Intermittent Starting

General General Lotus Talk
1

Hello,I bought an Exige 5 weeks ago and in that time it has decided not to start on 5 occasions. The first time was due to torrential rain, but all the others have occurred after the car (completely dry) has been sitting in sunshine for at least four hours. On the last three occasions I have left the car for an hour and returned, at which point it will start first time! It went to the dealers after the second failure and no faults were found when they �plugged� the laptop in. I am getting the ECU done next week so does anybody have any experience of this or ideas why this is happening so I can make a suggestion to the dealer what might be causing the problems?Cheers Jason

2

Sorry to hear this - it is unusual. [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image]Could be down to a couple of simple things:Despite what the manual says, do not touch the throttle before trying to start the car, or until it has fired up.The battery is not the best at holding its charge - if the car is left standing for a week or more, beware! I use a a �19.99 Halfords trickle charger if my car is not to be started for more than a week.Alternatively, there may be a faulty earth or perhaps even the plug leads not being properly seated on the coil pack.No doubt Phil Davies will come up with other possible causes - he’s a techie whizz [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]Good luck [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]

3

Sounds like the immobiliser to me.Try pressing the key fob again.

4

Do you hear the fuel pump priming when the ignition is switched on and then wait for all the noises to stop before starting ?As Ken says, it could be the immobiliser, when everything is quiet, if you press the keyfob button with the ignition on, you will hear a relay click behind the drivers seat, the immobiliser has a couple of circuits, one for cranking and the other for the ignition.But check the obvious first, ignition leads, plugs etc, if it turns over but not fires, take a spark plug out and have a “sniff” to see if the fuel is getting through.

5

quote:Originally posted by Pesky:Sorry to hear this - it is unusual. [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif[/image]Could be down to a couple of simple things:Despite what the manual says, do not touch the throttle before trying to start the car, or until it has fired up.The battery is not the best at holding its charge - if the car is left standing for a week or more, beware! I use a a �19.99 Halfords trickle charger if my car is not to be started for more than a week.Alternatively, there may be a faulty earth or perhaps even the plug leads not being properly seated on the coil pack.No doubt Phil Davies will come up with other possible causes - he’s a techie whizz [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]Good luck [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif[/image]As a rule I don’t use the throttle unless I’m desperate, which I have been on a couple of occasions, but I don’t think it is that. Next time I am having difficultly I’ll try the immobiliser button again and have a listen for click etc. Thanks for the suggestions, I will just have to see how it goes, or not as the case maybe.Jason[This message has been edited by DeCason (edited 09 September 2002).]