Autosparks wiring loom - a word of warning

[wsmempson]

So as well as my Lotus Elan Plus 2, my son and I own a Ginetta G15 that we have been restoring. we're on the final home straight of getting it back on the road after a surprisingly exhaustive restoration. One of the things that became apparent was that wiring loom was totally banjaxed; part of it had at some point become molten and masses of it had been bypassed with loads of nasty crimped connectors from halfords. We tried to turn the ignition on once and smoke poured out from under the dash.
Now I'm no auto electrician but i've installed looms before and a quick serch of the net revealed that Autosparks (a firn in the midlands who supply loads of aftermarket period electrical stuff) also offered a replacement loom for a Ginetta G15. The lead in time was about 8 weeks but we had other fish to fry. Eventually a smart new loom turned up and after a cursory examination we put it on the shelf to await installation.
When the time came and we had it on a bench ready to go in, my son and I compared it to the Ginetta wiring diagram and imagine my surprise to find that at least 50% of the colour coding did not match the wiring diagram or the existing loom.
A call to their technical department was singularly unhelpful and when I finally got through they implied that I was a bit of an idiot for looking at the old wiring diagram and that all their colour coding matched british standard colour coding and I should be able to work it out from there. Could I have a wiring diagram please? No - it's a secret.
So I called in a professional auto electrician and handed the problem over. 5 days later, and he's still struggling to work out what is going on. When he rang auto sparks, they finally confessed this is just a generic loom for british sports cars and not bespoke for a Ginetta at all. we're nearly there, but frankly if I had known then what I know now I would have got a grown up to rewire the car from scratch. I'd think very hard before ordering from them again. A rewire of the elan is on the cards, but I know who I shall NOT be ordering from.
No contrition from Autosparks - "If you have a problem, put it in writing".
Will this do??

[TonyA]

Refreshing to read a frank story about a bad product and bad aftersales service naming the supplier..Thanks for sharing...So many poeple only nane names from good experiences Noted for future reference: I am thinking about Autosparks looms for my Plus 2 ..not saying your exoerience puts me off, but at least I'll now want stuff like colours clarified in advance..Good luck with your restoration.. Tony

[512BB]

I concur with the above post, and thanks for the fore warning op, and having the balls to stick your head above the parapet. So many on here in the past have not. Shame. What we normally get is 'I have had a really crap experience but I am not going to tell you all who that was with'. Why start the bloody post then!

It would be great to read further about your +2 restoration.......with pictures of course.

All the best.

Leslie

[RichardHawkins]

Thanks for your statement.

I have rewired my car S4 FHC. I was horrified, like you, by the old wiring I found on dismantling my car and decided a better standard was needed. Like you I am not electrical, one of my friends is an electrical engineer and advised against my plan, but I persisted. I now have 22 fuses and 8 relays, my design is based on a Skoda Felicia. I have made many mistakes, mostly with respect to cable routing and clashes with other items. Rewiring has been the most difficult and time consuming part of my restoration.

Having read your post I feel vindicated in my decision to improve the wiring. If I had bought a loom as you did I would probably ended up throwing it away and starting again.

Thank you,

Richard Hawkins

[tonyabacus]

I have installed three looms in Elans and not really had too many problems, all came from Autosparks. One area that is a little confusing is the area around the flasher indicator unit/hazzard flasher if you are in the UK where some of this wiring is not used. However Autosparks helped talk through the issue, Craig their technical guy was quite helpfull, so I can only say speak as you find, for me they provided a good product. As a company he explained that they do not alter the harness from that originally fitted at the factory.

However we all know the Colin Chapman had little concern for additional fuses, relays etc, so it is worth careful consideration to such matters before installing the new harness. Also remember to take lots of photographs of the routing of wires once the dash in particular is removed, and if in doubt raise the subject on the Forum where lots of information and help is available.

One of the main issues is the different wiring diagrams that are available on the internet, I used a blown up version of the diagram in the factory workshop manual and found virtually all colours corresponded with the harness provided by Autosparks. Also reading the colours and routing became a lot easier to follow with the diagram blown up to at least A3.
Tony

[smo17003]

I have to say that the Autosparks looms (main loom and engine with alternator) went into my S4 FHC without too many problems. After reading the many topics on here regarding alternative home made looms I decided to stick with the Autosparks. Mainly because I had already bought them 15 or so years previous. I did make a few mods e.g. electric lamp pod lifters and fan switch etc. by following advice taken from here though. Of course, if Autosparks had supplied a generic loom, as in the case of the OP's G15, I too would be a bit p*ssed off.

I do think that it's a bit of a shame that from suppliers and specialists we can get better/improved parts for almost every part of the Elan e.g. Spyder chassis (I know, controversial), CV drive shafts, diff output shafts, cooling system, etc. In fact, just about everything and anything to "improve" the Elan, except that is for a better functioning wiring loom. We're left to our own devices on that one, hence the many DIY variations that have been posted on here.
If those suppliers and specialists can convince (some of) us that we need CV's, bigger rads etc. then I'm sure that they could do the same with a bloody wiring loom. I guess it all comes down to perceived risk on their part.

Rant over.