever & knob assembly is hugely expensive relative to the cost to make it. Sure I understand its a 30 yr old part so not many left. But still, $795 for it? Anyway, in the bigger scheme of things its not a big deal.

- Mel (aka UnderDog)
White '89 Esprit SE
Why are you replacing the lever? Just wear on the knob?
 
#4 ·
Knob cracked in a couple places and came off in my hand. I tried purchasing a cheap replacement $20 part, didn't fit right. Mine can probably be epoxied back together and if I insert a small pin into the lever I can easily epoxy the knob back so that it will fit. But I will still proceed with a new one. Just an awfully expensive part. But I do like the original.
 
#7 ·
Just a quick status update - engine & tranny are out. Radiators are out, and I guess everything else. Car on lift. Phase two (fixing/replacing stuff) begins. Was able to negotiate around $550 savings on parts, maybe through volume discount. Was nice that they appreciated the high cost of that shift lever+knob and worked with me a bit.

So far on the 'surprises' list: needs two new ball joints for the upper control arms. Also clutch slave cylinder was leaking but I knew that already, just didn't factor into the parts costs.
 
#8 ·
It's something close to inspiring when you do a full maintenance barrage on your machine. I can only imagine having someone else doing it must feel pretty good in it's own right!


I'm sure you will be happy as a clam those first couple of drives after you get it back!
 
#11 ·
Update 2: Engine & transmission completed and back in the car! Includes new clutch, new gaskets, seals, timing belt, and other belts. Work begins tomorrow on suspension bushings, hoses, and cooling system. Projected to be complete by end of next week. No further surprises found! Now if this darn snow would melt and sand removed from the roads I'd be able to drive it!
 
#14 ·
Update 3: Car is 99% complete. They are waiting for the shift lever & knob assembly to arrive from JAE. Then they said they would run it on the dyno and make sure everything checks out. They had only one other issue getting the fuel injector wiring harness back on. The email was not perfectly clear but it sounded like maybe they just plugged things in wrong. At any rate, its all back together and running now. I can't wait to get it back! But I actually leave for family vacation tomorrow, so I expect to have it the week of April 17th.
 
#15 ·
I am very interested in exactly what was done and how well it was done by that shop. I don't care what they tell you or the paperwork says, you have to look at the work for yourself. Another owner that had some recent work done there is having "issues" about what was done and what wasn't done, what was billed for and what was paid for. That's all I can say right now. I hope in your case everything turns out well.
David Teitelbaum
 
#17 ·
Update 4: Everything together, but they were not happy with the way my old shift cable was working. I gave the go-ahead to put in a new one. I had previously adjusted this a few times myself and it was very tight to move one of the two cables, and stretched out so that I could either get reverse or 5th but not both without really perfectly adjusting things. Anyway, another delay. I'm still hopeful to get it back in a week or two and will report the best I can on the quality of each project. Of course I'm not an expert but I know the car feel and sounds well enough to know if something new is not right. Weather is getting good now here in CT so I'm starting to get anxious to get the car back.
 
#19 ·
Update 4: Everything together, but they were not happy with the way my old shift cable was working. I gave the go-ahead to put in a new one.
@jtrealty has posted his success with injecting lubrication into the shifter cable by dripping a light oil into one end, then applying compressed air to drive the lubrication into the sheath. :cool:

Just the thing to 'work the ol' stiffness out'. :laugh2:
 
#20 ·
Yes! Different for me for sure - this is a first - my wife usually won't let me even walk around the house until the gas & oil smell leaves me. But the job was just too much and I'm doing a startup company now that is taking considerable time. But hopefully I'll have time to enjoy the Esprit this summer. Any day now...
 
#21 · (Edited)
Update 5: Car is back in my garage! Mostly good stuff, here's the details:

Work was performed nearly exactly on budget. So I was not charged for the several hours of effort trying to get the old shift cables to work for example. And there were a couple minor things that didn't show up on the labor bill (reposition my touch screen better in the dash, attempt to fix my badly broken drivers side mirror).

Engine: Engine out service, including Gates blue timing belt, tensioner, water pump, cam shaft seals, valve adjustments, new gaskets and seals everywhere. No leaks at all (very unusual for a Lotus!) Engine is noticeably smoother now, and a little nicer smooth rumble at idle too.

Transmission: New clutch, new seals, new slave cylinder, new shift cables, new bracket thing that the cables attach to (but still using the old translator parts). Again, no more leaks out of wherever things were leaking from before in the transmission. Shifting this car is very very different now, it is near effortless, just a light touch. Also, we were never able to get a replacement (and expensive) shift knob, so they were able to modify a solid aluminum ball type knob and the lift part to work well, and replaced the mechanism that goes with it (so knob, reverse lift thing, rod, and stuff the rod connects to, and the cables). Its maybe a half inch shorter now also, but generally I like it a lot. The leather boot needs to be tightened better around the rod so I don't feel so much heat blowing through there, thats all.

New radiator - I can actually see the temp gauge move down now when the fan turns on. I got to test this out repeatedly in traffic driving the car home Friday afternoon through a couple hours of stop & go traffic.

New suspension bushings and tie rod ends - wow what a difference.

Repainted rear bumper

Car was fully detailed when I came to pick it up - not part of invoice - nice touch.

I probably missed a couple smaller items, but that is essentially all of it. But a few things left to sort out, and a few observations:

On the drive home, 5th gear was intermittent, and later not at all. On my house exit, only 3rd and 4th gear remained. At which point I knew exactly why had happened, as its happened to me before. A connecting rod from the transmission cable bracket to the translator had come loose! Very loose in fact, almost lost the part, but I made quick work of this the next morning, and everything shifts correctly again. I used stainless nylon locking nuts.

May have lost a rear brake pad on the drive home. Right rear is making a bad grinding sound. outward facing pad is still there. I didn't get to pull the tire yet to even check it out. The shop replaced the pads. So something not right here. Didn't have issues on the test drive, but at some point on the 2.5hr drive home something went wrong. But I still can stop fine.

I have a bluetooth audio adapter installed in the car, which drives an amp & speakers (so my phone, or the tablet can connect to it for example). But during the re-install of everything, the power cable was left behind the touch screen. So I need to hunt down this wire again. I started looking for it this weekend but got side tracked with finding another broken wire, and some suspect heating/air duct work. Not sure if this was always like this or not, who knows, but I thought it was working a few months back. Maybe someone's foot got up in there or something? Anyway, fixed.

Clutch - clutch is new like I said. The engagement is much smoother now, there is generally more ability to modulate things, whereas the old clutch was very much almost all or nothing. Tricky to deal with. However, the peddle is nearly to the floor now to totally disengage the clutch. Not sure if this is normal. I'd rather have it somewhere in the middle. Maybe there is an adjustment? Also, being a new clutch, I can feel a small vibration when I engage very slowly with low engine RPM. Not noticeable with higher RPM and/or faster engagement time. And also I hear a small noise when clutch full dis-engaged (peddle to the floor), almost like its rattling around a bit. I was actually told by Intermecanica that I would hear this and that things would quiet down after a few hundred miles of use. So for now, since all else seems good, we shall see on that one.

Other - Found a couple loose screws around the console area. Minor yes, but reporting what I find. Probably would not have noticed had it not been for the missing bluetooth power cable.

The shop was very open about all the work, not great on initiating status updates, but fast to respond to my email requests for status. I get the general sense they are expert at removing engines and doing engine and transmission work. And are experts at the newer Lotus Elise and Evora cars and track prep work on those. They did also have an Esprit V8 with engine out while I was picking up my car. My sense is that they are not perfect at the smaller stuff, like buttoning up the dash console things, ensuring the translator rod was tight (here I suspect they did several adjustments to get things perfect and then forgot to tighten it all up). And the brake pad issue.

I already gave my (somewhat less detailed) summary to the shop this morning. They are very eager to assist any way they can to make sure things are perfect, or to send me new parts (like the brake pad) if I want to put it back myself. Given I'm a few hrs away this makes sense for me vs transport back and forth. They also requested I give them a couple status updates. So overall a good experience, but not 100% perfect!

Nice to have the car back. Took kids and wife out for rides Sunday (one at a time of course!)
 
#23 ·
Yup! With this sort of project, there were several things to do, and if I were to do this myself, I would have spent 3 to 5x the time on each. But it would have been perfect in the end. So I sort of expected to 'trust but verify' the work anyway. Price was fair, actually really good on the labor. So the shop kept to the estimate, they need to make money too. And in the end I'll have all the hard stuff done that I could not have done myself. Just sorting out the small stuff at this point.
 
#24 ·
Update on the right rear brake - missing caliper bolt. Easy fix, but luck it was not worse, no damage. Odd since every bolt the shop touched has a bit of orange paint on it, torqued etc. Even the spot on the caliper still has the new orange paint. So I can only guess this one didn't get tightened.

So for those keeping track - that's loose translator rod nuts, and loose (missing now) caliper bolt. I'll be going through as many of the major nuts & bolts as I can easily reach and double-check. Did a few tonight, no further issues found. I'm feeling confident this car will be at daily driver level soon!
 
#25 ·
.

Yo Dude!..........bring it down to the July SCCA Driver's school on the short course at Sebring and I'll bring mine............we'll see just how well your car was fixed - - - and mine too! I exploded the clutch at the SCCA April Driver's School at Daytona and I anticipate the Esprit will be fixed by July. Why is this man smiling ???
 
#26 ·
I'm with you, I'm too old and don't have the tools, knowledge, or energy to do most of the mechanical repairs myself.

My car is starting to smoke on startup (smoke clears after 10-15 minutes of running), so I think my engine will be having an out of body experience in a couple years. I'm blessed to have a very good Lotus mechanic locally, and one of the nations top Lotus mechanics 2 hours away in Orlando.
 
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