Clutch gone at 16,000 miles. Not covered by Lotus - Don't panic!

[PJS]

only just seen this thread, I had a new clutch after 18 months and 25k miles in November 24. The labour is by far the biggest part of the bill. I reckon half the problem was the sticking handbrake U used to experience where on occasions I had to unstick it by adding more power...

 

[MiamiBlue]

only just seen this thread, I had a new clutch after 18 months and 25k miles in November 24. The labour is by far the biggest part of the bill. I reckon half the problem was the sticking handbrake U used to experience where on occasions I had to unstick it by adding more power...View attachment 78264

Do you think you were hard on the clutch?
25K is not a lot of mileage for a clutch.

 

[F1 SML8R]

Do you think you were hard on the clutch?
25K is not a lot of mileage for a clutch.

The answer is in the pic. The rectangular ellipse shapes you see all around are essentially repeated high-rpm clutch drops. This goes back to what many have said through-out this thread. These are not "defective" or "weak" clutch parts. Instead, these failures are a by-product of flat-out abuse or in the case of an inexperienced driver, someone who is just learning to drive a manual. In either case, not the cars fault and the "bill" is 100% on the owner.

 

[PJS]

only just seen this thread, I had a new clutch after 18 months and 25k miles in November 24. The labour is by far the biggest part of the bill. I reckon half the problem was the sticking handbrake where on occasions I had to unstick it by adding more power...

Do you think you were hard on the clutch?
25K is not a lot of mileage for a clutch.

Hmm. Maybe 10% of that mileage was very enthusiast. Much of it was motorway. Only time it has ever been tracked was 5 gentle Nürburgring laps and a playful figure of 8 day with the lads at Curborough. Rarely bothered with a full bore launch, I do have some mechanical sympathy.

 

[geoffbland]

The answer is in the pic. The rectangular ellipse shapes you see all around are essentially repeated high-rpm clutch drops. This goes back to what many have said through-out this thread. These are not "defective" or "weak" clutch parts. Instead, these failures are a by-product of flat-out abuse or in the case of an inexperienced driver, someone who is just learning to drive a manual. In either case, not the cars fault and the "bill" is 100% on the owner.

To be 100% fair here - some of that wear could have been caused due to the clutch plates failing and slipping. It depends how much it was driven after the clutch started going bad, although you would/should feel that.

 

[MiamiBlue]

only just seen this thread, I had a new clutch after 18 months and 25k miles in November 24. The labour is by far the biggest part of the bill. I reckon half the problem was the sticking handbrake where on occasions I had to unstick it by adding more power...

Hmm. Maybe 10% of that mileage was very enthusiast. Much of it was motorway. Only time it has ever been tracked was 5 gentle Nürburgring laps and a playful figure of 8 day with the lads at Curborough. Rarely bothered with a full bore launch, I do have some mechanical sympathy.

£5000+ bill every 18 months rather adds to the service bill! Hopefully it's not indicative .

 

[Kimmax]

£5000+ bill every 18 months rather adds to the service bill! Hopefully it's not indicative .

If you have that thing out already just upgrade it to a jubu one
It won't save you if you abuse it, but it's a whole different calibre compared to stock

 

[Kentviking]

£5000+ bill every 18 months rather adds to the service bill! Hopefully it's not indicative .

Don't know if anyone has been taking a poll on this, but I haven't been on the forum for about 2.5 years due to just happy motoring...and rather unfortunately I too can now report a serious clutch issue

We have just sent our Emira to B&C on an AA truck as something had gone seriously wrong with the clutch slip overnight. We've just been given the "it'll be £5k, and not under warranty" notice. And that is after 11.5k miles of very respectful driving with only very limited more enthusiastic driving at higher revs and always within very healthy margins on public b roads - no tracking or racing at all - she has always been totally cosseted.

I can, however, attest to the automatic brake release not always coming free as easily as one might hope and either having to rev through it, or using the manual brake release button. If that is what has caused this then I would say that this shouldn't be a normal wear and tear issue.

I don't know how successfully others have argued for a warranty replacement, but I would love to hear from anyone who has tried.

 

[RevMonkey]

Sorry to hear about your clutch. Have they already started on the work with your go ahead? Only then can they actually see if it is wear and tear. Unlikely, but it might be down to a fault which might have a chance of being under warranty... small crumbs.

Yeah, fookin expensive.

I was too late to consider other options or different clutches.
You may still have that opportunity.

I was told of a place up north that does them for £3k though the name escapes me.
You could also get an uprated clutch.

For me, given the size of the job (I assume you watched the whole video) I am happy to let B&C do the work as it is a MAMMOTH job.

If you do decide to go elsewhere then ask how many EMIRA clutches they have done.

Never had that brake issue myself.