Scottish Elises

Hey all,

I was out on a test drive in an K-series S2 this evening and everything felt good; steering, braking, damping and it pulled cleanly all the way to the red line.

However the air filter sounded like Darth Vader was trying to suck soup through a straw so when I got back I asked to pop the boot so I could take a look and see if it was an aftermarket one. Boot popped and the air filter looked standard (to my eyes at least, there were no markings on it).

I asked the salesman to rev it a couple of times so I could hear it from the outside which he did, however after a few hard revs the engine stalled. I asked that he do it again and the same thing happened, and again the third time.

Now on the test drive it never stalled once and the revs never went hunting and the temp never went above 94. I looked before the test drive and there was no mayonase around the cap or anything like that. The sales man said the battery was re-charged this week, however I discounted this as every time it died it started on the first turn of the key.

When he went to park it back in its sales spot it started fine and drove fine. The car has only covered 2K miles in the last 2 years and is only on 21K miles, it has a full murrays service history with the last one being a C service at 20K miles.

Any ideas if this is a major issue - like I say on the test drive it felt perfect and pulled cleanly.

Any help is much appreciated

-Mark.

When you rev it up from idle, it closes the idle-air-control-valve (IACV). When you then slam the throttle shut, it has to open the IACV quickly enough to allow enough air into the manifold to "catch" the revs before the engine stalls.

Either the IACV is broken or gummed up, or there is an air leak that is causing the ECU to be confused about the correct IACV position it should be aiming for.

Should be easy enough to diagnose and fix - I cannot see why you would buy the car in that condition unless there is a hefty discount, or until they have fixed it - I'm sure the salesmen will be helpful if you're serious about buying the car.

Cheers,
Robin

P.S. this assumes the engine is absolutely standard; if you run a K-series on standard ECU with cams or some other mild tuning you can get this type of problem too (though usually you also get hunting idle in this case).

Thanks Robin

The agreement was that the sale would only continue on diagnoses and fix of the issue

Thumbs up for the problem or thumbs up for not agreeing to buy it until its fixed or thumbs up for almost buying an S2 ?

StiflerMR2 wrote:Thumbs up for the problem or thumbs up for not agreeing to buy it until its fixed or thumbs up for almost buying an S2 ?

for S2

- asking for that I suppose