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Bibs

By Bibs
in Lotus / Motoring / Cars Chat

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  • 2 weeks later...
ads_green Newbie

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Ok - my ECU is off the car and sitting in a nice antistatic bag to be boxed up to the factory.

It is possible to take off the ECU but it's a proper lotus job.

note: don't do it at night with the garage bulb gone (went halfway through) - doh!

There are four screws holding the ECU against the bulkhead in the engine bay just where the battery cut out switch is located.

Three are easy to get to however the fourth is obscured behind the wiring for the battery cut out switch.

Important: The wiring to the battery switch is live. You really must disconnect the battery if you are going to be working in this area as it's easy to short and at best blow a fuse or possibly worse with spanners. It's only four screws in the passenger compartment and then remove and secure the negative battery cable.

The best way I found is to use an 8mm ring spanner to secure cut out mounting the nut in the engine bay and remove the screw. Be careful - there is a washer too and it's easy to drop it in the engine bay. The second screw is again hard to get to - with this in mind it is possible to simply loosen this bolt which gives a fair amount of movement on the wiring. It also helps to remove a couple of the plugs going into the cut out switch (two brown ones). You should (with some swearing) get the bolt out. Luckily they are not too tight and only need a small amout to loosen before you can just use your fingers.

The ECU is connected to the car by two plugs which are locked onto the ECU by two grey rotating sliders. The tricky part here is that the sliders won't rotate without pressing a catch in. Yep - you can't see them either. There are one on each clamp and are on the inside angled edge. It is best to press the clip and rotate the clip a fraction so it clears the catch and then do the same on the other. The way the clamps open makes it hard to get to the catch on the other connector.

Thats pretty much it - I did get a shock when the unmistakable sound of something going clunk on the undertray nwhen removing the ecu - it looks like there was a rogue nyloc bolt trapped behind the ecu!

Will report when I get the ECU back.

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  • 2 weeks later...
ads_green Newbie

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I got my ECU back today and it's back on the car.

The good news is that it starts and runs perfectly* which at least means I haven't broken anything :(

The bad news is that it's chucking it down so no venturing out of the garage yet :(

However from running the car in the garage it does seem the idle and general revvy-ness of the engine appears alot smoother. Hoping to run it the next time the weather is dry and will let you know.

Refitting the ecu is much easier - still have to sort out one bolt on the battery cover and the ecu as I didn't have time to get them tight.

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* has anybody else done work on their car, jumped into the drivers seat and tried to start it only to find nothing happens. Then the sinking feeling of "oh crap I've broken it in an expensive way" gives way to "ah! starter button!" :)

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Bibs Grand Master

Bibs

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* has anybody else done work on their car, jumped into the drivers seat and tried to start it only to find nothing happens. Then the sinking feeling of "oh crap I've broken it in an expensive way" gives way to "ah! starter button!" :(

They may well have done but I doubt they tell the internet! :)

For forum issues, please contact the Moderators.

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abrussich Newbie

abrussich

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Hate to admit it, but have done that on many an occasion. Don't know how many times this weekend I got into the 2-11 to go out to grid, turned the key and for a moment wondered why the starter was not kicking over. Duh!

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ads_green Newbie

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Well it's nice and sunny here (if a little cold) so will get the other bolts tightened up and see what it's like later

(assuming work doesn't kick off)

Hi all,

just had a chance to test the 260 upgrade and I think it makes a huge difference. The mapping seems to be considerably more refined and I found driving the car on the road much easier and no jerkiness.

As an added bonus the car never stalled once even on a particular bit of road it always seemed to stall on.

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ads_green Newbie

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Not noticeably quicker as such but certainly alot smoother. I found the original mapping to be a bit harsh and juttery - almost put me off supercharging the vxr8. It's hard to explain - the best way I can tell is that it feels like the difference between the old S1 190 vhpd vs s2 190 vhpd. Everything just runs a bit more refined (idle, low revs, cam change over, boost coming in) - as if the map is setup with points every 250rpm instead of every 500... IYSWIM.

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Bibs Grand Master

Bibs

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A quick note, this offer runs out tomorrow so if you wish to take up the discounted price Lotus will honour this if you email Adrian this today or tomorrow. It will be full price from Monday.

For forum issues, please contact the Moderators.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Nick Adams Newbie

Nick Adams

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Hi All, two comments here, firstly sorry Jo if you're feeing pressured, that was never the intention, I hope you know us better than that :( . As you know I have chuff all funds for promotion/adverts, so we need to get the word out on new bits and bobs by whatever crafty means we can. I am convinced that the 260 upgrade is well worthwhile, much more so than the absolute numbers would imply, but the question was how to get the message out. I thought that if we popped an early adopter discount on it and got a few out to real customers they would do the selling for us, and that's exactly what has happened. The discount had to have a time limit on it for it to work and the business case couldn't survive all of them going out at the discounted price, hence the deadline. We made a lot of noise about the deadline to be nice and give people the chance to get the discount rather than miss it by a few days and feel even more cheated, not to pressurise you!

Second comment, if you think getting in the car and forgetting the starter button is embarrassing, try doing it in front of the senior journalist you are about to take out for a few demo laps. Even worse, then imagine calling over the workshop supervisor and telling him that the ignition switch is obviously faulty in front of the journalist. Finish the awful saga off with the supervisor leaning in the car, pressing the starter button and walking off without a backwards glance but with a visible heat haze of pleasure floating off from around his shoulders. Then go out and do the demo drive trying not to imagine the headlines.....

Nick

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stephanie plum Newbie

stephanie plum

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Hi Nick

I kind of see what you mean about the upgrade - trouble is it was the wrong time of year. My car is sorned and in the B&C barn in a carcoon, so any work at whatever beneficial or otherwise cost was out of the question really.

I'm not sure I'll do it tbh - I coped with the thing stalling all last year - I can live with it for another season.

Can't believe you of all people would forget that big red button which you made such a fuss about sourcing in the first place............. :(

Cheers

jo

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