simonb Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 have noticed that the voltage drops well below 12 when I put the lights on, but up til now it has been OK apart from that. Today I tried lights AND wipers, got smoke in the cabin (through dash from right of glovebox lid) and no wipers and no indicators. Smoke stopped and I got home on sidelights and intermittent wipers - used isolator when I got home (just in case) Smoke was noxious, but car is not yet toast. Any ideas where to start - guess mine is not the first plastic sportscar with electrical gremlins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
semi42 Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 looks like wiring to/ from fusebox. first thing i would do is get a wiring diagram Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giorgio67 Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Hope that helps... save as a Jpg or Tiff and open it with Paint or similar programs. Ciao Giorgio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Choppa Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 That is so much easier to view in colour, the ones in my manual are much more difficult to follow in black and white. Quote Normally Aspirated - and lovin' it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonb Posted February 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Cheers, already have a wiring diagram, but they are schematic, rather than showing what is where. Do you thing that with gear surround off I can get up to that area beside the fuses, or is it a full dash removal to get to the offending area? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giorgio67 Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 If i remember well the fuse box is located in the glove box, no need to disamnle the cockpit. Cheers Giorgio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Veg Posted February 23, 2011 Report Share Posted February 23, 2011 Anybody have a nice colour diagram like that for Bosch-injected federal Turbo? Quote "If you can't fix it with a hammer, it's electrical." -somebody's dad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giorgio67 Posted February 23, 2011 Report Share Posted February 23, 2011 HI, they don't exist... I have made only two model of Esprit, S2 and S2.2 /early S3 with or without Lumenition system. If you want a colored diagram you need to do it. Cheers Giorgio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molemot Posted February 23, 2011 Report Share Posted February 23, 2011 Have you had a look at the fuseboxes themselves in the glovebox? You may find some pointer there..blown fuse, signs of melting, so forth. Thing is, smoke means heat which means too much current...so, somewhere, there is probably a connection which has short circuited to ground through frayed insulation or other physical damage. This could be anywhere...so the first thing to do is to find which circuit is producing the incipient conflagration, and work your way through it. I should think you'll have a melted wire that you'll be able to find...then you have to find out why!! Had dealings with a Mk4 Jet Provost which kept catching fire in flight....turned out to be the wire linking the non-existant NiCad battery to the non-existant emergency UHF radio. A pair of cutters dealt with that.....no wire, no fire!! Quote Scientists investigate that which already is; Engineers create that which has never been." - Albert Einstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gvy Posted March 5, 2011 Report Share Posted March 5, 2011 HI, they don't exist... I have made only two model of Esprit, S2 and S2.2 /early S3 with or without Lumenition system. If you want a colored diagram you need to do it. Cheers Giorgio Hi, i have an esprit s2.2 from 1980. I really like the coloured electrical diagram you made, but the resolution in your post seems to low to really use it . If I print it out, I just cant read the text or folow the lines. Could you please scan and send it to me in the highest possible resolution. many thanks geert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USAndretti42 Posted March 6, 2011 Report Share Posted March 6, 2011 Cheers, already have a wiring diagram, but they are schematic, rather than showing what is where. Do you thing that with gear surround off I can get up to that area beside the fuses, or is it a full dash removal to get to the offending area? If you need to get to the back of the fuse boxes, you can do so by removing the centre console/gearshift surround. Only takes a few minutes. Quote S4 Elan, Elan +2S, Federal-spec, World Championship Edition S2 Esprit #42, S1 Elise, Excel SE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonb Posted March 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 "Just" an earthing problem bloody wierd though, car was putting over 5 volts through the chassis (8v in places) would not blow a fuse, and did not drain the battery Started off hunting for a chaffed wire, stripped bits of the car to inspect - found nothing found the blue and red/green from the light switch gave a path of no resistance to a wired earth; but could find no damage on these, and gave up and handed to a mechanic mate Mechanic stripped further (and had better knowledge and tools) All relays removed and checked Lots of wires disconnected and checked We had both looked at the corroded earth point under the bonnet and thought "that looks a bit shit" but can't be that. His father (retired truck mechanic) said it was an earthing problem, but was ignored as a silly old bugger Checked with Gerald at GST that we had not missed anything - he seemed to have the same order of testing as my mechanic. But it was the front chassis earth under the bonnet - will be removed and cleaned today Still not worked out how a bad earth gave the symptoms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Coleman Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Your S2 is obviously different to my S1 because mine doesn't have a front earth that I remember. The main earth on my chassis is at the back - there's a bolt welded to one of the top tubes on the chassis (driver's side). Still, glad you found it Paul. Quote Lotus Esprit [meaning] a 1:1 scale Airfix kit with a propensity to catch fire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molemot Posted March 13, 2011 Report Share Posted March 13, 2011 Lotus electrics are almost always bad earths. What happens with a duff earth is that the current flows back through the other things connected to that earth point instead of to earth, properly. This gives all sorts of odd, unpredictable and amazing results; any time you have something really weird happening, think Duff Earth!!! Finding it is another question..... My windscreen washers gave up a couple of years ago...I could hear the relay working, but no washers, so it had to be the pump, right? Wrong. There isn't a relay in the windscreen washer circuit!....the earth to the washer pump goes to the pump, then chains down to the relays!! There seemed to be an earth wire on the pump...but it was only connected to the relays, so when I tried to work the washers, the relays worked too...and nothing happened until I finally realised that the proper earth feed had broken off, and reconnected it. Cost me a new washer system!! Quote Scientists investigate that which already is; Engineers create that which has never been." - Albert Einstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonb Posted March 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2011 My mechanic also gave me a long lecture on quite how shit Lotus wiring was, and questioning why things were linked as they were - much as John's experience above. By contrast I had a wooden marcos previously, and that had even less metal in it than the Esprit, but the wiring was SO easy to work on - all accesible and all logical. I suppose that is the difference with a race originated sports car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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