Car didn’t start but fixed it

[chrisday1990]

Hey everyone, looking for a bit of advice on a curious issue with my Lotus Emira. I spent about an hour driving to a destination, pulled up, turned off the ignition, and opened and closed the door to shut everything down. I then stayed on the phone for about 20 minutes before trying to start the car again. When I tried to start it, it just kept clicking and wouldn’t crank at all.

The odd part: after locking the car, walking away for a minute, and then coming back, it started first time like nothing ever happened.


Any thoughts on what might cause this kind of behavior? Thanks in advance for any insight

 

[Beachbum]

There have been a fair few reports of instances like this. An infamous one being a Youtube video by a respected car reviewer in the US, whilst doing a long drive with a mate in a C8(I think).
The general consensus, its something to do with different parts of the electronics not being in sync with each other. Some have to leave it for a few mins, other a few hours, before it resolves. I dont think Lotus have a solution to it at all.

 

[chrisday1990]

So for the record if this happens to anyone what i found was walking away from the car with the key and came back and it reset

 

[geoffbland]

Hey everyone, looking for a bit of advice on a curious issue with my Lotus Emira. I spent about an hour driving to a destination, pulled up, turned off the ignition, and opened and closed the door to shut everything down. I then stayed on the phone for about 20 minutes before trying to start the car again. When I tried to start it, it just kept clicking and wouldn’t crank at all.

The odd part: after locking the car, walking away for a minute, and then coming back, it started first time like nothing ever happened.


Any thoughts on what might cause this kind of behavior? Thanks in advance for any insight

Yes, I've had that twice - both times after travelling some distance, stopping for a while and then trying to start the car again. The car just not starting. Shutting the car down and locking it, waiting a few minutes before trying again fixed it both times.
This was early on and I've not had this recently though and I've had updates since - not sure if this has anything to do with the issue not occurring recently.
IIRC I also had some stored faults that may have occurred at the same time - about the ABS system not communicating - so this lends some weight to the electronics not being in sync at start up as reported by Beachbum.

 

[Orchardbike]

It happened to me, but only at the very beginning of ownership. Since I had software updates it hasn’t happened again.

 

[Whitey]

There is a Lotus software update for this exact issue. My car started doing this randomly so I spoke to the dealer and it was booked in for updates. In total, last May it had 5 updates and one was to cure the non start issue. Not happened since, so do check if your car is fully updated.

 

[MiamiBlue]

It's important to go and get all the software updates. They fix this and other issues. The latest round also apparently greatly improves the sound system (I don't yet have this update).