Lotus Elise S2 MIL warning light - HELP!

[redmonster]

Evening all,

I recently purchased my first Elise (series 2) and am loving it, unfortunately the MIL warning light came on today continuously (not flashing) so am now going to book it in at the Elise dealer to look at.

Has anyone had any similar problems and if so, any ideas on how much this may cost???

Appreciate that it may indicate a number of possible problems which require a diagnostics check, but i thought i'd ask anyway just in case anyone can indicate how serious/costly this may be.

Many thanks for any thoughts

[Stephanie Plum]

Erm - until you plug it into a diagnostics reader and actually discover what the fault is that is causing the light to come on, how much it is going to cost you to fix is a bit like the proverbial wondering about how long is a piece of string.

[redmonster]

Thanks for that. I guess I should have asked if other owners had experienced similar problems and could share their knowledge, I.e is this common in Elises?

[Stephanie Plum]

Seriously - it's not worth even trying to second guess it

Unless there are any other symptoms that might help us?

[redmonster]

Thanks both. i spoke to the garage today and they advised it could be either a misfire or possibly an air filter sensor but until they can scan the fault, as you said, it could be many things

Riwiho - did the misfire continue after the dealer looked at it? The garage i spoke to today said the misfire is a common problem but everytime it happens it'll cost c£70 to diagnose and switch the MIL light off.

[Eat it up]

Miss-firing on a k series could be ht leads breaking down, faulty coil pack,incorrectly gapped spark plugs or hgf.
Miss-firing on a yota could be wiped cam lobes-broken rocker arms,coil pack's or again incorrectly gapped plugs(shouldn't be a problem with platinum tipped versions mind).
As others have mentioned, the ecm needs to have it's codes and stored freeze frame data looked at and taken from there!.
It shouldn't be a repeat visit every 6-9 wks though.

[cobalt]

The MIL light used to come on in my K series S2 every 300-400 miles. Five restarts of the ignition used to reset it every time. Hasn't done it for the past few thousand miles for some reason. The light must realise I'm wise to it :-)

[Stephanie Plum]

redmonster said:

Thanks both. i spoke to the garage today and they advised it could be either a misfire or possibly an air filter sensor but until they can scan the fault, as you said, it could be many things

Riwiho - did the misfire continue after the dealer looked at it? The garage i spoke to today said the misfire is a common problem but everytime it happens it'll cost c£70 to diagnose and switch the MIL light off.

A misfire often points to a problem with the coil packs- simple and relatively cheap to fix. The £70 to diagnose and switch off seems a bit high - get yourself an obd reader for the same money or less and switch it off yourself

[theturbs]

It's fairly common for a lambda sensor reading which is out of tolerance to cause the MIL to come on. As said above it's worth checking the actual fault code.

If a lambda sensor reading is the cause, the MIL could go out by itself after a number of starts/period of running provided the readings are within tolerance.

HTH

[LRGS2]

I had the same on my S2 K-Series and it came on without any warning, no stutter, misfire or anything. The MIL light will reset itself after 4 restarts (I think) if there is nothing still faulting. On the first occassion I took it into the dealer, as I was woried and was charged £40 to have it reset with the codes coming off as a misfire on 2 cylinders, but no fault found! The following 2 occassions it came on I left it and it reset itself with no problems. The cause of the MIL light coming on was never discovered and you could be chasing sensor and money for a long time. Unless your car is running rough I would leave it.