Clutch health

[DEEMAN1]

How do you know whether your clutch needs replacing or not?
Do they normally give any warning signs before they 'go' such as slipping, vibrating or a funny noise etc?

They say a clutch needs replacing at around 100,000 miles but I know cars at over 150,000 that are still on their original clutch.
Is it just luck or how you treat them?

Was just wondering as the clutch went on one of our work vans and it seemed to be working fine up until that point.

Thanks

[Baldchap]

They tend to slip as they near the end of their life.

They are very driver dependent - my grandmother had a new clutch at 4500 miles in her 205 because she slipped the clutch pretty much all the way down her front Street at high revs because she was deaf!

[Baldchap]

https://m.wikihow.com/Diagnose-a-Slipping-Clutch-i...

Excuse mobile link.

[DEEMAN1]

Baldchap said:

https://m.wikihow.com/Diagnose-a-Slipping-Clutch-i...

Excuse mobile link.

Very helpful, thanks for that.
Seems they tend to give warning signs before they give up

[anonymous-user]

DEEMAN1 said:

How do you know whether your clutch needs replacing or not?
Do they normally give any warning signs before they 'go' such as slipping, vibrating or a funny noise etc?

Clutch plate can fail in three ways,

• Sudden disintegration, usually a direct result of abuse, or more usually
• Linings worn out, or sometimes
• Linings contaminated by an oil/fluid leak.

Lining wear is much like brake pad wear and there may be no indication until it's gone down to the metal. Alternatively lining wear may reach a point where the clamping spring is no longer able to do its job and the clutch will start to slip.

To check for a worn clutch which may shortly begin to slip,

• With the car rolling at low speed
• Engage 3rd gear, and
• Apply full throttle

High torque from the engine will meet high resistance from the driveline creating ideal circumstances for clutch slip. You'll be able to sense it if it happens because engine revs will advance ahead of any increase in road speed.

[PaulKemp]

I help diagnose a particularly strange clutch slip event.
You could launch it off the line
You could floor it in any gear but it was a car with overboost that was only available in the higher gears at certain revs.
A hardly desernable slip but definitely there.
Dropped the box and there were witness marks on 3 out of 6 rivets on one side of the disc