Clutch Bite Point

[Nik52]

Hi all this is my first post as a new owner.

Last week i bought my wife a 2010 IQ2 in white, fantastic little car and very well equipped.

The wife thinks its a great little car and i'm quite impressed but i have one concern, the clutch biting point seems really high, nearly full release of the pedal.

This to me is a sign of a worn clutch so i gave RMB a call and they said that's how they are but they've agreed to take a look at it, are the clutch biting points high or are they trying to fob me off???

The car has only covered 8000 miles.

Thanks

Nik.

[Soeley]

The bite on my iQ³ (just over 7000 miles) is low down on the pedal. Definitively below half way.

Perhaps the hydraulics need bleeding?

Or the previous owner rode the clutch heavily, and it is worn?

[craggle]

Odd that I too was wondering about that on the way home tonight.

I have an iQ3 that I've owned for about 3 weeks now and it has 10500 miles on it. The bite point is about 3/4 of the way up the pedal stroke, quite close to the top really.

I have tried loading the engine in high gears and it definitely dosen't slip but it does seem quite high to me. I also test drove an iQ2 with 25K miles on it when I bought mine and didn't notice a difference in the clutch so assumed that was right.

Craig.

[craggle]

Okay, Just had a look in the manual and it specifies, if I read it correctly, 25mm up from the end stop position to the start of the bite point is the minimum measurement, not sure it says a maximum though?

I'll be meausuring mine tomorrow now....

Craig.

[craggle]

Well, I feel a bit better this morning.

I did a quick check when I got to work and the clutch starts to drag the gears round about 40mm from the floor but the full grip to get you moving is obviously higher than that.

Think mine is OK now but let us know what you find if you do take it back to the dealer.

Craig.

[Kip]

Some pretty good info there Craig. My iQ had quite a high clutch when I bought it used with around 4k miles on it. It wasn't faulty though, just higher than my previous car and took a bit of getting used to.

A college tutor of mine told me a little story from his days working in dealerships. A women bought herself a brand new BMW. One morning she tries to set off from her driveway to go to work and the car doesn't move. It was recovered to the dealer where they diagnosed the problem as a clutch fault. They stripped the clutch and found masses of straw-like material. This was caused by the driver resting her foot on the clutch pedal when driving. The warranty obiviously did not cover as it was put down to driver error and not a fault with the car. It had done 111 miles from new.

That's probaby quite an extreme example of premature clucth wear, but just goes to show it doesn't really matter what mileage a vehicle has done. Contrast that with a friend of mine who has a Peugeot 406 2.0L diesel and the clutch finally gave in at 135k miles. If RMB say it's all fine but you're still worried, get a friend who knows a bit about clutches to examine it. Or try it yourself using the info Craig posted up.