Upto £1,500 to change the clutch on a Golf? Surely not?

[RobinBanks]

Mr Tidy said:

If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen!

You say highish miles but don't specify how many - my 123d managed over 80,000 on the original clutch!

But from your description of the problem it doesn't sound like it slips so do you really need a new one or is the problem something else?

I don't know the specifics of that car, but 80,000 miles on one clutch doesn't sound especially good...

[Escy]

I've just changed the gearbox, clutch and dmf on my 2005 2.0 TDI 6 speed Golf. On my car, the clutch didn't slip either, I had trouble getting into and out of 1st and reverse gears. Sometimes it was fine, sometimes I needed to select another gear (usually 3rd) then it'd go into 1st or reverse. I also used to get a noise when shifting into 5th (as I came up off the clutch).

There wasn't much info about for this issue but I did see plenty of people changing everything, clutch, master cylinder, slave, DMF, etc and still having the issue. I managed to find some info on a Skoda forum that basically the inside of the gearbox casing wears and creates free play giving these issues. I didn't bother opening up the old gearbox to see for myself. The old clutch and flywheel weren't in good condition and did need replacing also.

If your problem sounds similar, it'd be a waste of time and money changing just the clutch and have to replace the gearbox afterwards.

[MGJohn]

gazza285 said:

A worn clutch shouldn't make it harder to get into gear, a dragging clutch would, so I'd be looking at the clutch actuation rather than the plate. If it's a concentric cylinder the gearbox still needs to come out though, unless it is the master cylinder.

That must always be the first line of investigation with those described selection problems. Could simply be the Clutch Release Bearing has expired or Hydraulics not up to scratch. Nothing lasts forever.

Have DIY changed a number of clutches over the years using a new three part kit ~ Cover, Driven Plate and Thrust Clutch Release bearing. The removed Plates and Covers looked OK, plenty of meat on the friction plate but the Thrust Release bearings were worn out.

Gear selection and return to neutral easy with engine switched off. Difficult to select gears and became progressively more difficult to select gears until it finally became impossible to select any gear with engine running.

Here's why ~ Totally worn out Clutch Release Thrust Bearing. Note ball bearings in bottom of Bell Housing :~





Old components alongside new ~ Friction Plate wear nowhere near the rivets in old driven plate :~



The driving habits of some car users are much heavier on Car Clutches. Habitually waiting in gear for long periods with the clutch pedal to the floor stresses that small Thrust Bearing excessively accelerating wear of that component and of the clutch release mechanism, particularly those of hydraulic operation.

Job done for about £100 in parts and several leisurely hours DIYer work....

[Super Slo Mo]

battered said:

Half an hour? Wow. How?
The Fiesta Mk1 and 2 were easy, you had to undo the suspension and pull the driveshafts out, then drop the starter and once the bellhousing bolts were out there was space to pull the box off and drop it out. Then just unbolt the clutch. Even at home that wasn't too bad. Cable clutch too, nice and reliable. Whatever was wrong with cable clutches? At least when a cable breaks it's easy to fix, unlike a bd concentric cylinder that sits there cooking and waiting to wreck the clutch when the awful day comes and it starts leaking.

It was something like: remove left front wheel, remove plate on bottom of bell housing, remove cover on end of gearbox, use slide hammer to pull main gearbox shaft back a few inches, then unbolt clutch and drop it through the gap in the bottom of the bell housing, then reverse for reassembly.
Well thought out procedure no gearbox removal required.

[generationx]

Why do you want to change the flywheel? All this is (in clutch terms) is a mounting plate, it shouldn´t have worn at the same rate as the clutch.
This problem may be your master cylinder (we had one fail recently on a 100,000 mile 2007 GTD, I´m still smarting from the repair). Ballpark price, in European VW dealer, €1400 for clutch, master cylinder and service. The clutch itself was a €400 part. High, but I´d rather leave jobs like this to the dealer.

[T16OLE]

RobinBanks said:

I don't know the specifics of that car, but 80,000 miles on one clutch doesn't sound especially good...

It sounds pretty crap to me, I've had a few cars over 150k on their first clutch. I'm guessing it was given a rough remap

[kambites]

HorneyMX5 said:

That's pretty much the same method required to replace the front indicator bulb on a Pre facelift Yeti.

I'd hope you don't have to take the entire front crash structure off to change the bulb. Or the radiator out for that matter.

Actually the reear lights were another example of this sort of idiotic design. The Octavia's rear bulbs are accessed through a sort of door in the boot carpet. However the bulb unit is slightly bigger than the door so in order to change the bulbs, you have to open the door, unbolt the whole light unit (of course the bolts are all in awkward places up behind the carpet and if you drop your spanner it falls down into an inaccessible cavity underneath the boot floor) and slide it out the back of the car. If they'd made the little door an inch taller, it would just have been two clips.

And yes, the manual states bulb changes are "dealer only".

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 21st July 08:24

[Leptons]

generationx said:

Why do you want to change the flywheel? All this is (in clutch terms) is a mounting plate, it shouldn´t have worn at the same rate as the clutch.
This problem may be your master cylinder (we had one fail recently on a 100,000 mile 2007 GTD, I´m still smarting from the repair). Ballpark price, in European VW dealer, €1400 for clutch, master cylinder and service. The clutch itself was a €400 part. High, but I´d rather leave jobs like this to the dealer.

This post in general shows a complete lack of understanding.

[k-ink]

kambites said:

HorneyMX5 said:

That's pretty much the same method required to replace the front indicator bulb on a Pre facelift Yeti.

I'd hope you don't have to take the entire front crash structure off to change the bulb. Or the radiator out for that matter.

I certainly miss how simple cars used to be. My first car was a basic Fiesta mk2. When you popped the bonnet everything was clearly visible with acres of room around the components. Even on later 1990s cars which were more complex, like the Fiat Coupe Turbo, you could still see the bulbs hanging out the back of the light assemblies. It took ten seconds to have them swapped.

I want to get a project car some day. It certainly won't be anything modern!

[Fastdruid]

k-ink said:

kambites said:

HorneyMX5 said:

That's pretty much the same method required to replace the front indicator bulb on a Pre facelift Yeti.

I'd hope you don't have to take the entire front crash structure off to change the bulb. Or the radiator out for that matter.

I certainly miss how simple cars used to be. My first car was a basic Fiesta mk2. When you popped the bonnet everything was clearly visible with acres of room around the components. Even on later 1990s cars which were more complex, like the Fiat Coupe Turbo, you could still see the bulbs hanging out the back of the light assemblies. It took ten seconds to have them swapped.

I want to get a project car some day. It certainly won't be anything modern!

You mean the Fiat Coupé Turbo which needed the engine out[1] to change the cam belt? I think they made up for the ease of bulb swapping!

[1] Allegedly it is just about possible if you remove stuff and shove the engine over or something.

[kambites]

Fastdruid said:

You mean the Fiat Coupé Turbo which needed the engine out[1] to change the cam belt? I think they made up for the ease of bulb swapping!

[1] Allegedly it is just about possible if you remove stuff and shove the engine over or something.

In my experience almost all decent sized modern (transverse) engine installations require the engine to be significantly moved around in the car to do the belt.

[kambites]

hora said:

I was at a car show recently and looked into the engine bay of the first Skoda Polo derivative (cant think of its name?) - it had acres of space around every single component. A dream to work on!

Felicia? Something like that.

[HorneyMX5]

kambites said:

HorneyMX5 said:

That's pretty much the same method required to replace the front indicator bulb on a Pre facelift Yeti.

I'd hope you don't have to take the entire front crash structure off to change the bulb. Or the radiator out for that matter.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 21st July 08:24

Not quite but:



Remove screws 6 - 1, 2 & 5 - expanding rivets 7 - screws 8 - remove bumper (Note: remember to remove headlight wash covers etc.) Fit in reverse order



Turn off all electrics - disconnect electrical connector - remove arrowed fixing screws - remove headlight



Lever off bulb cover (1) for turn signal light using a screwdriver. Proceed carefully so that the bits of the cover do not fall into the headlight housing

- rotate and remove bulb socket and replace bulb



After installing the new bulb, attach the replacement cover (2) with the O-ring seal (3) with screws (1) tighten to 1.5 Nm.

(Note: subsequent bulb replacements are in reverse order of above)



Loosely fasten screws A & B - align headlight with contours of wing (maintain gap size (not given) ). Slacken the fixing screw A (1) to align the headlight and subsequently change the height of the stop by turning the adjusting nut (2) (left-hand thread).

- after aligning the headlight according to the contours of the vehicle body, fasten all the fixing screws for the headlight to 4 Nm.

- refit bumper

- adjust headlight beam.

[k-ink]

This flip front mini would be good to work on...

http://s237.photobucket.com/user/world_champ59/med...

[kambites]

HorneyMX5 said:

Not quite but:



Remove screws 6 - 1, 2 & 5 - expanding rivets 7 - screws 8 - remove bumper (Note: remember to remove headlight wash covers etc.) Fit in reverse order



Turn off all electrics - disconnect electrical connector - remove arrowed fixing screws - remove headlight



Lever off bulb cover (1) for turn signal light using a screwdriver. Proceed carefully so that the bits of the cover do not fall into the headlight housing

- rotate and remove bulb socket and replace bulb



After installing the new bulb, attach the replacement cover (2) with the O-ring seal (3) with screws (1) tighten to 1.5 Nm.

(Note: subsequent bulb replacements are in reverse order of above)



Loosely fasten screws A & B - align headlight with contours of wing (maintain gap size (not given) ). Slacken the fixing screw A (1) to align the headlight and subsequently change the height of the stop by turning the adjusting nut (2) (left-hand thread).

- after aligning the headlight according to the contours of the vehicle body, fasten all the fixing screws for the headlight to 4 Nm.

- refit bumper

- adjust headlight beam.

Yeah, that's basically the first stage (and the easy bit) of doing the condenser. Pretty idiotic for a bulb.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 21st July 09:02

[Acidrop]

The clutch and DMF went on one of our work Skodas and we were quoted £1200 just for a clutch replacement without the DMF. I just bought a new decent clutch kit and DMF off ebay and let a garage fit it for me.

All in it came to £700. Car was perfect afterwards.

[Spangles]

J4CKO said:

HorneyMX5 said:

The clutch is one of the items on my "Don't buy cheap ebay parts" list. Mostly because if it fails it's a nightmare doing it all again. I'm firmly in the camp of getting a good specialist to do it with good branded parts from a trusted supplier. Beware of eastern knock off parts sold on places like ebay as well.

As mentioned by another poster, Luk/Sachs, both respected brands are available for £300, probably as good or better than oem, a days work for a competent mechanic, £200 - £300 isnt bad wages, depends on the overheads.

Will probably see the car out.

Stuff in a box labelled 'Luk/Sachs' is available on Ebay. I've seen more than enough fake car parts to avoid anything without a trusted supply chain.

[Fastdruid]

kambites said:

Fastdruid said:

You mean the Fiat Coupé Turbo which needed the engine out[1] to change the cam belt? I think they made up for the ease of bulb swapping!

[1] Allegedly it is just about possible if you remove stuff and shove the engine over or something.

In my experience almost all decent sized modern (transverse) engine installations require the engine to be significantly moved around in the car to do the belt.

The Fiat Coupé Turbo is as far as I know the worst one. Like £4-500 from a specialist expensive against a normal car being ~200 or so.

[kambites]

Fastdruid said:

The Fiat Coupé Turbo is as far as I know the worst one. Like £4-500 from a specialist expensive against a normal car being ~200 or so.

Hmm, I think you'd be lucky to find a specialist to do a belt change for <£400 on anything other than the easiest of engines.

[generationx]

Leptons said:

This post in general shows a complete lack of understanding.

And how is that? I have never changed a flywheel when changing a clutch. MAybe the VW flywheel is a completely different concept, so rather than just dismissing me you could provide some information.
Written by a transmission designer by the way.