How many miles on your Esprit so far?

[manuelin]

With all the myths out there about the bad realiability and lack of respect for the marque, I am just curious to see how many miles people have gotten out of their Esprits, specially the 4-cylinder model. My s4s has 18,000 of which 1,500 are mine. The car feels solid and reliable. I wonder who takes the cake on the most miles. Anybody out there past the 100K mark?

[DrMG]

I owned a 1986 turbo, I put 40,000 on the clock and when I sold it there was a total of 103,000 recorded miles on it. The car never missed a beat, fully serviced, and I still see it on the road around my area.
An excellent car -- if you look after them they are superb.

MG

[southenddc]

well ive just bought mine, an 86 S3 with 90k miles....and im not getting rid of it just yet.....

[dirk989]

I'm still nearly a virgin to the whole Esprit experience. I bought a 99 V8 in January and have put 8,000 miles on it since then. I have the 450hp chip and the skeptics keep telling me I'm looking at an engine rebuild anytime now. I drive it hard and almost everyday. It has been in snow, rain, mud and 100 degree Indiana summers. The only problem I've had was when the solder cracked on the chip swap and left me stranded. It was a free fix by my local computer shop and the garage didn't charge me a dime to tow it in. They liked parking it next to the owners Viper out front. I change the oil regularly and keep a check on the fluids. It doesn't use oil or water and surprisingly little gas.

These are solid, simple cars and should last as long as any of those cheap cookie-cutter mass produced cars that we are forced to share the freeway with.

I'll make sure that the skeptics are kept updated on my lack of a blown engine.

Dirk

[unity1]

97K so far. 50K'ish of my own . Usual storey keep them in good working order and service. Dont floor it at every opertunity especially if its not at temp and it will last forever.

[abrussich]

Purchased my 89 in 92 with 1,700 miles on the clock. Now showing a touch over 68K and running strong. Have had to do a fair amount of work to get there, replaced fuel cells, header, water pump, fuel vapor recovery lines, main wiring harness, window and headlight lift motors, clutch, shocks, shifter, and general maintenance. Up and coming work will include a paint job, some suspension work, and an interior redo.
Car was a daily driver sharing time with my two wheeled interests. Now car is relegated to weekends or whenever I feel the need for four wheeled speed.

[adrianmugridge]

Bought my GT3 in 1998 with 4700 miles on it, it now has 66500.

Adrian

[fj40]

Got my 97 with 9,800 and it has 13,000. Would love to drive it more but it is a weekend car. It is great to hear of cars driven with a lot of miles and only a few problems.

Dan

[Skerd]

66,000 plus on a 95 S4s, half of that by me in the last two years.

[mark_88_turbo]

87K so far and no engine rebuild yet. I've heard of some 9 series engines touching 140k before requiring a rebuild. There's also a Steven's N/A, service by Esprit Engineering (Salisbury, UK) which has over 270,000. That's got to be a record.

Mark
88 Turbo

[kylie]

76,000 miles. Has had no major problems - yet!. It gets a good run once or twice a week. Just little things needing replacing and general detailing, otherwise starts and runs well every time.

Kylie
89 Esp Turbo

[lotusguy]

Hi,

Interesting that all the cars lauded for their stellar, reliable performance are all post '85 cars w/ the HC engine (nikosil liners w/ matched forged alloy pistons and EFI.

My '85 MY Turbo went 40K mi. when the #4 piston literally melted due to the design flaw of keeping the cast alloy pistons w/ cast iron liners with the introduction of the Turbo models. I have totally rebuilt the engine and tranny, brakes, cooling system (waterpump, radiator), alternator.

I built the engine back up as a race team would, adding forged alloy pistons, individually and dynamically balancing every component to 0.10gr., including the cltch disc/flywheel, polished the crank, ceramic coated the piston domes and skirts (Thermal ceramic on the domes, Wettable dry lubricant (molybednumdisulfide) on the skirts), rebuilt and rejetted the carbs. Also added new 104 intake cam, shoter valve springs, 3-angle valve job, silica/bronze valve guides, and recalibrated the wastegate to 10PSI, overbored Turbo to accept ball bearing, ceramic coated the exhaust manifold and turbo housing, but these were elective.

I reasonably expect the engine to now go an additional 150K mi., at least, w/o any future major failures.

Regrets...NONE. No offense, but it sounds kinda boring to have a car so reliable you can't tinker with it from time to time. Maybe now I see why so many of you rush to do mods and upgrades. Happy Motoring! Jim'85TE (flaws, foibles and all, and loving it)

[abrussich]

to lotusguy,
As much as I love my 89 I would hardly call it trouble-free. Burnt out main wiring harness, two rotted through fuel tanks, dead cooling fans, cracked manifold, body stress cracks, rotted fuel tank vent system, and a host of relatively minor items make trouble free a non relative term. But being the masochist that I am I'll keep on truckin. The mods that have been done are just a part of the tinkering process. It's part of what makes this car worth keeping.

[cnh1990]

I'll tell you what Jim your problem was a new one on me. Never would have suspected that puff of smoke while following you was the ring lands disintergrating and blow by shooting through the oil holes in the pistons. It's a good thing you took the engine apart before it seperated at the wrist pin on that piston. That would have been ugly. That tensioner that almost snapped off after the rebuild would have been ugly too. Altogether everything worked out for the best under the circumstances. Almost convinced that if it were anyone else it would have fried the engine in either case.

Calvin