I am wondering if my clutch is on the way out. The biting point seems to be getting higher, the engine sometimes speeds up during gear changes and the car seems less lively on hills. Vehicle has done nearly 70,000 miles. Does this sound like a clutch issue?
If I just wait and see, how much warning would I get? Would I know when a new clutch is needed or would I just come to an unplanned halt one day?
Is it a Rolls or a Reliant, Lada or Lagonda?
Dave
Somewhere in between - Nissan Micra K12 series.
I think you've had your warning...
Pick a gear that won't easily exceed the speed limit.
Accelerate hard from low revs, through the peak torque of the engine.
The engine speed should increase smoothly.
If it seems to rise sharply, then stop going up, your clutch is slipping.
It may be that simple adjustment can fix it. Or it may be new clutch time.
It'll last a good long time if you drive like a Granny and never make it slip. (My mum had a slave cylinder failure on the car she hadn't had long - and hadn't noticed. But then, she _is_ a Granny...)
My clutch is at 160k miles and counting.
Andy
Thanks. I'll get it looked at.
In my defence I bought the car with over 60,000 on the clock. I was a bit dubious at the time but the seller said it was fine. I have previously exceeded that figure on one clutch in a Metro.
Car clutches are adjustable? How does that work?
I can see how a stretched cable, poor set up or other cause might lead to a clutch that doesn?t fully disengage. I can?t see how any adjustment would make it engage more firmly.
It is.
Tim
Some were, where you could adjust the free travel. Rare nowadays.
Even cable clutches are usually self adjusting and take up stretched cable slack, or slacken with clutch wear.
Very likely.
My Sierra did 124,000 miles on one clutch before I got rid of it, my Focus TDCI 150,000 and only had a new clutch then because of a dual-mass flywheel. I tend to keep cars a fair few years and the only one I have have had to change the clutch on due to wear was my first car (a Yugo
45) and that had been a driving school car before I had it!I'd say that if you've got a problem at 70,000 miles, it's likely that the previous owner slipped it a lot or there's some other mechanical problem that is either causing the problem directly or has caused wear to the clutch.
SteveW
If the car has done a lot of urban miles, then I'll be less surprised of failure at 70k miles.
Ah, the benefits of electric cars!!
The disengagemnet point wanders up from the floorboard, until it would be fully engaged only if the pedal were pulled up, as it were.
Thomas Prufer
I'm surprised there is no little friendly icon that lights up when the clutch is on the blink. They seem to have icons for everything these days, one presumes they do not need translating. Brian
Yes. Clutch life is very variable, depending on usage and style of driving. Anything over 70K is fair gaime, but many people get much, much more.
yes
Mostly they slip in top gear first.
You can limp for a week or two
But more clutch slip will wear the plate out fatser, and if its you that's already worn it out, well...
Modern clutches shouldl NOT wear out: not unless its a taxicab.
Another gotcha is failed oil seal on the crankshaft spraying the plate with oil # But that doesnt change the bite point
2008 vehicle. The new ones probably have an app for the mobile phone that carries out a full diagnostic test !!!
Thanks. It does seem to be worse in fifth.
I bought the vehicle second hand so I am blaming someone else. .
I think he lived in Edinburgh. Have you ever experienced the driving there :-)
At least double that and still counting. It all depends on how much and how often you let the clutch slip or rest your foot on the clutch pedal.
My Peugeot 308 has done 180,000 miles and is still on its original clutch. The bite point has got progressively higher but there's no sign of slipping - engine revs rising when you apply power without speedometer rising correspondingly. I don't drive like a granny but then I don't drive like a bat out of hell either: somewhere in between. And I try to match the engine speed to the new gear to minimise the amount of clutch slipping - unlike someone who once gave me a lift who had been taught to come right off the power, change gear, let up the clutch on an idling engine, and then re-apply power, which must have caused horrendous wear on the clutch... and on the passengers! She was gobsmacked when I rather tentatively said that there was a better way of doing it, and demonstrated that if you keep your foot on the accelerator and keep the engine speed fairly constant while you are changing gear, and then either increase or decrease it a little depending on whether you are changing down or up, as you let the clutch up, you get a much smoother change.
The only problem I had with the clutch was at about 30,000 miles when the hydraulic actuator between the pedal cable and the clutch itself failed - leaving the car stuck in gear at the head of traffic lights. I was not popular because there was no way to move it: I couldn't get it out of gear. But that was not the clutch lining - the part that normally wears.
On all my previous cars, with older 1980s/90s technology, I've needed a new clutch at around 70-80,000 miles, so this Pug is doing *very* much better.
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