Nasty clutch noise

[h100vw]

Alright fellas, I had a nasty noise start a couple of weeks ago. With the pedal right down there was a horrible noise coming from inside the bell housing. My car has always had a really low pedal and when I fitted the SMF and VR6 clutch it made no difference.

Not being a stranger to things mechanical, I pulled the box off, for the second time in a year. What I found was the clutch arm, with the release bearing on it, was going over centre and one edge of it was catching on rivets around the edge of the cover.

Not having a better explanation for why it was doing it, I filed notches in the edges of the arm and stuck a couple of washers behind the pivot bolt at the other end.

After putting it all back together, all was good. The pedal was still low but it had been like that since I got the car 2 years ago.

In the middle of the week it came back as bad as ever. Today I did a bit of ringing around for some parts prices. The box is coming off again and I wanted to have the bases covered. A new arm is $44 which is pretty cheap for a genuine part from the dealer in Adelaide. They are getting one in for monday from Sydney.

I spoke to a local specialist that has helped me out in the past and he said straight away that the arm will be bent or splitting through age. He had spare on the shelf but wouldn't sell it, as he has a clutch to do on Monday and replaces the arms with around 50% of the clutches that they fit.

I'll be taking Tuesday off work hopefully to get it sorted out.

I'll post some pictures of what I find, when it's all back together. I also noted that the part number on ETKA had been superceded, so I wonder if they have been a problem in the past???

My car has less than 100000 miles on it but I think the majority of that has been in the city and there are loads of traffic lights in Australia..... About every half mile.

Gavin

 

[AwesomeSarah]

Mmm
I must admit , I had not heard of it
But then I am not in the workshop much
But if it had been superceeded , then it could be down to a common failure
Sarah

 

[HTC]

Gav, interesting info regarding clutch bite points. Mine is also very low. Has always been this way too. Like you say, if it goes in gear then you live with it. In fact I prefer it low after driving other peoples cars.

I've swapped clutches, master and slave cylinders with no change in bite point. Even looked at the pedal box to see if there was a problem with pivot points.

When I had my gearbox off I didn't notice any cracks or a twisted bearing. Though having nothing to compare it to at the time I couldn't tell if the arm was bent over any intended bends.

Let me know if the new part solves the problem and I might even consider fitting one in mine.

No weird sounds from mine as yet.

 

[h100vw]

I'll do a comparison of the 2 arms before it goes back together.

I even had a lad from work machine me up a 10mm spacer to put on the end of the pushrod on the slave cylinder, after I fitted the SMF and VR clutch, just to try and get a bit of extra clearance. I don't have a pedal stop fitted either!!

On the plus side, I am able to get the box off in an hour and a half now.

Gavin

 

[h100vw]

Hi, it's half ten from a 9AM start. The box is off and the arm is splitting big time. Just going to clean it off for the photos, which I'll post later today.

I can't believe that I didn't notice it 2 weeks ago when I pulled the box.

If I ran a workshop, I'd be checking every single one during a clutch change. Mine cost $44 in Australia, that's like 20 quid.

Gavin

 

[h100vw]

All back together, washed car as well. Drive like a new one. Pics to follow, if your pedal is right at the floor, you should think about having the arm replaced.

Gavin

 

[HTC]

Thanks for posting the pictures (right click, save as).

So are the part numbers different? The new arm doesn't look modified unless its made from a stronger material.

I have to say also that I've not heard of this problem to the extent you've experienced. Maybe people put up with low clutch pedals.

If mine gets any worse or if I have the clutch out I'll grab a new one.

 

[h100vw]

My ETKA listed a part without a suffix but when you click that it has been updated to one ending in B.

They do look the same but I bet my car has done millions of changes. It was in Melbourne for most of it's life and the traffic in Australia is more heavier than the UK.

Gavin