Cup 250 wont start BLAH BLAH

[Elisemadray]

Hi 

my sons Elise cup250 wont start after being left for about 4 months, has been on trickle charge so plenty of spark.

any ideas ?

Edited March 7 by Elisemadray

[MrWill]

Need to know a little about what happens (or doesn't) Ray.

Ignition lights come on

Can you hear the fuel.pump prime

Is the immobiliser turned off

Alternator  clicking

Etc etc

 

[Elisemadray]

I'm not at the car and Andrew is useless at anything car related lol , I suspect the mobiliser needs resetting but asking him  does the fuel pump prime is like asking  for the winning lottery numbers lol 

[Oakman]

Could also be as simple as the battery is actually dead, I've had that happen twice on the Porsche with a Ctek battery conditioner on it.  For reasons unknown they seem to stop or fail when left on for ages and the battery just dies.  Without my having more knowledge, a good old jump start attempt once hooked up and immobiliser disarmed may be worth trying.  Unless its one of these new fangled machines that doesn't like that 🫣

[Mutley00]

I agree with Paul. My battery charger showed fully charged on my S2, but when I tried to start it after a few months, I got the dreaded 'loud clicking' to indicate the battery hadn't got enough woomph. 

I'm not convinced about leaving trickle chargers on the car all the time and once our chargers show 4 out of 4 bars, I disconnect them for a week, then reconnect them. My thinking is that our chargers should display 'CHA' once the battery is fully charged, but they never do, (they display 4/4 bars), presumably cos the cars are drawing charge constantly for the alarms and ECUs (so will never be fully charged) and keeping a battery constantly charging is not good for it, so by disconnecting for a while and then reconnecting once they are down to 2 bars, you are as near as possible to simulating normal driving conditions.

Please feel free to shoot my theory down in flames 😀.

Edited March 10 by Mutley00

[Lithopsian]

In theory a smart charger should be OK to leave connected all the time, but in practice they don't seem to be quite smart enough.  Either they can't match the tiny current drain closely enough and overcharge, or they don't even maintain a float charge, I don't know which.  My charger is pretty dumb, so I just slap it on for a few hours until it looks full whenever the car hasn't been driven much over a week or two.

[Elisemadray]

My son has found the immobiliser reset code so will try that as  thats is what I think it might be if that fails then on to the next thing  

[Mutley00]

Have you got a spare battery or jump starter pack Ray? Try the simplest things first is my motto!

[Elisemadray]

the battery isn't flat, it turns over just not sparking into life it also is a light weight lithium sports battery so have to be careful what I do with it, I've not been over to it yet will let you know 

thanks for the info guys  

[DSTOR]

Yeah, it will be lithium battery so can’t jump start them.   😫  can’t help with a further diagnosis, though sorry Ray. 

[Elisemadray]

Well I am pretty sure its the Immobiliser beyond my ability to sort unfortunately 😢 so need to get it to central does anyone have a trailer that could help out to get it there?  long shot I know but had to ask  

[Robert lamb]

Hi Ray I've messaged you 

[MG4Lotus]

Have you had the spark plugs out and rest them on the block when you turn it over, you will see the spark. Is it a strong spark?

Are the plugs dry or do they look damp? Can you smell fuel in the cylinders?

[Elisemadray]

Well Robert Lamb Brought his Magic Trailer to pick up Andy's Car to take to Central,  before loading it up we tried starting it again Nothing 🥲  and so we loaded it and went off to central, when we got there Adam said let me have a quick look, and would you believe it, it started first time!!! Robs Magic Trailer did the trick 😄 Adam thinks the fuel cut off button might have been the culprit.

A Big Thank you to Rob

[Robert lamb]

No problem Ray ,alls well that ends well 🤣🤣🤣