Engine error codes 0444, 0076, 2648 and 0508

ExigeKen · Post by **ExigeKen** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:09 pm

Thanks everyone JJ and I have just spent an hour and a half checking every connection all were clean and dry and not loose. The battery was wet (everything in my boot is wet) so we dried it all off and fitted JJ's battery but the car still ran really badly. We let it idle till warm i.e. well over 70 deg C and then went for a run to see if doing that would make any difference but it just tried to stall at low revs and whenever I could get the revs up it hopped like a kangaroo. Total bummer I am, afraid.

ExigeKen · Post by **ExigeKen** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:12 pm

A very special thanks to JJ for running down to sunny Stewarton and trying everything possible to get my car running. A real top effort mate I owe you big style.

He also learned about village life as a couple had a major domestic whilst washing their car in the local garage.

ExigeKen · Post by **ExigeKen** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:14 pm

Thansk to Mac as well for providing telephone support on numerous occasions despite being busy himself what a great group of guys we have on this forum.

jj · Post by jj » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:00 pm

It is a bit strange- symptoms are -

Idles fine, no lumps or bumps.
Slight throttle applied at the TB end and it wants to stall.
Rev it and it revs freely sometimes, sometimes it revlimits at 3.5k.

Any ideas anyone?

The battery was mouldy, rusty and soaking wet. When we swapped it out for mine, it still ran the same, but my thoughts were if the codes are still there (i.e. not cleared) is the car going to run the same if its still in "safe mode". Once the codes are clear and the battery is tested and is OK will it solve the problem?

robin · Post by **robin** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:42 pm

The codes are not to blame, the codes are indicative of the fault; clearing the codes won't make the engine run better (well, I don't think so anyway).

The problem is deffo that a bunch of sensors/actuators are either not connected or that a loom is shorted somewhere - perhaps it's been crimped and the insulations are broken.

I have just looked at the S2 111R fault code data and as expected the codes mean something a bit different on the S2 rather than generic.

P0076 VVT valve open circuit or maybe shorted - hard to say which is which - either way this very bad news and you should not run the engine further - basically the intake cam phase is not being controlled properly.

P0444 Evaporative Emission System Purge Control Valve Circuit Open. This is the same as generic and means that circuit to this solenoid valve is open circuit (i.e. broken wire or unplugged loom).

P0508 Idle Air Control System Circuit Low. This is a bit different from generic - it means that the ECU isn't seeing the feedback from the IACV sensor, but it's a bit vague. One potential failure mode is broken wiring, according to the manual.

P2648 A Rocker Arm Actuator Control Circuit Low. There is a feedback from the lift control mechanism (this allows the ECU to know that when it commands changes to the valve lift, the lift change has taken place). This code comes when the feedback is not what the ECU expects; moreover it implies either open circuit or short circuit to ground.

In short them P0076 is bad news - your ECU is not controlling an actuator it really needs to control. The other three are irrelevant by themselves, but together they have a common possible cause which is wiring related, so I am 90% sure that's where you will find your problem.

Take some pictures of your engine bay - particularly the top of the engine and any wiring looms around it and the ECU region which is on the wall in the engine bay, roughly behind the pax seat. I'll annotate with the positions of the relevant sensors and cables.

Cheers,
Robin

robin · Post by **robin** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:44 pm

BTW, I don't have a wiring diagram for 111R/S2 Exige - anyone out there got one?!?

Cheers,
Robin

jj · Post by jj » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:52 pm

Robin,

I am no expert, but will try best to describe-

The only thing "odd" I noticed was that the main loom which runs under the air intake hose was rubbing. The rubber outer (with fabric inside) was frayed and the underside of the intake tube was worn. I peeled back a bit more of the frayed bit, but could see no wires broken. This may be the culprit, and I may have simply not looked hard enough /spotted it.

Other than that everything else is connected up OK - I read section EH of the service notes (page 14 on the pdf I have) before heading down and checked all on that diagram were not corroded etc.

Ken has help tomorrow night so hopefully that will get him on the road for TT.

Rag_It · Post by **Rag_It** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:53 pm

Totally irrelevant i guess, but maybe not too far off - the VX had exactly the same problem in that the MIL light came on, switched off again every so often then would come back on.

Vaux diagnosed it as faulty wiring loom after they had an auto electrician on it for hours, which i refused to pay for. However new loom later, and all sorted!

Dave

ExigeKen · Post by **ExigeKen** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:05 pm

Dave may be the same type of fault.

Robin thanks so much for all that. I will not drive the car any where it is at home now. As JJ says I have a friend coming to check it out who understands how the Lotus electrics fit together so hopefully I will know more tomorrow as to whether it is fixable at my house or I need to get it to a Lotus dealer. I will take your advice and leave the car until it has been looked at by someone who understands it.

Keeping my fingers crossed for it being up and running soon.

Cheers,

ken.

woody · Post by **woody** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:24 pm

The simptons are almost exactly what i experienced with my car a few weeks ago - it even had the same lean burning smell and the plug i checked had started to go white at the electrode tip. However with my car it was the coil HT that had caffed through. Obviously toyota car's don't have this, and i don't know my way around all these new-fangled wirey bits to go any further with ken's car.

steve_weegie · Post by **steve_weegie** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:02 am

Have you check the throttle position sensor is ok? I had a spell of similar symptoms and the tps turned out the be the cause. Mind you that was on my k series.....

ExigeKen · Post by **ExigeKen** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 7:07 am

steve_weegie wrote:Have you check the throttle position sensor is ok? I had a spell of similar symptoms and the tps turned out the be the cause. Mind you that was on my k series.....

JJ and I checked every sensor and connection that we could find last night with directions from Mac and they were all tight, dry and clean. It seems to point to a wiring problem from what some of the guys are saying. I have someone reading up on what the four error codes are and their likely causes today and he understands car electronics way better than me but that is not so hard so hopefully he will find it if it is something like a sensor. Otherwise I need to drive it away from home and call the breakdown guys out to get it to MMC in Edinburgh. Fingers crossed my car makes TT2007.

What happened to the good old days when you polished your mini's distributer cap with Mister Sheen and everything worked again. I can cope with that level of mechanics

dezzy · Post by **dezzy** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 7:43 am

Ken, I really hope you get this sorted. Bloody typical timing! If I would be of any use, I would offer a hand, but I'd probably get in the way more than help! However, if there's anything at all I can do to help, you've got my number

Got my fingers crossed for you mate!

ExigeKen · Post by **ExigeKen** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 7:49 am

dezzy wrote:Ken, I really hope you get this sorted. Bloody typical timing! If I would be of any use, I would offer a hand, but I'd probably get in the way more than help! However, if there's anything at all I can do to help, you've got my number

Got my fingers crossed for you mate!

Thanks Dezzy for the offer. I am sure that you could not be more in the way than I am though, hopefully see you tomorrow in my Exige

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 8:57 am

Could it be a fault with the ECU?

I don't really know anything about the Yota engine and Mac has probably already mentioned the ECU on the phone last night.

But I remember that we had a similar but slightly different problem a few years back where the ECU got soaked and as a result the car ran really crap.

It ran initially for about 6 miles with no problems but then started kangarooing all over the place with loss of power. Couldn't really get it out of 1st gear - result was towed home by AA, new ECU later (thanks to Robin) and the car was fine. That was all due to the fact the ECU got soaked.

Just a thought!!

Hope you get it sorted.