Elise S1 out of fuel - now problems

[neptune26]

Help please,

I believe I ran out of fuel 20 yards from the fual station. The stack unit had showed refill so off I went - might have driven a few more miles than normal to get there but then she died on me just short of the station. I managed to get her going again and fill up, but now I have problems. She will start when cold fine but as soon as she starts to warm up and the revs try and drop in idle, she splutters and dies. I have tried resetting the ecu with the ignition on / pump throttle 5 times trick but got no change. I have just tried disconnecting the battery then re-connecting, but still the same problems.

Has the ecu had problems because of the lack of fuel? Anything else I can try?

Any advice please??

1997 S1 Elise

Cheers - Mark

[thub]

That sounds like it's pulled in some dirt from the empty tank. It runs when it's rich but once it warms up and the mixture is leaned off it falters.
Sorry, but I don't know the fuelling system well enough to make any constructive 'how to fix it' comment.

I ran out of fuel once last year and had no problems at all once it had been refuelled.

[weed]

Emptying the tank causes two problems.
1, It moves water, sediment etc into the filter and may clog it.
2, It overheats the fuel pump and destroys the tolerances in the roller vanes. this makes the fuel pressure low, the pump balky in operation as it will either seize terminally or will seize briefly.

If you struggled to start the car after the refill, then the fuel pump relay may also have overheated causing behaviour similar to that of the partially seized pump.
Unfortunately all components are now likely to be doomed to premature failure.
sorry.

So change the filter first and see if that helps.
If not, change the pump. It should be ok.
m.

>> Edited by weed on Sunday 5th September 13:05