Emira Issues - from final production cars

[KJD]

Have B&C said what’s caused it and what the fix is?

It’s a not-uncommon occurrence on these type of Exige/Evora brakes, usually caused by leaving wet pads/discs to rust together.
Then when the car is moved a piece of pad gets torn off as it’s stuck to the disc.
The fix apparently is to clean up the disc (presumably if it’s not too bad) and fit new pads.

 

[TomE]

I thought it might be that. Cars left standing at BCA in Dec/Jan with damp brakes probably contributing to it.

It happens on my Evora if I don’t dry them off when leaving it in the garage for a few days. Leaving the handbrake off reduces the risk.

I had the brakes completely seize once due to this issue after leaving the car for a month while I was away on business. Normally engine power is enough to unstick them (with a rather dramatic bang and lurch!) but this time the RAC had to get dollies under the car and drag it out of the garage so they could work on freeing them!

 

[KJD]

Yep. Had the bang and lurch quite a few times. (In previous Exige/Evora)
Never had actual pad damage or seizure though.

 

[KJD]

Leaving the handbrake off reduces the risk.

I always thought this was a bit of a red herring being as the handbrake drum was enclosed in the rear disc and out of the wet.
Emira style mini caliper might be more of a worry.

 

[scoates]

I always thought this was a bit of a red herring being as the handbrake drum was enclosed in the rear disc and out of the wet.
Emira style mini caliper might be more of a worry.

When I left my car for a week with handbrake on while on holiday it was the most seized brakes I've ever had on a car regardless of how long I've left one. It only had 50 or so miles at the time so may have just needed a bit more bedding it, but the car did eventually move. While I left it sitting over the worst of the winter I kept the handbrake off, and it moved a heck of a lot more easily even after 10 or so weeks.

 

[Porter]

FYI a high temperature pad bedding procedure when new helps prevent some of this problem. It doesn't eliminate it, and probably wouldn't have helped in TomE's situation, but for others taking delivery of new vehicles, it may be worthwhile to do a proper road bedding cycle in a very traffic-free and stoplight-free location until the pads noticeably outgas. You'll smell it when you get there, and sometimes see a touch of smoke. Then a long gentle drive to cool the system back to normal range before coming to any sort of stop.

Three different perspectives on the same process:

What is the Break-In Procedure? - PowerStop

The break-in procedure is crucial to making sure your break upgrade performs optimally.

www.powerstop.com

How do I break-in new pads and rotors?

help.summitracing.com

How To Bed-In Your EBC Brakes For Street Or Track Use - EBC Brakes

ebcbrakes.com

And here's the process as described by AP Racing (makers of the Emira brake system) for their APF pad compounds, which describes an even more aggressive brake bedding process. I don't know which AP compound is used on the Emira, so this may be overkill. Does anyone here know?

In short though... bedding the brakes is important for a bunch of reasons. If you can access a place to do it safely, your brakes will perform better and last longer, while gaining some additional corrosion resistance from the heat cycling.

 

[KJD]

Another one over on TLF.

Emira niggles and faults

@Rambosuggested in another thread that it would make sense to have a TLF overview of Emira issues. Since I had a few experiences in the weeks of ownership, I thought it might be a good idea to list them. I'd like to underline that my intention is not to paint a picture of an unreliable car, we sh...

www.thelotusforums.com

 

[Mistral]

FYI a high temperature pad bedding procedure when new helps prevent some of this problem. It doesn't eliminate it, and probably wouldn't have helped in TomE's situation, but for others taking delivery of new vehicles, it may be worthwhile to do a proper road bedding cycle in a very traffic-free and stoplight-free location until the pads noticeably outgas. You'll smell it when you get there, and sometimes see a touch of smoke. Then a long gentle drive to cool the system back to normal range before coming to any sort of stop.

Three different perspectives on the same process:

What is the Break-In Procedure? - PowerStop

The break-in procedure is crucial to making sure your break upgrade performs optimally.

www.powerstop.com

How do I break-in new pads and rotors?

help.summitracing.com

How To Bed-In Your EBC Brakes For Street Or Track Use - EBC Brakes

ebcbrakes.com

And here's the process as described by AP Racing (makers of the Emira brake system) for their APF pad compounds, which describes an even more aggressive brake bedding process. I don't know which AP compound is used on the Emira, so this may be overkill. Does anyone here know?

In short though... bedding the brakes is important for a bunch of reasons. If you can access a place to do it safely, your brakes will perform better and last longer, while gaining some additional corrosion resistance from the heat cycling.

We used to do just that with DS11 competition pads years ago. Brake hard and continually until you got that strong hot brakes smell, let them cool, then they'd work really well. Until you did that the brakes didn't work.

 

[Nova]

In light of delays and pent-up demand for the Emira, were the night watch staff at the factory offering "private viewings" of these early cars so now the brakes are stuck together?

 

[Hethel Merman]

Do they not bed in the brakes as part of the high speed track testing each car endures?

 

[KJD]

When I left my car for a week with handbrake on while on holiday it was the most seized brakes I've ever had on a car regardless of how long I've left one. It only had 50 or so miles at the time so may have just needed a bit more bedding it, but the car did eventually move. While I left it sitting over the worst of the winter I kept the handbrake off, and it moved a heck of a lot more easily even after 10 or so weeks.

That’s your experience but I don’t think it’s a time thing.
It only takes long enough for the pads/discs to dry out for them to stick. I’ve had it happen overnight.
Could it have been that your first time they were wet when you parked it up and second time they weren’t?
Handbrake on or off made no difference as far as I could tell. They would stick after a wash or wet drive.
Not a scientific conclusion, just thinking out loud.

 

[Porter]

Do they not bed in the brakes as part of the high speed track testing each car endures?

Not to the level required for genuine efficacy.

 

[Ian C]

This table summarises known issues with production dealer demo and customer cars reported by the owner or someone test driving the demo car. This is for faults, not perceived shortcomings in the design.

The purpose of this thread is for reporting issues, clarifying what the issues are and how many cars are affected (if known), possible workarounds or fixes, and details of official solutions. Off topic posts will be deleted.

Anyone who would like to report a fault but does not want to post it on here is welcome to send info to @TomE via private message and it can be added anonymously.

Issues with known resolutions are highlighted in green.

Issue	Description	Known Occurrences	Reported By	Resolution	Links
Wind noise and window seals	Mis-sealing of windows to window seal causing wind noise	1​	@Markc	[tbc]	Thread
Steering pump	Servo fault resulting in intermittent failure	2​	@1stczechemira @hml_xy	Recall warranty replacement on early EU cars (first 30ish)	Thread
Boot closure	Boot sticky to close	1-2?​	[needs more evidence]	[tbc]
Boot hatch water retention	Hatch frame fills with water due to incorrect composite gluing	2​	@ott 1 UK owner (anonymous)	Warranty replacement	Thread
Paintwork orange peel	Seen on some UK demo cars	"some"​	[needs more evidence]	[tbc]
Manual gear knob etching	Machining of gear positions on knob appears rough	1​	@Markc	[tbc]	Thread
ECU fault	UK demo and early customer cars show Check Engine Light, "limp mode" or "reduced acceleration" warnings	11​	5 UK demo cars @FarmerJ @shaank @Mh59 Several on Facebook	Software update required, due in Jan-23	Thread
ECU software update problems	Some dealers having difficulty installing Jan-23 ECU software update	"some"​	@Markc	[tbc]	Thread
Door seal imperfections	Door seals fitted poorly and show some wrinkles	"a few"​	@Bilbao-Emira (on Bilbao demo) @Emiragirl (on Central demo) @1stczechemira @AudR8 (on JCT demo) @scoates	Dealers should be able to rectify (or improve), also possible to DIY	Thread
Broken part in door lock mechanism	Door won't open	1​	@hml_xy	Warranty replacement of broken part	Post
SOS warning	System takes long time to reconnect after signal loss	1​	@FarmerJ	[tbc]	Post
Seat belt mounting bolt exposed	Bolt cover missing	1​	Collecting Cars car for sale / @NeilS	[tbc]	Post
Seat belts jammed	Belts not usable	"a few"​	@duff 1 on Facebook	Warranty fix, Lotus field engineer attended immediately. Fix resulted in second occurrence, also fixed	Thread
Wipers won't switch to fastest speed	After time in auto-sensing mode, the wipers won't manually switch to fastest speed	"many"​	Harry's Garage video @duff @Markc @hml_xy @ott @Mh59	Software update due from Lotus in Jan-23	Thread
Brake discs and pads	Brake discs heavily corroded and pads fractured 400 miles after delivery	2​	@Mh59 @Sid	Warranty replacement. Dealer and Lotus investigating cause	Post [2]
Tracker app alerts	Push reporting not working from app for factory-fitted Scorpion S5 tracker	1​	@Mh59	New version of Scorpion app published 1 Feb 2023 and fixes the issue	Thread
Cross-gate shift cable jammed in sub-zero temperatures	Able to select 3/4 (or 1/2 or 5/6) but unable to move shifter left/right	1​	Reported to moderators	Moisture inside shift cable freezes. Interim fix is to run engine without driving, so heat soak frees the cable (driving the car increases air flow and slows the unfreezing). Full fix is cable replacement under warranty.
Demist not working	Air flow directed to face or foot vents, not to windscreen	5-6​	@Jimblob @duff @NeilS 2-3 UK dealers	Lotus investigating issue	Thread
Engine, gearbox or transmission leak - exact issue tbc	Smoke and oil vapour from engine bay	1​	@Lots_Of_Trouble	Lotus investigating issue	Thread

This is really helpful , have you updated it with the other items on the thread ? just wondering as I was going to do it !

 

[TomE]

I've just added the brake pad issue and the off-forum report of a car that won't go into gear. Rest of it should be up to date but let me know if I've missed anything.

 

[Kimmax]

Minor software bugs:

• When scrolling the center display down too fast from eg. millage to media, the media controls will overlay the map. Happens once, when the map hasn't been accessed before since start. Probably a race condition when the map just finishes loading after being scrolled away already.
• Red triangle warning light gets stuck sometimes when something happens too fast. Last time it happened when starting the engine from "ignition on" instead of a full "dark and cold" start. Handbook specifies that the icon won't illuminate without any other specific warning light. It happened anyways. Letting the ECU go to sleep and starting again fixes the stuck light.
• Android Auto randomly disconnects (hardwired). Honestly, that's probably on AA and not on Lotus, since this problem happens everywhere with any phone model after some amount of time. I don't think there is a fix for that until Google does something about it.

Probably won't be fixed if they can't even get the wipers to work

Still a beast of a car 👍

 

[hml_xy]

@Kimmax thanks for the detailed feedback. somebody probably works in IT based on that way of phrasing. 😉

 

[donskibeat]

The rear looks like it may work itself out. The front definitely looks like there are three distinct grooves where the pad is not touching the rotor. You can kind of make out that there is a chunk of pad missing on one of the grooves:

View attachment 22700

I'd be curious what the other side looks like because they looked nice and shiny in the photos.

Closeup photos of all four wheels - as you can see passenger side both look fine, it is just the drivers side which look dubious, just not sure if this is something that will sort itself out once driven more / bedded in, or if needs rectifying? car has only done about 5 miles as is awaiting PPF / ceramic before being driven further.

 

[Nova]

That's suspect. It's not as bad as some of the other cars we've seen, but I would get this checked out once you have the PPF done.

 

[Nova]

We have now seen multiple new cars with the brake pad issue. I am a bit flummoxed that Lotus has somehow managed to remain unaware of this issue, or worse, is releasing cars with this issue on what is a rather important safety feature.

 

[Porter]

We have now seen multiple new cars with the brake pad issue. I am a bit flummoxed that Lotus has somehow managed to remain unaware of this issue, or worse, is releasing cars with this issue on what is a rather important safety feature.

Seems like possibly it's cars that were stored outside while awaiting production parts. It might not happen at all for cars that went straight through production to delivery.