OBD's

sonicrisk · Post by **sonicrisk** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 6:58 am

Hi guys,

Could anyone recommend an appropriate OBD reader for a 2010 Exige? My engine check light came on at 1500km along with the airbag light (it's a CUP car so has no airbags!) and I'd like to read the ECU to see whats going on. There are no dealers here in Dubai although there is a fairly substantial rumour that there will be one here by the end of this year!

There are a total of about 5 or 6 Lotus owners in the area, all of us have the MIL light on and nobody seems too worried, it seems to be the accepted way of things!

I've looked on ebay but not really sure what I'm looking at, can anyone point me in the right direction? There seem to be a few options, ones with a display, ones that connect to a laptop, ones that look the same as the others but are greatly different in price... etc...

I like the look of the laptop connected ones as it seems you can do a lot more with them.

I'd be grateful for any advice.

Cheers,

Nick
CUP260

alicrozier · Post by **alicrozier** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 8:35 am

Hi Nick,
I have an ELM 327 (plug in laptop style), much cheapness and does the job for reading/clearing codes on my old S2 Exige plus a few other cars. Lots of other features I haven't used, dyno, live sensor readings etc.

There seems to be newer versions available these days, bluetooth even...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=E ... m270.l1313

sonicrisk · Post by **sonicrisk** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 8:55 am

Hi Ali,

Yeah, these are the ones I've been looking at but there's one at 30 quid and one at 10 quid, look the same thing. Is there any reason to pay more? Maybe they come with different software? Oh, and, do they work straight out of the box or do you have to mess around a bit finding settings off the internet to get the car and the laptop talking to each other and whatnot?

Cheers.

alicrozier · Post by **alicrozier** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:07 am

I see what you mean but can't really vouch for one seller vs another.

Mine took a wee bit of messing about to get the software talking properly to the reader (clear enough instructions for this). Connected straight away to the car though, no problems.

neil · Post by **neil** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:28 am

I've got a bluetooth OBDKey one which seems to work well but it was £££ compared to the ebay ones - I'd just be trying the cheapest ebay one if I was getting another. The OBD reader will deal with your MIL but wont be able to reset your airbag light - I think you need the proper Lotus scan tool to do that. Have you been using the battery cutoff? I'm sure I read somewhere that if you use the cutoff on the Cup, the ECU will forget it doesn't have an airbag and put the light on with a dealer visit required to fix.

sonicrisk · Post by **sonicrisk** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 11:31 am

Think I'll just get one and give it a go... would be interesting to see what faults are there!

I do use the battery cut off all the time as I had to jump start the car after 1 1/2 days without using it... it happened a couple of days after I received the car and hadn't had a good run so I suspect the dealer didn't give it a proper charge at the PDI, I'm 75% sure the battery itself is actually ok and should last the stated 4 days without the use of the isolator but I have lost a little faith in it. What concerns me more is that I read somewhere that using the isolator can fool the car into thinking it's not a CUP and lose some of the ECU mapping that makes it a CUP in the first place! The airbag light coming on kinda bolsters that thought unless anyone can convince me they are not related!

Post by **campbell** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 11:37 am

Nick,

Quite possibly worth a long distance call to Craig Moncrieff at Murray Lotus. Things are in a very different mode in their service dept these days, and with such a recent car, the tech knowledge there should be strong and if not they will use their Hotline to Hethel to help get you sorted I am sure.

Also Craig would presumably love the chance to put a business case to the FD that he just HAS to fly out to Middle East to help a long-standing customer

Campbell

neil · Post by **neil** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 11:38 am

Found where I'd read about it - http://forums.seloc.org/viewthread.php? ... pid5327121

Exige Cup 260 Battery Isolator / Stratstone (rant)

A while ago the airbag light came on in my Cup 260 (which has no airbags or associated safety aids). I took it to Stratstone at Stourbridge to have this checked out, I was told upon booking the car in that diagnostics and any remedial work would be carried out under warranty. After some confusion and a couple of hours they said they would need to request technical assistance from Lotus as they had never seen this fault before.

The following day I received a call from Stratstone to say they had spoken to Lotus and had been informed that this is due to the battery isolator switch being activated before the ECU has had chance to shut down. This causes the ECU to revert to "default settings" i.e. non-Cup, hence it then looks for a signal from the airbags etc.

The manual states that "if the isolator button is used when the engine is running, or within 15 seconds of keying off the ignition, the MIL will be illuminated at the next key-on. The warning will be deleted after 3 consecutive fault free drive cycles." No mention of the airbag light there then.

Stratstone suggested I book the car in for them to re-program the ECU (while being talked through the process by Lotus).

So today the car went in to Stratstone, ECU "re-programmed" (it appears that this involved keying-in the VIN) and I'm charged £66 - I stated that I had been told this would be covered under warranty and was told that the guy who said that no longer works there and that the isolator's not covered under warranty.

So it appears there's a design fault in that you can't use the battery isolator to do what it's designed to do without resetting the ECU and incurring a charge to sort it, great!

/rant over

Going by that you need to switch off and leave it for at least 15 seconds before using the isolator. Has it got a tiny battery? They should last a few weeks not just 4 days.

alicrozier · Post by **alicrozier** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:18 pm

I think it will have the same small battery as my 2-11, probably a bit more drain (alarm?).
Mine lasts less than a week in the garage. I have no alarm but there is a tracker. Maybe you have one to?

Off topic but this is really handy (not) as I have to leave the battery connected or the tracker will die (after maybe 30 days as it's internal battery does not recharge). Only solution is to use the charger but they're not really recommended for that type of battery.

Even further off topic but when I use the battery isolator the tracker thinks it's being stolen...imagine the worst case scenario of being upside down with fuel leaking everywhere, helpful marshal pulls the battery isolator...tracker people think the car is being stolen and call the mobile in my pocket...

I really should phone them every time to temporarily disable that 'feature' - it can't be turned off permanently as it's part of the tracker approval.

Post by **campbell** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 2:00 pm

Silly cars, these 2-11s...

alicrozier · Post by **alicrozier** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 8:48 pm

campbell wrote:Silly cars, these 2-11s...

Well it's the Tracker that's a bit silly...

...in fact the Tracker is sensible in some cars, just not the 2-11...

...so it's silly insurance companies...

Scottish Elises

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