Warning Lights and Weirdness

[Stirling_Villeneuve]

Dear All...

It's been a while, ( nothing personal! ), but perhaps someone out there can shed some light on what's going on with my Evora? 

I've been laid up the past couple of weeks so the car's not had much use until today. I tried to start it, got the machine gun starter motor racket but eventually as I was about to give up it caught. So far so good...

I left the car to idle and charge for 10 mins or so before taking it for a spin to charge it up fully.... the idle sounded a little odd but nothing too extreme and it was cold. After 5 mins or so I heard the car revving itself, quite quickly too as if the pedal was being pumped. I got in, slipped it into reverse ( it's an IPS btw ), it engaged but wasn't responding to the pedal, i.e. just driving on the higher than normal tick over, same thing in 'drive'. So... I stopped the engine, gave it a couple of minutes and restarted it. So far so good part 2...

All seems good, the car was idling normally so I left it with the sidelights on to speed the charge up, ( B&C tell me this is a smart thing to do! ). I returned 10 mins later to find the MIL and the Transmission warning lights on. Car slips in and out of gear fine, responds to the throttle but seems to the trying to tell me something! 

Any ideas, thoughts or prayers? 

 

[Barrykearley]

Sounds like random flat battery gremlins - charge that battery and my money would be on all things being well

[Bibs]

^ That. When the battery is low the sensors start sending erroneous info the ECU and it pops the MIL on for you. Either give it a solid overnight charge and try again or replace if it won't charge up nicely. 

[Stirling_Villeneuve]

Ta, the car starts fine now, the 'lights on/engine running' seems to have done the trick. However... I've got the MIL and the Transmission light on, everything else seems fine, car engages gear, moves, revs fine. Looks like a software glitch... but I'm guessing it should be looked at!  In the meantime what do you reckon, is it ok to drive? 

[Bibs]

I can't remember exactly but I think the lights remain lit for a number of key on/key off cycles even after the faults are cleared. They'll probably disappear shortly mate. 

[Stirling_Villeneuve]

Ta....again! 

BTW, I'm still loving the car, probably more than ever. This is the first 'glitch' I've had in over 3 years of ownership and undoubtably my fault for taking my eye off the ball... I was sick though!

[21gg]

Yes flat battery is the cause, I used an ons reader to wipe the codes and all was good.

 

Gav

[TomE]

If you've had it three years you may find the battery is on the way out.  Various odd electrical behaviour with mine in the few weeks before the battery died - central locking, windows etc.

[Stirling_Villeneuve]

Yeah, I was thinking that too. My Elises were always dropping the ball in that dept, I lost count of the amount of batteries they went through. I was thinking of getting it checked over, wouldn't hurt to pop a new one in. 

[TomE]

The OEM Varta Blue E43 has a three year warranty and they seem to fail at 3-4 years old.  There's an equivalent Varta Silver E38 - identical physical dimensions but higher capacity and 4 year warranty for a few pounds more.  Mine was £68 from one of the many battery suppliers on ebay and came next day.

Mine was measured at 90% capacity in mid Feb when the car wouldn't start (turned out the starter motor had failed), which counted as OK.  Strange things started happening in May and the battery died in mid June when it measured 25%.

 

[EuropaSman]

I can vouch for the Varta Silver. Had one fitted in Sept 2014 when the Varta Blue kept pulling charge from the battery conditioner meaning it wouldn't go into conditioning mode because it was trickling charge all the time. B&C got the Silver for me for £75 back then. The alternative was going to be a Yuasa YBX 5000 Silver High Performance if the price wasn't right. Pleased with the Varta Silver, especially as it’s from the OEM supplier.

 

Edited January 17, 2016 by EuropaSman

[Stirling_Villeneuve]

Thanks one and all... car's booked for a new battery, plus system check and reboot. Not bad really... one battery in over 3 years, my Elises used to go through them like PP3's! 

[KevCov]

Hi All, Same problem with mine just popped on this morning MIL and Transmission solid Amber - re-started twice, but still on.  Can anyone recommend a  ons reader that I can buy and use to look at the codes and reset the car?

[B430m]

1 hour ago, KevCov said:

Hi All, Same problem with mine just popped on this morning MIL and Transmission solid Amber - re-started twice, but still on.  Can anyone recommend a  ons reader that I can buy and use to look at the codes and reset the car?

If it is anything like mine was l would suggest just driving it providing it feels ok and is drivable. All the transition lights came up on mine but you could still drive it. All I did was to drive it steadily while the transmission lights danced all over the place and after about 35klm it settled down and hasn't missed a beat since.

i thought I may have caused the problem by connecting an OBD 2 reader.

[KevCov]

Thanks - I'll leave it for a while and see if it settles - It did have a service and a load of updates about 200 miles back so it may be that

 

[B430m]

19 minutes ago, KevCov said:

Thanks - I'll leave it for a while and see if it settles - It did have a service and a load of updates about 200 miles back so it may be that

 

Let's know how you go.

[Bibs]

1 hour ago, KevCov said:

Can anyone recommend a  ons reader that I can buy and use to look at the codes and reset the car?

If you're in a rush, pop over and I'll get the codes and reset them for you with mine?

[KevCov]

Thanks for the offer - I'm up in town until this eve, so won't be able to do that. 

Thanks again