mollydog
Well-Known Member
**Warning this is a long post** read only if you ave nothing better to do
Part i
I store my Elise over the winter months and only put her back on the road come May/June, for the past 7 or 8 years now
I had one big issue last summer, the first was on my way to the Euro tunnel when doing around 70 on the A2 exiting London around 2 miles from the M20 ring road when the car just cut all power to the engine,
pulling over, turning the key to crank the engine, nothing as if the car had no battery or the battery was as dead as a dodo, but the lights still worked as did the hazard lights, as I put them on soon after till the tow truck arrived , 4 hours later
the RAC tow truck took me to a depot where a mechanic could look at the car, after half an hour his diagnostic was that it must be something when heated up was causing the car to cut out,
by now I had been stationary for a good 4 or 5 hours, and the car had time to cool down, it started as normal and you wouldn’t know it had and issues.
as I also have EU breakdown cover I thought well if it gets me to the tunnel I’ll go for it if not then I’ll get the RAC to take me home
I got to within a few hundred metres from the Euro-tunnel turnoff off the M20 when the car cut all power
some may say how foolish I was to carry on with my journey, but when you’ve arranged lots of things what one would normal think it’s a foolish thing to carry on, at the time it looked a reasonable thing to do
so I called out the RAC to take me back home, and the tow truck arrive a few hours later
back home and as my regular garage couldn’t fit me in for a few weeks to look at the car
I had help from the forums to discover the issue and eliminate it, after all the car is getting on for 19 years old this coming September
started off cleaning all earth points
this
into this
and the battery earth point
looked at and clean lots of fuses
ignition wires at the key barrel
starter motor connections
fitted the alarm pump cutoff bypass, (stoping the alarm cutting off power to the pump) in case I had a faulty relay in that part of the alarm
tested the MFRU
4 relays on one board, one of the relays is for the pump and one is for the stater motor, all working
the car looked fine, in one week I must have covered 300 miles just testing it and seeing if it ever cut out anymore, well all looked well so rebooked my tunnel tickets and my first hotel in Reims France.
I set off once more and took the 6am Euro tunnel to Calais, I drove for around a hundred or so miles into France then pulled at a village cafe for some food and refreshments for an hour or so, sitting outside,
not long after I started eating, the alarm set itself off with no interference from anyone, this was a strange thing and was the first time this had happened to me without some sort of interference by knocking or opening the doors without un arming the car first (no central locking)
after this I drove for a few more hours, filled the car with petrol and pulled in to a lay-by to stretch my legs and some refreshment, I armed the car and went and sat and those picnic tables, sure enough around ten minutes later the alarm set itself off once more by it’s own accord
by now I thought this must be a faulty alarm. by tea time (6ish) I arrives on the outskirts of Reims where my hotel was booked for the night,
I was only thinking I must have sorted out the issue of the car cutting out when sure enough not long after the car cut out on me and I managed to let it roll off the road on to the grass verge
turning the key did nothing no cranking of the engine and not pump priming sounds ethers I was only around 10 miles from my hotel I thought I would see if after giving the car time to cool down it would get me to my hotel for the night then see what was happening in the morning
after around half an hour the car started and I was up and running, got in to the city,
not sure if any of you have been to Reims, I think it’s a beautiful city but the main road from the north in to the city is a wide road but they have put back in tram lines so what you now have is a two way tram lines in the centre of the road solely for trams and at either sides you have a single line for vehicles
you’ve guest it, would you believe the car cut out just there and as it was around tea time hevy traffic to boot, and I could not get the car to start
luckily a cafe owner saw my plight and came out and pushed my car on to his large frontage, asked if there was anything he could do I asked if he would let me use my car battery charger to charge up the battery (I always take EU adapters with me) so for a couple of hours I was eating and drinking at this cafe while the car was charging up
after two hours I set off for the hotel, I asked for a ground floor room and could they give me an extension lead to charge my battery
in the morning I went to a supermarket and bought some bottled water and put them in my 12vdc cooler box I have in car, if I broke down in this hot day I had refreshments to drink while waiting for the two truck
as I had made up my mind that I would now use the motorways as should I breakdown, I would call out the motorway tow truck to take my car to the nearest garage as the RAC would cover this cost
Part i
I store my Elise over the winter months and only put her back on the road come May/June, for the past 7 or 8 years now
I had one big issue last summer, the first was on my way to the Euro tunnel when doing around 70 on the A2 exiting London around 2 miles from the M20 ring road when the car just cut all power to the engine,
pulling over, turning the key to crank the engine, nothing as if the car had no battery or the battery was as dead as a dodo, but the lights still worked as did the hazard lights, as I put them on soon after till the tow truck arrived , 4 hours later
the RAC tow truck took me to a depot where a mechanic could look at the car, after half an hour his diagnostic was that it must be something when heated up was causing the car to cut out,
by now I had been stationary for a good 4 or 5 hours, and the car had time to cool down, it started as normal and you wouldn’t know it had and issues.
as I also have EU breakdown cover I thought well if it gets me to the tunnel I’ll go for it if not then I’ll get the RAC to take me home
I got to within a few hundred metres from the Euro-tunnel turnoff off the M20 when the car cut all power
some may say how foolish I was to carry on with my journey, but when you’ve arranged lots of things what one would normal think it’s a foolish thing to carry on, at the time it looked a reasonable thing to do
so I called out the RAC to take me back home, and the tow truck arrive a few hours later
back home and as my regular garage couldn’t fit me in for a few weeks to look at the car
I had help from the forums to discover the issue and eliminate it, after all the car is getting on for 19 years old this coming September
started off cleaning all earth points
this
into this
and the battery earth point
looked at and clean lots of fuses
ignition wires at the key barrel
starter motor connections
fitted the alarm pump cutoff bypass, (stoping the alarm cutting off power to the pump) in case I had a faulty relay in that part of the alarm
tested the MFRU
4 relays on one board, one of the relays is for the pump and one is for the stater motor, all working
the car looked fine, in one week I must have covered 300 miles just testing it and seeing if it ever cut out anymore, well all looked well so rebooked my tunnel tickets and my first hotel in Reims France.
I set off once more and took the 6am Euro tunnel to Calais, I drove for around a hundred or so miles into France then pulled at a village cafe for some food and refreshments for an hour or so, sitting outside,
not long after I started eating, the alarm set itself off with no interference from anyone, this was a strange thing and was the first time this had happened to me without some sort of interference by knocking or opening the doors without un arming the car first (no central locking)
after this I drove for a few more hours, filled the car with petrol and pulled in to a lay-by to stretch my legs and some refreshment, I armed the car and went and sat and those picnic tables, sure enough around ten minutes later the alarm set itself off once more by it’s own accord
by now I thought this must be a faulty alarm. by tea time (6ish) I arrives on the outskirts of Reims where my hotel was booked for the night,
I was only thinking I must have sorted out the issue of the car cutting out when sure enough not long after the car cut out on me and I managed to let it roll off the road on to the grass verge
turning the key did nothing no cranking of the engine and not pump priming sounds ethers I was only around 10 miles from my hotel I thought I would see if after giving the car time to cool down it would get me to my hotel for the night then see what was happening in the morning
after around half an hour the car started and I was up and running, got in to the city,
not sure if any of you have been to Reims, I think it’s a beautiful city but the main road from the north in to the city is a wide road but they have put back in tram lines so what you now have is a two way tram lines in the centre of the road solely for trams and at either sides you have a single line for vehicles
you’ve guest it, would you believe the car cut out just there and as it was around tea time hevy traffic to boot, and I could not get the car to start
luckily a cafe owner saw my plight and came out and pushed my car on to his large frontage, asked if there was anything he could do I asked if he would let me use my car battery charger to charge up the battery (I always take EU adapters with me) so for a couple of hours I was eating and drinking at this cafe while the car was charging up
after two hours I set off for the hotel, I asked for a ground floor room and could they give me an extension lead to charge my battery
in the morning I went to a supermarket and bought some bottled water and put them in my 12vdc cooler box I have in car, if I broke down in this hot day I had refreshments to drink while waiting for the two truck
as I had made up my mind that I would now use the motorways as should I breakdown, I would call out the motorway tow truck to take my car to the nearest garage as the RAC would cover this cost
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