Clutch pedal hit the floor...

[IsItACatInAHat]

Hi all,

So, I hit the dreaded problem. Federal Evora over the pond in the US, just driving through the city, and the for last few manoeuvres into my parking space the clutch bite point felt different, and the pedal wasn't coming all the way back up. Once I got it into the space, the clutch wouldn't come up at all unless I pulled it back up by hand.

Left it overnight to cool down, and tried it this morning - pedal feels different, bite point in a different place, but pumping the pedal a lot seemed to take it back to normal briefly before it felt different again.

Car is still in warranty thankfully. Has anyone else experienced this?

[justin220]

It will obviously need an expert to look at it, but its possible its something simple like the brake fluid has boiled off. Hopefully not needing a complete new clutch

Were you driving hard at all before it happened?

[MJK 24]

Sounds like a hyrdraulic problem. Should be a straightforward fix providing that the slave cylinder is mounted outside and not inside the bellhousing.

[Thorburn]

The clutch master cylinder was changed for the Evora S (and presumably newer n/a cars) as the original one wasn't much cop. I'd start by looking there.

[IsItACatInAHat]

Wasn't really driving hard. I'd been doing ~70mph before some stop-start traffic through the city to my apartment which probably didn't help.

It's booked into the dealer for Monday morning anyway - and it's sounding more like the master cylinder. Don't want to have to replace the clutch as I've heard prices of $6-9k bandied about by other owners around here...!

[P155flaps]

Thats def master cylinder, I believe there is a service bulletin out. Lower end of that figure is prob not far off price wise for new clutch. I am having mine replaced as a preventative measure / to cure a noisey release bearing whilst the gear box is out to have a slightly crunchy 2nd gear sorted under warranty. The parts for a complete clutch inc flywheel are about £500 and the labour is circa 35 hours.

[LogicSnap]

Same thing happened to mine, faulty part in clutch master cylinder, replaced under warrantee, quick job nothing to worry about if its the same issue!

[IsItACatInAHat]

Managed to drive it into the garage with no drama today, so hopefully it's just the hydraulics. I'm very lucky in the US to live 10 minutes from a Lotus dealer, a lot of owners have to drive 5 hours to get there

[IsItACatInAHat]

Well, the dealer bled the clutch fluid and installed the heat wrap according to the service bulletin on this, which didn't help. New master cylinder time!

[IsItACatInAHat]

New Master Cylinder appears to have fixed the problem. Thankfully I don't have to sell a kidney for a new clutch