Scan Post

[chriswheldon]

Hi

I've managed to sign up at last and firstly want to thank all the guys I met at Donington who were a great introduction to elan ownership.

Thanks Geoff for the cable and co2 potentiometer which I have now refitted, I have set up elan scan and its still not starting very well when warm so ive logged some values and uploaded the files, does anyone have any ideas.

Regards

Chris

[chriswheldon]

Just thought - test.ecu was created with the beta version and test2.ecu was created with the normal version, I'm not sure if that matters or not....?

[GeoffSmith]

Apart from anything else that might be wrong with your car..... you're thermostat is missing / stuck open. Check out the coolant temperature.

Your problems may all to be due to the thermostat intermittently sticking due to lack of antifreeze, so you'll probably want to flush the cooling system out and put some decent antifreeze in. Given all your problems, I'd recommend that you set the base timing and get the CO mixture set up correctly after you've replaced the thermostat then see where you are.

[chriswheldon]

One of the first jobs I did was to check the Thermostat, it was closed when I took it out and when dropped into hot water it opened. System was flushed out and new anti freeze added. If the engine is allowed to idle for a long period it gets hotter and when it reaches approx. 3/4 on the gauge the fans kick in. At this temperature the engine will still not start, in fact the only time it starts well is when its cold. Will re set the base ignition timing and CO2 as you suggested. In my experience when an engine runs with too much advance they tend to run hot ( and Pink) and when retarded they run cold! Were the readings from the scan too advanced or retarded? or is it not that simple.
Chris

[Brit-Car-Nut]

The fans, gauge and ECM use three different temp sensors/senders. It is possible the gauge and fan senders are OK but the ECM sender is not right. ElanScan reads the temp from yjr ECM sender. I would consider looking at that. They tens to have corrosion at the plug area and the ground to the thermostat housing is often compromised by people using teflon tape, thread sealants and gluing the threads of the bolts to seal any leaks. You might want to clean the connections to the harness and run a decent ground/earth to the ECM sensor base and see if the scans change.

[GeoffSmith]

Sorry Chris, you did tell me but I'd forgotten the nitty gritty. As John says, the three sensors are separate but all in the same general vicinity, so they should all respond in unison:



The ES coolant signal appears clean enough, so what I suggest you do is run ES when starting the engine from cold and let it idle until the fans kick in at least a couple of times. If you watch the temperature gauge it should crank up to normal ¼ scale, sit there for a bit, then ramp up to ¾ scale, the fans kick in, the temperature drops, the fans drop out etc. If you post that log, it is usually evident if the thermostat is working correctly.

The ECU controls advance/retard (compensating for knock if it is detected) but it assumes that the base time is spot on - this is why it's the important to set the base timing to be correct before getting too involved in the semantics of ES.

[chriswheldon]

Thanks Jeff/john for that, have completed base settings the timing was approx. 8degs retarded, so she runs better and a little warmer. Will probably do a few more MPG. Hot starting still poor! I've already done some basic checks on the CTS with my test meter, seems to be as per the Lotus temperature resistance chart. From memory 2 wire thermistors do not need to be earthed as such, they can operate in a plastic housing, 1 wire provides the feed and the other measures the return (voltage) and the ECU compares the value with chart and changes the settings ( I think ). I could trick the ECU with a pot set to the hot resistance, has anybody tried this? Could just purchase a replacement unit to be sure. What do you think?
Did I read the thermostat is the same as a Mini 1000?

Chris

[Ted]

Here's a scan I just did. Could you please tell me if it's normal the boost never exceed 0.62bar?

Does someone see something wrong in my scan?

Many thanks

[theelanman]

unless you have a chip in you car (or MBC) then your max boost is only 0.65bar