Potential New Owner - What To Get?

[chrislane]

Great stuff. Looking forward to seeing this.

 

In the meantime lets have some pics!

[Stik]

My girlfriend is roping me into gardening duties first then I shall be taking it for a drive definitely :-)

 

EDIT: I've been allowed out for an hour - shall i come over to yours Mark?

[Ian C]

Nice one. My car is loud when high speed cruising. I've taken to wearing ear plugs, much more pleasant.

[Stik]

Hmm so first problem as a Lotus owner - it won't start! I can't work out if i'm doing something dumb or whether the battery has somehow gone flat overnight. Use the big button to open the car, immediately try to start it and it sounds like it's trying to turn over, but i don't think it actually is. I measured the battery voltage afterwards and it's reading 12.2v - the internet suggests it should be higher - have i got a flat already? Or would you expect it to be a fraction of a volt lower just after trying to start the engine?

 

How easy is it to jump start? Battery terminals were hard enough to get to with a multimeter, let alone massive jump leads

[M@r]{]

You should have terminal points under the passenger side inspection cover. As the car has been at the dealers for a while it's probably stood with a dead battery for a while, that will kill a battery. Having said that 12v whilst it isn't running sound Ok? You'd expect nearer 14v when it's running

[kayj_prod]

I doubt the battery is completely kaput, and I'd have thought the run to your house would have been enough to get it back up to full charge anyway. As an example, mine has been stood for three weeks while I've been away on holiday and it started without any problems yesterday when I took it for its MOT.

I know that's no extra help, but hopefully the dealer will get it sorted quickly (while we've still got sunshine)!

[scatty]

Hmmmm. Welcome to lotus ownership firstly stik....

 

Secondly, have you got it started yet.....

[Alex B]

It's not the immobiliser cutting in it?

[Guest]

When I went for 1,000 mile service the technician advised me never to jump start an Exige, it can damage the ECU, & I doubt it's the battery anyway. If it turns over but doesn't start just phone the dealer in the morning & I'd get them to send a technician over or suggest they pick it up!!!

[M@r]{]

When I went for 1,000 mile service the technician advised me never to jump start an Exige, it can damage the ECU, & I doubt it's the battery anyway.

 

I thought it was fine as long as you used the terminals under the inspection panel?

[Stik]

Hmm, well it doesn't seem to have done it any harm - at least no noticable harm! I finally got through to B&C and they admitted that they had trouble starting it a few times as well. As far as i can tell it's still got its original battery (there's a lot of receipts that came with this...). The dealer's advice was to jumpstart it normally and drive it around for an hour with as many electrical items on as possible to give it something to work at. Not sure if i understand the logic, but w/e. It still didn't start, and if anything the clicking sounded even more feeble, although that might just be me imagining it.

 

Walked down to Halfrauds and bought a new battery. Fitted it, and everything seems fine now. Fingers crossed it'll start again tomorrow morning! If it starts misbehaving again soon then it will have to go in for some warranty work to find out either a) what's draining it or b ) why it isn't charging it properly. For now i'm back on the road!

 

I'm a little miffed that the dealer hid this from me, if it was struggling to start a few times while they were moving it around i would have expected them to have a bit more of a look into it, and if it did need a new battery then they probably should have fitted it before selling it to me! They've offered to send me a cheque for the value of the battery though, so at least they have made right.

 

I don't think i've stopped grinning since it finally started properly Today has been a constant run of friends coming over to have a ride

 

Also, pretty sure my arms are two inches longer, the battery didn't feel all that heavy when i picked it up at Halfrauds, but after walking home with it for a couple of miles it was feeling significantly more weighty. In hindsight i shouldn't have parked the Exige back in the drive after the initial hour's drive, my friend with the jumpleads had gone away again by this point and the Exige was left beached on the driveway and in the way of my other car!

 

I am possibly the world's worst photographer, hopefully at a few of the upcoming meets people with proper cameras can take some nice photos and i'll steal them Here's a photo nonetheless:

 

 

Next step is to get the club racer tri-stripe put back on. I think i actually prefer the white to the CR blue, just need the decals back.

[DeanB]

Looks lovely mate. Get the stripes on though, definitely.

 

Ps did it start ok today?

[Stik]

Yeah it's started fine a few times today, i've got my hopes up that it was just a dud battery that was in there. It's not a huge problem if it is more serious as it's covered by a warranty but it'll be annoying to have only just got it and then have to let it go away again if it is more serious

 

Anyone any idea where local to Grantham would do a decent job of putting stripes on? I had a look online and the vinyl itself is pretty cheap but M@rk warned me that it's harder than it looks to get it straight, so i'm thinking i should leave it to someone who knows what they're doing

[scatty]

The only place I know, is The Image Works, but they are in Ilkeston. But they are very very good....

[Guest]

Next step is to get the club racer tri-stripe put back on. I think i actually prefer the white to the CR blue, just need the decals back.

 

Looks fantastic stik - lovely black bits... Will look mega with the stripes back on