"It'll cost more than the car's worth"- THE FUN HAS STARTED!

[revolting peasant]

[warren t claim]

Lob some fluid in and see what happens.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

  revolting peasant said:

Is the carpet damp behind/under the pedal?

 

I think it isn't...I was trying to return the pedal back to its position by hand in order to reach the parking spot, and didn't see/feel anything untoward.

 

I'll have another look when I go back there tomorrow.

[revolting peasant]

[dollywobbler]

Do not take it to Mr Crutch. They're shockingly bad. I once worked in one for four days...

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

  dollywobbler said:

Do not take it to Mr Crutch. They're shockingly bad. I once worked in one for four days...

 

haha, ok I'll make sure to avoid them...Thing is I need it done within a couple of days and I 'm not sure I can find a proper old-school place that can sort it that quickly.

 

Incidentally, online prices for clutch kits seem to range from 75 to 180 quid...Clear as mud!

[revolting peasant]

[Angrydicky]

Yeah that's nothing to do with the clutch itself, either the cable has snapped or if it's hydraulic the master or slave (or a pipe/hose) has sprung a leak. Hardly an expensive repair, don't worry.

[trigger]

Check your clutch fuild under the bonnet, I bet the slave or master cylinder has FUBERED, If it is the clutch (I doubt it is as well) then buy a recon unit, Your local motor factors will stock them, they are much cheaper then a LUK, Sachs or ADL unit, but remember they are exchange units as you'll need to return the old one back.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

  revolting peasant said:

But you likely do not need a clutch kit.

I'll put a fiver on it.

 

Fair enough. I was thinking the kit also included the hydraulic bits, hence it would've made sense to change the lot if the price was almost identical.

 

Both master and slave cylinders seem available on ebay for under 50 quid each, so for once things look better than expected!

[r.welfare]

Oh dear.

 

I don't know anything about the clutches in these to be frank.

 

This might be worth a look: http://typeaccord.co.uk/forum/topic/252-diy-clutch-master-cylinder-replace-6th-gen/

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

  r.welfare said:

Oh dear.

 

I don't know anything about the clutches in these to be frank.

 

This might be worth a look: http://typeaccord.co.uk/forum/topic/252-diy-clutch-master-cylinder-replace-6th-gen/

 

Cheers for that. Does look like a reasonably simple job, but I really am unable to tackle it at this moment- can't imagine the hotel being too happy about DOT3 fluid nicely trickling towards their lake with the newborn ducklings!

[nigel bickle]

I'll wager -snapped cable -or the pivot pin has fallen out of the naster cylinder/pedal connection.

 

Cable would usually give a little warning -squeaking, sticky, hard to push -before it failed, as the unravelling cabling snagged .

 

Hydraulic failure occurs under pressure- the fluid draining out when asked to work -resulting in the pedal dropping, rahther than slamming straight to the floor. if it IS hydraulic -I'll wager the pin wasnt secured & has popped out. Easy to check -very sloppy pedal and a cylinder still full of fluid. Oooh -and a pin on the carpet someplace (missing? small bolt will do).

 

Cables a pain but low cost -pin just needs replacing. Hydraulics do not fail -instantly.

 

Good luck

[Rod/b]

SCRAP IT.

[revolting peasant]

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Demonstrate true shiters' credentials by driving it around for a few weeks without a usable clutch, until you have saved enough money to buy a new bit for the hydraulics. Then come on here and wax lyrical about the sheer pleasure of driving with an actual working clutch at last, and praise the fact that you no longer have to avoid/jump traffic lights etc.

[garethj]

If you've got AA / RAC cover they should tell you what the problem is, then you can decide what to do.

 

Where in the country are you, dude? There might be a mechanically minded 'shiter around who can tell the difference between a snapped cable, its frayed end gracefully swaying around the engine bay, and an empty hydraulic reservoir.

 

I had a hydraulic leak on my Land Rover clutch and fixed it easy-peasy, and a snapped clutch cable on my Ginetta, that was done in less than an hour even though I didn't know what I was doing.

 

Both allowed me Mr-B's idea of driving home with no clutch, the choice of champions

[Rod/b]

The slave cylinder went in my old 164. First challenge was finding one (turned out some bloke in Norfolk bought the entire European stock when Alfa delisted them. Thoroughly reasonably priced mind you).

 

Second challenge was getting the old one off. In the end I asked my tame mechanic to do it for me. He ended up chiselling in off.

[Rod/b]

This whole thread has got me thinking though. Whilst it's all well and good wanting to use old shite as a daily drive, and admirable for wanting to learn how to do the work yourself, i'm not sure it's a great idea unless you have at least a basic idea of what's going on under the bonnet and / or some sort of recovery card in your wallet.

[garethj]

  Rod/b said:

This whole thread has got me thinking though. Whilst it's all well and good wanting to use old shite as a daily drive, and admirable for wanting to learn how to do the work yourself, i'm not sure it's a great idea unless you have at least a basic idea of what's going on under the bonnet and / or some sort of recovery card in your wallet.

Yeahbut, how else are you going to learn? Even if a local 6th form college did a car maintenance evening course, it's unlikely to cover Austin A30 trunions or clutch removal on an Ambassador.

 

There comes a time when you've got to have a go, bribe some help at first to make sure you're not making the situation more dangerous, but give it a go.

 

You'll be more expert when the thing breaks next time, or when you discover the spare bolt and have to take the thing to pieces again.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

  garethj said:

If you've got AA / RAC cover they should tell you what the problem is, then you can decide what to do.

 

I've called the RAC...should be here within the next hour or so. I found a little cafe nearby, so I can wait in reasonable comfort.

 

  garethj said:

Where in the country are you, dude? There might be a mechanically minded 'shiter around who can tell the difference between a snapped cable, its frayed end gracefully swaying around the engine bay, and an empty hydraulic reservoir.

 

I'm in Sheffield, and looks like I will be living here for the next few months. I was actually planning to return to Leicester, the autoshite capital of Britain, but I needed a house for a 3-month rental and it was impossible to find anything there, so I said "sod it". It's nice up here, but I know of no garages etc in the area- I do have a couple of mates in Sheffield, but when it comes to cars they are about the least clued-up people (or at least men) I've ever known. There will be an SOS call when/if I decide to tackle the radiator. There is a local forum for Sheffield (of which I am not a member, at least not yet), and there were a couple of garage recommendations...Got quoted about 125 quid all-in for a slave cyl, I don't suppose the master cyl (if that's the bit that's gone) will be much different, and they can do it by Friday which is ideal as I am probably going to head down to the big smoke for the weekend, so I'll just pay up.

 

  garethj said:

I had a hydraulic leak on my Land Rover clutch and fixed it easy-peasy, and a snapped clutch cable on my Ginetta, that was done in less than an hour even though I didn't know what I was doing.

 

Both allowed me Mr-B's idea of driving home with no clutch, the choice of champions

 

Of course, being a dyed-in-the-wool shiter, I did think about that, but the smell coming from the clutch was quite funny, so I thought I should at least salvage whatever's left from the clutch plate!

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

  Rod/b said:

This whole thread has got me thinking though. Whilst it's all well and good wanting to use old shite as a daily drive, and admirable for wanting to learn how to do the work yourself, i'm not sure it's a great idea unless you have at least a basic idea of what's going on under the bonnet and / or some sort of recovery card in your wallet.

 

Well, the recovery card is indeed an indispensable thing...It only costs 30-something pounds for a year, which typically allows you to call them out up to 5-6 times, so it works out at only a fiver per callout.

 

It's all a bit of a lottery. When I was at uni, I ran a Rover 820 for a year with nothing else apart from an oil change. Of course, it did blow up when I returned from my summer holidays and tried starting it up, but I'd bought it for 500 quid, so it was excellent value for a year's QUALITY* motoring.

 

I also had an excellent Xantia for another year, that did cost me a grand but it was totally mint and only 6 years old. Only put some new spheres in...In the end I got another car, couldn't sell it (only put it in autotrader, mind, but I had 1 enquiry and zero viewings, so I got a bit miffed and didn't persevere with other ways of trying to get rid of it) and neither could I bear sending it to the crusher so I gave it away to a mate who really needed a car.

 

Even in the worst case scenario, the shite way works out a lot cheaper than buying brand-new shitboxes on credit (unless one happens to be both mechanically clueless and totally awful with money/cashflow management).

[Rod/b]

  garethj said:

  Rod/b said:

This whole thread has got me thinking though. Whilst it's all well and good wanting to use old shite as a daily drive, and admirable for wanting to learn how to do the work yourself, i'm not sure it's a great idea unless you have at least a basic idea of what's going on under the bonnet and / or some sort of recovery card in your wallet.

Yeahbut, how else are you going to learn?

 

Think my point was, haev an old shitter knocking about to learn on but have something a bit more regular as your daily until you know what you're doing.

 

Still, good luck to you LRU.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Right, gentlemen! The diagnoses were close enough, but not quite there!

 

The RAC man only took 20" to diagnose a "broken pedal housing". While I do appreciate that the clutch pedal must reside somewhere, I shall happily admit that I had never even heard of that part before, let alone of any failures relating to it. Indeed, google thinks that the entire interwebz only contain one reference to a "broken clutch pedal housing"! The garage'll try to fix it tomorrow, but couldn't have a look there and then hence they have no idea of the amount of welding required to sort it. He said "if we can't get it welded, we need to look for it in a scrappy...if we can't get one there, it'll have to be ordered from Honda, which will take about 4 days and probably cost a fortune".

 

Hopefully he can weld it, otherwise I can see myself returning to a "nice" little Polo!

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

  Mr_Bo11ox said:

Demonstrate true shiters' credentials by driving it around for a few weeks without a usable clutch, until you have saved enough money to buy a new bit for the hydraulics. Then come on here and wax lyrical about the sheer pleasure of driving with an actual working clutch at last, and praise the fact that you no longer have to avoid/jump traffic lights etc.

 

I broke the gearbox on my Rover 825D doing that. It did last quite a long time with the refreshed hydraulics though.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Well, there wasn't much down the scrappies (apparently "they all do that", and they wanted 45 quid for something that was already a bit cracked), so the chap decided to just weld up both sides of the housing. He said "it's not going to last forever, but it's the best that could be done". He also did say that the clutch is a bit heavy because of the abuse it's been getting (the housing must've been fucked for quite a while), and that "if you were to put a new clutch in, you'd notice the difference- it would be light as a feather"- but do I look like I care? As long as I can change gear without any cog-crunching action, I'm pleased.

 

Tomorrow I'm going to look for some part-worns. For some reason, I suspect a lot of tyre places will be shut because a civil servant of German origin is getting married?

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

I know it's a relatively common problem with Peugeot 405s, a plastic piece breaks in the clutch pedal assembly, it costs £££ from the Peugeot dealer and breaks again - all down to the clutch being buggered.

[dollywobbler]

BX is the same - my first one snapped the pedal box. Didn't think it was that common but obviously it is!

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

  dollywobbler said:

BX is the same - my first one snapped the pedal box. Didn't think it was that common but obviously it is!

 

The ridiculous thing is that, because it's not classed as a "consumable item"/"moving part" (yeah, as if the average motorist buys a fuel pump and head gasket set every six months), there doesn't seem to be anything in patterned form, so if you want a new one you can only get it from a dealer. The Honda one wanted TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR POUNDS plus VAT...just for a bit of metal. Nice work if you can get it!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

  Luxobarges_Are_Us said:

  dollywobbler said:

(yeah, as if the average motorist buys a head gasket set every six months)

 

K SERIES 4 THE WIN!!