New owners guide
Discussion
Just thought I’d start a thread that might be of use to new owners with a few hints and tips.
I’ll start off with a few:
1. Check the coolant levels shortly after you pick your car up. A few of the early PE cars had low coolant in the left hand tank. No leaks visible and no issues afterwards.
2. When parking up for a while disengage the handbrake to stop the pads sticking- Push N button until “P” is shown on dash. Put foot on brake and push handbrake button whilst turning off.
3. Fuel gauge in my PE is reliable but has quirks- reads fine until about 70 miles range - then quickly drops to 35 and zero within the space of a few miles.
4. Don’t worry about wildly fluctuating temperature gauge. It can go from 82 to about 104 quite quickly and then back again. Don’t know why this happens but “they all do it”.
5. Until the coolant is above 70 C power is limited and the gearbox seems to be in a softer setting. I drive carefully when warming up but a quick exit from a side road led to a bit of a jolt when the power kicked in at 70C. I drive it carefully until about 75 degrees.
I’ll start off with a few:
1. Check the coolant levels shortly after you pick your car up. A few of the early PE cars had low coolant in the left hand tank. No leaks visible and no issues afterwards.
2. When parking up for a while disengage the handbrake to stop the pads sticking- Push N button until “P” is shown on dash. Put foot on brake and push handbrake button whilst turning off.
3. Fuel gauge in my PE is reliable but has quirks- reads fine until about 70 miles range - then quickly drops to 35 and zero within the space of a few miles.
4. Don’t worry about wildly fluctuating temperature gauge. It can go from 82 to about 104 quite quickly and then back again. Don’t know why this happens but “they all do it”.
5. Until the coolant is above 70 C power is limited and the gearbox seems to be in a softer setting. I drive carefully when warming up but a quick exit from a side road led to a bit of a jolt when the power kicked in at 70C. I drive it carefully until about 75 degrees.
Keyless entry is disabled by using the fob to lock the car.
When using the inbuilt sat nav the left hand screen in the dash (where the rev counter is) has a useful arrow system notifying you of the next few turns to make and distance.
I only ever drive in Sport mode - yes, I’m a hero but it also disengages stop start.
Check your tyre pressures. Some of the PE were delivered with transport pressure of about 6000psi. Guide is on door shut (If I recall correctly)
Playing 70’s/80’s rock via Bluetooth seems to liberate another 30 HP.
When using the inbuilt sat nav the left hand screen in the dash (where the rev counter is) has a useful arrow system notifying you of the next few turns to make and distance.
I only ever drive in Sport mode - yes, I’m a hero but it also disengages stop start.
Check your tyre pressures. Some of the PE were delivered with transport pressure of about 6000psi. Guide is on door shut (If I recall correctly)
Playing 70’s/80’s rock via Bluetooth seems to liberate another 30 HP.
Edited by Miserablegit on Friday 26th November 06:28
Miserablegit said:
2. When parking up for a while disengage the handbrake to stop the pads sticking- Push N button until “P” is shown on dash. Put foot on brake and push handbrake button whilst turning off.
You can also achieve this by pressing down the handbrake button whilst switching off the engine.I have had both rear brakes locked on in the past during the winter when the car is used less, they were a sod to free off.
Even manual handbrakes stick on any car used 'occasionally'. I use a pair of heavy duty rubber wheel chocks on any vehicle that isn't moved at least every few days. Oh and if you do only drive your car once in a while; take it easy on the first application of the brakes they aren't too effective until the surface rust layer rubs off 
Coilover said:
Even manual handbrakes stick on any car used 'occasionally'. I use a pair of heavy duty rubber wheel chocks on any vehicle that isn't moved at least every few days. Oh and if you do only drive your car once in a while; take it easy on the first application of the brakes they aren't too effective until the surface rust layer rubs off
Agreed if you park after running in damp, or after wash it. Otherwise never, can just put in gear or 'park'.Miserablegit said:
Don’t worry about wildly fluctuating temperature gauge. It can go from 82 to about 104 quite quickly and then back again.
Surely that's just the thermostat opening and closing. Many cars do it.Depending on location of the sensor the temperature may also drop when cruising on a motorway. Fairly obviously mid-engine cars are more susceptible to cooking themselves than those with the engine out front.
Panamax said:
Surely that's just the thermostat opening and closing. Many cars do it.
Depending on location of the sensor the temperature may also drop when cruising on a motorway. Fairly obviously mid-engine cars are more susceptible to cooking themselves than those with the engine out front.
It’s more the instant fluctuation that is not as noticeable in other cars. In the Alpine the temperature gauge seems to display the current temperature without any buffering- most cars seem to have a gauge that records an averaged-out temperature so the rapid fluctuations aren’t visible.Depending on location of the sensor the temperature may also drop when cruising on a motorway. Fairly obviously mid-engine cars are more susceptible to cooking themselves than those with the engine out front.
Agree on all fronts ref the temp - mine seems to run up to about 105 in gentle/normal use, then whenever stretched through a few gears it immediately dumps a good 20+ deg out of the coolant, which (more slowly) brings the oil down too. It's so repeatable I try to build in a little 2 or 3 gear blast near the end of most journeys.
From what I've seen of schematics of the cooling circuits this does make sense, though I can't explain explicitly why just now.
From what I've seen of schematics of the cooling circuits this does make sense, though I can't explain explicitly why just now.
Just remembered this as I was prepping my car for a trip to dealer:
Remove any sd cards or usb drives as occasionally a software update will stop the system “seeing” them. I don’t know what It does but when it happened to me I had to reformat the card and reinstall my music. The card was still accessible on my computer but the car didn’t register it until it was reformatted.
Remove any sd cards or usb drives as occasionally a software update will stop the system “seeing” them. I don’t know what It does but when it happened to me I had to reformat the card and reinstall my music. The card was still accessible on my computer but the car didn’t register it until it was reformatted.
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