Fixing Evora flat battery and boot release cable problems

[Bulletmagnet]

So my Evora has a flat battery.
My fault (not driven it enough). It’s parked in a garage with no mains supply, (I am looking into a solar panel for the roof but haven’t got one yet... ).
No problem, I’ll just get the boot open and put my boost pack on it. 

It is parked in my garage nose first, tight up against the left wall so I can swing the drivers door open.
So I sent my skinny son down the left hand side of the car to the only keyhole on the car...he could get the door open 3”, so we fashioned a hook on the end of an extendable ruler and he reached inside the car to pull the drivers door handle. Great! We’re in!

Took the back seat cushion up and pulled the emergency boot release cable. It came out of it’s sheath about 4” and then no further movement. I read online that you have to pull hard at 90 deg to the car i.e. across the car, but this was absolutely solid at it’s full extension and felt like I was going to break something. I could push the cable back in it’s sheath and back out and hear something moving in the latch of the boot. But this cable is clearly not connected to anything in the boot, so I’m glad I didn’t force it anymore. 

Right, I’ll have to charge it through a cigarette lighter socket. Handbook says that the cabin ones are active with the ignition in position 1 & 2, great!
Got on amazon and ordered a cigarette lighter adaptor for my Ctek battery charger.
Two days later, fired up my petrol generator at the garage, plugged the Ctek in with ignition at 1....nothing, no charge being delivered, nothing with ignition at 2.
Tried plugging the Ctek into my son’s Fiesta cigarette socket and it works fine. So there is nothing wrong with the generator, Ctek or adaptor cables etc.
My guess is the battery is soooo flat that the Ctek can’t even “see” it so won’t start charging. 

This story took a week to unfold... 

So watt now TLF? I am currently sat at ohm grumpy and just want to go for a drive I’m resisting the urge to smash something into the ground. I need a boost to my morale to liven things up! 
How do I get in my boot?!

[jep]

This may assist. Or not.

Justin

[Bulletmagnet]

Thanks Jep, think I’ll try Bruss’ suggestion from that post tomorrow, just going to have to clamber over into the passenger side from the one door I can open....what a palaver!

[plenty]

https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/90655-how-can-i-open-the-bootlid/?tab=comments#comment-768434

Edited January 4, 2020 by plenty

[Bulletmagnet]

Cheers plenty, that’s very useful👍🏼
Interestingly the pic at the bottom shows that owners cable a long way out like mine! Wonder if I should just give it a harder tug?...ooh err

[plenty]

Your cable is probably jammed like mine was.  Mine was fixed by my specialist and it doesn’t require much of a tug to work, so pulling yours harder will likely not solve anything.

[Bulletmagnet]

Thanks plenty, yeah on 2nd thoughts bruss’ suggestion is best to try first rather than damaging the cable👍🏼

[Bruss]

It better bliddy work.  My reputation is now at stake.😀

[Bulletmagnet]

Lol, your reputation is in tact Bruss! It worked, I’m in and the battery is on charge!

 

 

Edited January 5, 2020 by Bulletmagnet

[Bravo73]

Ah, an old Yuasa? Don’t be surprised if it’s goosed. Probably time to change it, I’m afraid. 
 

Edited to add: my mistake, the OEM battery was a Varta, wasn’t it? Still, the Yuasa might still ge goosed. Go Bosch. 😉

[Bulletmagnet]

2 minutes ago, Bravo73 said:

Ah, an old Yuasa? Don’t be surprised if it’s goosed. Probably time to change it, I’m afraid. 

Yep, I agree...worryingly my Ctek went straight to stage 4 (you can see the light in the pic) so it skipped the bulk charge.😬

[jep]

Do any AGM (absorbent glass mat) battery fit Evora? I have put these in my Excel and the XJ6 with fab results. They just don't go flat, though Evora will drain more power with alarm etc...

I have never trickle charged my Evora but it is usually used regularly or at worst left for 2 weeks. 

Justin 

[Bulletmagnet]

Definitely goosed, failed at stage 5, can’t hold a charge...

[PAR]

And hopefully get your cable adjusted ASAP. 

 

Mine was not tight enough and although by pulling it I could open the boot with the help of a second person opening the boot at the same time, it is now working perfectly.

4xx need the cable pulled straight whereas prior version needed the cable pulled side way with the right angle. 

[EGTE]

Thought it was funny that you asked "watt now".  Subliminal?

[Bulletmagnet]

4 hours ago, EGTE said:

Thought it was funny that you asked "watt now".  Subliminal?

Finally! Somebody noticed! Lol 😂 

I put a huge amount of effort into that whole last paragraph on the original post...and it fell completely flat...bit like my battery!

[Bulletmagnet]

So I thought I’d update this as I work through all the issues...hopefully it will be useful to someone👍🏼
 

So first things first, I needed a new battery and picked up an Exide Excell half price (result!) from a local motor factors that is closing down as the old owner is retiring. 
But when I went to fit it, the positive battery terminal clamp disintegrated as I tightened it. I have diagnosed the problem as premature metal fatigue due to being made from Cheesium. You may want to check your terminals next time you poke around in there, as these things are crap.

 

So I went back to the motor factors and local Halfrauds and local EuroCarParts, but nobody had the right shape terminals I needed with upright M8 connection posts. Then I found these on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07C3YH4QP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Did you know the positive terminal is 19mm diameter and the negative 17mm?! I didn’t, it made for a confusing search at first, as I initially thought “why can’t I just find a pair the same size?!” Well they’re deliberately not the same size for (now to me) blindingly obvious reasons. 

Perfect, once the main connection has been positioned and tightened, the wing nut makes removal and attachment of cables a doddle. I tighten them as hard as I can by hand then a little 1/8th of a turn nip up with an adjustable spanner across the 2 wings.

 

And that’s the battery fitted complete with Ctek connection point👍🏼
 

 

Next step, sorting the manual boot release cable...

[Bulletmagnet]

So I took the cover off the boot latching mechanism, it’s just 2x 10mm dome headed nuts either side, a central crosshead bolt and 2x plastic fasteners lower down (these aren’t obvious, get a torch and you’ll find them). The cover needs to be pulled towards the front of the car and slightly left at the same time to reveal the latch mechanism, I also had to disconnect the left side interior light as the cable is short, to allow enough room to work.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that my manual cable wasn’t broken! It just wasn’t working properly. It operated pretty much the same as the solenoid cable: as you pull the handle under the rear seat, the cable is attached to a metal lever that pivots about a central pin and the hammer end of the lever strikes a pin in the latch mechanism to pop the lock open. But for some reason the manual cable wouldn’t pop the boot but the solenoid did! Very confusing...🤨

So I set my phone up in the boot with a torch on, to video what was happening. Below are some stills from the video:

This is the boot lid shut and locked, the two cables are coming in from the left, they should pull to the left, rotate the hammer about the pivot pin so that it moves right and strikes the latch pin:

Here is a still with the solenoid cable in mid-operation from the key fob. The hammer is just catching the latch pin, but only just! It’s almost slipping behind it! But the latch is released and the interior light comes on...

Now here’s a still with the manual cable in mid operation, but where it is attached to a higher section of the lever, there is enough play in the central pivot pin to allow the lever to tilt backwards ever so slightly and now the hammer DOES miss the the latch pin! So the lock doesn’t pop and the interior light stays off. We are talking a fag paper here! But it’s enough for the manual cable to miss it’s target whilst the solenoid cable was scraping the latch by a hair’s breadth.

So I simply needed to adjust the mechanism so that the hammer was more in line with it’s target. When I looked at the plate that holds the whole mechanism to the back of the boot, I noticed it was packed out with 2 washers per bolt. So by adding a 3rd washer to each bolt I’ve shifted the hammer and everything else 1mm further forward into the boot, whilst the latch which is attached to the boot lid comes down in it’s original position...(hope that makes sense)

So now here is a still with the manual cable pulled getting a good clean contact with the latch pin:

And here is a still with the solenoid cable in operation also getting a better strike:

So my boot release cable is now fixed and I’ve saved myself a trip to the dealers. Hope this is useful to people, I’ve learnt a lot from playing with it:

You DON’T need to yank your manual cable for this to work properly, it’s actually quite a delicate mechanism.

Everytime you shut the boot, make sure you have your key on you and the lock mechanism is done up tightly and aligned correctly.

Next time you’re in your boot, pop the cover off the latch and check it all lines up properly and operates correctly with both cables. It does make me wonder how many people have taken their cars into a dealer or specialist to have their “broken” cable “fixed”, but it was just as simple as being a millimetre out of line?!🤔

[2011 Chrome Orange]

^ Great job and write-up. This should have its own thread (and title) so its easily searchable for future issues. 👍

[Bulletmagnet]

16 minutes ago, 2011 Chrome Orange said:

^ Great job and write-up. This should have its own thread (and title) so its easily searchable for future issues. 👍

Hi Chad,

Yeah I was going to edit the title as it has moved on from a ‘nightmare’ to merely a ‘troublesome thing’!😂

Anyone any idea how I do this?

Edited January 22, 2020 by Bulletmagnet

[jep]

Genius. I am far too lazy to ever do this but I will print it out and hand to Bell and Colvill at my next service.

Justin 

[2011 Chrome Orange]

45 minutes ago, Bulletmagnet said:

Hi Chad,

Yeah I was going to edit the title as it has moved on from a ‘nightmare’ to merely a ‘troublesome thing’!😂

Anyone any idea how I do this?

I have no idea but one of the moderators should be able to assist....

[Cdm2018]

I agree this type of fix is so useful it needs to be in a thread titled easy fixes to annoying problems ! 

[Bulletmagnet]

Bibs has changed the title for me, hopefully that’s a bit more search friendly now.

Thanks Bibs😀👍🏼

[PAR]

Very good! Thanks for sharing.