I think i’ve seen a thread or 2 before about this but can’t seem to find anything using search. Anyway my dashboard is totally dead/kapput/doing’ef’all…literally nothing on it works, it doesn even light up.
Obviously my local lotus stealers have been contacted (as the car now has a growing list of stuff to be done 
) just wondered in the meantime if any other owners knew of this fault and what might have caused it.
Oddly enough my MY2010 did this about two weeks ago.
The car had been unused for about 10 days or so. Went to start it up one morning and the whole dash was dead as you say. Turned the ignition on and off a few times but still the same.
In the end I pressed the start button and it fired up and ticked over as normal. Dash was still dead though. Turned ignition on and off again. Still dead dash but as before the car fired up and ticked over ok.
I don’t know why I did it, but while the engine was running I pressed the side light button and suddenly everything came back to life as normal. Turned the ignition off and on a few times again and the dash was fine. I haven’t been in touch with the dealer as I can’t now recreate the problem. Be interesting to see what yours come up with.
Happened on my MY2009 car last year. Got in it one day and it was all dead. As well as the dash the lights on the heat controls also went. The dealer ended up having to change the the dash assembly. Not sure what caused it but I think it is not an uncommon occurence.
On Monday of this week I went to start the car, turned on the ignition, dash lit up as usual, pressed the start button and just got a soleniod click from the engine bay. Turned everything off and tried again. This time the car started fine. Assumed it was just a one-off.
Car did the same this morning except when I turned on the ignition for the second time the whole dash was dead including the start button. Pressed it and nothing happened. Turned the key off, withdrew it and tried again. Initially the dash lit up ok but hitting the start button just produced a click from the solenoid. Turned key off and on again and as before the whole dash was dead. Took out the key and tried a couple more times but still everything was dead. Can’t even lock the car with the romote now so the whole bloody thing is dead. Looks like another flatbed to Bell & Colvill.
Bugger.
You tried the battery? make sure the connections are good but other than that sounds like a flat battery.
Boothy
Unfortunately I didn’t have time to play around with it as I was short on time to get to work.
Could be a battery connection but shouldn’t be a flat battery as I’ve been running the car daily since getting it back from B&C last Wednesday after the (suspected) fuel problem to try and run a couple of tankfulls of V-Power through it.
Could be a loose connection on the battery.
sounds like some sort of earth issue hope you get it sorted.
Cheers guys. Turned out to be a loose battery connection. In fact neither of them were particularly tight.
Off to Abingdon tomorrow afternoon for a track blast to see if the misfire problem has gone.
I had the same problem on my car. Completely dead dash and then a few weeks later the car wouldn’t even start. I checked the battery connections and one side had managed to shake itself loose!
Anyway since re-tightening it’s been ok!
When I took it into Lotus they said that it was there had a been a batch of dodgy dashboards and that they’d order me a new one as it was a known fault. In the meantime they disconnected the battery and on reconnection my original dash seemed to work again. Anyway I ended up having a new dash fitted once it turned up at the dealers 2 weeks later and all is well again.
same happened to mine, i just took the fuses out 1 by 1 and put them back in and it sorted the problem out, never did it since.