Car problems

I'll try that once I've translated it into english

Ah! lockheed and girling?

Reminds me of an unforgettable time I changed the clutch on a Morris Murinal van in Halifax. It was mid winter and f cold. I had to do it alone in the dark with a torch and the car up on a set of ramps in a single garage with the door wide open and the wind howling in. I was b***ard annoyed to find once it was back together that it wouldn't disengage as I'd obviously fitted the clutch plate back to front. I even recalled checking it was the right way.

I had to drive it to and from work in Wetherby through Leeds rush hour traffic for 2 weeks before I was able to do it again properly. The skill was not to stop on a hill, as you had to start it in first gear and then change gears without the clutch. Aye, times were hard. lad.

Murray

My classic was helping my steplad change the head gasket on a B-series diesel in a narrowboat, in freezing winter conditions and finding dropped nuts in the ice-cold, black, oily bilgewater by what feeling was left in our fingers. Took the whole day from not long after sun up to dark.

It obviously needed a new head gasket as the cooling water was full of white 'cream', didn't it... err no, we started it up and it became swiftly obvious that the problem was a cracked joint in an oil cooler made like a little multi-tube boiler. Took about twenty minutes to clean, flux and remake the soft soldered joints in my cosy workshop

Yep or crook pressure springs seized throwout bearing ( seized to input shaft ) at least it sounds like the geabox and diff assembly is ok .

40k out of a new clutch is a bit on the lean side for my liking but i did have a reconditioned unit fail about 10 miles into its life ,some of the fingers that lift the pressure plate broke so when the pedal was pushed down it didn't lift the pressure plate evenly causing it to drag on the friction plate making gear changee impossible and you had to shut the engine down to even get it into gear . Never bought a reco clutch again !

Ian.

Just a thought...........

Maybe the shift cable broke or eye end popped off when you changed gear passing neutral, lift the cover off the shifter check both cables are fixed and moving and do same on top of gearbox.

I had a long bolt come out of the starter motor and into the bellhousing. As I went around a roundabout 100 miles from home the bolt moved and lodged behind the thrust bearing effectively acting like the clutch pedal was pressed all the time. I didn't know what was wrong so had to get home on a trailer. Started to dismantle to get at the clutch the next day and one of the first jobs was to remove the starter motor. As soon as I had it in hand it was obviously missing one of the bolts that went from one end to the other. Moving the lever on the outside released the bolt and I managed to get it out through the starter motor hole quite easily. Put it all back together and the problem was gone.

Martin C

As A HGV driver I once had a clutch release pack fail on me in Cornwall, I limped it all the way back to Teesport near Middlesborough including a night out stopover without a clutch, timing my gear changes with engine speed fully loaded at 38 tons and the thanks i got off my boss when I drove into the yard was "if you've damaged the gearbox I'll sack you" Didn't do him any more favours after that and left two months later.....(of my own accord)

Tony

If the clutch clears to allow gears to be engaged, it is likely that the clutch is intact and functioning, (assuming that NOT depressing the clutch blocks gear engagement.

It is possible that one drive shaft has stripped it's splines or those in the hub, although the action should feel rough and gritty. If you engage gear with the engine running, you should be able to see the shaft rotating withing the hub (Handbrake HARD on before you do this!

If it is any help, neighbour's son had similar experience, with his Renault Megane, half way along a country lane, miles from nowhere. Would not drive in gear, but the speedo registered if the engine was revved in Neutral. Towed home, found that left hand drive shaft was intact, but right hand was not connected to the transmission.

The gearbox looked like a bigger version of the Renault 5 one, a sectioned drawing of which showed R H drive shaft retained in the diff by a large circlip. We removed the inner drive shaft gaiter from the gearbox and the circlip was there but out of the groove. There was a slot in the casing which cut across the circlip groove. His dad went and got a new circlip, WHICH HAD AN EAR TO LOCK INTO THE CAST GROOVE! Fitted new circlip, replaced Gaiter, topped with oil, and that lasted until he sold the car.

HTH

Howard

Hi Neil

Some of this has been covered by others, but this is what I suggest.

Sitting in the car engine off, does the clutch pedal feel normal?

Engine off, does the gear selection feel normal, as in everything still connected?

Now start the engine, depress clutch and select gears, particularly reverse, after not having first selected any other gear. If this is ok then clutch is clearing ok.

Now try selecting gears, engine running, but without depressing the clutch. If it is exactly the same as with the clutch depressed, i.e. no undue resistance on the forward gears, and no crunching on reverse, then clutch lining has probably broken up, or similar total clutch failure.

If there is some resistance when selecting the forward gears, but if you lean on synchromesh you can get it to select, and in reverse it crunches, then it suggests that there is at least some drive through the clutch. If this is the case, I'd look at the driveshafts, check for telltale twisted or split gaiters. If you can get an assistant to engage a gear and try and pull away, check the driveshafts, you may see one spinning. If the is no obvious driveshaft fault, then it probably best to remove them and check for stripped splines.

I've definitely had a Jag x type which is basically a Mondeo, loose drive because the spline on the inner end of a driveshaft stripped.

This may not be relevant, but if the RH driveshaft has a bolted flange on the inner end, rather than pushing straight into the gearbox, it may be the same as the ford galaxy gearbox. If it is the bit that goes into the gearbox is a short stub shaft, and it is quite common for the spline on that to strip. To remove it after the driveshaft is removed, there is a socket head bolt recessed in the middle of it that needs removing, and then it pulls out.

hope this helps

good luck

Trevor

Clutch centre cush drive has failed, the central boss in the cluitch is connected to the friction plates by a flex drive system consisting of thin sheet springs and rivets, they do fail, and result in the clutch feeling normal, but no drive. Or as we used to say "ripped the clutch centre out mate"

Phil.

could also be failed drive splines in one of the hubs, pop the hub caps of, start it up select a gear and let the clutch out, and get an assistant to see if one of the large nuts in the hub centre is going round, in the old days, Austin Maxi's did this a lot!

Having done all the tests, I'm pretty sure this is what happened. We have some potholes that would do justice to the Australian outback in Burton upon Trent - I have honestly never seen such bad roads elsewhere in the Uk. They repaired one four times before it stopped sinking (at one point it was just the right size to grab a tyre, with a six-inch step at the far end (ow). Another one recently repaired has bulged up into a four or five inch high dome of tar on one side.

Anyway I hit one with an almighty bang, it was a day or so later the clutch let go following me overtaking a slow lorry and revving high in low gear to blow the soot out of the exhaust.

So... I've put a deposit down on a banger with 10 months MOT to tide me over while I decide what to do. I can do up the (hides face in embarrasment) Stilo and make a couple of hundred quid back, sell the Mondeo spares or repair and then top up and get a reasonable motor. Or I can put a clutch in the mondy and take things up where I left off. Problem is it has a massive mileage, but low mileage engine, drives like a dream and has all the Ghia toys you can shake a stick at - heated and cooled electric seats! And a killer set of speakers.

You don't need to go outback to find car swallowing potholes , the middle of Sydney has what I call goat tracks for roads and some truly spine breaking potholes !

Ian.

I suspect part of the almighty bang was the dual mass flywheel getting creamed, (they make quite a clang) which is what took the clutch out.

Neill,

I can't tell you what you should do but i can let you in on a few lessons i have learnt with cars:

You can't polish a turd ( well if you can post it to the centre of the earth and wait a few million years you theoretically could ) so if it has big mileage what is next to go ?

Unless you can work on them yourself and enjoy doing it older cars are going to hurt your bank balance big time , i'm fortunate that i can do everything for myself so labour is zero but now i have purchased a brand new car i have seen a different side to things - warranty is a wonderful thing !

Don't think of tomorrow , next week or next year think of the next five years as that is a good general time frame that many use to pay off a new car - so is the hunk o junk gunna be around five years from now ?

Hit MTM up for a company car ! Worth a try at least !

Ian

DMF was swapped out before I bought the car.

neil

That's exactly what I do, but the clutch on a Mondy is probably the worst out there, you need to drop the front sub-frame and then drop the engine.

Neil

Thing is Neil, if you like the car, and it is otherwise good condition, and you can face up to doing the repair yourself, it is often better the devil you know!, a new (used) car can be just a different set of equally expensive problems, and if you know that the DMF is good ( and I believe there is a non DMF replacement out there too) it could be time to get yer ands dirty. I drive a mondeo too, mine is the "SHED" model!!

Well considering I wanted a cheap car as a runabout for a few months, I'm surprised by the Stilo. It does feel a bit dated (largely because it's got a cassette player!) but I've just done a run up to the middle of the peak District to fetch my daughter and three of her friends from a campsite. With five people and a full boot it gave good account of itself on some very steep and windy roads. main problem is the fan is barely working, lots of noise but no air - I have to find the filter, I reckon it hasn't been changed for years. Fuel consumption is almost as good as the Mondeo too, might even be better on a less demanding run, lightly loaded.

Apparently they didn't sell well and Fiat lost money on them, despite getting a 'Schumacher' model, dedicated 'Stilo racing' and skeery Arbarth Multijet models.

It has electric power steering, when you switch on the 'city' mode this becomes as light as a feather and parking in a tight car park becomes fun! Sadly the handling isn't exactly sporty with torsion bar rear suspension(!) and a tendency to roll a bit in curves, but you can't have everything.

Neil

So what

Mine was a 2 years old car with 24,000 miles on it.

Dave