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

[JMotor]

2 hours ago, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

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.

It was the press who claimed they were Cav MK2 when they were new.

Can't claim the edit on Wiki. 

But yeah, pure Kadett. Which makes sense. Save on press tools for the important parts. 

I'll be honest I only realised when I actually looked at the engine bays of the two cars. They're the same. Plus they don't have a subframe like a Cav. 

It was a great job they did as visually there isn't anything to suggest it's origins at all. 

Believe the 1.8 and 2.0 engines were made by Holden too. Which was a surprise to me again. But I'm a sad twat like that 😆. 

But yeah I hope it helps on the parts side of things. 

 

[greengartside]

How in the name of hell did I miss this thread?

Balls the size of Putin’s going in large with 1000% solid gold SHYTE purchasing. Belter of a car.

“I’D LOVE IT IF I HAD AN ESPERO…..LOVE IT…”

[GR8 PL8 M8]

23 minutes ago, JMotor said:

Believe the 1.8 and 2.0 engines were made by Holden too. Which was a surprise to me again. But I'm a sad twat like that 😆.

Indeed, I enjoy that fact since my other car is a VE Commodore SSV. So I have a Holden car with a GM engine and a GM car with a Holden engine!

[JMotor]

5 minutes ago, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

Indeed, I enjoy that fact since my other car is a VE Commodore SSV. So I have a Holden car with a GM engine and a GM car with a Holden engine!

You've got a Commodore!? 

Ooohhh.... 

[GR8 PL8 M8]

On 26/02/2022 at 20:53, JMotor said:

You've got a Commodore!? 

Ooohhh.... 

It's my daily! I've been told a few times now that I'm doing it back-to-front, using the Holden as a commuter and the Daewoo as the "days off" car, but it works for me. My route to work is motorway and A-roads, and my leisure driving is narrow lanes, potholes, speedbumps, and tight car parks. Before acquiring the Daewoo I used the Holden for everything, but it's quite the relief to remove the stress that driving something big, low, and shiny can bring.

Here it is, along with the UZZ32 Soarer that it replaced. God knows how I got away with using that as a daily for a year, mostly* without issue.

[cort1977]

Absolutely love the ute m8. 

[JMotor]

1 hour ago, cort1977 said:

Absolutely love the ute m8. 

Wot he sed as well. 

[cort1977]

On 2/26/2022 at 8:13 PM, JMotor said:

It was the press who claimed they were Cav MK2 when they were new.

Can't claim the edit on Wiki. 

But yeah, pure Kadett. Which makes sense. Save on press tools for the important parts. 

I'll be honest I only realised when I actually looked at the engine bays of the two cars. They're the same. Plus they don't have a subframe like a Cav. 

 

Well, I have been labouring under a misapprehension for over 25 years. 

[RichardK]

1 hour ago, cort1977 said:

Well, I have been labouring under a misapprehension for over 25 years. 

Same. Everything I read about them said J-Body.

[Pieman]

5 hours ago, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

It's my daily! I've been told a few times now that I'm doing it back-to-front, using the Holden as a commuter and the Daewoo as the "days off" car, but it works for me. My route to work is motorway and A-roads, and my leisure driving is narrow lanes, potholes, speedbumps, and tight car parks. Before acquiring the Daewoo I used the Holden for everything, but it's quite the relief to remove the stress that driving something big, low, and shiny can bring.

Here it is, along with the UZZ32 Soarer that it replaced. God knows how I got away with using that as a daily for a year, mostly* without issue.

That is UNBELIEVABLE.  I will be following this thread obsessively from now on!

[GR8 PL8 M8]

8 minutes ago, Pieman said:

That is UNBELIEVABLE.  I will be following this thread obsessively from now on!

I do wish that I'd known about this place when I had the Soarer, I'm sure it would have made for a very entertaining thread. I may make one at some point with some of my previous exploits if I have the time to dedicate to it.

I held off on posting the ute here, since I didn't feel that it "fit" the forum. But that is in part due to it being the first year of the last generation (VE/VF) of "real" Commodores, which ran all the way up to 2017. I wouldn't bat an eye at someone posting a VZ that's potentially just a few months older than my own. I'm glad it's had a position reception though!

[Rocket88]

On 2/19/2022 at 11:44 AM, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

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?

Of course it was Imperial…… St George innit…

[GR8 PL8 M8]

Last weekend I drove the Espero down to Bristol and back without a hitch. Brilliant cruising on the motorway (the journey to Bristol from mine is basically just 88 miles on the M4) at 65 MPH, brilliant scampering around Bristol's tight streets, and brilliant parking.

Pictured here just before I left with a rather nice Hiace camper, which definitely bumped my car squeezing into that spot. Can't say I'm bothered though, because shonky Daewoo. As long as no-one breaks (another) light or the glass they're good. Bonus Bristol girl in the background.

The only complaint I've got is that a lot of Bristol is 20 MPH speed limits, and the Daewoo really doesn't like doing 20. The slightest incline and it'll be doing 30, with no throttle input. I'm assuming that the auto box is just putting itself in a higher gear than is appropriate for the situation, as the revs are staying nice and low.

This trip (which will be repeated many times in the future) was a key reason in buying the Daewoo, so I'm glad it's proven itself so suited to the role.

[Zelandeth]

I say the Holden is perfectly valid here...it might not really be shite, but it's interesting and oddball so folks are likely to be interested in hearing about it.

[GR8 PL8 M8]

I've been neglecting this thread for far too long; the time has come to attempt to catch up on nearly two years of motoring mishaps. But first, some unfinished business... 

On 02/12/2021 at 10:01, PrinceRupert said:

This is mysterious, I like it.  I now want to know what the GIF avatar was.

Chodspeed.

The gif was on my computer, and my computer was at home - sorry. It was this:

EPILEPSY WARNING

Spoiler

I've matured since then.

On 02/12/2021 at 12:06, Dave_Q said:

Need more info on the PL8 that inspired your name M8

No particular plate unfortunately, although I'm a long time number plate fan as my next post will show. I'd probably have it (GR8PL8M8) as my registration number if I lived somewhere that allowed it.

[grogee]

OK, enough about avatars. Give me some raunchy Daewoo action. 

[GR8 PL8 M8]

On 02/12/2021 at 14:14, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

I was picked up from Heswall Station by the sellers wife (the sadly deceased previous owner's daughter) in a bright red VW T-Roc wearing the plate 81 K. It transpires that it was the previous owner's plate, acquired on a Ford Consul (iirc) way back when and worn by the Espero until he died. Since he owned the Espero from new, I'm assuming it was registered to that plate, I'd be interested if someone could verify this.

A couple of months after I bought the car, the seller emailed me with some photos that he had unearthed of the previous vehicles to wear the 81 K registration.

The car it was acquired on - not a Ford Consul but a Ford Popular!

The spacing was soon corrected - I approve.

Workhorse!

A Ford Cortina was then purchased, and the registration transferred:

Trip to France?

On to the next - MG Maestro! Feat. creative character spacing and a familiar St George's Cross...

Sorry, but my eyes are on that liftback Corolla!

The seller also came across the purchase receipt for the Espero. This answers my question as to whether it was initially registered as 81 K - it turns out that R647 SBY was the original plate, and 81 K was transferred over when the Maestro was taken in part exchange.

And here's the money shot - 81 K on the Espero! Shame about the spacing...

Scenic (good luck reading the plate though).

I do have one more photo of the Espero wearing 81 K, but it's a comparatively recent shot with the previous owner and the seller in the foreground, so I don't feel quite right posting it on a public forum. Time and the Autoshite image compression have obfuscated the others to an appropriate degree in my opinion.

Finally, to come full circle with the quoted post, here's me driving off in my new purchase, with the T-Roc that 81 K is now assigned to nicely in frame. A happy accident according to the seller!

[Matty]

That house though. I like a maestro as much as the next man but that house is a stunner

[GR8 PL8 M8]

On 19/02/2022 at 11:44, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

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.

I never did manage to remove the antenna unit. After disconnecting all the cables, I loosened the top nut/collar, but was only able to lift it and the surround about 10mm from the car; it didn't then slide off the antenna how I was expecting it would. I tried rotating the antenna as well which it did independently from the nut/collar, but it didn't actually loosen.

I then had an (incorrect) revelation that I needed to loosen/remove the two little screws at the base of the antenna (removed in this photo, but you can see the collars that they go in to) in order to detach the metal sheath from the rest of the unit. This was backed up by a Daewoo Nexia antenna removal YouTube video that I found. I had to buy a low profile ratchet to be able to access these screws, but once they were removed I wasn't able to wiggle it off how they did in the video. The other Espero owner then sent me some photos of his removed unit, showing that he hadn't touched those screws!

I did manage to rotate the entire unit round to the below position (and remove the cover) but I didn't fancy trying to perform surgery on it like that, especially since I didn't really know what needed to be done. The other owner confirmed that the top nut/collar and black surround needed to come off in order to remove the unit.

Between us we came to the conclusion that the top bit was stuck on, either with loctite or rust, and I decided to give up. You might have noticed that the antenna was stuck up in the car park photo in my previous post, which was taken 13 years ago, so I don't feel too bad!

On 09/01/2022 at 15:07, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

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.

On the plus side, ever since I removed the original water from the lower boot area it appears to have remained watertight. Small wins.

[GR8 PL8 M8]

On 02/12/2021 at 22:33, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

The Espero cruised happily at 60/65/70 mph, only fault being that the temperature gauge seems to spend most of it's time at 0 and only occasionally displaying what I assume (and hope) is the true reading.

 

On 17/04/2022 at 21:58, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

The only complaint I've got is that a lot of Bristol is 20 MPH speed limits, and the Daewoo really doesn't like doing 20. The slightest incline and it'll be doing 30, with no throttle input. I'm assuming that the auto box is just putting itself in a higher gear than is appropriate for the situation, as the revs are staying nice and low.

After some research, I was pretty certain that both of these faults were caused by a stuck open thermostat, so I ordered one and set about attempting to change it. I quickly ran into problems though, as I couldn't figure out how to drain the radiator! Someone on the Nexia/Espero owners group on Facebook told me where the drain valve was, but I still couldn't find it. I started looking at spare radiators online, and quickly noticed that the 1.5l Espero uses a different radiator to the 1.8l/2.0l. I should have seen this coming, the 1.5l is from a different engine family after all. Another owner with a 2.0l then revealed that their radiator didn't have a drain valve, and that they had to remove the lower hose for a basic flush and remove the entire radiator for a complete flush.

Short on time, I decided that I was simply going to place a pan under the engine bay and remove the thermostat without draining the coolant, and then top up the radiator with fresh fluid afterwards. Feel free to tell me why this is, or isn't, a terrible idea - I never actually did it as I soon found a jubilee clip that I couldn't get undone. I then got notified that my ute was ready to be collected from my mechanic, so I once again threw in the towel and decided that since I needed use of the Daewoo in the next few days I would swap vehicles and give it to him to do.

He completed the job mostly without issue, although discovered something that I hadn't noticed - the seller of the thermostat had managed to lose the gasket in between taking the eBay photos and sending it out to me. My mechanic just siliconed it in, since no compatible gaskets were available.

Happily, the thermostat change appears to have solved the issues above, so I can congratulate myself on my diagnostic skills if nothing else.

[GR8 PL8 M8]

Quoting these two posts again to add the following...

On 02/12/2021 at 22:33, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

Filling up did give me a mild scare, the first pump I used would only dispense a trickle before it would cut out and I would have to squeeze the handle again. Thought it might be an issue with the car, but moved to the pump opposite and it filled without a hitch.

It was the car, I ran into this problem more often than not. However I soon mastered the skill of lightly squeezing the handle so that the pump would dispense at full speed and not cut out.

On 17/04/2022 at 21:58, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

This trip (which will be repeated many times in the future) was a key reason in buying the Daewoo, so I'm glad it's proven itself so suited to the role.

Due to a number of factors, I never drove the Daewoo to Bristol again, although I visited several more times. I did however take it many other places that I wouldn't have wanted to take the ute, such as...

Lahndon

0.9 track country lanes

Note the ABS light - this is supposedly what led to a lot of Esperos being scrapped; the ABS module has been NLA for a long time. The light comes on whilst driving, sometimes after a few minutes, other times I can drive 20 minutes plus without it illuminating. I've never tested whether I still have ABS when the light is lit, but I've always driven the car assuming that I don't.

Luckily turning the car off resets it, and more driving is needed for the light to come on again. This makes it MOT proof!

[GR8 PL8 M8]

There you go, three late-night posts about how I haven't fixed anything on my car.

Shit.

[GR8 PL8 M8]

I hit a pothole and stopped to check that I hadn't lost a wheel trim. They were all still attached and I took a scenic photo.

This is foreshadowing of the most blatant kind. That same pothole opened up again a year and a bit later and did a lot of damage...

[Minimad5]

On 26/01/2024 at 22:41, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

 

 

Crikey @warren t claim, a local car, bet you'll know where the house is 😅

[grogee]

16 hours ago, GR8 PL8 M8 said:

ABS light

Interesting 

My fix* for this on mine was to ask @MrBiscuits to contort himself into the driver's footwell and reach up behind the dash to remove the ABS warning light bulb.

Meanwhile I scratched off the 'ABS' decal from the rear window. 

Hey presto, MoT pass! 

I definitely didn't scrap that car so I must have sold it to someone but I can't remember doing that at all. Mine was a pov-spec 1.5 manual but it wasn't that bad to drive from memory. A bit wallowy maybe but it's not like I was expecting anything other than transport. 

[MrBiscuits]

24 minutes ago, grogee said:

Interesting 

My fix* for this on mine was to ask @MrBiscuits to contort himself into the driver's footwell and reach up behind the dash to remove the ABS warning light bulb.

Meanwhile I scratched off the 'ABS' decal from the rear window. 

Hey presto, MoT pass! 

I definitely didn't scrap that car so I must have sold it to someone but I can't remember doing that at all. Mine was a pov-spec 1.5 manual but it wasn't that bad to drive from memory. A bit wallowy maybe but it's not like I was expecting anything other than transport. 

Indeed - I did it without dismantling too if I recall correctly. I think some MOT testers were a bit more naive about 'new' technology back then though.

I'm pretty sure you sold it to one of Pete's dodgy snooker mates as I saw it bombing around Pompey a couple of times before it disappeared forever.

[GR8 PL8 M8]

I decided to make the trek up to Grimsthorpe for the 2022 Festival of the Unexceptional in the Espero. It's a shame that I didn't know about the event when it was hosted in Northamptonshire or Buckinghamshire, either would have been a lot easier to get to! I think I did about 6 hours of driving that day, which was worth it for a one-time visit, but enough to turn me away from returning the following year.

I followed this lovely Allegro into the castle grounds, and was half delighted, half disappointed to find that my car was the only Daewoo in attendance.

The day wasn't without issue however, when the marshal handed me my rear view mirror hanger, they pointed out that my bonnet was popped! I suspect that this occurred soon after I left home, and I now have the utmost of respect for the secondary bonnet catch! I've checked over the primary catch and can't find anything wrong with it, so I suspect that I was just a bit gentle closing it after my pre-flight checks. It probably doesn't help that I've been following the manual's advice to push down on the bonnet rather than drop it. Because I'm paranoid, since then I've been closing the bonnet normally, then popping it, then pushing down on it again, just to be safe.

Regardless of the cause, this mishap is forever immortalised in these otherwise great photos taken just after the entry...

[RoadworkUK]

I've just spotted that "automatic" badge on the bootlid.

 

[yes oui si]

Want. 

[rm36house]

Nice car! What could be better than dark green colour on the car!?