Relays - ‘03 Elise 111S

[SkidMark]

Hi all,

 

I have an ‘03 Elise 111S. Does anyone know what the relays next to the fusebox underneath the LH service panel are for, as I seem to have an extra one! According to the owners handbook, the Lotus service manual (2001 onwards) and what wiring diagrams I can find, there should be just two, occupying 2 of the 4 positions; one for the rad fans and one for the horn. I have no accessories fitted and as far as I know it’s factory standard. Is the 3rd one anything to do with it being a 111S?

 

Cheers

Mark

[philmayfield]

It's a spare for either of the other two.

 

Phil

[SkidMark]

Hi Phil, thanks for taking the time to reply.

 

However, because in my situation there is an issue with this relay, I also emailed the Lotus factory. They quickly responded with a pdf of a supplement to the owners handbook, which I obviously didn't have with my car's documentation. This supplement covers the 2004 model year and states that the 111 model has relays for "A - Horn, B - empty, C - Re-circ, and D - Exh. flap", whereas the standard model has Horn and Rad fan at A & B only.

 

Hope that's a help for anyone when the situation arises. Now all I need is the appropriate wiring diagram!

 

Cheers

Mark

[philmayfield]

Hi Mark,

 

That's interesting. On my December 2002 111S I have relays at A and B, C empty, and one at D which I assumed was a spare. I have a Janspeed exhaust without a flap and the vacuum pipe to the exhaust flap is sealed off. I need to follow the vacuum pipe back to source to see if it's controlled by a solenoid valve. 

 

Phil

[philmayfield]

Yes, there is a solenoid valve in the exhaust flap vacuum system between the reservoir and the flap actuator and this is presumably controlled by the relay in position D. No mention of this is made in my handbook which just lists the functions of relays A and B. So it's not a spare as I thought! All three have the same part number.

 

What I don't know is from where the relay gets its signal. I also need to track down the appropriate wiring diagram to satisfy my curiosity.

 

Phil

[SkidMark]

If you do have any luck tracking down that wiring diagram, I'd be interested to find out too. I did ask the chap at the Lotus factory who emailed the news about the relays but they haven't yet replied; if I get a response, I'll let you know.

My Elise is currently with a local Auto Electrician, concerning a fault that centres around that relay. They are finding it extremely difficult to get specific info on this.

 

Mark

[philmayfield]

Hi Mark

 

This explains the basics of it if you haven't already found out :

 

http://arc.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=331679&page=1#pid5623057

 

The actuating solenoid is under the ecu - a bit fiddly to access. One vacuum pipe goes to the exhaust flap and the other to the spherical vacuum reservoir under the o/s rear wheel arch in the engine compartment. 

 

Phil