Newbie has Odometer Trouble

Newbie has Odometer Trouble

Author
Discussion

lovemonkeysd

Original Poster:

14 posts

269 months

Thursday 13th June 2002
quotequote all
Hi, I'm a newbie to the world of Lotus owners and am as excited as a six year old on his birthday! I recently purchased a '90 Esprit SE and my odometer will stick randomly. I've scanned through the postings, but was unsuccessful at finding anything. Has anyone else had this problem and can they point me in the correct direction to fix it? I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

cnh1990

3,035 posts

270 months

Friday 14th June 2002
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This has been discussed on the Turbo Esprit list a lot. The lube inside dries out and causes the sticking or it maybe the cable. If the speedo is making a chirpping sound it is ready to go out. The worm gears will seize and will shear. The speedo can be easily removed taken to a speedo shop to be serviced. The speedo case itself is sealed and while I have been able to open it you need a tool that will curl the lip back into place much like something that they use to seal cans. It is not so expensive of a repair.
Calvin

Skerd

384 posts

274 months

Saturday 15th June 2002
quotequote all
My odomet sticks every time it
is about to change to the next
thousand. Believe it or not, if
I knock on the odometer covering
a few times it fixes it. The
dealer has no logical answer for
this remedy.

5150neo

154 posts

276 months

Sunday 16th June 2002
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I too had the same happen on my 91. I removed it, opened it which is not easy. Be very careful not to damage the crimped lip of the can. Once inside it was quite obvious what the problem was. On the upper left side there are two gears arranged prepindicular to one another. The little housing containing the outer most gear has a set screw. In my particular case the set screw had come loose and the gear had dropped just enough to where it only engaged a few teeth. I applied some threat locking compound, reset the screw, added some gun grease that can handle extreme temps, and it worked as new. As Calvin said, resealing the can is again not easy without the proper tool, but it can most certainly be done. You may save yourself some time by checking the speedo cable and drive gear at the transmition first. As mentioned earlier, either of these could be the source of the problem.