Why I Do Not Trust Garages - Clutch Problems

[oldcodger]

Thought my recent clutch problems / outcome might be of interest .

The original fault was some clutch slip, so thought I would get it sorted soooner rather than later.

Shopping around found a localish company specialising in Car/Van Clutch and Gearbox repairs and they offered a same day service saying they would fit a brand name assembly.

Picked it up but it was a very heavy pedal, sudden and grabbing action and prone to judder.

Took some advice from the Car Mechanics Help Desk and they suggested it could be normal for it to take a while to bed in, so basically bear with it a bit.

Won't bore with all the in between stuff, but basically after 3 months and 3000 miles of mainly town driving it still juddered badly and was also casing difficulty in 1st and second gear selection.

The bottom line is that I had no confidence in talking it back to that garage so decided to fit a new clutch myself, details in a previous post.

What I did not show on there is what I found when I opened up my belhousing.

Seem like these points are the source of my problems

The Release bearings Face had been covered in Copper Slip .

The release bearings shaft still had a coating of old tacky Moly grease on it, ( assume the originial factory release bearing was all metal, so needing grease) but the new blueprint release bearing has a plastic inner ring that should not be greased, well according to folk like LuK or Sachs info sheets.

The gearbox shaft splines should be lubricated, but apart from what looks like a bit of copperslip running down from the release bearing , no grease was used.

You can also see on the pressure plate a distinct groove where the release bearing has made contact and actually started to wear down into the spring.

Relacing the whole assembly with a genuine LuK clutch kit ,correctly lubricated, as per their installion sheet cured all the problems.

Sent these pics off to helpful and very experienced guy at Car mechanics and this bit of his reply really says it all.

I am very pleased that you have rectified the problem and dismayed that you needed
to do it yourself after paying to have the job carried out.

Copper slip should not be applied to the bearing face as this will prevent the
bearing spinning correctly when it makes contact, allowing it to jump
over the face of the clutch release fingers.

This is possibly the reasonfor the wear which has started to appear.

It is sad to think that a company purporting to be experts can misuse the lubricant in such a way.

Still, have now got a really light and smooth new clutch so job finally done, but don't think you will be seeing me in any garages anytime soon !!

[Cyker]

Yeah, this sort of thing is why I use a travelling mechanic for stuff like that. The problem with a garage is you don't know whether you get an experienced diligent person or a gormless jobsworth.

With the guy I use, at least I know who's doing the work and he's proven he actually knows what he's doing and takes some pride in his work.

[elCommando]

Yep, I totally agree with Cyker. You don't know who will be dealing with your car - whether it is an experienced person who knows what they are doing or a helpless rookie.

I mean, last time I took my car to the garage for a belt & water pump change, one of the mechanics there asked me whether I had bought engine oil for an oil change but I told him its red coolant for a coolant change. I was a bit worried that he couldn't read so I intentionally repeated this a few times.

When I got my car back, I lifted the bonnet, and behold, I noticed red liquid around the engine oil cap. I suspect the idiot put the coolant in the engine oil tank!

Its very hard to find a mechanic who takes pride in their work rather than chasing the £'s. I wouldn't even mind paying extra money to a good, trustworthy mechanic, but it seems that it is really hard to find one.