Time for clutch number 3 !
 

Call from wife tonight '' Pet ,the car's broken down , I can't get the gears ! So I race to her rescue in our mx5 and get her to drive it home , whilst I limp the Rover home with the clutch pedal on the floor. I tried to bleed it as I couldn't see any leaks from the gearbox end and suspected it may be the master cylinder as it was replaced by a local MGR dealer under warranty at 11, 000 miles in 2004 ! ( car now on 168,000 miles !) They also changed the clutch at the same time as they thought that was the fault but the clutch pedal went to the floor on the technicians road test !

Clutch number 2 went at 110,000 miles so not bad I thought but master cylinder still doing sterling service so it kept the bill down to £960 using genuine parts including dmf.

Tonight after bleeding I got a slight pedal but not happy with the feel but had a look at the gearbox and a slight weep started to appear.:mad: Slave cylinder still okay after nearly 160,000 miles, so the box is going to have to come out again. I've got AA breakdown repair cover but I know £500 won't cover the full job so I've ordered a sleeve assembly for the gearbox input shaft and a driveshaft seal as there's evidence of a weep from the o/s diff seal. These I've ordered from Matt but there's an O ring behind the sleeve that I can only get from Robber Bros. £1 for the seal , price at check out £4.50 ! They could have put it in an envelope with a first class stamp on! No wonder these cars are being scrapped due to cost of parts ! Just need to find a trustworthy VAT registered garage before calling the AA for recovery :duh:

Do I take it that the original slave was still on the car after 160,00, and was not changed when the clutch/DMF was done at 110,000 ?. As I am sure you know, the usual advice is to change all three parts within the bellhousing (slave, clutch cover and clutch centre/driven plate) whilst the gearbox is off. It is false economy not to, due to the work involved in changing just one component.

Let us know how you get on

Cheers

Pete

Sorry Pete , I just noticed my mistake, I meant the clutch master cylinder on the pedal was changed in 2004 at 11,000 miles and is still okay and is a genuine Luk cylinder. My mate works at a Ford dealership and has asked if his garage would take it on as he has done clutches on 75's before and I trust him to do it and so the car's in their carpark now ,however it probably won't be looked at until the end of next week so that gives me time to receive the oil seals that I might as well change whilst the box is out from Matt at DMGRS.

There is a good one in Loughborough which i used was going to use one on the sight but fell ill. I have had no problems on way back from spain.

The tel number is 01509 216100 cost £540 total fit i had the parts from dmgrs on the site here.

That's a good price for a clutch considering it's a 6 hour job going by the book, however it's a long way from the North East with no clutch pedal Lol ! Hopefully i'll have her back later next week with the AA having paid £500 towards the repair. If they don't i'll have to start taking in washing !

Don't forget if the AA start kicking up a fuss about service history (or lack of it), the clutch hydraulics are a 'non service item'. They did mine.

Thanks for the reassurance. Did yours contaminate the clutch plate as I might as well get a new clutch whilst the box is out.

Hope you get it all sorted in good time.

Get ready to have a fight on your hands when using your AA cover, I had the AA breakdown repair cover once, they dont cover any worn out friction surface regarding a clutch, plus the garage needs to be AA approved.

In the end I got back my 3 years premium as thier cover was hopeless, not sure if its any better now though.

No, the clutch was not contaminated but I gave the garage a new LUK clutch kit to fit whilst the box was out as the ZT had just done over 100k. The AA didn't squabble over the claim and there was no problem, I just paid the excess.