Elsie's Tantrums - a happy ending at last......
Well, if you've read through the list of tantrums, you'll not be surprised to hear we were getting pretty fed up with this. I'd been begging lifts, getting friends to jump start the car, cycling to work and not exactly enjoying the reliability one expects from £26000-worth of high technology.
The only good thing, as one mate pointed out, was that fuel economy was now excellent - the car spent so much time on the back of a trailer being driven around by the AA.
So we talked to Lotus and things got better. Elsie got intensive care, and hopefully is now cured - she certainly sounds a lot healthier these days.
What happened ? Well, she's now had a third battery, a new alternator, the Stack unit has been replaced and the multi-relay module at the rear of the car has also been replaced - the seals were leaking and the contacts corroded.
Personally I think that was the fault all along, but this is with the benefit of hindsight, of course. At the time I was no wiser than anyone else.
I'd like to thank a few people for help along the way
- Chris Foulds - for convincing Helen that this thing would work and the answer wasn't in a box of matches. This guy really is a star.
- Lotus Cars - a slow start, but when they got into gear, they really moved things along.
- JCT600 Leeds - always professional and polite during a frustrating period of intermittent faults. And let's be fair to JCT, they didn't supply the car and were just taking up the warranty work. The original supplier had closed down..... perhaps they knew something ;-)
- Friends & workmates - for patience, lifts & sympathy....
And am I confident in Elsie now ? Well of course, who wouldn't be ?
But I think I'll keep the jump leads in the boot and I have a new appreciation of 1960s technology in the shape of the Elan & Europa. Despite being bought as old cars, in the case of the Elan almost in "banger" class, in 20yrs neither have ever left me stranded by the roadside or needed a breakdown truck.
Yes, they broke down and threw hissy fits, but the simple technology meant that a bit of swearing and kicking usually sorted them out.
