Lotus Notes #1
THIS IS LOTUS NOTES #1. It is in time-forward order. There will be another post, entitled LOTUS NOTES #2, which is in time-backward order (so newest entry first). It will be linked to here when I write it.
2014-07-25 Friday. I reach an agreement with Dream Car Autohaus in New Jersey to get a 2001 Lotus Esprit V8 delivered to me in Tucson. The price is right, which means there is going to need to be a LOT of TLC.
2014-07-28 Monday. The car shows up. I had expected it to show up to the office so was waiting there. This was right after 2x dental implant surgery so I was in a bit of discomfort but unable to go home and get meds until after the car was delivered. When the driver called and said he was at the house instead of the office, I jumped at the chance to go home.
First impression: the car is beautiful but dirty. The marker reflector on the right side was broken and a new one is being sent by the dealer. The right side mirror is broken. The driver says it was marked as broken on the manifest. Sort of -- it was marked "MBR" which means "MISSING and BROKEN". The dealer says it wasn't that way. this remains to be sorted out.
They left the glass sunroof on it. I need to take that off and put the solid roof on or get the A/C fixed (recharged). Anyway the metal gearshift knob was burning as I figured out how to get it into reverse. (Collar around gearshift stick... raise up... then shift left and down into reverse.) Got it into the driveway and called it a day.
2014-07-29 Tuesday. Asked my friend Cathy who is an insurance rep to get me car insurance. This turned out to be not so simple because most companies do not insure Lotus cars. However, she found one that did -- SafeCo -- and I will have insurance starting Monday August 4th. (I have temporary insurance by virtue that I bought a new car and already have insurance... but my current carrier won't write a policy for a Lotus.)
2014-07-30 Wednesday. It shipped with no fuel in it. Took a 2 gallon fuel container to the gas station and filled it up. Then brought it back. The Lotus fuel door was confusing because... the owner's manual pages are all fused together. By cobbling info on the net I found a button that made a loud 'click' where I thought the fuel door release is. The fuel door did not open. I then stuck a screwdriver in it and pushed the button -- door opened and screw driver fell. It's way way dirty. Did I mention the car is dirty? Put the 2 gallons in the Lotus. Now I can go to the gas station and get a real fuel-up.
2014-08-01 Friday. Got the 3-day Arizona Registration from the State of Arizona. Got the insurance proof of financial responsibility from Cathy. Put the one in the car pocket (there's no glove box) and the other in the rear window. Then I went to get some gas.
Second impressions. The rear-view mirror bounces like a clown. It will need to be tightened or replaced. The A/C does not blow cold air (or maybe I don't know how to work it). The interior turn-signal indicators do not light. The entire dash does not "christmas-tree" on turnon. This may be a British thing. There may be another way to test the dash lights -- can't read about them in the fused manual.
At the gas station I filled up half a tank, then when I went to start it I could tell the battery was about to give up the ghost. There was already a car lined up behind me... so this would not have been a good time to get stranded. Fortunately it roared to life. I drove it home. Then I put it in the garage. Then I turned it off. Then I tried to start it again -- no joy. So I will join the American Automobile Assocation, and they will get me a battery, and Saturday or Monday I can go get emissions checked and then get my registration taken care of. Then in two weeks Falconworks (they do Lotus work in Tucson) say they have covered space available for overnight hosting of the car... and they can do a post-purchase evaluation prelude to fixing what needs fixing.
Good news: it accelerates great. Engine runs great. Transmission was great. Just needs some TLC. Oh and a wash. Because. It's dirty.
--- later that evening --
I put the car on the trickle charger so that I could see how bad the battery was. The charger started at the full 10A and slowly worked its way down to 0. During this time I cleaned up enough of the garage so that both cars would fit. 80% humidity and 90F... whew.
The good news is once the charger said the battery was full I started the car up... and then did an alternator test. The charger says the alternator is good. That means I can take it tomorrow to get the legal stuff taken care of and not have to deal with tow trucks or AAA or batteries :)
2014-08-02 Saturday. The battery is all charged up so I drive it over to get emissions checked. It's a very humid day and I have the windows down. I don't know if there's another start left in the battery so I'm very careful not to stall it. It's been years since I've driven a manual transmission car on a regular basis and this one has a REALLY heavy clutch (on purpose). On hills I can't use the e-brake since it's in entirely the wrong place (left next to front of driver's door) so I'm being careful with the brake and clutch/gas dance. I've done this before. Not with this clutch tho!
I get to emissions and there's no wait. There's a "fast lane" for cars with an OBD-II (1997 and newer). I get in it. The guy has not seen a lotus and asks me what year it is. I yell out "2001" over the throaty roar of the V8. He says "1991?" and looks ready to wave me over to the non-OBD-II lane. "No, 2001" says I and he motions me in.
He then asks me to put it in neutral, put on the e-brake, and exit the vehicle. I let him know I'm not sure the battery will support another start... but he says that's part of the test. I comply.
He scans the barcode and then looks under the dash. Can't find the plug. The manual says "next to the battery" (which is in the rear trunk). The cable won't reach. He asks me to move the car forward... but alas there is no start. They push my stranded Lotus out so they can help the next guy and hand me a "Failed" report. Great. I ask if they can help me jump it "We don't have jumper cables." I tell them "But I do!" and they say "We can't help you." I ask a lady in a truck who just went through. She tells her husband who comes out in a second truck right after her. He pulls around to help. The car fires right away, I shake his hand, take my cables and go home. Defeated.
2014-08-03 Sunday. The battery has stickers on it that clearly identify it as a Bosch Type-34. Pep Boys sells them and has a special going. They also have a location 1/2 mile from my office. I call. They have one battery left but "Nick" will put it aside for me. I drive down there. Again making certain not to stall because there is no restart. Of course I could pop-clutch start it down a hill and most of the way is downhill, but alas all the stoplights and stopsigns are either on slight inclines or level ground.
There's also a not well-known fact that if your battery is 100% dead you CANNOT start the engine in this manner. The lightweight alternator requires its exciter-circuit to be energized or it will not supply any power. 0% battery + 0% alternator = no spark no matter how much you get the engine rotating due to wheels, transmission, and popped clutch. Keep that in mind. (Hypothetical thought for the needlessly complex thinker: if you're stranded at the top of a hill with a 100% dead battery but you have a 9V battery in your flashlight or whatever... wire that in parallel to your car's dead battery and then pop-start it down the hill... the 9V battery will be sufficient to activate the exciter circuit.)
I had spoken with Nick and let him know likely there would be no more starts when I got to Pep Boys... should I leave it running... or what? He said they have starting equipment so just park it and come on in. I drove down, parked it, went in, handed keys over, and took him outside to show him where the battery is (rear trunk), how to get to it (trunk release behind driver's seat), and how NOT to close the trunk lid (do NOT force it down. Pull it all the way up to release the holder interlock then just close it down normally).
I then walked 11 minutes to my office. Google maps shows it as 0.6 miles and 14 minutes. That's 3.3MPH in 90°F heat and 40% humidity. At the office I surfed the web and 45 minutes later got the call from Nick: the battery tested BAD. They had replaced it. They were now attaching it, as the original one had been put on top of the attachment hardware (and was therefore loose) instead of battoned down. I started my walk back.
When I got back to Pep Boys I paid my bill ($141), got my 3yr warranty on the new battery, and took the car back home. Driving was a real pleasure. I'm going to enjoy it.
Next up -- emissions attempt #2, registration, and then to get some diagnostic detail on what to do next.
2014-08-04 Monday. Bright and early I went to the testing facility. The computerized display said the cars currently being processed had waited 0 minutes. Perhaps the tens digit was burned out, as those cars and the four between me and them (and the same in the other lanes) waited about 5 minutes per car...
So twenty minutes later I pulled in, told the guy it's in the back and I need to pull in further so his cord will reach. This worked. Unfortunately with the new battery, the OBD II was giving a "NOT READY" status on various tests, specifically the EGR, O2 SENSOR, and EVAP. The guy at the facility gave me my second rejection notice and told me "drive cycle". I have been through this before with my CART Safety Truck. *sigh*
Looking up what it takes to reset these on the OBD II in the Lotus Esprit V8 I found some resources. This forum says:
- Evap - Idle the vehicle from start to warmup.
- O2 - Run at a steady pace 35-55MPH in 5th gear for 30seconds or so
- EGR - Engine speed above 1500 RPM and maintain slight acceleration for 10 seconds
Unfortunately the A/C still doesn't work, and it is still very very hot (although not humid finally), so I will have to wait until early tomorrow morning to do this... and go try, try, again.
2014-08-14 Wednesday. It got hot and dry (vs hot and muggy) and I didn't want to mess with it. Also the tires didn't look great (more on this shortly). So I had instead just waited to have the car taken to the shop for evaluation.
I'd already pulled one 3-day permit, which left only two more in any consecutive 12 months. So rather than pull a second one to drive it down to the shop I had them call a tow truck over to pick up the car. Don from TLC Towing was easy to work with and his driver Greg showed up to get the car.
2014-08-15 Thursday. The shop had reviewed the car, sent me some preliminary details, and it doesn't look super awesome nor super bad. There's rust on things, and it was an east-coast car. The hoses are likely factory original unchanged. The brake discs and rotors need some r/r. The tires are dead. They wanted a 3-day pass to do a road-test. Sigh. I pulled pass #2 of 3 and emailed it to them. So far I've spent $2 on registration $750 on insurance, and we're just getting started.
2014-08-15 Friday. I went by the Falconworks shop to meet them. Nice people. We talked about what to do with the car. I paid for the post-purchase evaluation ($230) and agreed to get started on the work discussed. I left a car-cover, and promised to tell them what tires to get. Whoops. Haven't done that.
2014-08-16 According to Tirerack.com the fronts are 235/40-17 and the rears are 285-35/18. I think that's wrong but I should have looked at the tires when I had the car!!! Anyway I just emailed the mechanic and asked him.
The plan right now is to have Falconworks fix all but the bodywork (rust, mirrors, etc.). That includes brakes, tires, A/C, dash lights, and then we'll see where it stands, how much more money it needs, how fun it is to drive, etc.
E
2014-07-25 Friday. I reach an agreement with Dream Car Autohaus in New Jersey to get a 2001 Lotus Esprit V8 delivered to me in Tucson. The price is right, which means there is going to need to be a LOT of TLC.
2014-07-28 Monday. The car shows up. I had expected it to show up to the office so was waiting there. This was right after 2x dental implant surgery so I was in a bit of discomfort but unable to go home and get meds until after the car was delivered. When the driver called and said he was at the house instead of the office, I jumped at the chance to go home.
First impression: the car is beautiful but dirty. The marker reflector on the right side was broken and a new one is being sent by the dealer. The right side mirror is broken. The driver says it was marked as broken on the manifest. Sort of -- it was marked "MBR" which means "MISSING and BROKEN". The dealer says it wasn't that way. this remains to be sorted out.
They left the glass sunroof on it. I need to take that off and put the solid roof on or get the A/C fixed (recharged). Anyway the metal gearshift knob was burning as I figured out how to get it into reverse. (Collar around gearshift stick... raise up... then shift left and down into reverse.) Got it into the driveway and called it a day.
2014-07-29 Tuesday. Asked my friend Cathy who is an insurance rep to get me car insurance. This turned out to be not so simple because most companies do not insure Lotus cars. However, she found one that did -- SafeCo -- and I will have insurance starting Monday August 4th. (I have temporary insurance by virtue that I bought a new car and already have insurance... but my current carrier won't write a policy for a Lotus.)
2014-07-30 Wednesday. It shipped with no fuel in it. Took a 2 gallon fuel container to the gas station and filled it up. Then brought it back. The Lotus fuel door was confusing because... the owner's manual pages are all fused together. By cobbling info on the net I found a button that made a loud 'click' where I thought the fuel door release is. The fuel door did not open. I then stuck a screwdriver in it and pushed the button -- door opened and screw driver fell. It's way way dirty. Did I mention the car is dirty? Put the 2 gallons in the Lotus. Now I can go to the gas station and get a real fuel-up.
2014-08-01 Friday. Got the 3-day Arizona Registration from the State of Arizona. Got the insurance proof of financial responsibility from Cathy. Put the one in the car pocket (there's no glove box) and the other in the rear window. Then I went to get some gas.
Second impressions. The rear-view mirror bounces like a clown. It will need to be tightened or replaced. The A/C does not blow cold air (or maybe I don't know how to work it). The interior turn-signal indicators do not light. The entire dash does not "christmas-tree" on turnon. This may be a British thing. There may be another way to test the dash lights -- can't read about them in the fused manual.
At the gas station I filled up half a tank, then when I went to start it I could tell the battery was about to give up the ghost. There was already a car lined up behind me... so this would not have been a good time to get stranded. Fortunately it roared to life. I drove it home. Then I put it in the garage. Then I turned it off. Then I tried to start it again -- no joy. So I will join the American Automobile Assocation, and they will get me a battery, and Saturday or Monday I can go get emissions checked and then get my registration taken care of. Then in two weeks Falconworks (they do Lotus work in Tucson) say they have covered space available for overnight hosting of the car... and they can do a post-purchase evaluation prelude to fixing what needs fixing.
Good news: it accelerates great. Engine runs great. Transmission was great. Just needs some TLC. Oh and a wash. Because. It's dirty.
--- later that evening --
I put the car on the trickle charger so that I could see how bad the battery was. The charger started at the full 10A and slowly worked its way down to 0. During this time I cleaned up enough of the garage so that both cars would fit. 80% humidity and 90F... whew.
The good news is once the charger said the battery was full I started the car up... and then did an alternator test. The charger says the alternator is good. That means I can take it tomorrow to get the legal stuff taken care of and not have to deal with tow trucks or AAA or batteries :)
2014-08-02 Saturday. The battery is all charged up so I drive it over to get emissions checked. It's a very humid day and I have the windows down. I don't know if there's another start left in the battery so I'm very careful not to stall it. It's been years since I've driven a manual transmission car on a regular basis and this one has a REALLY heavy clutch (on purpose). On hills I can't use the e-brake since it's in entirely the wrong place (left next to front of driver's door) so I'm being careful with the brake and clutch/gas dance. I've done this before. Not with this clutch tho!
I get to emissions and there's no wait. There's a "fast lane" for cars with an OBD-II (1997 and newer). I get in it. The guy has not seen a lotus and asks me what year it is. I yell out "2001" over the throaty roar of the V8. He says "1991?" and looks ready to wave me over to the non-OBD-II lane. "No, 2001" says I and he motions me in.
He then asks me to put it in neutral, put on the e-brake, and exit the vehicle. I let him know I'm not sure the battery will support another start... but he says that's part of the test. I comply.
He scans the barcode and then looks under the dash. Can't find the plug. The manual says "next to the battery" (which is in the rear trunk). The cable won't reach. He asks me to move the car forward... but alas there is no start. They push my stranded Lotus out so they can help the next guy and hand me a "Failed" report. Great. I ask if they can help me jump it "We don't have jumper cables." I tell them "But I do!" and they say "We can't help you." I ask a lady in a truck who just went through. She tells her husband who comes out in a second truck right after her. He pulls around to help. The car fires right away, I shake his hand, take my cables and go home. Defeated.
2014-08-03 Sunday. The battery has stickers on it that clearly identify it as a Bosch Type-34. Pep Boys sells them and has a special going. They also have a location 1/2 mile from my office. I call. They have one battery left but "Nick" will put it aside for me. I drive down there. Again making certain not to stall because there is no restart. Of course I could pop-clutch start it down a hill and most of the way is downhill, but alas all the stoplights and stopsigns are either on slight inclines or level ground.
There's also a not well-known fact that if your battery is 100% dead you CANNOT start the engine in this manner. The lightweight alternator requires its exciter-circuit to be energized or it will not supply any power. 0% battery + 0% alternator = no spark no matter how much you get the engine rotating due to wheels, transmission, and popped clutch. Keep that in mind. (Hypothetical thought for the needlessly complex thinker: if you're stranded at the top of a hill with a 100% dead battery but you have a 9V battery in your flashlight or whatever... wire that in parallel to your car's dead battery and then pop-start it down the hill... the 9V battery will be sufficient to activate the exciter circuit.)
I had spoken with Nick and let him know likely there would be no more starts when I got to Pep Boys... should I leave it running... or what? He said they have starting equipment so just park it and come on in. I drove down, parked it, went in, handed keys over, and took him outside to show him where the battery is (rear trunk), how to get to it (trunk release behind driver's seat), and how NOT to close the trunk lid (do NOT force it down. Pull it all the way up to release the holder interlock then just close it down normally).
I then walked 11 minutes to my office. Google maps shows it as 0.6 miles and 14 minutes. That's 3.3MPH in 90°F heat and 40% humidity. At the office I surfed the web and 45 minutes later got the call from Nick: the battery tested BAD. They had replaced it. They were now attaching it, as the original one had been put on top of the attachment hardware (and was therefore loose) instead of battoned down. I started my walk back.
When I got back to Pep Boys I paid my bill ($141), got my 3yr warranty on the new battery, and took the car back home. Driving was a real pleasure. I'm going to enjoy it.
Next up -- emissions attempt #2, registration, and then to get some diagnostic detail on what to do next.
2014-08-04 Monday. Bright and early I went to the testing facility. The computerized display said the cars currently being processed had waited 0 minutes. Perhaps the tens digit was burned out, as those cars and the four between me and them (and the same in the other lanes) waited about 5 minutes per car...
So twenty minutes later I pulled in, told the guy it's in the back and I need to pull in further so his cord will reach. This worked. Unfortunately with the new battery, the OBD II was giving a "NOT READY" status on various tests, specifically the EGR, O2 SENSOR, and EVAP. The guy at the facility gave me my second rejection notice and told me "drive cycle". I have been through this before with my CART Safety Truck. *sigh*
Looking up what it takes to reset these on the OBD II in the Lotus Esprit V8 I found some resources. This forum says:
- Evap - Idle the vehicle from start to warmup.
- O2 - Run at a steady pace 35-55MPH in 5th gear for 30seconds or so
- EGR - Engine speed above 1500 RPM and maintain slight acceleration for 10 seconds
Unfortunately the A/C still doesn't work, and it is still very very hot (although not humid finally), so I will have to wait until early tomorrow morning to do this... and go try, try, again.
2014-08-14 Wednesday. It got hot and dry (vs hot and muggy) and I didn't want to mess with it. Also the tires didn't look great (more on this shortly). So I had instead just waited to have the car taken to the shop for evaluation.
I'd already pulled one 3-day permit, which left only two more in any consecutive 12 months. So rather than pull a second one to drive it down to the shop I had them call a tow truck over to pick up the car. Don from TLC Towing was easy to work with and his driver Greg showed up to get the car.
2014-08-15 Thursday. The shop had reviewed the car, sent me some preliminary details, and it doesn't look super awesome nor super bad. There's rust on things, and it was an east-coast car. The hoses are likely factory original unchanged. The brake discs and rotors need some r/r. The tires are dead. They wanted a 3-day pass to do a road-test. Sigh. I pulled pass #2 of 3 and emailed it to them. So far I've spent $2 on registration $750 on insurance, and we're just getting started.
2014-08-15 Friday. I went by the Falconworks shop to meet them. Nice people. We talked about what to do with the car. I paid for the post-purchase evaluation ($230) and agreed to get started on the work discussed. I left a car-cover, and promised to tell them what tires to get. Whoops. Haven't done that.
2014-08-16 According to Tirerack.com the fronts are 235/40-17 and the rears are 285-35/18. I think that's wrong but I should have looked at the tires when I had the car!!! Anyway I just emailed the mechanic and asked him.
The plan right now is to have Falconworks fix all but the bodywork (rust, mirrors, etc.). That includes brakes, tires, A/C, dash lights, and then we'll see where it stands, how much more money it needs, how fun it is to drive, etc.
E