Clutch failure... Again :(

[s2_bo]

'Can someone please confirm that this sounds like the friction plate has broke or lost one of its pads'


When driving the other night i noticed that there was some vibrations through the clutch pedal during gear change at the biting point as well as some vibrations from the back of the car.

I thought originally that it was the rear diff center mount as after checking everything was tight it turned out it wasn't...

I replaced the nut and bolt in the mount and went for another drive.

Tried some hill starts in 1st and reverse and always at biting point the car would judder and vibrate a bit until the clutch had fully engaged. If the revs were higher at around 2.5k it would just slip on and the car would move with out juddering.

On the way back home i floored it in up through the gear and in 3rd at about 5k rpm the clutch suddenly slipped and the revs climbed as if i had pressed the clutch in.
I immediately slowed down and as i went to press the clutch in to change gear the pedal was lighter and i could feel vibrations through the pedal while it was being pressed.

Its still getting gears, but its slipping if there is to much power.
The fact that when the engine is running i can feel vibrations through the pedal makes me think the clutch friction plate must be on its very last legs.


The clutch is a Clutchnet St3 clutch kit and its done ~15k miles, was inspected about 2k miles ago and still had loads of pad left on it.

This is a FPITA as I'm in France in the middle of nowhere with out any proper tools and i don't think the car would make the 500 mile journey home..


Anyone got any ideas???? Help.....

[Rusty]

Could be contamination on the clutch plate from a leaking rear crank seal or other souce of oil? Get under the car, if possible, or on a ramp and look into the bell housing to see what's lurking. Oh, and good luck mate!

[mcandmar]

Sounds like the friction plate or pressure plate is giving up. The fact you can feel vibration pushing the clutch in i would suspect a broken pressure plate. Last thing you wanted to hear eh....

[s2_bo]

Yeah, there is a bit of oil down there but nothing to suspect..

I'm gonna pull the slave cylinder out to see if thats still in tact.

Cheers.

[S2central.net]

Sounds like pressure plate problem to me too... hence the vibrations getting to your foot.

[QuattroFever]

keep the revs low, stay in a top gear and a steady speed (hard in an s2 i know ) and she'll get you home.
Feel for you mate. I hate doing clutches on these. Plenty of and you'll be ok. Worst bit is lowering the bastd out

[driftin jo]

Yes, if you had oil contamination it would just slip , you wouldn't get juddering, I think you would make it home though but you will have to drive it like it's a 1.4 fiesta no an S2.
My advise would be just take it easy until you get home where it won't cost you a fortune to fix, you don't want it stuck in the middle of France.

[s2_bo]

Cheers for the advice guys, -

I just took the slave out for good measure and peace of mind.
Its completely intact as suspected as is the push rod so now i have to get it back in. Ill have to disconnect the oil line for that though and then bleed it again..

Im really suppressed that the clutchnet clutch has failed so soon. especially as it happened originally while i was driving slowly.

One think is for certain, im not taking the S2 to a spanner monkey in france!


Thanks again for your suggestions...

[4WheelDrifter]

******. What a PITA Bo. You'd better get the S2 back from France asap, it obviously isn't happy there.

[Knight Rider S4]

Avoid hills on the way back ....good luck with the journey

[s2_bo]

Its not exactly easy to get the slave cylinder back in is it now - Have just been trying for 2 hours with no luck, i think it needs compressing and then somehow fastening the piston while its pushed in as it seams almost imposable to just push it in to place and lining up the bolt.

[mcandmar]

Dont envy you here, i had difficulty with mine with the gearbox on the ground. From memory there is a spring inside the slave cyl so you have to push it in hard against the spring, then push it towards the gearbox and it should sit in place. The rubber boot also tends to get caught when pushing it inside the bore, apply lots of fairly liquid to help it slide in. Its one of those jobs where you have to lever it in with a screwdriver, and will take more force than you will expect.

[Acidburn]

Sorry to hear about this bo, sounds like what I had with mine, to be fair if you can get it back together it will last a while, mine lasted around 2 months with slippage etc and a fair few miles, trip back from loughborough to swindon etc.



This was one of the pictures of what my clutch housing looked like when it was removed, half the splines was pressed in/mangled and the metal bracket that does the release bearing (iirc) had a massive dent in it, looked like it had been shot by a bullet or something.

Still much ammusment was had by all when they'd seen what i'd done to the clutch. It would have still got the car quite a few miles to be fair as the car was still quicker than madwolf's 80 when he followed me over to the lockup with it, I just couldn't go over 100mph and high boost.

Hope you get this sorted, know how much of a pita it would be. There was mention on this forum a while back of a recovery service in europe that was around £40 that people used for when they went to the ring, this also included recovery home if something went wrong, would this be an option (probably cheaper on fuel ) and I think they used green flag to do the english side of the journey home.

[s2_bo]

Cheers guys!

[s2_bo]

Coming home on Tuesday, Just went out for a drive and its slipping above 2500rpm now, that's still in vacuum too. I hope its going to make it! Top speed is about 50mph so the 500mile trip is going to be huge amounts of fun!


I have another question:

Atm after refitting the salve and bleeding it again the judder biting point is right at the top of the pedal. So it only needs pushing in about an inch till it completely disengages.

Lets just say I had not bled the clutch enough, would it course the pedal to be very very light and have a high biting point? Or should it be light with a low biting point?

I bled about 1l of fluid.

Cheers.
Bo