Ok, so my clutch was replaced about 10 months ago and when it was returned, I noticed that when the clutch was in constant use i.e. in slow city traffic, I got huge amounts of judder in 1st gear.

If I take the car out of gear and lift my foot off the pedal, the clutch over a period of at least 5+ seconds works ok again.

When the car is started first time in the day there's no problem. Again, only after using the clutch constantly in a short space of a minute or two in slow traffic, the judder returns.

Now, I thought this was due to a failing slave cylinder or misaligned/bent spline or two due to por installation.

However, my local indy thinks it's the engine and gearbox mounts. Their reason being that when the engine is on with the handbrake engaged, they think that there's way too much fore and aft movement.

Problem is, I can't see any cracks in the rubber and owning a Saab 9000 with a similar engine mount arrangement, I can usually see if the rubber bushes are cracked or not.

Traditionally, I would undo the top engine mount and then jack up the engine and in raising it, I would be able to explore whether the engine mounts (offside, gearbox front and rear) show any signs of cracks or not.

I think the engine mount suggestion is a red herring though as the juddering would happen at all times in 1st gear and not if I took the car out of gear into neutral and took my foot off the clutch etc.

Is this just a case of bleeding the clutch from the slave cylinder and seeing if it improves the juddering issue and then checking for any leaks at the same time?

Any other clues?

Ok, so with the top mounts changed I went off to Borehamwood (or Boringwood) today to do the usual Lidl, Next, WHSmiths, Tesco trip. I deliberately kept the clutch to the floor and in 1st and edged forward through the stop start traffic for about half a mile.

The first thing I noticed was that there was noticeably less vibration from the engine area. The previous huge shudders were significantly dampened but were still present.

It looks like the three hydraulic engine mounts will need to be replaced to see if it further improves the effect.

That'll be another £240 out of my pocket then, but worth it for a four year old car that cost me £4000.

Is your Multi a JTD? If so it could be the dual-mass flywheel, was it checked or replaced during the clutch change? Just a thought.