How many miles have you driven on your clutch?

[Avensis tourer]

My car has reached 90,000 miles and the clutch is engaging high, but it's not slipping. I am thinking about changing it as a preventative measure. Based on my assumption that the previous owner never replaced it, I believe it's still the original clutch. 

How did it work for you? I interested in your opinions. I am inviting to discussion. 

 

 

[andymcm]

My T25 2007 2.0 diesel is on 168,000 miles and still on the original clutch. 

When it does go I'm not sure it will be worthwhile to get it replaced.  With the upsurge in garage prices (my independent now charges £80+VAT per hour for labour) I'm guessing I wouldn't get much change out of £1000.

[MrAurisT]

Whilst my car is 'only' on 60k miles it is a 2010 so a 13 year old clutch, its fine. I would definitely leave it alone if I were you, "if it isn't broke don't fix it" would be my advice.

 

[Roy124]

Andy agree as I did 170k in a Fiesta before I junked it. I think mileage is not the significant factor but road use.

If you continual drive in heavy stop/start traffic your clutch use will be heavy and you might even ride the clutch.

Many many years ago my mother wore a clutch out in less than 10k.  My MiL is a very low mileage driver, 2 to 3 miles a day.  She just burnt her clutch out: 57 Micra that she had had for 10 years.

[APS]

How long is a piece of string.

It so depends on how it's been driven. I've never actually worn out a clutch in any car. Despite doing over 200k. Some manage to kill them off in way less than 50k. Last time I replaced one in a car that had done 110k it turned out it had about 70% wear left in it.

[Guest]

Definitely depends on driving style - if you're rough on the clutch it can go at comically low mileage. Like brakes and tyres too. Some people replace them often, others get years upon years out of them. 

My Avensis is 78k nearly. Original clutch. 5 years old. 

Previous car I had (Fiat Panda) in 2016 we replaced the clutch due to suspected gearbox issues... it wasn't 'bad' before but you definitely could feel a difference in the bite once all the work was done. That was 120,000 / 11 years and probably rough enough life before I owned it. 

They can last the life of a car with careful driving. They will wear and feel different but it'll be so gradual you'd probably not notice much of a difference over say, 15 years. 

[APS]

56 minutes ago, SB1500 said:

They can last the life of a car with careful driving. They will wear and feel different but it'll be so gradual you'd probably not notice much of a difference over say, 15 years. 

Shane raises an important point. Clutches usually fail gradually over a longer period of time.

- The first you notice may be, as the OP mentions, that the biting point is very high.
- Then you may notice that the clutch doesn't engage with quite as much of a bite, even when provoked.
- The next stage is that you hear how the bite gets softer still and that revs drop off slower than normal when you step off the clutch to pull away.
- After this the clutch may start to slip during full acceleration when the engine hits peak torque. This will gradually get worse but you can still drive for a long time if you are careful.

The exception is when something in the clutch fails from fatigue - like one or more fingers, a damper spring etc. However, it's harder to pre-empt these failure as there is often little or no warning.  

The short of this is that a clutch can fail at any time, but you normally get plenty of heads up notice before it wears out. 

[Haliotis]

I had an uncle who went through clutches and gearboxes in intervals normally associated with spark plugs.  And he could scare you ****less at 30 mph.  He was born around 1894, never took a test and had an all-groups licence.

One of his car’s was a BSA with pre-selector gearbox.  On one occasion, when he had removed his wheels to clean under the mudguards, he later went out with my aunt for a Sunday afternoon drive.  A woman in a Daimler Conquest was following him, and noticed one of his rear wheels was wobbling (coming loose), so she overtook him and then signalled she was stopping, intending to warn him.  But his car did not have the braking efficiency of hers, and he ran into her!!!

[Tif]

I would leave It if It is ok. In my other car, I changed It last year with 335000 km and the clutch was still ok, only the dual mass flyweel was blocked and making noises.

[Cyker]

Good grief, I don't think I've had a clutch last more than 30k or so!!  

[Roy124]

56 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Good grief, I don't think I've had a clutch last more than 30k or so!!  

When did you last have a clutch?

I think, apart from riding the clutch, lots of time in slow moving traffic will increase clutch wear and also induce clutch riding.

[Avensis tourer]

Thank you for all of your posts. I found out that I can get a job done for the same price as a new clutch. I can have it done by a friend. but I am worried that if anything goes wrong I won't have time to do it myself. It will cost me around 600-700£ or more. The clutch is catching very high, which is a cause of concern for me. I have never had a clutch replacement before. I am usually a careful driver, and my brakes usually last for several years and 40k miles or more.

[Willss]

My petrol tourer (2017) had what I thought were gearbox issues from new. As part of their attempts to fix the issues they replaced the clutch under warranty at 16k (apparently there was a TSB for potential issues with the batch that mine came from). The replacement made no difference to the gearbox noises - which ironically I found were the same in 2 others I test drove with a "view to buying".  After discovering this I just lived with the noise and it's not changed in past 6 yrs!!!

However the free, new, clutch was a completely different beast to the first even when that one was new. Could pull away much more smoothly, far better at low speed pull aways in 2nd gear at roundabouts etc. Transformed the car. 

The replacement clutch is biting a little higher but fine at 70k miles.

 

[Cyker]

1 hour ago, Roy124 said:

When did you last have a clutch?

I think, apart from riding the clutch, lots of time in slow moving traffic will increase clutch wear and also induce clutch riding.

All my previous cars were manual so coming up to 3 years?  

But yeah, it's probably the crawling through London traffic and, worse, crawling through London traffic up hills and stuff, that didn't help!

Another plus to the hybrid - No need to change the clutch every 2-3 years!   

It really is suited to my usecase - No clutch wear and vastly reduced brake wear!  

[Dieseltijger]

On 12/18/2023 at 10:11 PM, Avensis tourer said:

My car has reached 90,000 miles and the clutch is engaging high, but it's not slipping. I am thinking about changing it as a preventative measure. Based on my assumption that the previous owner never replaced it, I believe it's still the original clutch. 

How did it work for you? I interested in your opinions. I am inviting to discussion. 

 

 

357000 kms, so 223k miles and towing a 1300kg caravan with a 1.8 petrol engine.

[Avensis tourer]

5 minutes ago, Dieseltijger said:

 

 

5 minutes ago, Dieseltijger said:

357000 kms, so 223k miles and towing a 1300kg caravan with a 1.8 petrol engine.

Hey mate, how high is your clutch "catching" ? 

[Dieseltijger]

I can't specify that. It is true that the path length of the pedal between disengaged and fully coupled is clearly shorter than in a new car

[Shavestick]

2010 1.8 manual, clutch started to slip last year at 135k, £500 to replace with a BluePrint as we couldn't source the original LUK kit. Drives fine after. We are on a hilly terrain here and clutches tend to last a bit less.

[MrAurisT]

44 minutes ago, Shavestick said:

2010 1.8 manual, clutch started to slip last year at 135k, £500 to replace with a BluePrint as we couldn't source the original LUK kit. Drives fine after. We are on a hilly terrain here and clutches tend to last a bit less.

I, too, live in a fairly hilly area, so with yours reaching 135k, gives me hope that mine will be fine for some time yet at 60k!

[Avensis tourer]

After considering your input, I have decided to keep my current clutch until I notice problems and then fit a new one.

[Konrad C]

I remember posting about replacing the clutch on my car backing in 2017 - 

I always had a second-hand cars, so it depends how the clutch was treated by previous owners. Once the clutch has been replaced, I never need to worry about a replacement again, and this goes for every car that had a clutch replaced. My driving style, is never slip the clutch, rev engine during slow manoeuvres and not rest my foot on the clutch pedal. Basically try to do anything to minimise clutch usage and wear. If I had a car from new, hopefully it should not need a clutch replacement. I do a lot less driving these days.  

[Gren]

I've driven a number of different cars of different makes to 150,000 - 200,000+ and never had to change a clutch, some of the higher-mileage cars were towing carvans too.  I'd second what other say, to leave it until it slips as it's an expensive job to change.