[housew]

I'm new to the lotus scene. Got my first one (84 US turbo esprit) back in the fall. I have always wanted one, and now i have one :clap:

I love the car, pulls hard, handles great, and gets the looks. I even like how it smells. I haven't seen a lot of other lotus in new england either.

as with any 30 year old car it has some issues, and I'm not super familiar to the car so i have some esprit specific questions (and im sure i will have some more)

1) is there a diagram / map somewhere that will tell me which fuse is what? I have the service notes but not the owners manual, and the fuse cover door doesn't have anything on it.

2) there is a fairly large flat plug under the arm rest in the center console, what is that for?

3) what is normal operating temp for the 910? Mine runs circa 70c which i believe is probably too cold. Thermostat sticking open?

4) if I sit in traffic or let it idle the temp will creep up, my understanding is that the fans should kick on at 80 degrees c, and they do not.

5) blinkers and 4 ways were working great. Then one day last week while I was home for lunch they just stopped functioning entirely. Hoping that's just a fuse if i can find it.

6) when i'm testing wires trying to find its electrical bugs, what do i use as a ground on a fiberglass car? I realize there is a backbone, but its not always accessible with my multi meter probe.

7) i don't seem to get any heat. I think i understand how the flaps work, but where is the water/heater valve located? Is it easy to get to and verify position that its opening when i ask it to.

8) windsheild wipers twitch, but don't wipe.


so with the exception of the blinkers, and the overheating if I sit in traffic too long thing (working on burping the system with the front rad purge valve which seems to be helping a lot) the rest are fine since its pretty much a fair weather car. But i like to tinker and getting them all sorted would be a bonus to me.

thanks all, I've been reading all over the forum trying to get answers too, and i've been learning a LOT

 

[Roger]

I can't answer much of this, I don't own an Esprit.
But I can give you two tips. First, I have a long piece of black wire with a crocodile clip on each end, and when working on Lotus electricals I attach it to the ground post of the battery, and attach my multimeter to that. This serves two purposes - I know I have a good ground, and I can also test how well other components are grounded, like lights and so on.

My other tip is to try another forum, with no disrespect meant to this one. Try The Lotus Forums. It's a UK-based site that may answer your questions.

 

[carbuff]

I'm new to the lotus scene. Got my first one (84 US turbo esprit) back in the fall. I have always wanted one, and now i have one :clap:

I love the car, pulls hard, handles great, and gets the looks. I even like how it smells. I haven't seen a lot of other lotus in new england either.

as with any 30 year old car it has some issues, and I'm not super familiar to the car so i have some esprit specific questions (and im sure i will have some more)

1) is there a diagram / map somewhere that will tell me which fuse is what? I have the service notes but not the owners manual, and the fuse cover door doesn't have anything on it.

2) there is a fairly large flat plug under the arm rest in the center console, what is that for?

3) what is normal operating temp for the 910? Mine runs circa 70c which i believe is probably too cold. Thermostat sticking open?

4) if I sit in traffic or let it idle the temp will creep up, my understanding is that the fans should kick on at 80 degrees c, and they do not.

5) blinkers and 4 ways were working great. Then one day last week while I was home for lunch they just stopped functioning entirely. Hoping that's just a fuse if i can find it.

6) when i'm testing wires trying to find its electrical bugs, what do i use as a ground on a fiberglass car? I realize there is a backbone, but its not always accessible with my multi meter probe.

7) i don't seem to get any heat. I think i understand how the flaps work, but where is the water/heater valve located? Is it easy to get to and verify position that its opening when i ask it to.

8) windsheild wipers twitch, but don't wipe.


so with the exception of the blinkers, and the overheating if I sit in traffic too long thing (working on burping the system with the front rad purge valve which seems to be helping a lot) the rest are fine since its pretty much a fair weather car. But i like to tinker and getting them all sorted would be a bonus to me.

thanks all, I've been reading all over the forum trying to get answers too, and i've been learning a LOT

This IS a good place to learn about Esprits. Besides TLF, subscribe to the TurboEsprit mail group on Yahoo Groups.

I can answer SOME Qs.

1. Hopefully someone can answer on the fuse location. I won't hazard a guess, as one thing I've learned is that the wiring changed over the years...

3. Normal operating temp is 82C. (that's where the thermostat opens). There ARE 74C t-stats available though. T-stats not closing is a common thing.

4. Fans are supposed to run @ ~90 - 95C. If you have freon in your A/C system, turn that on as a test to verify fan operation (they should run despite the temp).

5. "Exercise" the 4 way flasher. Actuate and de-actuate the switch 12 to 15 times. This is another common problem, I think the flashers are getting hard to obtain...

6. Good advice above. If you are losing a ground, get back to us for the most common grounding problem areas.

7. Heater mix doors operate on engine vacuum. There are little metal caps on a plunger that sometimes fall off. If you are determined to view the heater valve, un-bolt that front fuse box and peek in there (towards the center of the car).

8. Remove the arm to see if the splined post is moving through it's full travel. If it is, the splines or arm are stripped. If it doesn't, the problem is in the wiper motor gearbox.

HTH, and post some pics of your Esprit!

 

[esprit888]

Good advice already given, one thing to check very quickly on the heater is have a look underneath the car at the front of the 'T' in the chassis. There you will see the two heater hoses coming out the front (car running if possible) Its not uncommon for a P.O to cut and loop the supply and return hoses should the heater core be leaking (been there found that!) if they are attached then feel the hoses, one should be hot the other hotter still at operating temps. If not then its the hose coming off the rear of the cylinder head or intake manifold (depending on what you have for a manifold-assuming blow through turbo?) These tend to plug up if the cooling system has not been maintained reducing or completely blocking flow. Last item would be Atwells advice, I am also on the Yahoo groups forums and there are a lot more 'G' car owners over there, hang out at both https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/turboesprit/info

 

[carbuff]

Oh, I almost forgot another good source of Esprit tech info: Lotus Esprit World:

Esprit Guides

 

[greentengu]

At the risk of sounding incredibly ridiculous, if you have the heat turned on, one of the things I was very, very surprised to learn was that the heat doesn't blow through the middle vents--only cold, "fresh" (or "outside") air. Perhaps (perhaps?) this is what the OP is referring to--it's easy to not feel the hot air when blasts of freezing, Maine air are assaulting your chest and forearms [that is, if the '84 cars are like the '85-'87s].

As I perused the owner's manual last year, I puzzled over its explanations of the vent usage for cool air (only AC or outside air comes through the middle vents) and hot air (which exits in the footwells and windscreen vents for my year), scratched my head, and wondered how we're to stay warm in late fall (say, a Thanksgiving day cruise). It's great to know that my feet and the top of my head will be toasty , but my core will be a comfortable, "near hypothermia" range :huh:.

 

[maxvelocity]

I can't be certain as things change but it is a good starting point. They list it as 83-87MY according to the diagrams from the LOON library the fuse numbers for the G car are.
1 Hazard, horn,head light, buzzer/door switch
2 cig lighter, interior lights
3 rad fan, A/C control, blower
4 flasher, turn, stop
5 side turn signal
6 rear turn signal
7 stop light, mirror
8 ignition

 

[Eric Rogers]

At the risk of sounding incredibly ridiculous, if you have the heat turned on, one of the things I was very, very surprised to learn was that the heat doesn't blow through the middle vents--only cold, "fresh" (or "outside") air. Perhaps (perhaps?) this is what the OP is referring to--it's easy to not feel the hot air when blasts of freezing, Maine air are assaulting your chest and forearms [that is, if the '84 cars are like the '85-'87s].

As I perused the owner's manual last year, I puzzled over its explanations of the vent usage for cool air (only AC or outside air comes through the middle vents) and hot air (which exits in the footwells and windscreen vents for my year), scratched my head, and wondered how we're to stay warm in late fall (say, a Thanksgiving day cruise). It's great to know that my feet and the top of my head will be toasty , but my core will be a comfortable, "near hypothermia" range :huh:.

Uh, you just need to close the face vents and problem solved.

 

[sleekgt]

Uh, you just need to close the face vents and problem solved.

A more efficient way to do this:

To shut off cold air to the 2 middle 'knee high' vents, you turn the heater/AC control to 'INTERIOR'. That shuts off the ducts cold air that is directly hitting you. It's a little easier than reaching over to the passenger side to close the vents manually. Just put back to 'NORMAL' if you want ambient air back in 2 middle 'knee high' vents (without manually tweeking the vents).

The outer vents are always ambient air (no heat) and are not part of the 'INTERIOR' vent system. Those would have to be turned off manually. It doesn't bother me to leave on all the time, but then again I live in milder climate area.

 

[housew]

VERY VERY good advice so far, thank you much. I will try to join up on some of the other forums too. I have a decent amount of cars, so if i signed up and kept current with 3 forums for each one i'd never have time to fix any of them.

I know the heat doesn't come through the knee high vents, and i have solved that (both turning them off and turning the knob to "interior" seem to work) but im still not getting hot air through the foot wells / windscreen. To me that means the heater matrix isn't getting hot. So its either looped out (I will check for that), air locked (dunno how to fix that, lots of driving, bleeding, and burping?), or there is supposed to be a cable operated water valve to let it flow or not flow through the heater core that could not be activating.

I can't really check fan operation on a normal day since with the thermostat stuck open it doesn't get that hot. Good to know the thermostat is a common problem, i will work on getting a replacement.

I will excersice the 4-way flasher and blinkers. I also couldn't find that unit. according to the service notes its behind the glove box? is it on the interior of the car in the passenger side foot well? how do i access it?

I really dig the running a wire from the battery neg for testing. I have plenty of wire and clips at home so i will make that happen asap.

thanks for posting up fuse locations, i seem to have a lot more than that though....

 

[housew]

pic of car:



and heres a pic of my fuse box, with some mess going on in there. I don't know how im supposed to tell which fuse is for what, but none of them appear to be blown. It would be nice to know what the missing relays are, and whats supposed to be where those jumpers are.

 

[MidLifeZ]

I have had fuses blow but when looking at them could not visually tell. Just as a "make sure" item might test them

 

[EspritNOOB]

pic of car:

Beautiful!

 

[sailorbob]

Left hand horizontal fuses 1 (at the top) to 6 (at the bottom):

1 20A interior fans
2 - spare
3 5A LH side, tail, number plate lamps
4 15A hazard lamps, interior lamp, clock
5 15A cigar lighters, door lamps
6 10A radiator fan no 1

Central horizontal fuses 7 (at the top) to 12 (at the bottom):

7 10A door mirrors, radio, radio amp (if fitted)
8 5A instruments & warning lamps
9 5A RH side, tail, number plate lamps
10 15A stop lamps, seat belt buzzer, radio (memory), radio amp (if fitted), antenna
11 25A head lamp wash
12 10A radiator fan no 3

Right hand horizontal fuses 13 (at the top) to 18 (at the bottom):

13 5A heated rear screen
14 15A wiper motor, screen wash
15 5A head lamp motors (down control)
16 10A head lamp motors
17 10A horn, head lamp flash
18 10A radiator fan no 2

Left hand vertical fuses 19 (at the top) to 21 (at the bottom):

19 10A reverse lamps
20 10A indicators
21 10A ACU compressor, ACU radiator fans control

Right hand vertical fuses 22 (at the top) to 24 (at the bottom):

22 10A engine control (aux)
23 10A engine control (ign)
24 10A alarm

 

[housew]

sailor bob, thats a life saver. any idea what the 6x relays (or spots for them) are for? (or where to find the info)

 

[housew]

I have had fuses blow but when looking at them could not visually tell. Just as a "make sure" item might test them

thanks midlifez, i usually test them with an ohm-meter. I didn't when i did my quick check, but now that i know which ones do what, I'll be sure to verify i have good fuses in the circuits that are giving me issues. Always good practice.

 

[housew]

whipped this up in autocad to help me make sense of it. Going to print it off and put it on the back of the fuse door where it should be after i figure out what the relays are for and finish filling it out

 

[sailorbob]

I am not sure about the pre '86 cars but for '86 on the relays are:

25 - brake warning lamp
26 - heated rear screen
27 - interior fans
28 - flasher unit
29 - air conditioning "drop out"
30 - radiator fans

Numbering is as your sketch.

 

[carbuff]

I can't really check fan operation on a normal day since with the thermostat stuck open it doesn't get that hot. Good to know the thermostat is a common problem, i will work on getting a replacement.

I will excersice the 4-way flasher and blinkers. I also couldn't find that unit. according to the service notes its behind the glove box? is it on the interior of the car in the passenger side foot well? how do i access it?..

If your air conditioning compressor engages, the cooling fans should be ON even if you just started a cold car.

The 4 way flasher SWITCH is usually the culprit. That's why it needs the exercise. Can't remember if it has it's own flasher...

BTW, Esprits of your vintage had a "voltage stabilizer", actually a current regulator. They are also know to fail, and cause erroneous readings on the temp gauge.



Closest Lotus parts source to you is R D Enterprises in PA. Ray will have the stuff you need and can tell you the availability of the difficult-to-get stuff.
www.rdent.com


PS Thanks to SailorBob. :up::up: Where is that fuse panel in the G Esprits, anyway? On the Stevens and later cars, it is on the front trunk "firewall" near the steering wheel. If yours isn't there, SORRY...:facepalm You won't be able to search for the heater control...

 

[greentengu]

Uh, you just need to close the face vents and problem solved.

Oh. My. GAWD! Is that what those little round knobby thingamajiggies are for? Thank you for solving a mystery that has perplexed me for thirty years :crazyeyes

That fuse/relay diagram by housew is outstanding, and the addendum by Sailorbob excellent.

According to the Lotus Owners Handbook, "the fusebox is located behind a removable panel on the lower fascia to the left of the steering column" (36).

Furthermore, "Additional fuses and relays for the engine management and injection system are located in the ignition box behind the engine bay" (36).