I am officially the worlds most p*ssed off person, Megane!

[robbocop33]

Just fitted gearbox and new clutch to Megane 225. Before i had everything back together and with the front wheels off and car in the air i thought i'd test the clutch, gears etc.
Car fired up, clutch was stiff(it was stiff before!) all gears selected perfectly and wheels were turning with revs etc in all gears!
Finished fitting everything today, put car on the deck and fired it up,dipped the clutch, just won't go into f*ckin gear?? Wtf??
Managed by some miracle to get into reverse and car shot back and hit rear of garage(wood garage) , no damage though as i had a feeling it was going to do this and i was covering the brake.
So, what in the friggin hell is up here?? Car goes into gear with engine off incidentally.

Edited by robbocop33 on Friday 16th November 15:31

[DuraAce]

Definitely the right clutch kit? Have you checked the part numbers, dimensions etc?

Fitted the friction disc the right way round?!

[robbocop33]

Here's a pic of the clutch fitted.

[paintman]

Did you replace the clutch slave cylinder?
If you did, did you pull & push it about before fitting - this will damage it.
My eldest had the clutch replaced on his 225 some time ago. The garage had been recommended by some friends in Birmingham.
Genuine clutch & cylinder supplied by Renault - through me as I'm trade - as not available elsewhere at the time (LuK listed it but hadn't actually started supplying it to motor factors )
Once fitted the garage were unable to get it into gear which they said must be down to the solid flywheel they'd fitted & after a lot of fking about trying to get it to work but without taking the box off again told him the slave was now leaking so that must also be faulty & they were at a loss as to what else to do.
Car recovered to a 225 specialist in Brum who found that the slave cylinder was indeed now knackered & the original muppets had fitted the plate the wrong way round. Apparently easy to do on the 225. The local-to-the-specialist Renault dealer replaced the slave as a warranty issue & the clutch itself was fortunately fine.

ETA Can't help with the pic as I didn't see the car apart.

Edited by paintman on Friday 16th November 16:05

[stevieturbo]

And was one side of the disc marked flywheel side, or gearbox side ? They usually are.

And how did the new clutch compare to the old one, which presumably was correct and worked at some point in the vehicle ?

[Mr2Mike]

stevieturbo said:

And was one side of the disc marked flywheel side, or gearbox side ? They usually are.

Friction plate back to front was my first thought.

[robbocop33]

I included the pic to see if anyone can tell if disc is right way round, i made doubly sure it was so it 'should' be ok. Yes i did replace the slave cylinder, did buy a cheap one before fitting but at last minute swapped it for a Sachs one!
I saw a video of someone prefilling slave cylinder before fitting which was seemingly a good idea, they just dip the end in a jar of brake fluid and pump the cylinder, tried this but it didn't seem to suck it in, or indeed spew out air bubbles into the fluid?? So i gave up on that.
Can anyone explain why gears, clutch seems fine when front wheels were off and car in the air?
Bleeding the clutch didn't 'seem' to go great, basically i got all the air out, yet pedal was nearly on the floor afterwards, had to pump pedal afterwards and magically the pedal came upwards and seemed to get a decent feel, which just seemed odd!

Edited by robbocop33 on Friday 16th November 16:49

[northwestrecovery]

That's a sac clutch / self adjusting , did you use the tool to compress it when fitting ? if not it wont work .

[E-bmw]

For one reason or another your clutch isn't disengaging.

When you put it into gear off the floor I'll bet your wheels start to turn suddenly before you actually release the clutch.

You need to take it apart again & find out why.

[robbocop33]

northwestrecovery said:

That's a sac clutch / self adjusting , did you use the tool to compress it when fitting ? if not it wont work .

Yes i set the self adjusting springs before fitting, if you look closely at the springs in my pic above you can see the springs are compressed.
Compare to the pic below if my old clutch, springs are stretched out and relaxed.

[bearman68]

Another vote here for the friction plate in back to front. I keep having a brain fart on this. Check several times it's in the right way around, and then put it in upside down on the pressure plate. I dunno why.
So, even when you check loads, it's still easy to make a mistake.

[northwestrecovery]

I do these every week if you didn't use the tool it wont work , take it off use the tool and it will work , trust me i learnt the hard way too !

[northwestrecovery]

sac clutch tool

[robbocop33]

I done it with a press following a video on youtube. Just compressed the clutch prongs until springs could be freely moved round and reset, springs then compressed, released tension with the press and i thought that was that, i followed the video exactly

[njw1]

Admittedly I've never done a clutch on a Renault but I have fitted a few self adjusting clutches and was under the impression that if you go around the bolts in a diagonal pattern and do them a quarter of a turn each at a time (as is best practice anyway) then the tool isn't needed? I've not had any issues doing it this way on the few clutches I've fitted.

[robbocop33]

This is how i set the self adjusters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08aYbyejOm4

[robbocop33]

njw1 said:

Admittedly I've never done a clutch on a Renault but I have fitted a few self adjusting clutches and was under the impression that if you go around the bolts in a diagonal pattern and do them a quarter of a turn each at a time (as is best practice anyway) then the tool isn't needed? I've not had any issues doing it this way on the few clutches I've fitted.

Yes i've heard that. I just reset them beforehand then diagonally tightened the plate bolts.
The video i watched set the self adjusting springs 'off' the car, i'm pretty sure his video has mislead me,this should be done 'on' the car! Or can you set it on or off the car?

Edited by robbocop33 on Friday 16th November 21:46

[robbocop33]

njw1 said:

Admittedly I've never done a clutch on a Renault but I have fitted a few self adjusting clutches and was under the impression that if you go around the bolts in a diagonal pattern and do them a quarter of a turn each at a time (as is best practice anyway) then the tool isn't needed? I've not had any issues doing it this way on the few clutches I've fitted.

Yes i've heard that. I just reset them beforehand then diagonally tightened the plate bolts.
The video i watched set the self adjusting springs 'off' the car, i'm pretty sure his video has mislead me,this should be done 'on' the car! Or can you set it on or off the car?

Edited by robbocop33 on Sunday 18th November 14:06

[northwestrecovery]

The tool takes all the tension off the centre plate before fitting and sets initial adjustment in one go , hard to explain without it in front of you . most motor factors lend/ hire them out if don't want to buy one , loads of vids on you tube .

[robbocop33]

northwestrecovery said:

The tool takes all the tension off the centre plate before fitting and sets initial adjustment in one go , hard to explain without it in front of you . most motor factors lend/ hire them out if don't want to buy one , loads of vids on you tube .

Can you look at the youtube video link in one of my posts above and tell me what's wrong with the way i've done it he's showing us?
I get the principal of the self adjustment, clutch disc wears, pre sprung tension keeps the disc towards flywheel to make up for friction wear.
What is so wrong with his method?
I've just checked the Haynes manual and the way i've set the self adjustment is correct! The three green springs on the cover plate should be compressed, and they are in my pic of my clutch installed(shown in first pic i posted above)

Edited by robbocop33 on Saturday 17th November 03:08