S2 Elise Trouble Starting When Warm?

[David87]

Hi guys, posting for a friend wot doesn't have a PH account.

I had a call from him the other week to say he was stranded round the corner and needed a hand as his car wouldn't start. He has an S2 Elise Type 23 with approx 80k miles. He'd driven home from work and popped into a shop on the way home and the car wouldn't then restart. By the time I got there it had probably sat for around 45 mins and low and behold, it fired up first time! When we got it back to his house, it again wouldn't start, however. You turn the key, it catches and then pretty much immediately dies. Adding a little throttle to help it along does nothing. It therefore seems to just be when the engine is warm-ish or hot that there's an issue.

Upon enquiring, it emerged that it hadn't been serviced for 5 or 6 years! In that time it's probably only done 10k miles or so, but I told him to get it done immediately. He took it to a local place and they've carried out a full service, fitted a new exhaust (it was knackered apparently) and changed the leads and plugs. This has cost £1k, but the starting problem persists. The garage want to replace the fuel pump to the tune of another £1k as they think this could be the problem. Obviously he wants to be reasonably sure that the fuel pump may indeed be the cause, but he's not overly confident that garage are certain themselves.

Anyone have any ideas? Does a fuel pump sound plausible or is there a common issue with the K-series (apart from that one ) that the garage have missed?

Many thanks.

Edited by David87 on Sunday 8th October 20:44

[kambites]

Sounds like the garage hasn't a clue and is changing random parts to me. Tell him to take it to a specialist (a Rover specialist will do).

I'm not aware of endemic warm-start problems with the K-series but the fuel pump sounds unlikely to me because it's in the fuel tank which, whilst it's quite close to the engine, is a bloody great heat-sink. My first question would be whether the garage replaced the coil-packs as part of the 'lead replacement.

Edited by kambites on Monday 9th October 09:51

[Jodele]

Has the air filter been changed recently? Was it a K&N? the oil in the filter coats the MAF sensor and screws up the metering. With the oil on MAF sensor, it reads very low air flow, so not enough fuel.

Does the K engine have a MAP sensor too? Maybe that is going south...

I wouldn't think it was the fuel pump because it starts when its cold...that is when the most fuel is needed.

[smiles1]

There's a high chance it's the starter motor. The K-Series is known for it and will start when cold and not when hot. Also check the connections to and from it.

[Christopher Neil]

Hi

If starts when cold but not when hot, I would but looking at the cam and crank sensor.
Most likely the cam sensor, 15min job
Cheers

[David87]

Thank you for the replies, folks. I'll pass the comments on.

[sng45]

I'm on my sixth Elise - which is why I'm reading the Lotus section - however I had a similar problem to your friend some years ago although in a Mk1 Golf GTi !

My car cut out on the motorway, actually on the way home from buying another car ( maybe it realised and was getting it's own back !) and I was stranded on the hard shoulder for an hour waiting for the AA. When they arrived and checked the car, annoyingly it started first time ! Another thirty miles or so it cut out again and wouldn't start, I waited again and when the AA arrived it started first time ! I switched to minor roads and it lasted a little longer before this happened again - in total it cut out perhaps six times on the way home.

Eventually I discovered it was the diaphragm within the fuel pump which was failing when it got hot, this was changed and it never happened again. As I said not an Elise but a Golf, however I would guess the fuel pump may be similar ???

Hope that helps