Engine probs, cat warning light. Any ideas?

[fleets]

About 15 minutes into any journey and my cat warning light illuminates. A five minute pull over and cool off solves the problem for another 15 minutes but of course not an ideal solution! If i refuse to stop the car when the light comes on, the engine tone becomes a low rumble, as if trying to stall. Unfortunately, when I first took the car to my local Lotus dealer they couldn't simulate the fault and thus couldn't tell me much, other than the cat looks okay and the diagnostics kit didn't pick up any errors. So if anyone out there can offer any clues, you're doing a better job than the dealer!

Cheers.

[adrianr]

S2? Cat warning light = MIL light? If so I'm confused as to how the light can come on without logging a fault as I thought the two were linked.

Emgine note changing could be a misfire - S1's used to suffer from this and it usually turned out to be ignition lead or coil related. The 111s (I think) had retro-fit detection kits installed after one or two caught fire!

AdrianR


>> Edited by adrianr on Monday 17th May 18:23

[fleets]

I spoke to a Lotus mechanic today who told me about some electrics that reduce fuel to the cyclinders if things get hot enough to overheat the cat, so perhaps that's resposible for the power down and engine tone. I'll get that checked next. I too thought that an error code should be logged if the warning light illuminated (it's an S1 by the way) but apparently not. Oh well, I'll keep trying! Thanks for your input Adrian.

[adrianr]

The diagnostics in the S1 aren't as sophisticated as the S2, especially when it comes to fault logging so he may well be right about the error codes.

What is your car? Not a 111s by any chance - they definitey had misfire issues? The text below is from elises.co.uk

"Electromagnetic Interference
March 2000 - Lotus has recalled 1,300 Elise 111S models. In some circumstances electromagnetic interference could cause an engine misfire, leading to exhaust catalyst damage. Only 111S variants are affected, and owners can call 0800 0365688 for more details"


AdrianR

[fleets]

It is indeed a 111S, T reg and 51k. I think I'll carry a fire extinguisher from here on! I'll give that number a call and see what the score is. Cheers.