Download Service Manual PDF Here:

Download Service Manual PDF Here:

Author
Discussion

karmavore

Original Poster:

696 posts

254 months

Tuesday 25th January 2005
quotequote all
I uploaded the S4/S4S/Sport300/early V8 service manual PDF to my website. I'll leave it there till the morning. I hope this will help some people out.


Luke.

link edited by ErnestM due to possible copyright violations. Sorry - sign of the times

rjjuge

101 posts

231 months

Tuesday 25th January 2005
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I've got it too on my site. If you can't get ahold of karmavore and need a copy, email me and I can AOL IM or email it to you if you're account can accept 50ish MB.

karlfranz

2,008 posts

269 months

Wednesday 26th January 2005
quotequote all
BEWARE OF THESE MANUALS

These Adobe Acrobat (PDF) manuals that are circulating around are not official Lotus manuals. Someone a while back scanned in all the Lotus service manuals and sold them on eBay. This is where these manuals seem to have originated.

Why should you care?

I won't get into the legalities of copyright. The guys on the UK list already tore my head off for pointing this out last month. I will say, however, that although they are good for general reading, looking at the diagrams and getting an overall view of things you should not rely on these manuals for any technical specs. Why, you ask? Because whoever scanned the manuals used OCR software to convert the text and make the files smaller (yes, as big as these files are they would have been much bigger). And OCR is still a very imperfect science.

I have discovered several errors in specs where numbers and/or units were converted incorrectly by the OCR software. If you were relying on these numbers for critical measurements or torque specs, you might be in for a suprise. Caveat Emptor.

karmavore

Original Poster:

696 posts

254 months

Wednesday 26th January 2005
quotequote all
Maybe that explains why my wheels fell off and the car misfires. ...kidding

Thanks for the heads up, Karl

Luke.

NJGSX96

269 posts

250 months

Wednesday 26th January 2005
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I double checked mine with the paper manual I have and all seems kosher so far. I usually do when torque numbers are involved for the exact reasons you mention Karl. Of course, the PDF I have has much more info than the paper manual (mine is incomplete and I cannot justify the $450 bill to complete it) and then again the PDF still is lacking a few sections (like hvac which i got from another member). Overall, it is a great guide to have though. I only have the paperback because the PO included it with the car.

My PDF supposedly came from a "very upstanding Lotus community member" whose name I will not mention and he told me it came directly from Lotus as he has "friends". Well for poops and giggles I bought one off of ebay for a whopping $2.99 and it is the same exact one. of course the first one I bought was for much, MUCH more because at the time, I didn't know any better.

>> Edited by NJGSX96 on Wednesday 26th January 23:09

karlfranz

2,008 posts

269 months

Wednesday 26th January 2005
quotequote all
NJGSX96 said:
My PDF supposedly came from a "very upstanding Lotus community member" whose name I will not mention and he told me it came directly from Lotus as he has "friends".


Methinks you were duped by a "very upstanding Lotus community member". Lotus did not make these PDF manuals.

paul c

310 posts

248 months

Wednesday 26th January 2005
quotequote all
The CD manuals for the earlier '88 cars up to the '92 SE are obvious scans of the manual in book form and then bundled in a PDF format and onto CD.

I have (err...) seen some, and they are not perfect.

However,(and i accept i could be wrong here)i am unaware of any factory purpose made or approved CD manual for the 88-92 Stevens cars. In fact i would be very impressed if anyone can post a link to a legal vendor of a bespoke CD manual for these models.
As far as i can see, these scans-to-pdf are the only way to currently get the early manuals on CD.

If there is legal and purpose designed software then someone PLEASE post a link to who sells it!!!





Dr.Hess

837 posts

249 months

Thursday 27th January 2005
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There are two PDF's floating around. One is the 93-96 and that version was OCR'ed. The other one is for 88-92's and that one appears to have been PDF'ed directly from the scanned immages. While not "perfect," the imperfections are things like the paper was slightly crooked in the scanner, there was a smudge on the original, or the original was printed too light in the first place. Otherwise, they appear to be an exact reproduction (images) of an original SE service notes set, saved in a loss-less format. Or so I have heard.

Dr.Hess

karlfranz

2,008 posts

269 months

Thursday 27th January 2005
quotequote all
paul c said:
The CD manuals for the earlier '88 cars up to the '92 SE are obvious scans of the manual in book form and then bundled in a PDF format and onto CD.

I have (err...) seen some, and they are not perfect.

However,(and i accept i could be wrong here)i am unaware of any factory purpose made or approved CD manual for the 88-92 Stevens cars. In fact i would be very impressed if anyone can post a link to a legal vendor of a bespoke CD manual for these models.
As far as i can see, these scans-to-pdf are the only way to currently get the early manuals on CD.

If there is legal and purpose designed software then someone PLEASE post a link to who sells it!!!

Lotus has a software CD that was made by Media Solutions International. It contains all the manuals and parts lists. It was provided to the dealers and is tied to their parts ordering system. The software does cover the 88-92MY. This software is also being used at Lotus Cars USA. I was provided with a copy of the disc, but it has copy protection and requires a specific logon ID and password in order to run it.

ErnestM

11,615 posts

266 months

Thursday 27th January 2005
quotequote all
Karmavore - is this Lotus intellectual property? If it is, I may have to close this thread...

... it would be a violation of the rules

ErnestM

PS: while I, personally, appreciate the effort, posting of copyrighted material is not allowed

njgsx96

269 posts

250 months

Thursday 27th January 2005
quotequote all
karlfranz said:

NJGSX96 said:
My PDF supposedly came from a "very upstanding Lotus community member" whose name I will not mention and he told me it came directly from Lotus as he has "friends".



Methinks you were duped by a "very upstanding Lotus community member". Lotus did not make these PDF manuals.


Without a doubt. I have come to terms with that though and am over it, although that took a while since I see his name/screen name every day on here and/or the TE list. You live and learn.... Lotus owners are no better than anyone else out there unfortunately.

karmavore

Original Poster:

696 posts

254 months

Thursday 27th January 2005
quotequote all
ErnestM said:
Karmavore - is this Lotus intellectual property? If it is, I may have to close this thread...


Kind if a grey area I think, but the link is down. Please don't close the thread.

Luke.

ErnestM

11,615 posts

266 months

Thursday 27th January 2005
quotequote all
You got it...

Maybe this IP discussion needs to be had. I will check back in later as I am actually in Atlanta right now on a business trip (sadly - without the Esprit)

ErnestM

okc-esprit

165 posts

250 months

Thursday 27th January 2005
quotequote all
Concerning copyright, it seems that several people who contribute have direct contacts with Lotus. Perhaps someone could check with Lotus. They may not care. However, since I've seen some comments on accuracy of the copies, I would guess that Lotus would be concerned with unauthorized reproductions.

The books are original works and do involve some creativity so copyright does exist in the books. Any reproduction, publication or distribution of a copyrighted work requires permission of the copyright owner. Copying and selling the book isn't any different than copying and selling someone's upgraded software for the ECM. We had that discussion a couple of months ago.

okc-esprit

165 posts

250 months

Thursday 27th January 2005
quotequote all
karlfranz said:
BEWARE OF THESE MANUALS

I won't get into the legalities of copyright. The guys on the UK list already tore my head off for pointing this out last month.


Next time someone gripes about the legalities of copyright ask them if it is ok for you to walk into their house, open the icebox and start eating their food. Whether it is a book, a movie, a song or software, someone's effort went into making that product and they should benefit from it. Oh, it isn't only the copyright owner that benefits. It's also the printer, the distributor, the sound engineer and I could go on for quite awhile listing the other hard working folk who rely upon IP protections for their jobs.

I used to work for an oil refiner. The MBA's there never did understand copyright until I pointed out that it was a good thing a gallon of gasoline can only be burned once. I'll shut up now. If someone has a question please feel free to e-mail me and I'll try to answer it.

paul c

310 posts

248 months

Thursday 27th January 2005
quotequote all
karlfranz said:

paul c said:
The CD manuals for the earlier '88 cars up to the '92 SE are obvious scans of the manual in book form and then bundled in a PDF format and onto CD.

I have (err...) seen some, and they are not perfect.

However,(and i accept i could be wrong here)i am unaware of any factory purpose made or approved CD manual for the 88-92 Stevens cars. In fact i would be very impressed if anyone can post a link to a legal vendor of a bespoke CD manual for these models.
As far as i can see, these scans-to-pdf are the only way to currently get the early manuals on CD.

If there is legal and purpose designed software then someone PLEASE post a link to who sells it!!!


Lotus has a software CD that was made by Media Solutions International. It contains all the manuals and parts lists. It was provided to the dealers and is tied to their parts ordering system. The software does cover the 88-92MY. This software is also being used at Lotus Cars USA. I was provided with a copy of the disc, but it has copy protection and requires a specific logon ID and password in order to run it.


Thanks karlfranz
So does this mean the ONLY way someone can get the SE workshop manuals on CD is to own a copy of the PDF/SCAN of the 88-92 manuals and parts list that is being passed about?



karlfranz

2,008 posts

269 months

Thursday 27th January 2005
quotequote all
paul c said:
Thanks karlfranz
So does this mean the ONLY way someone can get the SE workshop manuals on CD is to own a copy of the PDF/SCAN of the 88-92 manuals and parts list that is being passed about?


...or buy the genuine printed manuals from Lotus and scan them yourself

paul c

310 posts

248 months

Thursday 27th January 2005
quotequote all
karlfranz said:
...or buy the genuine printed manuals from Lotus and scan them yourself


Mmm...
Time consuming indeed, many pages, and the end result would be no different than the CD of scans on PDF that i have (Err...) seen.




Theres an open market waiting for a purpose made copyright safe Esprit manual CD then. Hell, it could even contain colour photo's of various procedures etc...

Is it the factory that prevents this existing?

danny tattersall

731 posts

255 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
I purchased the '88 - '92 SE service manual and the additional sections for the Engine Management system (EMK) and electrical (MK). While the latter 2 are complete the service manual is missing probably well in excess of thirty or so importantpages. I have personally scanned these and have pdf copies for my own use but I must admit that I was glad to receive an unofficial CD containing the service manual as it enabled me to add in the pages that I had previously paid for but was missing.

Danny '93 SE Highwing

DrieStone

74 posts

240 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
paul c said:

karlfranz said:
...or buy the genuine printed manuals from Lotus and scan them yourself



Mmm...
Time consuming indeed, many pages, and the end result would be no different than the CD of scans on PDF that i have (Err...) seen.


It's a little different if you were to obtain a CD of these scanned images AND you own the printed material. I myself have scanned my S3/TE manual to PDF, but I have refused to distribute it to anyone who doesn't own the printed book.

I believe (at least in the US,) the copyright laws allow you the ability to "back-up" copyrighted material for safe keeping, but redistributing (especially for money,) is prohibited.

paul c said:

Theres an open market waiting for a purpose made copyright safe Esprit manual CD then. Hell, it could even contain colour photo's of various procedures etc...


I don't know about an "open market." Consider the cost of such a production (easily in the $US 10-20k), then consider the number of manuals that would be sold (maybe a couple hundred). I doubt you would even come close to breaking even as far as the economics.