Bacially, everything seems ok but no spark. On the coil unit, the battery power is on the centre connection.
I understand that there are two coils in the pack, so, are the two outer conns just providing the - ve ?
These are from the ecu No 29 and 49. (These two connectors come from the ecu which is a standard unit (190)).
Bit stuck really.
P.S: Fuel pump is priming and no immobiliser problems. K-Series lump
Are you getting any earth signals at the injectors? Live at the injectors? If no earth to coil or injectors, is the crank sensor plugged in and working? Flywheel with correct trigger pattern fitted? Anything showing on the tacho when you are cranking over? Battery fully charged, as they are notorious fro not starting when the battery is slightly down on power.
Another vote to check the crank sensor. My car does not show anything on the tachometer while cranking.
You need to connect an ODB scanner to the ECU and check the RPM while cranking. It does show around 200 RPM while cranking but nothing is shown on the tacho.
Without a proper working OBD scanner it is very difficult to trace down such problems.
Cheers, Klaus
Thanks for the pointers. I will check injectors. I have not checked the flywheel.
I have an ODB2 cable and the software but not managed to communicate with ecu.
Thanks for your replies.
Update: I have power to the injectors, 9v. This is taken directly from the plug.
For the crank, no quite sure. Never used the flywheel before and didn’t check it, as I wasn’t aware i needed to.
Check my post about communicating witht the EFI ECU using OBD in the ‘sorting VHPD drivability’ thread:
The double relay for the fuel and igniters powers up on position 1, then after pump primes, power drops off for this relay.
I then turn the ignition to turn to start, still no power.
Can you specify more precisely which relay do you mean with ‘double relay’? Should be one of the relays behind the seats.
I could check on my car when the power is switched on or off to the relay.
Trackrod, I believe that drawing is not correct in fact.
The double relay is the brown one at the top and this is the double type. Also, the rear connections show it is a double where the others on the bulkhead are singles.
On the back of the double relay, the yellow cable goes to the injectors, this energises when one turns the key to position 1. It then powers down. I then turn the key to 2nd position (cranking) and no power to injectors. I stop cranking and the fuel pump and injectors work again, then power down. This does make sense to me as you don’t wasn’t to put fuel in when it is not firing-- could lead to a fire. So, I believe this is working correctly.
However, I am not getting a spark at all.
On to the crank and the sensor, I have tried to simulate the crank turning, but still not spark. I can explain how I did this if required.
Might be that the drawing is not correct for your car. But it does match my car and it is taken from the Lotus Exige workshop manual.
I have now understood what you mean with ‘double relay’. The brown one on the top is double acting so it switches two circuits (ECU and ignition).
The picture shows the bulkhead on my car with the brown one sits at the top of the row just like on your car.
To be sure if your car is wired differently try to slightly lift the third relay to see if the fuel pump stops priming. It does stop on my car.
The circuit drawing below shows the injector relay and it does switch the fuel pump and the injectors in parallel. So if the fuel pump stops priming there is no
power to the injectors. Seems to be normal and not the cause of the starting problem.
How did you simulate cranking? Can’t you get hold of a working OBD scanner from someone to check the cranking rpm?
Trackrod,
You are 100% correct. I pulled the bottom relay out and pump stops. It was my mistake, the picture showing the relays is correct.
I will be trying again today to get it going. Back to the testing the immobiliser circuit too.
To answer the quiestion, ‘how I simulated the crank turning’. I took the plug off the crank sensor, then used a test lamp, connected the tester to 12v and turned the ignition on, then touched the two terminals with the tester 1-2, and repeated. Couldn’t see a spark on the spark plug. Just simulated a voltage as if the crank sensor was reacting to the flywheel turning.
PC problem I need to solve: systeme32\VBAjet32.dll - Windows file missing which stops me from downloading the Esprit ECU software.
Appreciated your help, 
Roy
Hi Roy,
just a quick reply:
Cheers, Klaus
I have just put the meter on the crank sensor, meter set to A.C volt, I cranked the engine and saw 0.9 v a.c
Immmobiser checked all ok.
For the dll software says when installing can continue but can’t seem to get it to see the car connected.
On the coils, I have the centre connection with 12v. When I crank, this drops to 6.9v. Is this too low to produce a spark?
Checking the cables from the connectors to the multi pin bulk head connector. The main loom is brand new but not the engine one. The connector pins are a bit dull looking. Cleaned them during the build.
Thanks again for the guidance
I have just put the meter on the crank sensor, meter set to A.C volt, I cranked the engine and saw 0.9 v a.c
At least the crank sensor delivers some alternating current. Without reading the RPM from the ECU it is difficult to tell if that’s fine.
… but can’t seem to get it to see the car connected.
There is no clear indication on this software if the connection could have been established. To check the connection I always switched the fan ‘on’ on the V8 Control tab. After waiting a couple of seconds you should hear the fan running.
… When I crank, this drops to 6.9v.
This seems to be at least on the low side, if not too low. You could try to connect some jump start leads directly to the starter motor using a second battery. This should prevent the voltage drop. You may check also that all earthing connections are fine.
Cheers, Klaus
Hi Klaus,
I have connected again to the car, was getting port error but swopped port.
However, select fan to come on, nothing. Tell me, on your PC, can you see in My Computer the car or cable connected? If I go to Device Manager (PC), I can see Port- USB-serial ch340 (com4). So, seems to be there.
Also, if I swop the cable out and put my Polaroid Cube, I can see the Cube and this appears in My Computer too.
Still not there…!
Edit: can you bring the fan on by removing the engine bay brown sensor? Want to make sure the circuit is working, even though last week I heard it on n then clipped the brown conn on to the sensor. Removal now doesn’t do anything.
As I have written in the ‘drivability thread’ finding a working ELM connector is a nightmare as there are so many non-working clones around. The ELM version 1.5a did not work and version 1.4 did work 
Safest bet would be to buy a genuine one.
EDIT:
You may use a dedicated OBD2 scanner tool like I did before I discovered the Esprit V8 software.
They are much less complicated to use, less hassle with compatibility issues etc.and you are at least able to read the basic sensor data and the engine RPM.
See this link for more details on the device used by me:
I’m sure other devices will work too if they support the ISO9141-2 protocol.
Hi Klaus,
With your ignition on, can you bring your fan on, by disconnecting the brown sensor?
I must point out, never had this car running, bought it with poorly engin and an Emerald (which is protected), so am using the ecu as I want to have a completely original car.
Could be the ecu doesn’t function.
Hi Roy,
it is always helpful to know the background story of the car 
On my way home I stopped at my workshop and checked what is happening when disconnecting the brown temperature sensor. The fans do not start.
Using the additional manual override switch the fans did start so I think the behaviour is normal with this ECU. No fail safe mode here.
Another basic check for your ECU could be to see if it powers the idle air control valve (IACV) up. Do you have one installed on your car?
You should feel a slight vibration when touching the IACV while the ignition is on.
Additionally you can try to reset the ECU by pushing the throttle four times to the ground within 10 seconds with ignition on. You’ll have then to wait another maybe 20 seconds
until the ECU resets which is indicated by the fuel pump priming again.
Regards, Klaus
Aunt Edith says:
While chasing my driavbility issue I disconnected the brown sensor while engine was running and the radiator fan kicked in immediately. So there is a fail safe mode but the engine needs to be running.
Klaus,
Tried these both, all good, the ivac is a new unit and it opens. I reset the ecu as I have tried before but, as you have provided that extra bit of information about the pump priming again, which it indeed did.
I checked the crank sensor cables all the way to the ecu and checked the resistor. All good.
Getting there, slowly. Thanks for the help. Think I just need to get a good cable to connect the PC.
Much appreciated.
Roy,
so it looks like your ECU is basically in working order
Does the V8 software show an ELM Version of the ‘OBD Data’ tab? If so the computer is at least able to communicate via COM/USB with your adapter. Which ELM version is shown if you see one?
If you are not sure about your fans are working you might switch on/off the fuel pump on the V8 control tab to check the connection to the car.
Did you check what could be the reason for the voltage drop while cranking? Could be either bad earthing points(!), a weak battery or a faulty starter motor drawing too much current.
Cheers, Klaus
Hi Klaus,
The update is:
Got an original OBD elm cable. Still won’t connect to the ecu, downloaded the Esprit software to my work’s laptop, same problem. I have my doubts on this software. Klaus, maybe when you downloaded the zip, it contained another version? Could you send me your file?
In fact, I used another software OBD, I selected Lotus, it fully connected.
I see no crank position. I get 1 error: P1106, text below it says, ‘can’t see TDC’. I have my doubts about my bought flywheel. Looks fine but either the sensor is just not reading the wheel or, the teeth style is wrong to what the Exige is expecting. The ecu maybe programmed to see 1 missing tooth??
Does anyone have a picture of an original flywheel???
My flywheel I bought is a light weight type, bought from a Rover parts place a few years ago. Looks like standard in terms of the teeth, i.e. 4 teeth missing on the back (otherside to the clutch).
Cheers
Roy
