S2 Coupe Down Under

[Solfella]

Ordered - with bolts - SKF VKBA 3605 and VKBA 1355

Doesn't seem to be in Australia, so coming from Europe at 128 Euro, delivered

[Tractor Dave]

SKF are good if you are getting a genuine one. Lots of fakes about!

[Solfella]

I hope they are Dave. I've been using Spareto. Reviews suggest they deliver genuine parts. We shall see.

[JayCab]

GKN Lobro

[Solfella]

Now I'm going under the car, preparing for taking out the running gear and spraying everything worth spraying with penetrating oil, I'm starting to notice a couple of potential issues it would be great to get forum feedback on.

Overall the car looks pretty clean underneath, very little if any rust and not much in the way of oil leaks as far as I can tell. A little history - the car has done 112K kms or 70K miles in its 32+ years. All the oils and fluids were changed before I acquired the car about 18 months ago. I had the engine oil tested and all came back A OK.

Some pics of the underside:

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The areas where I thought something might be going on are here, near the front of the sump

IMG_6163.jpg

And maybe the rear diff

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There is one niggle I have which is that the clutch is really quite a challenge. It has a quite an aggressive bite and the heavy feel makes modulating it, and pulling away smoothly from standstill quite an art. It's been over 20 years since I last owned a coupe (then a CQ20V) since when, muscle memory (and my ageing muscles) means I'm far from being able to compare and contrast. Clutch is new and was also changed by the previous owner, at some cost, only about 3K kms ago. It is a Sachs sport clutch kit with single mass flywheel from 5Inline. I have receipts for its fitting which was also not cheap.

Allied to this is noticeable shudder - often in reverse but also sometimes when pulling away at low revs. I'd discounted this being related to the clutch as it is new, but could I be wrong? It doesn't do it if I feather the clutch carefully (difficult given the above) and/or get the revs up. I was wondering if some of the drive train bushes and various mounts are contributing, given their age, rather than the miles driven.

[Jaswan]

Are there any signs of oil between the engine and the gearbox bell housing? Do you know if the rear main oil seal was changed with the clutch?

I also had similar judder with a new clutch (well, shortly after it was brand new). When I thought about it I was annoyed at myself for not changing the rear crank shaft oil seal while the flywheel was off. Although I didn't see much signs of a leak on my car, in my head I put it down to some slight contamination of the clutch from a faint leak from the back of the crank shaft.

If I was to deliberately to slip the clutch to "clean" it off, it would be fine for a period after. This reinforced my theory.

In my opinion the judder has to be coming from the clutch gripping and slipping.

Jase.

[Tractor Dave]

Check the oil level in your rear diff. If it's still full, I wouldn't worry too much about that wet area. Just keep an eye on it.
Unfortunately, the Sachs sports clutch is well known for being heavy and the judder will be from the SMFW. The standard clutch kits are nla. If you can find a second hand one, they can be refurbished.