toyroom

What's the Derek Bell Upgrade ?? and....I think you should win a prize for getting a warranty company to pay for anything !!!

Is your car a Turbo SE or a V8 SE? If it is the first then in my experience, the twin plate V8 clutch is enormously lighter. Even my wife can work it ! The twin plate clutch was introduced in 1997 with car number 280 or thereabouts. The V8 SE appeared much later and has this clutch. Can't answer for the first 270 v8 cars although many will have had their clutch upgraded to the twin plate version.

I have never understood why people turn their air con off ever. Air conditioning is just that, conditioning, not cooling like everybody seems to think. I never turn the air con in my V8 off. In the winter, I simply turn the heater temperature dial to red whilst leaving the air con on minimum. That way, the car is warm (or would be if my heater matrix wasn't blocked), there is no condensation and the atmosphere in the car feels fresh. With the air con off, the car feels stuffy and horrible. Try it ! Just put the air con knob on minimum and the flow knob on feet and control the temperature of the car with the hot/cold knob. This will use very little fuel and will mean that your air con will only need re-gassing once every five years and the car will be much more comfortable. Not to mention quieter as this means you can have the windows shut all the time. It will also mean that the system won't fail every Spring due to lack of use !

The ejection point for coolant is the small pipe fastened to the small expansion tank in the rear right side wheelarch. Collant loss is, however rare and any consistent drop in coolant is a major cause for concern. If the car is pre 98 and has not had a rebuild, failure of the seals of the cylinder liners is common (and expensive) with a rebuild coming in at the equivalent of ten thousand dollars plus. Hence: pray this doesn't happen to you. All this stuff is in the workshop manual which, at fifty pounds or thereabouts is a bargain for any lover of the Esprit and the source of many hours of recreational learning.