620s - Clutch seems to go ‘floppy’ occasionally when depressed & stalls when cold

[Phillip Meyer]

I have been watching the engine temperature over the last few days with some interesting findings.

On warmer days or in the afternoons (possibly when I have used the car once or twice already) it seems to run at a good temperature usually hovering between 80 and 90. However, it does sometimes drop right down to about 60, particularly immediately as I exit a motorway and come to a stop at a junction it will drop down to 60.

However, this morning was sunny but not tremendously warm (although still comfortable enough to drive the Caterham in a short-sleeve t-shirt). It took two attempts to start but then idled nicely. I had a 25 minute or so drive (14 miles) to Penshurst and it took a good 10 minutes to get up out of the blue and hover just below 60 and it really didn't lift much past 65 for the whole journey. It was all on little country lanes so no opportunity to drive fast or hard, mostly hovering between 30mph and 50mph and a lot of time in 3rd and 4th gear.

After an hour I had a short (4 mile) drive to grab some lunch and again the temperature remained between about 60 and 70 although mostly around 60.

About another hour later I took a slightly longer route back but then the engine seemed to get up to 80 very quickly and hovered between 80 and 90 until about the last 1/4 of the journey where it seemed to drop back down to about 60 for no obvious reason.

I guess this all mean that the car is definitely suffering from the cooling issue. I am going to initially email Caterham Cars and see what they say but I will speak to PGM this week (I actually tried them today but got their voicemail so I assume they are closed on a Monday).

If this really is a huge performace and longevity issue I will look to get the PGM upgrade but I'm keen to be sure that it will not invalidate my overall Caterham warranty on the car.

(Incdentally the clutch seems fine now and the car runs much better since the Lambda sensor was replaced)

[Benton]

As mentioned earlier in the thread, Caterham themselves confirmed back in March they were working on a solution to the cooling issue, although no timescales were given nor any further information has been forthcoming since.

[Mark w]

Re the cooling issue you need to read my detailed article from Low Flying last month ( or was it the month before ? )

 

That details whats needed to resolve the issues you describe and is the modification that PGM are now offering on a commercial basis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mcalvert]

It was back in May Mark.  Doesn't time fly