Scottish Elises

ok folks i've recently bought an 08 exige s having previously had an S2 elise.

i now the click click click is a flat battery or basically lack of power to turn the car over but here's the thing

first time it happened i thought lol that never happened with the cayman, welcome back to LOTUS and i jump started the car and off i went quite happy.

started fine the next day

third day click click feckin click again. checked the battery and it's still sitting at 12V. lights come on etc but when i try to start i can hear the fuel pump prime but when i turn the key all i get is the clicking noise

car is still under 1 years warranty and murray lotus in edinburgh but i don't want to call them for something petty and can't start it to take it to them anyway!

thoughts?

It'll be the battery. If you put the meter on the battery when trying to start it you'll see it drop voltage dramatically.

Check terminals are tight?

terminals are tight as fook!

i've got a gizmo i can plug into the lighter to check the voltage when starting so will do that now


drops from 12.1V to 11.7V which is not a huge drop tbh

As most people have already said it will most probably be your battery, it will either be goosed or it needs fully charging, a fully charged battery should be about 12.6 volts and a discharged battery will measure about 11.8v, so at rest you can see your battery is sitting at about 25% charged and in your case this is probably not enough to turn the engine over.

If the battery voltage is 11.7 during cranking and the starter isn't turning then the problem is that the battery current isn't reaching the starter, because a flat battery will drop to a very low voltage during cranking.

Of course it could be that there are other circuits that need a higher voltage than 11.7v to operate and these are interfering with the drive of the crank relay. For example perhaps the immobiliser or ECU require a minimum of 12v to allow the starter button to engage the starter relay.

Alternately perhaps a fuse has gone, though I don't think that's particularly likely.

If the car will jump start but not crank under its own steam then the battery is always likely to be at fault, though of course the real issue might be that the alternator isn't charging the battery.

So, have you tried jump starting it again?

Cheers,
Robin

not tried jump starting again but i have now bought a new bosch 5 year guanranteed super duper battery out of halfrauds and all is now well.

if in a months time the battery is failing to start the car then i guess the alternator is the problem.

only time will tell

chris

I would guess that if there are no warning lights on the dash the alternator is doing its thing OK.

Cheers,
Robin

Hope so robin. bit disappointed to have to buy a new battery RIGHT after buying the car tho!

Entirely possible the action of using the battery again has seen a cell die. Happened to me with a bike I bought - previous owner had it sitting about a lot in a garage on trickle. It was put back into regular use after I bought it. Battery developed a faulty cell a week afterwards. I guess it was fragile and the change of use pattern made it let go.

Have you actually spoken to MMC? I'd have put good money on them changing it out for you gratis, rather than you buying one...