(Elise) wiring woes but relevant to Exiges as well

Having had trouble with what started as a flat battery, here’s a summary of something that could potentially affect Exige owners as well (X-post from MLOC).

Well, cured (for now). New battery didn’t fix it - [still] had no control of the alarm / immobiliser. Fearing ���, I started again, from scratch.

Checked all fuses, etc - all OK, but spotted 2 confusung things :
1 - the interior light wasn’t working (shares a fuse with one of the two alarm fuses) and
2 - alarm / immobiliser worked OK when (and only when) the trickle charger was plugged in.

Hmmmm… a few calls to Cobra (the number in the workshop manual is wrong by the way - Cobra Technical Helpline is 01932 732 331) got us nowhere. They were helpful, but couldn’t get any further over the phone.

The fact that the interior light was also not working and that the trickle charger is spliced in to … the interior light … gave a clue. I checked the voltage and continuity at the interior light - all continuity was OK but I only got 2 1/2 volts - not enough to run the interior light or the immobiliser.

The problem was eventually tracked down to corroded wiring underneath the fuse box - the supply to the fuse (no 11) was almost corroded off and the supply to the hazard lights (no 9) was also FUBARed (explaining why they haven’t been working for 3 weeks). Other cables also look poorly.

As the trickle charger is spliced in at a different point on the light / alarm circuit, that explains why things worked OK with that plugged in.

So, Fuses 11 and 9 are now bypassed with replacement in-line fuse holders. Everything is now OK, albeit only a temporary fix.

Next job is to get the complete fuse box rewired.

Suggest everyone else checks the condition of the wiring under the fuse box as well !! What you don’t want to see is a load of green crystalling stuff on the cables. To remove the fuse tray, you’ll need the wheel off as the mounting bolts go through the wheelarch liner and you’ll need a spanner on each end of the bolts.<<

Hope no-one else suffers from this - just thought I’d mention it.

Next job is to get the complete fuse box rewired.

Well, those nice folk at Lotus have just informed us that you can’t buy the fuse box on its own - it only comes pre-wired into the front loom.

Cost ? �2500

Didn’t bother asking whether that included labour and VAT…