Took delivery of my new MY2010 Exige S 240 on 30 September last year. As of Monday this week it had clocked up some 3,200 miles including a trackday at Castle Combe in April where it ran faultlessly. Was back at Combe on Monday and had used the car over the weekend just to make sure everything was ok. Filled up with Super at my local Sainsburys on Sunday ready for the run to Combe the next morning and had an easy run there.
First session out, car fully warmed up, 3 laps behind a pace car - all ok. I was behind some sort of kit car Radical type jobbie who floored it when the pace car peeled off. I did likewise to see how well I could keep up. Exiting the Esses, accelerating hard, the car misfired badly, almost seeming to cut out for a couple of seconds before picking again. Exiting Tower - exactly the same problem. Slowed down to a gentle pace and headed back into the paddock. Checked car as best I could and assumed I’d picked up some dirty fuel in Sainsburys. Headed off to the local Texaco, topped up with �21 of fuel and stirred it nicely on the way back to the circuit.
Joined next available session out and within 2 laps the same problem was back. Bad misfire on acceleration (almost seeming to cut out comletely) out of every corner, then MIL flashed for a few seconds and as I eased back on the throttle the MIl became constant. Crawled back to the paddock and day over.
Car delivered back to dealership on flatbed. Error code P1302 “Misfire causing catalytic system damage”. Dealership had car for 2 days and covered approx 60 miles and unable to recreate problem. Car picked up by me and now home.
Anyone else had something like this that might give any pointers as to what caused it? My confidence in the car is shaken somewhat and nervous about throwing money away on another trackday when it might kick off again within the first few laps of the day.
Check your plugs, i had that code appear when my plugs where badly soot-ed up from another problem. I think the what is happening is the fuel is not getting burnt which is very bad for the cat, the sensors in the exhaust then flags this up to protect it.
It could be bad fuel has soot-ed or carbon-ed up your plugs.
Pesky is right it does sound like dirty fuel, don’t try anything till you’ve binned that FULL tank and gone through another. Had the same last year, diluting just prolongs the problem making it more intermittent until it�s proper gone. I had JSR to my house as whenever they tried it nothing happen, I jump in to drive it home and nothing but misfire after misfire…I
Yeah Jonny’s car was bizare, S2’s do seem very susseptable to dodgy fuel. I couldn’t really believe that it was just dodgy fuel that made the car sooooooo bad.
No it was dry. Heavy rain was promised from lunchtime onwards but it never materialised. Made the day even worse
So, fuel it is then. Many thanks for your help. If nothing else it gives me a good excuse to run the car every day.
Ed and Tasha (those very nice people at Motorsport Events) have said I can give the car a blast free of charge at Abingdon next Friday to check it’s all ok. I’ll post up what happens.
By the way, if you’re in the market for a new helmet I can highly recommend their Hedtec lids. Bought one on Monday at Combe (well I had nothing else to do ). Full Snell approved and �139 for a full face. Great value and a very good helmet. Hedtec is MSE for those who don’t know and the design etc is all Ed’s work.
Been using the car to and from work to get the fuel level down and the guage is now reading just over one bar. I’m now geting the misfire accelerating on the road. Seems the crap fuel is lurking in the bottom of the tank. I’ll try and run it as low as I can (hopefully without actually running out ). Fingers crossed the low fuel indicator is reasonably accurate.
[quote=Neil_C]Drive to nearest specialist.
Check cam lobes.
[/quote]
Could you (or someone else) expand on that a bit. I’m not sure I understand the connection.
There is/was a problem with cam’s prematurely wearing due to high revs / cornering forces. The cams not reacting as the engine expects cause a misfire code. Mine went at circuit de mornay but would only throw the code and misfire on one corner and drove back the not inconsiderable distance fine.
Badnis on here had it a fair old while ago if you search or you could search the code on lotustalk for a bit of hysterical over-reaction.
Worth 15mins of your time to save a potential bigger bill if you ask me.
Drove to work yesterday with the low fuel light on intermittently. Drove home with it on constantly (20 miles each way). By the time I got to my local Shell garage I had one tiny slither left on the guage (I was sweating the last few miles never having run it so low before).
I wondered how close to the 43.5 litre tank capacity it would take. And the answer is 37.5 litres. That means there was approx 6 litres still in the tank. I know guages aren’t that accurate but that’s a bit much.
Early days yet I know but so far so good, except for the fact that trying to start it this morning at the first attempt the battery seemed to be flat. Took key out and tried again and fired first time but the ABS light stayed on. Turned it off and on again and now all ok. We had very heavy rain last night so I presume it was just very damp.
). Fingers crossed the low fuel indicator is reasonably accurate.