GR8 PL8 M8's Daewoo Espero - Tea and a catch-up

[bangernomics]

Epic buy age and a remarkable mot result. I worked with a guy that had one of these from new, he had absolutely no sense of smell so consequently was a bit sweaty at times as he didn’t know.

I made the mistake of accepting a lift home one hot afternoon when my current smoker had expired and the windows were not working. Jesus it was like riding in a cheese cellar.

Sure yours is fragrant.

[GR8 PL8 M8]

10 hours ago, High Jetter said:

...is what I referred to. Glad you made it though.

Sorry, it was a long day yesterday, the context was needed.

N839 CNO is probably the most famous Espero, it's the face of the Espero Wikipedia article and was video reviewed by HubNut.

Copy-pasted from this Hagerty article:

"The car was bought as a retirement present but by 2007 the owner was unable to drive and declared the car SORN. Unable to be parted with it, they would bring the car out of its garage at the weekend, give it a dust-down and polish and warm the engine through. This continued until, sadly, the individual passed away.

At this point, in 2014, the family were advised to sell the car for scrap and sure enough a deal was struck, a flatbed truck turned up and the car was loaded. Then neighbours – knowing the owner wouldn’t have wanted it to be scrapped – intervened, bought the car on the spot and saved it from the scrapheap."

And that car is in much better shape cosmetically than my own!

[GR8 PL8 M8]

1 hour ago, bangernomics said:

Epic buy age and a remarkable mot result. I worked with a guy that had one of these from new, he had absolutely no sense of smell so consequently was a bit sweaty at times as he didn’t know.

I made the mistake of accepting a lift home one hot afternoon when my current smoker had expired and the windows were not working. Jesus it was like riding in a cheese cellar.

Sure yours is fragrant.

It's the most "neutral" smelling car I've ever owned! Super clean inside too.

[Datsuncog]

8 hours ago, Minimad5 said:

Heswall ain't North Wales man 😆

Oh right.  Seems the repeated references to Wales threw me.

Quote

I've just entered Wales for the first time in my life.

This is a momentous occasion.

Quote

The seller and his wife were both lovely, we had a good chat and encountered some odd coincidences. They live in Wales.

Since Heswall turns out to be actually slightly further north than North Wales, I choose to believe that's even more of an achievement, then.

[bangernomics]

Its not Wales it’s miseryside.

[AxWomble]

1 hour ago, bangernomics said:

Its not Wales it’s miseryside.

Wirral, surely? Miseryside is the other side 😂 that being said, Birkenhead is pretty grim 

[bangernomics]

Where’s Wirral?

[mintwth]

14 hours ago, bangernomics said:

Where’s Wirral?

Up and left from Chester, between the River Mersey and the River Dee. 

[tooSavvy]

On 04/12/2021 at 08:53, bangernomics said:

Where’s Wirral?

Where I once met Mr Station 😎👍

[GR8 PL8 M8]

So... long overdue update.

In my infinite wisdom, the previously recounted collection mission was enacted the day before I embarked on a 24 hour coach ride into France, which was lovely*. Anyway, this led to the Daewoo being laid up in what I'll call my "off site storage" for a week and a half, during which time the battery went flat. Cue the 4th emergency service, who told me that their boats couldn't make it that far inland the battery health was very bad and it needed replacing. Looking back, it did struggle to start before I drove it over to my storage, so this wasn't much of a surprise. The alternator is thankfully all good, my first thought was that that had conked out on the drive home.

Since I didn't have any tools with me, I opted to leave the old battery in place, and go to Halfords for a new one a few days later when I had the time. Of course, I completely forgot to check the size code before I left, but a quick internet search returned the code 027.

However, once at Halfords, and at the service desk for an unrelated purchase, I mentioned that I was also picking up a battery, and it was offered that they look up which one I needed. Of course, me being me, I immediately doubted any affirmations that I currently had, which were further quashed when the computer returned 063. Especially given Halfords historical ties to Daewoo, I had no reason to doubt the answer, so after a fair bit of deliberation on the merits of calcium Vs bog standard (I went with the calcium) I bought my battery and went on my way.

The old battery... was not exactly easy to get out, at least not compared to the other cars I've owned. From above it looked pretty straightforward, remove the nuts and bracket, lift out battery:

but once that was done it became apparent that the lower threaded rod in that photo is also securing the flared base of the battery. Intruding cables, and the rod itself, made it impossible to get a socket down there (although I'm kidding myself, I didn't have an extension bar nearly long enough) so I had to peck away at the bolt securing the assembly to the engine bay with a spanner held between my fingertips, as so:

Now, battery finally out, time to pop the new one in...

Ah.

Thanks for the advice Halfords!

(As an aside, does anyone know what's with the extra area of the battery tray near my fingers? The singular nut was just fingertight, there's those two protruding threads but the small plate seems to be welded to the rest of the battery tray, and there's that tab above it that would prevent you from fitting a larger battery even if the plate could be removed. Just curious.)

Obviously I didn't actually connect the 063 battery, it has been returned and a Bosch unit identical the old one procured from t'internet (funnily enough from the same site that gave me the correct size code initially) and fitted. No further issues, but I can't say I'm happy with how some of the cables in the engine bay are crushed up against the battery. That's how they were originally though, so who am I to doubt Korean engineering?

[somewhatfoolish]

This is premier league shiteing, straight in with a Daewoo and no messing.

[MikeR]

On 03/12/2021 at 08:33, bangernomics said:

Epic buy age and a remarkable mot result. I worked with a guy that had one of these from new, he had absolutely no sense of smell so consequently was a bit sweaty at times as he didn’t know.

I made the mistake of accepting a lift home one hot afternoon when my current smoker had expired and the windows were not working. Jesus it was like riding in a cheese cellar.

Sure yours is fragrant.

you lucky thing , just a lift , I had to sit next to someone like that for years !!!

in the summer , we would all dive for cover when he took his sweater off !

[GR8 PL8 M8]

Previous post has been edited to fix the formatting issues, it looked better on mobile as was but a mess on desktop, sorry to anyone who had to play connect-the-dots.

Since then I've been tidying up bits and bobs, the Daewoo is now parked up outside my house so I can just nip out when it's not dark or raining. Unfortunately at the moment that seems to be a window of a couple of hours each day! I do feel a bit sorry for it, to go from slumbering in a garage to huddled on a cold wet driveway can't be nice.

All of the locks were sticking, especially the ignition which took a lot of wiggling to remove the key from. A blast of penetrant in each has solved that problem, and they now work like new.

I had noticed that the centre console lid rubs against the driver's seat bolster when opening, what I hadn't noticed was that the plastic covering the seat hinge rubs against the body of the centre console. I have the seat all the way back so said hinge cover was exposed, and there was a layer of chalky dust where the two had ground together. That or the Koreans planned for it and it was in fact a dry lubricant, either way it's gone now. Annoyingly there is plenty of clearance between the centre console and the passenger seat, I suspect it was a parts bin job hastily crammed in there.

I've been trying to gain access to the antenna motor to manually retract it, but I spent a considerable amount of time wrangling the plastic boot lining out. It was only secured by one remaining plastic rivet (as is the right hand side panel) but actually extracting the piece from the general area took a lot of careful flexing. It's out now, and my brief first impression was that the motor is still quite inaccessible behind a part of the body structure, but I was soon distracted by the pool of water that I found underneath the tool tray and spare wheel.

I've mopped up what I could, but it then started raining again, so I'll have to check tomorrow as to whether any fresh water has made it in. Luckily it all appears to be in sealed areas, although one [bolt head? mounting point? I'll freely admit that I have no idea what it is] in the spare wheel well has rusted. Other than that, I haven't noticed any water or damp inside the car, which is a nice change from my last two vehicles.

[brownnova]

How on earth did I miss this thread first time round!

I was eagerly watching that Espero on eBay as heswall isn’t far from me, and I was well up for it… but went higher than I was willing to go. Well bought though. Especially with the immediate MoT pass!

Moar updates and moar pictures please! 

[MJK 24]

Great car!  🇰🇷 

[dollywobbler]

Blimey. I missed this too. Incredible. 

Boot leaks can often be rear lamp units on other cars, so might be worth checking. The seals around them often fail (usually on Rovers).

[New POD]

Yeah, battery sizing. Hellfrauds ain't the only retailer which gets it wrong. 

Note that battery trays are often longer than the OE battery requires because different global models and requirements.  That is the Deisel version might need a bigger battery. 

[GR8 PL8 M8]

6 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Blimey. I missed this too. Incredible. 

Boot leaks can often be rear lamp units on other cars, so might be worth checking. The seals around them often fail (usually on Rovers).

Thanks, I'll check those. It rained overnight and no more water made it into the currently stripped out boot, for all I know that water had been in there for a while. I'll keep an eye on it though.

[GR8 PL8 M8]

8 hours ago, New POD said:

Yeah, battery sizing. Hellfrauds ain't the only retailer which gets it wrong. 

Note that battery trays are often longer than the OE battery requires because different global models and requirements.  That is the Deisel version might need a bigger battery. 

No diesel version of the Espero, and it doesn't appear to be carried over from the mk2 Cavalier. It's the extra plate and exposed threads that confuses me, it looks to me that something should be mounted there that isn't.

[Missy Charm]

50 minutes ago, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

Thanks, I'll check those. It rained overnight and no more water made it into the currently stripped out boot, for all I know that water had been in there for a while. I'll keep an eye on it though.

Check the rear windscreen seals too.  We had an Orion years ago with a dud main seal on the back windscreen.  Water got in through it and caused all sorts of weird bits of the car, some a long way distant such as the footwell carpets, to get wet.  Easily sorted and no harm done, though.  

[bezzabsa]

I too have a CA battery.....did wonder what the difference is??

Plus its an absolute ASS to get out of the Combo battery holder, especially with the battery cables going everywhere!!

[GR8 PL8 M8]

41 minutes ago, bezzabsa said:

I too have a CA battery.....did wonder what the difference is??

Plus its an absolute ASS to get out of the Combo battery holder, especially with the battery cables going everywhere!!

Supposedly a longer service life and lower rate of self-discharging, £8 extra for that and an extra years guarantee seemed worth it.

Of course I then returned that one and bought the Bosch, which I don't believe uses calcium. I should add that the reason I opted to shop online wasn't some petty get-back at Halfords, but because the only 027 battery they carry is £133 (£106.40 with a trade card) and quite frankly overkill, whereas the Bosch was £59.86 including postage. Score!

[RichardK]

20 hours ago, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

No diesel version of the Espero, and it doesn't appear to be carried over from the mk2 Cavalier. It's the extra plate and exposed threads that confuses me, it looks to me that something should be mounted there that isn't.

Maybe air con hardware for other countries? Or even hangover J-bodyness...

[GR8 PL8 M8]

Another overdue update, although to be fair I haven't done much with the car in the last month. I've been fighting with the stuck antenna, but am yet to successfully remove the unit. I'm now talking with a very nice fellow owner on Facebook who has had the antenna off himself, so I'm confident that between us we'll figure out where myself or the car is going wrong.

Now, since these days you get arrested and thrown in jail if you say you're English, I had to do something about the good 'ol St George's Cross bolted to the front grill. Wriggling my arm underneath with a ratchet only served to reaffirm my belief that I was not, in fact, an octopus, so I decided that the next logical step was to take the grill itself off.

The fog light surround came off easily, with just 3 crosshead screws holding it on (god, I wish modern Polo plastics were that easy to remove) but the grill piece that it partially overlapped seemed pretty rigidly affixed to the rest of the bumper. Not wanting to break any clips that I couldn't see properly, Plan C was to elevate the car and attempt Plans A and B once more.

Daewoo successfully elevated (it's nice to have a car with enough ground clearance to use ramps for once) and I had much more space to work with. My hunch that the rusted nut was imperial proved correct, and after the most action that my 5/16 socket has ever seen I had it backed off enough to remove the plaque.

I have achieved woke. More importantly, the front of the car now looks much cleaner. We wouldn't want to detract from the massive, fist shaped dent on the nose now would we?

[GR8 PL8 M8]

What will be staying with the car is this rather nice pair of leather driving gloves. I found one beneath the drivers floormat and one under the drivers seat, and emailed photos of them to the seller, asking if he'd like them returned. He replied back saying that they had a box full from the previous owner's career as a policeman, and to keep them. They are too small for me, but I will indeed keep them in the glovebox of the Espero - it does seem appropriate!

 

[High Jetter]

I have a pair of my grandpa's gloves, look like that but older. So comfy and wearable!

[JMotor]

Great to see some progress with the Espero.

The battery clamp was a weird one, as its a GM clamp at the bottom, but with a more Japanese style over the battery add on. Totally unnecessary really. As the small plate at the bottom holds it in just fine. 

But hey, it works. 

Also this is a fun one. Esperos aren't Cav MK2 at all. 

It's a rebodied Kadett/LeMans/Nexia. They have the exact same slam panel and strut tops for a start. 

Regardless of that. I'm happy to see another Daewoo on here. 

[GR8 PL8 M8]

19 hours ago, JMotor said:

Also this is a fun one. Esperos aren't Cav MK2 at all. 

It's a rebodied Kadett/LeMans/Nexia. They have the exact same slam panel and strut tops for a start. 

Regardless of that. I'm happy to see another Daewoo on here. 

Huh, first I've heard of that. I don't know what first put the Cavalier in my head, but all the sites I've viewed back that up... apart from Wikipedia, which someone recently edited. Was that you?

Regardless, thanks for letting me know, I guess that will influence my search when looking for parts.

[Dick Longbridge]

I thought the Espero is basically a Cavalier underneath? First I've heard of it being a Nexia.

This article is interesting...

Espero AA car test and specs

[GR8 PL8 M8]

31 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

I thought the Espero is basically a Cavalier underneath? First I've heard of it being a Nexia.

This article is interesting...

Espero AA car test and specs

I don't know what to believe now!