You may have seen my recent posts concerning clutch problems. Well today I picked my car up from Motormech, to be presented with this:

Cover Plate (Note the disintergration of the release bearing, also stamped FIAT so *may* have been original):

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k205/benje_01/04092008441.jpg

Clutch Plate (Yep that is the spring that has snapped )

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k205/benje_01/04092008442.jpg

Clutch Plate (Look closely you can see where the spring had embedded itself in the clutch plate)

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k205/benje_01/04092008443.jpg

Paul said he'd never seen one go like this before, as always my car is cursed The plate didnt seem to be worn too badly, it never slipped at all, just failed completely!

All done though now, just need to change the front discs, as they are dangerously warped Good job the workhorse still works!

Ben

That is fairly common on failed clutches.
I have just been helping kj16v change the clutch on his 16VT and the clutch plate also had a spring missing. The thing is we couldn't find it anywhere.

The release bearing wasn't broken though.

That must have been making some serious noise when the cltch was pressed down.

ive just had mine fixed by countrycriusing the bearing had jumped out the fork what a pain in the arse. clutch's are nails to do

I bet that sounded like a bag of nails

Ooh dear I'm sure someone on here had the clutch plate completely disintegrate once

Not the first one i have seen like that and it wont be the last

You get a lot Worse than that! have you seen a properly failed Duel Mass flywheel and clutch?

Well this is the thing, there were no noises!

This is what happened:

- Reversing off drive, noticed a slight whirring sound, disappeared car drove fine for 2 days
- Pulling onto drive, put clutch down, didnt disengage, nearly drove through garage door. At this point wih the engine running couldnt I could not slect any gear at all.
-Had it recovered to the garage, by the time it had reached there it was working fine again !?!
-Got car back, Father heard loud bang on motorway driving it back, but still working.
-Car started juddering in first gear when pulling off, chaanging between gears on the move was perfect no issue at all
-Clutch finally gave in, massive vibrations through the pedal, not able to select gears, but weirdly, putting the clutch down, vibrations and slight noise dissappeared!?

So a bit of a strange one, I can only assume the first time it went onto the recovery truck, something must have been dislodged to allow the clutch to work again.

I'm really interested to find out if its the original clutch though, it's had a good innings if so (110000 miles) Anyone know if Valeo datestamp there clutches anywhere?

Cheers

Ben

Yeh they do date stamp. Look at the cover and its on one of the pins i.e 98 , 99 etc.... From the pic i would say it was a original. Just had other look at the pic and its got 97 on it so it was original.

Gaz,

Nice eyesight there! I couldn't spot it with the part in my hand . It lasted well then,110000 miles/10 years.

Cheers

Ben

Not bad at all mate cant complain at that.