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Esprit Part Prices
Not everything on a Lotus is from Lotus! Get it cheaper or better!


Tyres

Check out these sites for Esprit Tyres, not used them yet, but might be of use to some. If you use any of these site please email me and tell us how they performed.
www.blackcircles.com (10% off for Club members)
www.mytyres.co.uk (3% off for Club members)
www.tyres-sold-online.co.uk
www.etyres.co.uk
www.kwik-fit.com
www.xpediatyre.co.uk
www.e-tyres.co.uk
glow worm in watford, 01923 240599

'Event Tyres' on 0870 2407787. Ask for Gary and mention you want a price for Esprit tyres. www.event-tyres.co.uk. They're mobile and did a great job on my rears - £420 all in both rear, Michelins. Kev O

Locking Wheel Nuts for S350 Wheels

After some research, i have the details of a company making locking wheel bolts in the correct size for the crono magnesio wheels (sport 350 type). The bolts are made by ASTRALI www.astrali.co.uk and the reference is "LB48" (part No 942754).

You can find your nearest outlet by ringing the astrali sales office 01922 454 815 or check your local motor accessories shop - lots of places stock the astrali stuff. The LB48 wheel bolts do not fit any vehicle with standard wheels; these bolts are `specials' that astrali have manufactured for people who swap their original standard wheels for aftermarket alloys.

Retail price is £22.11. Quality is excellent - very substantial, unlike the naff tri-locks or similar. N.B. these are for the V8 only when fitted with OZ Crono Magnesio wheels - these are a longer bolt (32mm thread length) than is used for V8's with AWIs etc. If someone wants to see if these guys can also do a locking bolt for the 'normal' V8 wheel then drop me a line off list - i have a contact there i can pass on who was very helpful.

Rob Ellis 98 V8-GT (with locked mag wheels!)

Spare Wheel for S350 Wheels

For vehicles fitted with the 'Big Brakes' - as the Sport 350 - Lotus have a specific spare wheel. It is a 17" Steel Wheel & Tyre Assy. fitted with a spacer. (spacer is bolted to wheel in production)

This wheel has been tested and approved for use on the Esprit (front or rear) for Temporary Use Only at limited speeds.

Wheel Part No. A082G4137F
Spacer Part No. A082G4132F
Bolts (x5) Part No. A082G4133F
Bag (for bolts) A082T4032K

Tyre Discounts

Tyres are a common theme and as my GT3 now needs a new set of rears I have been doing a bit of digging. A friend is working for www.blackcircles.com and has offered to sort out a deal for me and fellow Esprit owners of 5% off the web prices and will try and ensure that all the relevant sizes are available. I thought this maybe of interest for some of you.

They have set up a promotional code for the members. If they type in Lotus123 it will show discounted prices for all members. This is live as of now. This will give the members a five percent discount on any tyre, not just Lotus Options. Also if what people want is not on the site then they should call the sales team on 0845 200 0022 to see if we can source it.

Thanks to John Lithgow ('99 T Blue GT3) for setting this up.

Esprit Owners Experiences

Thought I would let you know that I used MYTYRES.CO.UK as mentioned on Lotus Esprit World and they were great. There is a local branch here in the Netherlands, they had an excellent search engine that was easy to use and I found the tyres straight away. There was only one option of tyre offered for the sizes that I wanted, but as I could not find any 245/50 x 16's anywhere else, I opted to give them a try. The rears were Kumho 712's - size 245/50 x ZR16 priced at 106.10 Euro per tyre (£74) and Bridgestone S01's on the front size 215/50 x ZR15 149.40 Euro per tyre (£104).

Compared to other brands the tyres were very cheap and included tax and delivery which was within 3 days. Overall an excellent service, I will certainly use them again.

Giugiaro Oil Pressure Sender

A rare obsolete part, early Esprit oil pressure sender PNM Engineering now stock.

Twin Main Beam Relays

I got a replacement for the relay that lights all four beams from SJ sportscars part number SJ082M0011 £5.73 each (need 2 BTW)
Is in Competition modifications and Accessories section

Electric Window Motors

Ive replaced my 89Turbo window motors with GM Holden Commodore V Series (Aust) - they do however require some very simple spacers as the mount offsets are wrong. The Bosch numbers for these parts are as follows:

RH 90 275 122 (680-65040-4)(Bosch 0130-821-175)
LH 90 275 121 (680-65039-0)(Bosch 680-165-039-000)

The correct part is apparently Jag XJS around '90- Ive not tried this part. To fix the window problem completely you apparently also need to fit relays to the switches.

Electric Window Switches

The window switches are from the old Austin Maestro. I got a couple from a Vanden Plas Maestro from about 1990. The window switch I think you can find on some Peugeot 605s. Not sure what year tho.

Exhausts

Not really worth putting a standard exhaust back on, better off replacing it with a Stainless Steel one. Below is a list of suppliers. Also see the guide under modifications.

www.moto-concept.de
www.quicksilverexhausts.com
www.scuderiasystems.com
www.haywardandscott.co.uk
www.sjsportscars.co.uk
PUK Esprit Racing

Brakes

Alternative parts sources for early S4 ('93 build, '94 Reg) Discs are Toyota Celica (IIRC). I got mine (EBC) from: www.needforspeed.co.uk They were about £40 for the pair. Alternatively, you could try www.fensport.co.uk for drilled / grooved Toyota discs.

For Series 5 and 6 Steven's Esprits - '87 to '92, the brake pads are made by Bendix and they are the same as in a Toyota. You'd have to go into a Bendix store with your old pads and match them up on their catalogue. If you buy them directly from Bendix, they charge $47 per pair. Lotus charges $405 per pair.

www.powerstop.co.uk
www.lotusperformance.co.uk
www.race-speed.com

Front GT3 Brake Pads (Brembo)

Available for £21 (not inc vat), Official Lotus price is £240, there the same pad as on a:-

fiat coupe turbo
peugeot 406 3.0 v6

Only difference is the connection to the wear indicator.

BRAKE ACCUMULATOR FOR '91 ESPRIT

Following a helpful clue on this board, I found that the brake accumulator is the same part that is used by Jaguar. On the Jaguar board, I found that the same part is used in GM cards - GM Part Number 25528382.

The cost from www.gmpartsdirect.com is $86 plus shipping and handling. This sure beats $$$? from Lotus, or $400 from a Jag dealer or $200 from a mail order Jag parts supplier. These things are made with different pressure loads. I have no idea what this one is, but it seems to work just fine. 10 minute job to replace.

I ordered the part that lotusesprit16 suggested from GMPartsDirect.com. It was delivered in just 3 days (on a Saturday) via Airborne Express. Although the part is indeed an AC/Delco, it is not identical to the original accumulator in my Esprit. Differences are 210bar for the new part versus 207bar for the original. The other difference is that the original is torqued by means of a 17mm socket while the new one uses a hex head (allen-type) driver.

Installation was a 5-10 minute job. Although I did depressurize the system prior to removing the old accumulator, some pressure remained in the system and that sprayed a small amount of brake fluid. Luckily I expected this and had surrounded the area with absorbent towels. Installing the new part was just as easy except that there was limited access to torque the accumulator because of the different hex head.

I have take it out for a couple of test drives and everything seems back to normal. The ABS pump now cycles every 6-7 presses of the brake pedal rather than the 2 presses with the old, tired accumulator.

I suspect that the higher (210 bar) pressure rating is not a problem since this appears to be a maximum rating and not the operational value.

Aerial 1993-2002

The aerial mount and whip on the S4 and V8 is the same as the Vauxhall Calibra and Tigra.

Wing Mirrors 1988-2002

The Wing Mirrors are Citroen CX, and the internal Cone is available seperately from Citroen. Important, as Lotus don't sell it seperately and they break if you smack your wing mirror into something else.

Phil Hunt in Todber is *the* man in the UK for Citroen repairs. He has a field full of old Citroens...Give him a call on +44 (0)1258 820270.

Lights 1987-2001

The brake light on the Sport 350 is a standard Hella item.

The Esprit Rear Light Cluster is originally from a 1985 Toyota Trueno (as it was known in Japan) or Sprinter (as it was know in Australia) and RWD Toyota Corolla Coupe (AE86) part number 81561-1A240 Left, 81551-1A240 Right. UK Toyota part nos should be 81560 80168 LHS - nearside, 81550-80163 - offside

Non SE foglamps circa '89 era are Vauxhall Astra Mark 1. £30 from Vauxhall, £100 from Lotus.

The Vauxhall part number for the fog lamps is 90069610. I have called a few dealers and there seem to be plenty about. The complete unit is available from www.grasmere.co.uk for £37.13 each INC VAT.

Turbo Trouble!

Turbo Technics, 2 Sketty Closead, Brackmills, Northampton, NN4 7PL. Tel: 01604 705050. www.turbotechnics.co.uk

They will pick your turbo up and do a full check and report free of charge. Turn around is 24-48 hours. Reconditioning and a new bearing is aroung £350. For just a new bearing, which can handle more boost is £110.

New SE/S4 Turbo = £1,068 + Vat
New S4s Turbo = £847 + Vat

Parts Site for Older Esprits

Have a look at this site if you're running an older Esprit www.lotuseliteparts.bravepages.com It's mainly for Elite's, Excel's and Elcats, but as they share parts with the Esprit, you may find it of some use.
Car Covers

only ordered it yesterday, good quality complete with straps and bag for £101 all in from Cover Systems on 01933 410851 put a couple of pics up if anyones interested - Makes the drive look very posh :-)
http://www.argyrou.com/page5.html

transmission fluid

Castrol TAF-X has been discontinued by Castrol. It has been replaced by Castrol Syntrans. The formulation is almost identical to TAF-X.
We have some for evaluation but we are sure it will be fine for use in the Renault UN1 Transaxle. Lotus still have Castrol TAF-X in stock at Lotus. It should be available from Lotus Cars USA.

Cooling Fans

The fan motors is off a mk2 ford fiesta. You will have to put the original lotus fan on to it, but it's not much of a job. Normally the scrapyard will charge you between £5 to £10 max. for one ( depending whether you take it off the scapper yourself)

Window Lift Motors

What I've found out so far, is the Mechanism for the pre 1993 Esprit is bought in and modified by Lotus's fabrication shop to produce the Lotus parts. They still have parts in stock (I think they sell the mechanism assy. and the Motor separately)

From 1993 onwards these are off the omega for the UK and holden for the US markets.

post 1993 Door Handles

These are off the Vauxhall Calibra, as they have no 'popper' for the door locks.

Alternator

Just incase you guys were not aware the alternator on the v8 models is a gm 100amp unit as fitted to a v6 vauxhall omega.
Just fitted mine last Saturday.
Stu V8 GT

Got a Bosch 90 amp unit same as on some Ford, will find out exact model, being delivered this afternoon for £85 new. Cross referenced the part numbers on the origional unit and it all checks out, so fingers crossed it's all going to fit nicely.
Handy to know the V8 part will make a note on website for future reference. As a complete list anyone know of comparative unit on
earlier models ?
Del
95 S4s

V8 Alternator removal...

Fitted one last year you can just about get to it but the back wheels have got to be 10 inches of the ground to wriggle under the alternater is an vauxhall omega V6 i think your find , about 140 quid from a factor outlet half of lotus price its hell of a fiddle to get it past the chassis but if a builder can do it any one can , good luck

Dean 96 v8

Tailgate Stuts for Giugiaros

Price for new tailgate struts from lotus £151.00 + vat.
The SAME strut from SKF Engineering £42.00 + vat

I have checked prices today, and the nice lady at SKF has given her direct line if anyone wants to purchase any. It may be a good idea to see how many people want them as there is a small discount for order over 25, and a p+p charge of £15.00 for 1 to unlimited. Leave it to you guys to sort it out, I done my bit!

SKF Engineering Products LTD
Sundon Park Road
Luton
Bedfordshire
LU3 3BL

contact: Lynn Stark. direct line- 01582 496732
Item code: 7808197- 048917 (for S3 turbo, which I assume is the same for all S3 cars)

Chris Cole

 

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