Clutches - how quickly do they fail?

[dave21478]

My next door but one neighbour is an old dear in her 80s and probably shouldn't be driving. She revs the car to about 3000rpm and uses the clutch to determine the speed she is going. She is now on her third car in a year, the previous two both had clutches replaced by the garages she bought them from (sympathetic to old dear in a fix I think) and then both gave refunds on the cars. They are lasting about two months and she only drives to Aldi twice a week and the social club every other day. I think they are probably doing about 1500-2000 miles before dying. I know it's an extreme case but does show how quickly you can kill one if you try.

 

 

Aye.

I knew a ....uh...lady of a certain age, shall we say? She called me to say her car was down on power and could I look at it. Power was fine, the clutch was slipping like a bastard so she was giving it loads of revs just to get it moving and assuming the problem was engine power.

I fitted a new clutch and all was well until she came back a few months later with it doing the same. Turns out that she holds it at 3k rpm and uses the clutch to drive slowly. Watching her maneuver into my driveway was painful and there was a visible cloud of clutch reek coming from the wheelarch.

Apparently this was all my fault for not doing the clutch job properly, shes been driving since nineteen oatcake and never had a clutch fail blah blah blah....

I gave her back what she paid me for the initial clutch job and fucked her off to be someone elses problem. This was one of the deciding factors that made me stop working on other peoples cars.

[barefoot]

My 944 is on its third clutch at 300,000 miles.

They are bastard expensive things to have fitted and I've had to pay for two.

 

Many years ago, the woman across the road from my parents became known as 'clutchfoot", watching and listening to her backing out her Wartburg on a chilly morning was something l'll never forget.

[PhilA]

Clutch springs on my old man's Sprite gave out before the lining did; my Cinquecento went over the bridge on it's original clutch at 146,000 miles and 10 years.

 

Depends how you use it.

 

Phil

[Guest]

Clutches that are slipped- taking off on a very steep hill for example- really stink now. Like brakes they can no longer have asbestos in them, but whatever they added or replaced it with honks. I remember one time with the Iveco, less than 15k on the clock at the time.. I was pulling and hauling to get something out a ditch and up a a banking,slipping the clutch. It stunk really bad,smoked,and then I lost drive altogether, even in 1st. After a few minutes drive returned and it was fine ever since,last drove it with 40k on it. Strange.

[bunglebus]

I've seen a little old lady with a MK2 Fiesta do the "hold the revs up and adjust speed with the clutch" style driving, used to come in for a new one every few thousand miles. Also had a customers 3B Passat that used to eat clutches every 40k - if you rest your foot on the pedal it slips but not enough to be perceivable. Told my dad off for doing that in what is now my 3B - on it's original clutch at 201K currently. His Sierra needed a new clutch at some point on its second time around the odometer as it was so heavy he kept breaking cables. The lining was still excellent but the springs were worn out. 

It's all down to mechanical sympathy.

[stripped fred]

Clutch worn out in 40k miles? Almost certainly driver error.

 

Make her pay for the clutch replacement(s). It might be the only way she'll learn.

She'll be paying as it's her car. I think she's only partly to blame as she's an ok driver and only slips it occasionally for a few seconds.

[Alusilber]

Aye.

I knew a ....uh...lady of a certain age, shall we say? She called me to say her car was down on power and could I look at it. Power was fine, the clutch was slipping like a bastard so she was giving it loads of revs just to get it moving and assuming the problem was engine power.

I fitted a new clutch and all was well until she came back a few months later with it doing the same. Turns out that she holds it at 3k rpm and uses the clutch to drive slowly. Watching her maneuver into my driveway was painful and there was a visible cloud of clutch reek coming from the wheelarch.

Apparently this was all my fault for not doing the clutch job properly, shes been driving since nineteen oatcake and never had a clutch fail blah blah blah....

I gave her back what she paid me for the initial clutch job and fucked her off to be someone elses problem. This was one of the deciding factors that made me stop working on other peoples cars.

 

Arrrgghh! FFS, get an automatic, lady!

[Guest Hooli]

Arrrgghh! FFS, get an automatic, lady!

Then drive it through a wall after pressing the wrong pedal.

[dieselassist]

...on old style clutches, with sympathetic driving, it can get to the stage where the friction plate becomes 'polished' to a near glass like/shiney smooth finish, where the sole  driver of the car has been 'nursing the slipping clutch' - the solid flywheel takes on a sympathetic sheen so gear changes are 'enabled' -

 

...next owner either lunches the gearbox, trying to get it into gear or cant get any gears at all, so its either clutch n gearbox replacement time...

 

...this was the scenario for me years ago, on overtaking, after id recently bought a Suzuki swift - I had previously adjusted the cable end of the clutch in a bit, but on overtaking the entire clutch shattered; n I had to make a quick manovoure to the hard shoulder; later inspection revealed it  took out some of the teeth on the pressure plate...

[Hendry]

Is pressing the clutch pedal all the way down to the floor, engaging 1st gear and sitting on the brake pedal on hills until the lights go green then quickly simultaneously lifting off the brake, giving some gas and getting the clutch to biting point for quicker pull aways ok to do or does sitting with the pedal pressed all the way down wear it out too? (I do it so as soon as the lights go to amber im ready to pull away as a pet hate of mine is people not moving until 15-20 seconds after the light has changed)

 

My old man just replaced a clutch and DMF on his Mk4 Mondeo 1.6 TDCi 63 plate with 75K on it about 2 months ago (taxi) which I wasnt impressed with, hes only had it since 51,500 miles and there was a squeak from under the bonnet when lifting off the clutch from the moment he got it, I assumed it was the release bearing but suddenly it went from just that to rattling like a skeleton wanking in a biscuit tin and a horrible noise when pulling away, turns out it was a fucked DMF, we obviously have no idea how badly hammered it was over the past 50,000 miles but seems otherwise to have been a motorway car, so wouldnt imagine the clutch saw much action and maybe Ford clutches are just shite, or maybe the clutch itself was OK and it was just the DMF which failed.

 

But ive never had to replace a clutch, that said until now the highest mileage car i ever owned was 87,000 miles and the most mileage ive ever personally put on a car was 37,000 miles. My dads had to replace 2 before the Mondeo, at 140,000 miles on an 54 plate Vectra C 2.0 DTi and at 120,000 miles on this Jetta 2.0 CR TDI, and both were taxis with lots of clutch use due to stop start journeys, so to me anything less than 100,000 out of one is bad.

 

Are Ford clutches that bad that weve only got 75k out of one compared with 120 and 140k out of clutches on similar size, similar power, used for the same things VWs and Vauxhalls?

[sierraman]

Taxi work is what's done it.

[Split_Pin]

The slave on my mum's Corsa c went at 35k as it had spent 9 years of short town journeys.

 

Nowt you can really do about that either, the lining would have no doubt been fine.

[Squirrel2]

Sympathetic driving does help but maybe also the quality of the original design and components used as has been discussed.

 

Our Volvo V70 had done 276k when we got rid of it, and still had the clutch and DMF it left the factory with (also its original exhaust system too). Looking at Volvo forums it seems that 'moon ship' mileages on these are not uncommon.

 

Squirrel2

[sierraman]

Took a Mondeo clutch to 120k, still didn't slip in normal driving, fairly sure I could have nursed it another 10k.

[John F]

Then drive it through a wall after pressing the wrong pedal.

 

I love those "frozen foot" automatic car fails

[barefoot]

This thread has reminded me that many, many years ago I borrowed the ex Safer/VW Motoring Audi 80GL.

There'd been articles in the mag charting it's use etc.

When I borrowed it, it was dire with over 400,000 miles on the clock, soggy shocks at the front and what felt like no springs on the back.

The story was that although it had had 3 gearboxes and was on its second engine, it was claimed that it was on its original clutch.

I didn't ask to see the paper work or other proof, I just gave them the shed back.

[Frogchod]

I got about 360000 from my Jumpy clutch. Wasn't slipping but the release bearing failed and ripped out the diaphragm .

A mate with a Scudo (a Jumpy with a Fiat badge) is lucky to get 60000. He drives like a knob though.

I'm a knob too,just one with a bit mechanical sympathy. Just a bit because I did ignore that squeeling release bearing...

[Talbot]

Mechanical sympathy all the way.  My father bought a 2.0i Chavalier new in 1988, and we kept it in the family for it's entire 15-year life.  He drove it, my mother drove it, I drove it and in the end the tinworm rotted most of the arse-end out of it, and I scrapped it.  We all drove it very sensibly, and it did a reasonable mix of motorway / town / countryside driving.

 

Can't remember the figure, but it had been round the clock twice (5-digit odo) and the list of things it had not had replaced was remarkable.  It had the original Engine, Clutch, Gearbox, Springs/Dampers, Rear brake shoes(!), etc.etc.  The Head had never been off, and the only real breakdown it ever suffered was a failed fuel pump relay, which was a well-known issue, so much so that the AA blokey had a spare on his van.  We carried a spare in the car thereafter, but it never failed again.

 

When I scrapped the car, I broke it for spares and although a little crusty round the edges, the clutch was still perfectly serviceable.  Typical really that on a car with such an easy-to-change clutch, it never needed doing.