Indicator Issue

I do not usually post about the occasional problems that have arisen on my Lotuses, not least because I have nothing but praise for the way they have been dealt with by B&C and/or Lotus themselves. But I am making an exception in this case because, although it was probably unique to my car and was trivial in itself, it could have had serious consequences.  Also I am posting it because a contributory factor is what I regard as a distinct design deficiency in the current Elise/Exige: the lack of an audible signal from the turn indicators and, given that, what is IMO the - in daylight - inadequately sized instrument panel indicator tell-tales.

The normal off position of the “all flashers alert-warning” button is depressed; pressing it releases it to rise under spring action to turn the warning flashers on.

Today, seeing someone turn the wrong way towards me at a dual carriageway junction a good distance ahead, I slowed and jabbed at the alert-warning button, intending to turn it on. Other cars nearer to the junction were braking ahead of me and I had better things to do than look down to see whether the red triangle in the button was flashing. The turning driver realised the mistake and rapidly backed into the junction he had emerged from. Emergency over, I glanced at the warning button, meaning to turn it off, but saw it was not flashing; I assumed I had failed to turn it on. That no longer mattered and I continued. I made several turns at junctions, using the indicator stalk as usual. I did not actually check my indicator telltales until I came to a junction where I had to wait to turn right; I had used the indicator stalk as usual but saw the tell tale was not indicating. On checking, neither were my indicators.

Investigation showed that my alert-warning button was not entirely free to move; it had stuck in an intermediate position where it had not turned the warning flashers on but had inhibited normal indicator operation via the stalk. Its action felt “sticky”. My Elise has only done 3,000 miles and the button has barely been used previously. I gave it a good workout and slid a little Vaseline around its side. It now feels fine.

I cannot rule out that some grit or whatever had found its way into the button; it may have been ok originally. But I will be more careful using it in future.