Anyone have this clutch noise when downshifting to 2nd?

[Orchardbike]

I drove about 12 miles yesterday and it happened twice, always 3rd to second coming into a low speed corner/junction. Mine’s had a new clutch and new gearbox (after 700 miles). It didn’t do it before, but started around 2 months after the work was completed.

Replying to myself. Today, I drove around 70 miles and it didn’t happen at all.

It doesn’t sound like clutch to me, it’s almost like a flap or vent vibrating/buzzing. It still could be the clutch, I’m just saying how it sounds to me.

 

[GetawayDriving]

Yes thank you. I'll just have the dealer do it while it's under warranty, just to keep records around the clutch behavior.

 

[zoomdaddy]

Can now confirm, the sound presents on mine downshifting 3:2.

 

[Jinba ittai]

Here’s what AI is telling me:

Likely Culprit: Resonance During Torque Reapplication

When you release the clutch during a downshift, the engine and transmission re-engage, and torque flows through the drivetrain. If a component — like a mount, bushing, or even the exhaust — is slightly out of spec or loosely fitted, it can resonate under that brief load spike.

• Transmission or differential mounts might be flexing or vibrating under the sudden torque reapplication.
• Exhaust hangers or heat shields could be resonating due to harmonics in the exhaust flow or vibration.
• Drivetrain backlash (slight play in gears or joints) can cause a brief vibration when torque reverses direction.


It doesn’t sound like a heat shield vibrating to me. Transmission or differential are possible. To my ear that seems more likely than the clutch.

 

[Jinba ittai]

Reading it again I’m leaning towards that last point about the drivetrain backlash. I only hear the sound when engine braking and the torque direction is reversed. Could be play in the gears given that it’s more prominent in first and second gears. I think the other suggested culprits would cause the odd vibration at other times.

Now whether this is a real problem, I don’t know. Hopefully just a strange sound.

 

[Vpower10]

So I have this noise that happens when I am downshifting from 3rd to 2nd, when the clutch begins to engage on pedal release. It’s a brief… resonance sound. It’s not a squeak, and it’s not a rattle. It could be a metal-on-metal sound of some kind but the best description I can give is maybe a vibrating resonance.

It only happens going from 3rd to 2nd at that moment of load.

I managed to capture it on my dash cam audio, and have uploaded an 3 second clip. Excuse my talking, but I have highlighted when the noise happens.

Otherwise everything is fine. Car shifts / drives / sounds normal.

Anyone else have this? Any theories? It does seem to be getting more prominent with time.

11,000 miles on the car.

Hi,
Same here with that noise. They replaced the gearbox on my car once under warranty, very early on. I thought the noise was caused by this replacement. But I'm not convinced, because I've read that others have the same problem. I've attached a sound recording of the noise. It's indeed mainly when downshifting from 3rd to 2nd gear. The recording is made during the first 5 minutes of driving after a cold start. As the car warms up, the noise diminishes but never really goes away. I now have about 30,000 km on the car. The noise is very annoying and sounds like the engine is failing. I've been trying to confirm this with the Lotus dealer for months, but they also say that when they drive the car, they don't hear anything and everything is normal. It's unbelievable what you have to do to prove something is wrong!
Anyway, I've forwarded this audio recording again so it can finally be looked into... this has been dragging on for months. And now that I see there are other cars with the same story, there's no denying it anymore... does Lotus ever actually read this forum?

 

[Kimmax]

It seems to be a bit longer on yours, do you drag the clutch the whole time?

I also consulted my dealer (very reliable) and they didn’t know of any issues. They requested information from Lotus directly and, as always, that seemed to have gone nowhere. I bet they would argue there isn't a clutch built into the car if it would be whats needed to make the claim go away

That being said my mechanic couldn’t reproduce it either, but that sound is really hit or miss sadly. However he said he tested the feel and bite point of the clutch and supports me in my theory that there doesn’t seem to be any degradation of the clutch performance in any way. Next season will show what’s up.

 

[Jinba ittai]

It seems to be a bit longer on yours

Agreed. That’s the same pitch/tone, but on my car it’s louder and it only lasts a half second max.

 

[Orchardbike]

Agreed. That’s the same pitch/tone, but on my car it’s louder and it only lasts a half second max.

Ditto here. Same noise but louder and lasts less than a second