Clutch judder / shudder MX5 Mk1

[j4ck100]

Hi Everyone,

Had my first proper drive out on Saturday in my recently acquired MX5 mk1 - what a day it was!

However, I've noticed that there's an incredibly bad judder when pulling off from a standstill in first gear (non existent when pulling off in second, also very present in reverse).

Sometimes it happens worse than other times, and broadly speaking the sooner you let the clutch engage the better. On some occasions it was so bad it was causing the entire body of the car to shake. What confuses me is that once engaged, the clutch is as good as gold, and there's no slippage what so ever. It also bites just about where you'd expect it to.

This leads me to believe that this could be deposits/spots on the clutch plate and/or deposits/spots on the flywheel? Would you agree with this?

Would this explain why it doesn't happen at all when pulling off in 2nd gear?

Is my best bet to resolve this, to have the clutch & slave cylinder replaced, and flywheel skimmed?

Anyone know if flywheel skmming is something the average garage can do or if it's more of a specialist job?

Thanks!

[GreenV8S]

Could be clutch surface contamination, but other possible causes are a broken clutch finger, worn spigot bearing or gearbox bearing, (less likely) worn engine/gearbox mounting bush. If you bought from a dealer, I'd expect them to resolve the problem at their expense or refund your money. If it's a private sale, unfortunately its your problem.

[Xtriple129]

They are prone to this if the subframe thing that ties the transmission together is misaligned. I'm sorry I've forgotten the proper name but it runs along te gearbox/prop to the rear axle and is often incorrectly re-fitted if removed. Easy to redo but you need to read up on how cos I don't know!