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New arrival announcement :clap:
Pleased to announce my new arrival, a Silver 02 25th Anniversary Edition #73
It’s had a few delivery issues, lol, that I will go into and have a few questions for folks but first I want to give a shout out to all the folks that offered advice when I was looking around for a car. I also want to give a special shout out to Harold Bray (irok). I was considering his 98 and talked to him quite a lot and he was the perfect gentleman and was very helpful and I feel bad about not actually buying his car and was real close to pulling the trigger on it before 02 came up. If anyone is considering his car then I’d be happy to answer any questions from what I learnt.
Anyhow, the reason I ended up going with the 02 was that I really wanted the OZ Nova’s, the center exhaust and restyled lights. I was looking at the time at the 98, a 99, and a 2001 all of which had their pluses but none had everything I wanted and with the potential cost of the upgrades added to the purchase price I basically got the 02 for pretty much the same money (south of $40K) and it’s an actual 02 with 16K miles and it’s kind of cool to have a numbered car
So the car I ended up getting was the one Silver02 was selling. I know some folks were suspicious about the fact that he was selling it so quickly and possibly those suspicions were warranted, jury is still out on that. So for those curious about what condition the car was actually in and some of the issues I’m still working through read on…..
So the pluses….
The car is in immaculate condition inside and out, certainly a very clean example. Clutch and transmission seem very good although I have not got a lot of experience of driving other Esprit’s so I have nothing to compare it against but there’s nothing that jumps out at me as being wrong. The car had a new timing belt installed so that’s also good. I’ve been driving around in 110 – 115 degree weather, I’m in Phoenix, and have had zero issues with overheating which was a relief. I previous local car I test drove was overheating badly and the dealer tried to tell me this was normal. While Esprit’s do run hot the car I have now is running typically 10 to 15 degrees less than the one I test drove and it’s a lot hotter outside now.
So onto the issues that I’ve been working through….
After driving the car for like 30 seconds I immediately noticed a clanking/thumping sound. Kind of sounded like a loose engine mount. On describing it to my mechanic who’s a very experience Esprit mechanic he immediately diagnosed it as likely chassis knock. This is what it turned out to be and was an easy fix ($200 to fix). I don’t want to pass judgment but it’s hard to image that anyone would not notice this and it was pretty much unmentioned, fortunately a quick fix though.
Next issue was emissions where the car was failing. It was failing because there was no check engine light displaying on starting the car and it had some out of spec codes. When my mechanic checked it out he found the light had been removed and there was actually 8 separate emission type codes. Some of these were apparently caused by a blown fuse driving some of the emission related components. Anyhow long story short, all the emission issues got resolved, and I have a check engine light now and it has stayed off
The windscreen wiper was not resetting correctly and was a few inches above where it should be, again a simple fix.
So overall it’s not really cost that much to fix these issues and so far I still feel ahead of the game. Now for the prevailing issues that may or may not make me feel ahead of the game anymore, lol.
Please feel free to jump in on any thoughts on these…
So it’s kind of happenstance that someone just posted a question on stalling. I have the same issue and pretty much as was described. I was aware of the reset cycle and what have you and indeed my mechanic suggested driving for a bit to see if it improved as it learnt more. I’ve put some 300 miles of mixed driving on it since then and it’s really not changed much. Slipping the car into neutral especially after driving a few freeway miles can easily cause a stall. So much so that I’ve got used to blipping the throttle to catch it but it’s a pain in the ass and something you don’t really want to think about. It also seems to happen after harder acceleration. The idle itself is still all over the place and while if I let it settle it will eventually get to the correct idle, usually at first it sits around 1100 to 1200 then sometimes drops low and catches itself and pretty much hunts for a bit before getting sorted. I’d say this has not improved at all over the 300 miles so I got to think there is something wrong here, maybe an idle valve or vacuum leak somewhere.
The other issue I have is an engine whine which is actually much more noticeable from inside the cabin than outside. If I had to put money on it I’d say it was coming from passenger side just behind the bulk head but it is difficult to exactly pinpoint. It not dependent on transmission being engaged and is not present from a cold start but gets louder as the engine warms up. From listening inside the engine bay I don’t believe it’s coming from the block but it’s kind of hard to tell but it’s certainly a lot less noticeable. My mechanic has already checked the installation of the belt and the tension is good. The whine is directly proportional to revs and I don’t need to be moving. It’s really quite enjoying and spoiling the enjoyment of the car, like the first minute I drive it from cold it sounds great and after that just an enjoying whine fills the cabin. Was wondering if anyone else has come across this before.
I’m going to have my mechanic check out the issues probably next week but any insights would be appreciated.
Thx Jerry
Pleased to announce my new arrival, a Silver 02 25th Anniversary Edition #73
It’s had a few delivery issues, lol, that I will go into and have a few questions for folks but first I want to give a shout out to all the folks that offered advice when I was looking around for a car. I also want to give a special shout out to Harold Bray (irok). I was considering his 98 and talked to him quite a lot and he was the perfect gentleman and was very helpful and I feel bad about not actually buying his car and was real close to pulling the trigger on it before 02 came up. If anyone is considering his car then I’d be happy to answer any questions from what I learnt.
Anyhow, the reason I ended up going with the 02 was that I really wanted the OZ Nova’s, the center exhaust and restyled lights. I was looking at the time at the 98, a 99, and a 2001 all of which had their pluses but none had everything I wanted and with the potential cost of the upgrades added to the purchase price I basically got the 02 for pretty much the same money (south of $40K) and it’s an actual 02 with 16K miles and it’s kind of cool to have a numbered car
So the car I ended up getting was the one Silver02 was selling. I know some folks were suspicious about the fact that he was selling it so quickly and possibly those suspicions were warranted, jury is still out on that. So for those curious about what condition the car was actually in and some of the issues I’m still working through read on…..
So the pluses….
The car is in immaculate condition inside and out, certainly a very clean example. Clutch and transmission seem very good although I have not got a lot of experience of driving other Esprit’s so I have nothing to compare it against but there’s nothing that jumps out at me as being wrong. The car had a new timing belt installed so that’s also good. I’ve been driving around in 110 – 115 degree weather, I’m in Phoenix, and have had zero issues with overheating which was a relief. I previous local car I test drove was overheating badly and the dealer tried to tell me this was normal. While Esprit’s do run hot the car I have now is running typically 10 to 15 degrees less than the one I test drove and it’s a lot hotter outside now.
So onto the issues that I’ve been working through….
After driving the car for like 30 seconds I immediately noticed a clanking/thumping sound. Kind of sounded like a loose engine mount. On describing it to my mechanic who’s a very experience Esprit mechanic he immediately diagnosed it as likely chassis knock. This is what it turned out to be and was an easy fix ($200 to fix). I don’t want to pass judgment but it’s hard to image that anyone would not notice this and it was pretty much unmentioned, fortunately a quick fix though.
Next issue was emissions where the car was failing. It was failing because there was no check engine light displaying on starting the car and it had some out of spec codes. When my mechanic checked it out he found the light had been removed and there was actually 8 separate emission type codes. Some of these were apparently caused by a blown fuse driving some of the emission related components. Anyhow long story short, all the emission issues got resolved, and I have a check engine light now and it has stayed off
The windscreen wiper was not resetting correctly and was a few inches above where it should be, again a simple fix.
So overall it’s not really cost that much to fix these issues and so far I still feel ahead of the game. Now for the prevailing issues that may or may not make me feel ahead of the game anymore, lol.
Please feel free to jump in on any thoughts on these…
So it’s kind of happenstance that someone just posted a question on stalling. I have the same issue and pretty much as was described. I was aware of the reset cycle and what have you and indeed my mechanic suggested driving for a bit to see if it improved as it learnt more. I’ve put some 300 miles of mixed driving on it since then and it’s really not changed much. Slipping the car into neutral especially after driving a few freeway miles can easily cause a stall. So much so that I’ve got used to blipping the throttle to catch it but it’s a pain in the ass and something you don’t really want to think about. It also seems to happen after harder acceleration. The idle itself is still all over the place and while if I let it settle it will eventually get to the correct idle, usually at first it sits around 1100 to 1200 then sometimes drops low and catches itself and pretty much hunts for a bit before getting sorted. I’d say this has not improved at all over the 300 miles so I got to think there is something wrong here, maybe an idle valve or vacuum leak somewhere.
The other issue I have is an engine whine which is actually much more noticeable from inside the cabin than outside. If I had to put money on it I’d say it was coming from passenger side just behind the bulk head but it is difficult to exactly pinpoint. It not dependent on transmission being engaged and is not present from a cold start but gets louder as the engine warms up. From listening inside the engine bay I don’t believe it’s coming from the block but it’s kind of hard to tell but it’s certainly a lot less noticeable. My mechanic has already checked the installation of the belt and the tension is good. The whine is directly proportional to revs and I don’t need to be moving. It’s really quite enjoying and spoiling the enjoyment of the car, like the first minute I drive it from cold it sounds great and after that just an enjoying whine fills the cabin. Was wondering if anyone else has come across this before.
I’m going to have my mechanic check out the issues probably next week but any insights would be appreciated.
Thx Jerry
