General clutch gone?????help

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General clutch gone?????help

angela100

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Nov 2, 2006
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Marea elx 2ltr

Clutch has been odd for a few months, pedel needing to go right to the floor to get a notchy gear change.

clutch pedel went solid and i could not get it in gear and i was RAC recoverd he got it into gear to get it onto the driveway but ive had a look at the slave cylider now and the rod has come right out, also the padel thing that the rod presses on can be flaped easley by hand back to touch the bell housing, is this normal?
if i pull up on the padell thing at one part of the arc it pops up and then i cant push it back to the bell housing, but falls back when i let go.

has my cluth gone?
how much to fix?
thanks for any help anyone can give.
 
sounds like your clutch pressure plate or thrust bearing has totaly disintergrated ! if the rod has come out of slave cylinder chances are thats finished too the arm you refer too pushes the thrust bearing upto the pressure plate whitch in turn pushes the clutch plate against the flywheel the arm is under too much pressure to push by hand hench the slave cylinder does the job clutch itself cost me 90 odd quid from fiat slave about 15 odd quid biggist headache is fitting did mine myself so can not quote on that bet on a 150+ tho
 
As Jimb0 says it sounds like an internal issue for the slave cylinder piston to jump right out. Mine did this when my clutch recently disintegrated on my 20v

It sounds to me that the pressure plate fingers are bent in. Or the bottom of the arm where it goes in the gearbox is bent and not contacting the release bearing and pressure plate, or the releasr bearing has broben up as they are housed in plastic :(

When the arm is pushed against the bell housing this is the position where the clutch plate is pulled apart and where you should be able to select a gear. As Jimb0 says the force to push this arm into this position on a correctly operating clutch is too much by hand. hence the car uses the slave cylinder. The force needed is because the arm pushes into and flexes open the pressure plate.

Put it this way, If you manually hold this arm against the bellhousing (When I did this to eliminate the hydraulic system and manually over ride it. I had to wedge a chock of wood to force the arm over) If the arm is in this position against the bell housing you should be able with the car running to select a gear without crunching.

however If you can move the arm over this far by hand then you are either Clark Kent, or sadly the release arm for some reason is not connecting with the pressure plate.
 
bridges said:
It sounds to me that the pressure plate fingers are bent in.

i was thinking same, bet they've been worn so thin by the thrust bearing that on this occasion they've bent when the thrust bearing pushed against them. (btw i call those fingers the diaphragm spring ;) )

unfortunately a full clutch kit, slave cylinder, brake fluid & fitting wont be cheap. :(
 
jug said:
i was thinking same, bet they've been worn so thin by the thrust bearing that on this occasion they've bent when the thrust bearing pushed against them. (btw i call those fingers the diaphragm spring ;) )

unfortunately a full clutch kit, slave cylinder, brake fluid & fitting wont be cheap. :(


me and technical terms :confused: usually call things doo,berry and thingy watsit ;)

My clutch had ripped the friction plate apart shearing all the rivits and seperating the backing from the friction surface. However exactly as you say Jug, even though the friction plate was only a quarter worn, the diaphragm spring had been severely cut into by the release bearing. :eek: and some parts were bent back out of allignment. If I find my digi cam I will post a pic.

I did my own clutch change, is not a technially difficult job. However is a time consuming one as the subframe needs dropping and room is tight. Hence labour plus parts is pricy.
 
bridges said:
even though the friction plate was only a quarter worn, the diaphragm spring had been severely cut into by the release bearing.

i had a gearbox change in july and both my car and the donor car were exactly the same. maybe its a fiat design feature :D
 
I have also found the diaphragm spring to be suspect on a punto 1.2 8v clutch that I changed. This in my opinion was causing the juddering, the friction plate was perfect, however the pressure plate, diaphragm spring looked unevenly worn and in my opinion was not allowing a smooth release operation. I feel Fiat clutches of this era are flawed in design concerning operation between the pressure plate and release bearing :(
 
Thanks for the replys, i have now sold the marea as the clutch + labour + other parts was going to be too expensive, its a real shame as i have had the car for about five years and loved driving it, (ooh that exhaust sound:) ) still time to move on and find another car,
thanks,
Angela.
 
My friend has a black astra xsi 4-5 years old with only 24,000 on the clock, it wont be as fast as the merea but the suspension has been tuned or something by Vauxhall so it should have a nice ride.
 
angela100 said:
My friend has a black astra xsi 4-5 years old with only 24,000 on the clock, it wont be as fast as the merea but the suspension has been tuned or something by Vauxhall so it should have a nice ride.

Hope you like your new car :)
 
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