New LF1 problems

[B12ANR]

Got my new LF1 on Saturday. I'm having problems with the car idling and wondered if anyone else has had problems?

The car starts fine but it has a lumpy erratic idle and when you gas it the car dies then picks up again (almost like the engine is being flooded). The MIL light even came on but has went off again after several restarts.

Craig at Murrays said it's the fuel (v-power) but it was fine the first two days i had the car so i'm going to video the car at idle and sent it to Hethel.

[B12ANR]

Update: Took the car out again this morning, Car ran terrible and MIL light came back on so car went into limp home mode. Spoke to Neil Turner (customer services manager) at Hethel who'd never heard of problems with the fuel and was going to investigate. Not a good start to LF1 ownership

More to follow..

[neil]

Mine also had a similar sounding issue when new which was put down to supermarket fuel. I've run it mainly on VPower ever since and not had any more issues.

[Andrew C]

Sorry to read of your troubles with the car. I now have 18000 miles on ASBO and it has never missed a beat. Just back from France 2500 miles and we had 3 Exiges S on the trip and all well 1 was the only LF1 in Scotland till yours arrived .

[SAJ]

My Evora S, older brothers Evora S and younger brother Elise S hate the newer Shell Nitro and I remember my car exhibited similar traits when Nitro went in. After a few tanks of T99 all was well again. All Supers except Nitro seem to annoy the car, not sure why but maybe something to do with the new additives in the fuel. I've never touched Nitro since.

[tenkfeet]

My Evora S did not like idling on some non v power super unleaded but ran ok. Cleared up when v power used again.

[j2 lot]

I have read in a number of places that Shell changing from v-power to Nitro has caused misfiring issues.

[Dominic]

1 was the only LF1 in Scotland till yours arrived .

Sounds like you have been hanging about with Mr Robertson...

[flyingscot68]

My Evora didn't like the Shell fuel at all. Caused it to struggle to start in the morning.
Switching to any other fuel solved the issue immediately.


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[PhilA]

fuel does make a difference to cars, but surprised to hear it makes that much difference..

my scooby was run on BP high ron fuel + octane booster for special occasions. It drank it happily, and often! lol.
my elise ran on Shell fuel only, and was perfect for the 16k miles I had it.
my ford focus diesel runs on BP expensive diesel, and it sounds much better and smoother for it

[Dominic]

fuel does make a difference to cars, but surprised to hear it makes that much difference..

my scooby was run on BP high ron fuel + octane booster for special occasions. It drank it happily, and often! lol.
my elise ran on Shell fuel only, and was perfect for the 16k miles I had it.
my ford focus diesel runs on BP expensive diesel, and it sounds much better and smoother for it

Depends on the car,... my elise will run on any ol' sh1t...
My Golf GTi did not like anything less than 97RON (It did say inside the fuel flap "min 97RON") and would be a bit more lumpy (esp at idle) with 95.
My ST runs fine on any petrol, but does seem a bit quicker on the Shell Nitro stuff.

Might try the fancy diesel in the family workhorse Focus - never considered it before.

[Lazydonkey]

My na evora has been running on nothing but v power for the last 4k with no issues. Strange.

[Rosssco]

My na evora has been running on nothing but v power for the last 4k with no issues. Strange.

Perhaps just the boosted engines that don't like it.. Must be a calibration / sensor issue specific to Lotus, as the 2GR-FE engine is of course used all over the world and was designed to work with a variety of different petrol grades presumably..

[steve_weegie]

Have you added fuel since it was running correctly? The car should run "ok" on anything you can get from the UK pumps, albeit with reduced performance.

I'd be interested to see what code triggered the MIL though - maybe the long term or idle fuel trims exceeded their limits, which could account for poor running now. Either way, I'd get it checked out with a good scan tool. The fuel it's self wont cause these issues, unless it's ancient or contaminated.

[B12ANR]

The car had fault code 'P1302 MISFIRE Catalyst Damage Levels'

Gary from Murrays cleared the code and checked the car over. I've been advised not to use V-Power Nitro+.