Newbie Questions

[young_bairn]

Hello all. As you might know I am new to this so I have a few questions. 111r 05 plate.

I work away. Usually 2 weeks at a time, sometimes 3. Will the battery hold its charge for this length of time or will I need a conditioner? All my other cars have been fine.

Jacking and axle stands. I'm going to have a go at changing the pads myself. Any techniques required or special tools required. Iv read the hand book and it say use timber on the jacking points?

Engine Oil, whats recommended?

2nd cam ecu flash. Anybody had this done? Is it recommended and if so who did you use.

Thanks for reading.

[j2 lot]

If the battery is in good condition and you can leave the car without the alarm set it should be fine, if you have to set the alarm it might be borderline as it will be drawing on the battery all the time so you might need a solar charger or a battery conditioner to keep it healthy.

[robin]

Jacking/axles stands - I normally use bits of wood between the car and the stands. Be careful when you jack up - assuming you're using a trolley jack, make sure the jack is free to slide, otherwise as the car goes up, it will fall off the jack head and put a hole in your car. Jack slowly and observe what's happening as it goes up.

For the rear jacking points you're supposed to remove the undertray to reach them, so you might instead want to put the axle stand under the lower wishbone somewhere such that you don't need to remove the undertray. Lower the car slowly and keep an eye on the front/rear stands as you go to make sure they are stable.

Front pads are easy - you don't really need anything other than a good pair of pliers and some common sense. Remember to take note of the R-clip, pin and spring plate positions before disassembly - if you put it in back to front it will tick-tick-tick when you're driving.

Rear pads are a bit trickier - you need to undo the handbrake cable and the top bolt - I tend to also remove the lower bolt, but you don't absolutely have to. Before you remove the caliper bolts, you need to pull out the spring pin having first made a careful note of how the spring wire is positioned (it'll go ping when you pull out the spring pin and then you won't be able to work it out ).

The rear caliper piston has to be screwed back - there is a tool, but most people just use a pair of long nose pliers - push and screw at the same time.

Engine oil should be as per handbook . Also check out opie oils - if you want a high performance oil (i.e. you think you're going to take the car on track) then worth talking to them; for road use only the oil in the handbook will be fine.

People rave about the ECU reflash - it does make the car more driveable, mostly because you're not sitting at 6,500 RPM in 2nd waiting to overtake all the time.

Cheers,
Robin

[Justin]

I would definitely get a conditioner for the battery.

My Exige battery was awful

[hendeg]

Also remember the weight distribution when jacking up the car. You don't want this...

[IanD]

2nd cam ecu flash. Anybody had this done? Is it recommended and if so who did you use.

Thanks for reading.

Most people seem to like the reflash although you loose a lot of the feeling of a kick, I've no experience though.
You need to research a bit more though as early 111r ECU can't be reflashed, you need to check against your ECU part number if it can be done.

[young_bairn]

Thanks for the advice.

[renmure]

In the 7000 miles / 7 years I owned the car it was always plugged in to a battery conditioner when left in the garage, sometimes for months, and the original battery was working perfectly when I sold it.

[young_bairn]

Any recommendations for a conditioner. Also looked at the battery today and it's quite awkward to connect to. Are there any leads that can be left in situ? Thanks.

[renmure]

I had one of these http://www.accumate.co.uk/accumate.htm fitted to that car for 7 years.
Battery never failed and I sold it with the original one.

Comes with connections to permanently attach to the battery and just connects/disconnects in the boot area with the thin wire easily coming out of the boot seal without really interfering with anything.

[IanD]

I've found that without alarm on but immobiliser on 2weeks is fine no charging, 3-4 weeks is borderline, 4 weeks + means not enough power to start.

[Dominic]

I had one of these http://www.accumate.co.uk/accumate.htm

Comes with connections to permanently attach to the battery and just connects/disconnects in the boot area with the thin wire easily coming out of the boot seal without really interfering with anything.

another vote for acumate.

[Doc883]

Any recommendations for a conditioner. Also looked at the battery today and it's quite awkward to connect to. Are there any leads that can be left in situ? Thanks.

CTEK, they quite often appear on Amazons Lightning Deals:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_ ... Caps%2C262