My car sounds like a spitfire and drives like a minibus

[EliseR]

Hey guys, long time!

Purely selfish reason for logging in - car troubles (2007 Elise R). I was doing approx 70 on the bypass, 2nd cam, maybe 7,000 rpm? And all of a sudden, I felt the power levels die on me. Bottom right icon (below petrol icon) flashing, and the car struggling to maintain any sensible power. The sound completely changed too, much deeper than it should be, and when the car experiences low revs or idles, it shudders and is extremely close to stalling....

I will phone Ali at some point, but doubt he will be up this fine hour on a Sunday!

If anyone has experience of this or can guess what has happened, I would love to hear......

Hope you are all doing well, things are good here. Baby on the way (due in the next week), and working every other hour!

Gary.

[vxc]

I had similar problems turned out to be MAF sensor, but this effected the whole rev range, and churned out black smoke cos of over fueling.

idle rough and stalling are symptoms

[robin]

When the MIL is flashing it's because of high levels of misfire that can damage your engine, so you should not drive the car unless absolutely necessary.

You should check that the oil level is OK - but I doubt that's your problem.

The code reader will return the misfire codes as well as hopefully some that indicate what's wrong.

If you're lucky it's just a sensor; if you're unlucky it'll be something more mechanical

Cheers,
Robin

[EliseR]

Cheers guys,

I am the most inept person you are likely to meet when it comes to car knowledge. What do you mean by Missfiring? My exhaust likes to POP and BANG a hell of a lot (2bular custom), it's a racket....

Gary.

[EliseR]

I had similar problems turned out to be MAF sensor, but this effected the whole rev range, and churned out black smoke cos of over fueling.

idle rough and stalling are symptoms

My entire rev range is effected, the car is just insanely sluggish, if you imagine doing 20 mph in 6th gear, this is what it feels like in 1st

[r055]

gary,
you'll know when the engine misfires, like you have already indicated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRvzFjMZ ... re=related

can be due to a number of things as robin points out - best thing to do is get a loan of a OBD2 code reader from someone out there, plug it in and it should tell you whats wrong... or at least give you an indication of where to start looking...

R

[robin]

Yes, but when the light flashes, whether or not you are capable of diagnosing the fault, it's telling you to STOP. So unless you have to, don't drive the car, and then use gentle throttle only.

Cheers,
Robin

[Sanjøy]

Reminds me of when my cat lunched itself on the S1.

[ruadh08]

Gary, where have you been hiding for the last year, presumed you were no longer in Lotus ownership?

[EliseR]

Yes, but when the light flashes, whether or not you are capable of diagnosing the fault, it's telling you to STOP. So unless you have to, don't drive the car, and then use gentle throttle only.

Cheers,
Robin

Cheers Robin,

No more driving....will try and get Ali to have a peek

Pretty annoyed, but that's life I guess!!

Gary.

[EliseR]

Reminds me of when my cat lunched itself on the S1.

Doesn't sound good?

[EliseR]

Gary, where have you been hiding for the last year, presumed you were no longer in Lotus ownership?

Yo

I have been working full on, opened my own photo studio in bruntsfield and not had a day off or a year!!! Busy but lots of fun. Baby on way too, Claire due in 7 days...excited

Gary.

[grittle]

Mine had a similar problem which Ali easily fixed. The engine was stuck in the high-cam setting so it runs really badly at any kind of low speed.

It was a cheap fix too, so don't panic!