The Lotus Cars Community banner
  • Hi there! Why not register as a user to enjoy all of the benefits of the site? You may register here. When you register, please pick a username that is non-commercial. If you use a name that appears on any search engine commercially, you must pick another name, whether it applies to you or not. Commercial usernames are for supporting vendor use only. If you want to become a supporting vendor and grow your business, please follow this link. Thanks!

2011 Elise Instrument Cluster Death and Revivial

18K views 25 replies 18 participants last post by  Catsailr27 
#1 ·
A few months ago, the instrument cluster in my 2011 Elise stopped working. LCD, Tach, Speed, indicator lights.. all dead. So I suspected maybe a fuse was blown. I turn the car off, pull every fuse in every location (front clam, passenger well, and rear clam) checking for a blown one. All were fine. I start the car up and, woila... instrument cluster works again. Weird coincidence I thought.

Well, last week, the cluster died again. I have been driving the car several days and miles waiting for it to start working again, but it has remained dead. So I decided to start pulling/replacing fuses along with turning the key on EVERY fuse to see if a certain one did the trick.

...and, my answer is the "Battery Services" fuse under the front clam. When that fuse is pulled and replaced, even though the fuse is NOT blown, the instrument cluster comes back to life.

Anyone have a clue about what's going on here?
 
#2 ·
Just a guess, but I'm thinking that "battery services" is basically "dark current" for the cluster and other things to keep their memory. Pulling that fuse cuts all power to the cluster and clears the memory returning everything to the initial state. To me, that would imply bad cluster....but all just a guess....
 
#3 ·
I've the same problem, and the same reaction... ;-) checking fuse and relay... in my humble opinion it's a computer bug in the stack.
Sometimes, i've an half lcd display, i've to get off contact key while i drive on a straight road, (because it's dangerous) and get in, and display appears !
 
#5 ·
This is exactly what happened to me on my Lotus Elise SC 2011. My cluster died twice. First time during im driving and noticed everything goes black. I returned home and restart the car. It came back normal again.

The secondtime was during my start up just 5 mins after when i get off to get something at a gas station. This time i have noluck on restart the engine again. I took to a garage and check for fuse.. no blown fuse. Then we took off the cluster and plug it back it... walla!!! It work again. Its been 3 months now that it is working ok. Have no idea when the problem will appeae again..... why?!?

Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App
 
#6 ·
Is the battery services fuse under the exterior access panel at the base of the windshield? If pulling this fuse resets the cluster, momentarily disconnecting the battery might work too.

Has anyone had a low battery or connected a charger to the battery immediately preceding the instrument cluster failure?

Glen (2011 Elise SC)
 
#7 ·
Dealer said mine is a bad cluster and needs replacement. This is occurring next week under warranty. I would encourage you to do the same. I suspect, over time, the fuse trick will cease to work and you'll be stuck with a dead cluster permanently if you don't address the issue..
 
#8 ·
I had mine go dead also while in route at about 7k.. Disconnected the battery and back only came and haven't had it happen again. I have 13k+ miles on it now. The Dealer said they have pulled others with the same phenom and found nothing. Good luck and keep us posted if anything is found.
 
#10 ·
Hello from AZ! My 2011 Final Edition (14/15) Elise SC instrument cluster went completely dark last week. I was having battery issues (wouldn't hold a charge for 5 days), so I was going to swap the battery myself before this issue popped up. Brought it to AZ Lotus dealer (great guys in service). After about 20 minutes of diagnosis they called and said they had to replace the cluster. Should be installed tomorrow hopefully that's the end of it.
 
#11 ·
Update - New instrument cluster (and battery) installed by AZ Lotus. Great job, looks great, works perfect!

Dealership is 25 miles from home all freeway driving. The Lotus is so harsh on straight boring freeway drives - jarring bumps, cockpit squeaks and the car generally complains - but pile it into a corner at ridiculous speeds, drifting alllll the way through the apex with the tail wayyyy out chasing the nose...it's absolutely perfect....
 
#12 ·
Hypothesis: Cause of Dark Instrument Cluster

I had to refer to this thread to fix the dark instrument cluster on my 2011 Elise. Pulling and replacing fuse 8 worked the first time. I thought about recent activity in the car and remembered this bit from section MP in the service manual (pg 17):

Disconnecting the Battery
If the battery is to be disconnected, the following precautions should be taken:
i) Wait for at least ten seconds after switching off the ignition to allow the engine management system to
adjust the setting of some components ready for re‑starting.
...
Just prior to the instrument cluster going dark, I had been at a rest stop eating lunch. I got my car's electrical system confused with another...I thought that if the radio was on and you turned the ignition off, the radio (normally operated by switched power) would stay powered until you opened a door. When it didn't work that way, I switched the ignition on and off about 3 times (starting the car maybe once of those 3 times), experimenting with different conditions to verify that functionality was not present. I'm pretty sure I switched the ignition on and off at less than 10 second intervals. The next time I stopped and then returned to the car, the instrument cluster was dark.

So my hypothesis is that if you switch the ignition on and off at less than 10 second intervals (and in my case, not always starting the engine), you may induce a condition that causes the instrument cluster to go dark.

If this is a programming bug, it would probably be something like a file needed for start up is corrupted, and another program depends on no errors in that file before it will enable the instrument cluster. Then once the instrument cluster fails to work, it stays dead until it gets reset by removing power (pulling fuse 8). If in fact a start up file (that is written to in that 10 second window) exists, corruption is apparently not a problem for the rest of the system...the car always started and ran normally throughout the sequence of events I experienced.

So if you experience a dark instrument cluster and stumble on this thread to fix it, reflect on what happened in the immediate past and chime in with whether or not you might have had a similar experience to mine.

Glen
 
#13 ·
dash power up issue

Hya,

I have similar issues, battery went down and after recharging, dash won't power up unless I reconnect battery terminal with ignition switch in the on position. Guess this is similar to removing/installing battery services fuse.. Anyway, this is a royal pain in the ass.. any similarities solutions ??:facepalm
 
#16 ·
Read this thread only because there aren't a lot of 2011 elise threads - BUT 3500mi today the cluster went dark on an errand.
I returned home (cluster still dark after 20 mins at Lowe's), disconnected the battery, left it for 10 mins, then reconnected and restarted for another trip after a few minutes - everything returned to 'normal'.

I still have 1 month on warranty apparently - going to call on the oil line recall & log this issue too.
 
#17 ·
Still happening

:frown2:I had a similar thing with my 2014 SCR Elise, Started car, cluster went off and the clocks took it in turn to go from rest to 12 o'clock with a little display flash along the way. Turned off and back on still doing it. Took Earth lead of battery and replaced all back to normal.. Very strange
 
#18 ·
I think if nothing else works the magic trick is to disconnect and reconnect the battery. I only had to disconnect the black (negative) cable. Its always worked the few times i had problems with dashboard and dadhboard lights"sudden death". Strictly follow the manual instructions on disconnecting battery :)
 
#19 ·
I think if nothing else works the magic trick is to disconnect and reconnect the battery. I only had to disconnect the black (negative) cable. Its always worked the few times i had problems with dashboard and dadhboard lights"sudden death". Strictly follow the manual instructions on disconnecting battery
My recommendation is if you're going to remove the negative battery terminal, after doing so press on the brake pedal for at least five seconds before reconnecting the negative brake terminal.

San
 
#20 ·
I have 2009 Elise 111R (almost 8000km total).. and after 4 week "resting".. (I was on holidays)
The cluster went "mad".. always reseting, off and on, needles move on "check", All cluster lights on then off, no distance counting (not bad for total counting mileage...ehheheheheh), the worse... no Fuel gauge working properly, always "full" when lit on.

Work in progress.

I put the battery off and charging with a CTEK battery charger from last night (complete charge).
The battery is off the charger now and on hold.

I will then fit it back in the car.

Any advice?

Thank you.

Flavio
 
#23 ·
After full recharge and a full day after still pluged. I fitted the battery in the Elise and started the car.

No more problem with the dashboard cluster.
(Still)
Rode the car for more than 200km and all ok.

I would guess that in my case the problem was the droped of battery charge.

This is my report about this time issue.

Thank you guys.

Flavio
 
#22 ·
https://www.mechanicadvisor.com/problems/lotus/2005/elise

"Summary: Instrument cluster is intermittent and turns all on or all off without warning, masking speed, fuel, rpms, mileage, etc. (all data). From researching the issue on Lotus Forum - Lotus Talk, it appears this is a problem common to 2005 lotus elise automobiles. Severe possibility of incident by not knowing how fast your going or how much fuel you have, and, this problem can happen at any moment without warning or apparent cause."

MY cluster.. is more or less like this one on youtube.

 
#26 ·
Just like with older PC's to do a complete power on reset you pulled the wall plug and then hit power on button and you could see power led start t come up as the cap's discharged.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top