[mact3333]

Guy just got his car in UK i believe. Some specific info regarding break-in and some probs he was having already. Can someone please explain the "ring" and going into reverse a little better?.


<b>The break in was suggested that the first 1000 Miles you keep it under 4500 RPMs At 1000 Miles you bring it in for a scheduled service, then its basically ready to go. I figure 1000 Miles is will take about 2 weeks =). They also said since this is a handmade car, there will be squeeks/rattles etc, and make note of anything and they will take car of it during that first service

Issues so far in the first 100 Miles:
- The reverse release sticks in the "on" position. Its the ring you lift to put the transmission into reverse, it stays on. The guy at the dealership says that he sees this on about 90% of the cars, and to watch for it. Mine does. If you screw that one up, you could end up in reverse instead of first, not good if you were to be at 8k RPMs gearing down. Betcha that would bring you a stop quickly =(

- When I first left the dealership the car was cold, and I took it easy for a few miles, then hit the motorway for about 30 mins+ When I came back into town and hit my first light, the engine stalled. I restarted it, and the idle was rough for a bit, and the engine temp climbed for a bit. It all stabalized out, and all was good after that it seemed. This is probably why there is an engine break in period =)</b>

 

[mact3333]

some more info.

<b>I knew there was a reason to read these things =) Here is a summary from the manual that came with the car

-First 600 miles, no moderate acceleration (half the accelerator pedal), nothing continous over 4500 RPMs
- Occasional short bursts are benifitial
- No hard breaking for the first 100 miles
- after 600 miles, full throttle and/or maximum rpm may be used for short periods, but full vehicle performance should not be used until "after sales" service has been completed.

They note several times that all this data is being recorded, and that by not following the break in period, that you may violate your warrenty.</b>

 

[Vangman]

I think the "ring" is the positive reverse lever. It is probably right under the shift knob. I think you must lift up on it to get it into reverse. It should spring bacb down after you level reverse gear.

 

[atyclb]

there are some even more detailed posts about break-in that have been posted here in the last few months--try a search

 

[mact3333]

there are some even more detailed posts about break-in that have been posted here in the last few months--try a search

You do realize there are lurkers on here that do not know much about this car but are interested dont you???

I realize you already knw everything there is to know about the car but most do not so sorry if it is such a waste of your time.

A note to the message board blitzkrieging/policing mofos, if the post is mundane and duplicating, just move on dammit. My post was no more useless than the posts chastising people to do a search for everything and anything first. This is a message board is it not?. OK, I'm done now.

 

[atyclb]

wow, and I was just trying to be polite and helpful.






I could have just posted this:

 

[JeffersonRaley]

Yikes - I didn't think that Atyclb was chastising you. It sounded to me like he was just trying to recommend another source for more info. Calm down amigo.

In fact, if you take the time to do a search on the words "nice", "pal" and "solicitous" you'd see that most of us are pretty helpful.

 

[mact3333]

the 100 smiley faces after my post implies I was kiddin...:no:

one thing that I find amusing is this, people keep saying to do a search rather than post/ask but when you search it, there is nothing relevant. For instance, I did search for the word "break in" and didnt find anything useful or relevant in the titles I saw. Perhaps what my problem is that I dont know the key words to look for. I flunked google 101...

 

[mact3333]

there are some even more detailed posts about break-in that have been posted here in the last few months--try a search

Sorry, my bad...I was kinda kidding around myself....:bow: :bow: :bow:

 

[zvezdah1]

mact-

Here's the post by ACP who was the first buyer of the 111R in Australia, verbatim from the manual/

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
111R/Exige Running in and servicing
"Although the Elise/Exige powertrain is built to close tolerances using modern technology the progressive and sympathetic running-in (or bedding-in) of a new engine and transmission....Failure to comply with the following running-in provisions will invalidate the terms of the vehicle warranty.

Being too sympatheic will not allow the piston rings to bed in properly. For the first 600 miles (1,000 kilometres) use no more than moderate throttle openings (about half the available accelerator pedal travel) and do not run the engine continuously as speeds over 4,500rpm. Occasional short bursts at wider throttle openings and higher rpm will be beneficial... do not let the engine labour in too high a gear...

After 600 miles or 1,000 kilometres have been covered, full throttle and/or maximum rpm may be used for short periods but not until the 'After Sales' service has been carried out should full vehicle performance be exploited.

Servicing is generally every 9,000 miles (15,000 kilometres) or every 12 months. Under heavy use oil and filter needs to be changed every 4,500 miles (7,500 kilometres), inspect air cleaner at 9,000 miles (15,000 kilometres), inspect brake pads at 4,500 miles (7,500 kilometres)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

[ace3]

i posted something similar a month or two ago, and nobody seemed to believe me.

apparently it *is* true

 

[Miguel]

They probably didn't believe the warranty thing not about the break in figures. In any event we will eventually find out about the warranty issue.

Here are the posts regarding break-in. Took me 1 min to find them.

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3577

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2470

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2628

About the reverse ring, I'm assuming it's like the peugeot 205 that also had reverse left forward. You have to lift the ring with your index and middle finger to place it in reverse. That's to avoid shifting in reverse when you are trying to shift to 1st gear. If it sticks watch it you might go in reverse when you intend to go forward.

 

[Mean TT]

I personally don't see how every acceleration and braking event for over one thousand miles could be recorded. I can see peak numbers being held in the ECU, and I could see events recorded such as the number of times that the engine went into the high cam profile, but the amount of memory is limited on these cars, and it would seem hard to collect all of this data. I also think that all of this is just a little funny since it is a Celica motor, with a different ECU. The rings might need to be seated correctly, and there might be initial issues with heat buildup, but it is still a Celica motor. I will be dissapointed if Lotus gives us so much to worry about. Also, the no hard breaking statement seem counterintuitive to me. I properly seat brake pads you need to make about 10 stops of increasing intensity to properly "break in" the pads. 600 miles of slow braking seem irrrelivent. Also, I think that if the car does develop noises that need to be adjusted, I wouldn't want to baby the car and not to have any noises only to find that whe I take it out for real that the steering binds or there are suspension noises.

I will follow the break in procedure diligently, but it bothers me that I am threatened with the warrenty being withheld. If I didn't know any better, I would think that it was to make sure that no one is injured if a faulty part was isntalled on the car, and the manufacturer was held liable for any damage or death that could result. If that is the case, that I can accept that, but at the same time I would like to know that there is a small risk of damage or catastrophic failure when I purchase the car. :huh:

 

[LotusLust]

memory chips are cheap. for all i know there is a list of extrema that is retained permanently and a more volatile record of every shift and rev max that is held for some interval...say 2500 miles

 

[zvezdah1]

If I recall from RAWR(Martin) on SELOC, he was quoted top speeds and top rpms the car had attained since last data download, don't think it gave any more detail than that.
Chris

 

[Miguel]

How will they handle ECU resets?

It's my understanding that you can reset the ECU by doing something with the ignition key and pressing the gas pedal slowly 5 times.

If that's the case for the Fed version, I wonder how will they react to it?

 

[Randy Chase]

You can store a ton of info in a 256meg chip. This is just numbers, not graphics. Simple to capture data points at some sequence and/or high points per time.

 

[Mean TT]

I thought that most of that information was on a recording loop. I think all GM cars have something like that that saves acceleration braking and other information to make their cars safer. But I know that the loop is short, like 30 minutes or less, I don't remember the figure. I think that it probably records data points, ar peaks, but other than that I am curious what it could record.

 

[Randy Chase]

In a 512meg chip, I could store a full high quality 30 minute looping video stream with sound. In fact, I am.

 

[Ground Loop]

I don't know if the Lotus ECU is the same, but on most cars, "resetting the ECU" by fuse pull or whatever just resets some normal 'learned' parameters, like MIL indicator, long-term fuel trim, short-term trim, timing advance, knock counts..

There's still plenty of data that doesn't get erased. I'd imagine a performance log would be one of those non-volatile things not impacted by a reset. Otherwise, what's the point..

Even with modest memory chips, they could easily store the duration, system snapshot, and peak RPM of any sustained >4500k run for the entire life of the car. More likely, they just have a circular log of the last 100 or so events.

Can't wait to get my hands on that data port...