2.0 diesel clutch issues, garage report

[marinabrian]

I would be inclined to believe the person who carried out the remedial work, rather than some made up bollox by the charlatan that fitted the first clutch.

I've seen plenty of instances where cowboys have tried this sort of trick, my guess is there has been no post mortem, no sending away of parts, just a load of bull.

They fitted a cheap clutch incorrectly and it's failed, I drive in exactly the same way as you, using the gears to slow the car, and I can achieve 100K+ from a diesel R40 clutch.

My 214 has 376,000 miles on the clutch I fitted at 22,000 miles, of course that is different to a diesel.

It is very telling that they are now trading under a different name, or not trading at all.

One to put down as a bad experience I'm afraid, if they had fitted an 1800 clutch, the bite would have made it impossible to drive.

Brian

[Briodyjl01]

Originally Posted by Number 6

If as you say they have ceased trading,,What can be achieved by chasing them ??

The garage is still there. They stopped doing car repairs to focus on selling cars.

[trikey]

Originally Posted by Briodyjl01

The garage is still there. They stopped doing car repairs to focus on selling cars.

In that case I would be wary of purchasing a car from them!

[steve-45]

same sort of thing happened to my Ex and her Fiesta, she owned it from new and at about 105,000 miles the clutch failed.

A replacement was fitted and that failed after about 1,500 miles. When she returned the car she was told " its down to DRIVER ABUSE and therefore not our fault".

She took it elsewhere and was told it was a very cheap Chinese clutch.

She now drives an automatic !

[Number 6]

Originally Posted by Briodyjl01

The garage is still there. They stopped doing car repairs to focus on selling cars.

In that case keep following it up...

[COLVERT]

Originally Posted by macafee2

I do not believe for one moment engine breaking is the cause of a clutch failure. You would need to be doing something seriously wrong to ruin a clutch by engine breaking.

macafee2

Or even engine braking.----


What I don't understand is why R75 drivers want to use the gears to slow down when they know how short the slave cylinder life is in the best of circumstances.---

Cost so much to put right.

Brake pads are cheap and easy to replace.

GEARS ARE FOR GOING----BRAKES ARE FOR SLOWING.

Slowing down using the gears in the old days was because the brakes were usually rubbish. Not needed any more except in special circumstances.

C'mon, get with it lads.--

[roverbarmy]

Originally Posted by COLVERT

Or even engine braking.----


What I don't understand is why R75 drivers want to use the gears to slow down when they know how short the slave cylinder life is in the best of circumstances.---

Cost so much to put right.

Brake pads are cheap and easy to replace.

GEARS ARE FOR GOING----BRAKES ARE FOR SLOWING.

Slowing down using the gears in the old days was because the brakes were usually rubbish. Not needed any more except in special circumstances.

C'mon, get with it lads.--

Old habits die hard. I had one truck that had to be slowed using the tyres against the high kerbs too, on one particular hill when fully laden!!! Two hands on the gearstick to hold it in gear and steer with the knees! The good old days eh? A 40 gallon drum of fuel roped on the back for the return journey because you could get it on credit at the local fuel station until the end of the month but no cash available to buy it "up the road"!

[marinabrian]

Originally Posted by COLVERT

Or even engine braking.----


What I don't understand is why R75 drivers want to use the gears to slow down when they know how short the slave cylinder life is in the best of circumstances.---

Cost so much to put right.

Brake pads are cheap and easy to replace.

GEARS ARE FOR GOING----BRAKES ARE FOR SLOWING.

Slowing down using the gears in the old days was because the brakes were usually rubbish. Not needed any more except in special circumstances.

C'mon, get with it lads.--

So you knock it into neutral and press the brake pedal John?

I've never heard such rubbish as using the gearbox leads to premature slave failure........my wife's car has the original slave fitted, and the clutch is pressed to change both up and down gears, as is my Firefrost 75, one car is 15 and the other 14 years old.

You select a gear appropriate to the road speed, both speeding up and slowing down.

The OP had problems because the clutch was fitted by a cowboy outfit using poor quality materials and nothing more, in fact poor fitting technique and poor quality parts are 90% of clutch issues on these cars.

I see little point in worrying about these things, if it breaks you fix it, but I watched someone drive who was taught to drive with current techniques, they were driving at 30MPH in third gear, and on approach to a junction simply dipped the clutch and applied the brakes, and when stationary changed from third to first gear to pull away.

I fail to see how that is an "improvement" or more mechanically sympathetic than driving in a gear appropriate to your speed

Brian

[COLVERT]

Originally Posted by marinabrian

So you knock it into neutral and press the brake pedal John?

I've never heard such rubbish as using the gearbox leads to premature slave failure........my wife's car has the original slave fitted, and the clutch is pressed to change both up and down gears, as is my Firefrost 75, one car is 15 and the other 14 years old.

You select a gear appropriate to the road speed, both speeding up and slowing down.

The OP had problems because the clutch was fitted by a cowboy outfit using poor quality materials and nothing more, in fact poor fitting technique and poor quality parts are 90% of clutch issues on these cars.

I see little point in worrying about these things, if it breaks you fix it, but I watched someone drive who was taught to drive with current techniques, they were driving at 30MPH in third gear, and on approach to a junction simply dipped the clutch and applied the brakes, and when stationary changed from third to first gear to pull away.

I fail to see how that is an "improvement" or more mechanically sympathetic than driving in a gear appropriate to your speed

Brian

Neutral---No chance.

However------slowing down through the gears means depressing the clutch pedal.

Lets assume the slave cylinder has a finite life. The more you use it the more it wears. By using the engine as a brake you effectively reduce the life span of the cylinder.--( Folk tend to slow down in top gear and into first or neutral as they stop. ) Thus more pedal pushing.

What you do, with the best will in the world, use the driven plate as a brake shoe. Try as you might you won't always match the cover plate speed and the driven plate speed exactly.
Slight mis-matches will be absorbed by the fly wheel but you will always get some wear on the driven plate due to slippage.

I think the cost however when comparing both methods of slowing down is a major factor.

Also reversing the normal play in components is not good for them by slowing with the gears and clutch. It's a sharper action than a normal slow down by taking your foot off the throttle. The change from drive to over-run is softer in normal driving.

The basic design of a gearbox is for driving the vehicle along the road. The basic design of the brakes is to slow or stop the vehicle

I'll not change from ---Gears for going--Brakes for slowing.-

[trikey]

Try driving on snow using the 'Braking' method!

Ill stick to going through the gears thanks.