Clutch ( or other) Advice please
 

In terms of miles , at 60K my clutch gave up and I had a new kit from DMGRS fitted together with a new Dual Mass flywheel. I remember that the garage had great difficulty in fitting a particular part – eventually finding that they had been given the wrong one by a local supplier , after which things seemed fine. At around 80K miles it became increasingly hard to shift gears ( manual diesel Saloon) – I resorted to double declutching . The car has now been SORN’ed for many months but I am determined to get it back on the road this year and would appreciate some advice.
If it IS the clutch I am thinking of progressing kit thus :-
• Clutch – I am inclined to go for the Borg&Beck kit with the LUK Slave from DMGRS . This was fitted at 60K and I still think a new one will be ok – I very much suspect I have a fault arising from the ‘fitters and their fitting’ rather than an inherent kit fault!
• Master Cylinder - I do not have a record of a new one being fitted last time but would go for an all Metal one from DMGRS this time
• Dual Mass Flywheel – my records suggest that a new LUK one was fitted with the Clutch at 60K. I have read in various club threads that these are pretty solid , reliable things and I would aim to continue with the one now in place. I understand symptoms of these failing mostly appear in terms of ‘shaking /vibration’ – of which I have none. Views most welcome on this costly item. What signs of DMF failure might a garage report?
I will obviously get this car down to my usual , local , garage for an initial diagnosis - they did not do the fitting at 60K and have looked after my other cars very well . I am not an expert in this technical area however and would therefore appreciate observations on :-
• My notes on the Clutch items listed above
• What signs of fault / wear relating to the problem the garage might be able to inform me of. The better I know the area the better my discussions with them
• Might it be possible , in addition to the DMF , to reuse other parts of the Clutch components ?
• Any other aspects of the car that might relate to the Gear change fault ie might it NOT be a clutch failure ? After all , for a new clutch to fail after just 20K miles is hard to stack up ??.
All the best

Personally, I'd fit one of these first: https://www.dmgrs.co.uk/products/gen...5480-stc000110

It's the original factory-fitted part that usually lasts 10+ years, and some are still in service today.
Plus they're very cost-effective as a way of diagnosing other issues - you'll likely find everything is OK once this is fitted.

It's certainly where I'd start. :)

One thing worth doing correctly before you delve too deep and condemn other items is to bleed the clutch, a bit of fun, the fun bit being removing the master cylinder cap sometimes screwed on by a gorilla and topping up the master cylinder whilst bleeding.


This won't permanently cure the fault, but if there is an improvement in gear changes it will point to the hydraulics, fitting a master cylinder is a wise move, simply due to it's age and will remove this from being a possible fault.


If there is a permanent result, this has been the problem, if gear change gradually deteriorates then the slave cylinder may be suspect which sadly means gearbox off to check the slave cylinder and the rest of the clutch assembly.


Difficult changes are usually caused by clutch drag, usually caused by air in the system ( there are other causes ) and sometimes double de-clutching temporarily cures this, much like pumping a brake pedal when there is air in the system to get a firmer pedal.


As DMGRS says, nothing wrong with the original ones, one of my 75's has about 160,000 miles and still on the original one.

Before bleeding, check the master cylinder fluid level.

can you describe more about what you have had to do with the clutch pedal and how it acted before double clutching?

macafee2

It's very easy to introduce some fluid into the system from the bleed screw end.

My gear changes were getting a bit difficult. Immediately I introduced some fluid into the system it became very easy to change gear. I suspect slight wear of the slave cylinder seals and would expect, before too long, to have to fit a new slave cylinder.

I think I used a 9mm and 13mm spanner. An 18 inch long piece of clear plastic tube and a plastic syringe .Once you have these bits the actual operation is very fast. An inch or two of fluid in the tube is all you need.

Big thanks
 

Big thanks to everyone for helpful suggestions and I now feel in a better position to tackle matters . I aim to re-tax the car in a couple of months and , with it running , should be able to answer a few queries eg respond to macafee2 . Having read a bit more and taken on board all your comments I rather suspect the Master Cylinder and now have one from DMGRS which , whatever , I think I will fit to establish this aspect on a firm basis.
When all is sorted out I aim to add some final observations to this thread in the hope it will be of use to others in the future.
All the best.

Whilst you are going over the parts, check the connections on the gear linkage cables are firm.

The suggestions are good, and it's got to be better starting with the cheaper options and the easiest.

Don't forget to remove the "condom" from the master before adding fluid, if you go that route.

Good luck.