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when to fix clutch?

W

whyrichard

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 15, 2002
1,718
9
Hey...


my girlfriend has a commute through la traffic that is about 40 miles each way, it takes her an average of one hour. she drives manual transmission toyota of about 1993.

she is describing car strangeness that sounds to me like the clutch is wearing out.



how does one know when to change the clutch in a car? should she do it before it becomes really bad? i do not want her to be abandoned on a los angeles highway during rush hour!

thanks,
r.
 
Get it serviced. When it is in for the service get them to check out the transmission.

Get recommendations on were to get it serviced for friends and family even co. workers.
 
Noise is a sign that something is falling apart. It's time to get it serviced, and it's better and often much cheaper to do it early rather than waiting for her to burn the entire thing out and possibly taking the transmission with it.

It could be as simple as a linkage or the clutch plate may be worn. Hard to say.

Is the noise when the car is moving, at idle, or when she tries to change gears? This is something to pay attention to.
 
When the clutch went on my Opel Corsa, the car would not go into gear. You would depress the clutch and try to select a gear and the gear stick would refuse to go in.

Clutches are not expensive - around $60 for mine, but fitting it on the other hand was $340! It's because they are very time consuming to fit apparently.
 
$60 for a clutch? Jesus that's cheap.

Anyway

Yeah, it took me a good solid weekend with a friend a few years back to learn how to change without the clutch. Sucks when you screw it up... :apple:
 
A clutch can be cheap, it can be expensive.

But no matter what, taking apart a tranny and engine coupling, is not a fun, cheap or easy job no matter what kind of car you got!
 
Peterkro said:
Bah whippersnappers,a clutch is purely optional with a manual(assuming it's wearing out and not slipping) just match revs and wheel speed then power shift.From a stop start in gear.
Click to expand...

This is more difficult in practice, but a very good way to limp home.

Sdashiki said:
A clutch can be cheap, it can be expensive.

But no matter what, taking apart a tranny and engine coupling, is not a fun, cheap or easy job no matter what kind of car you got!
Click to expand...

The parts are usually pretty cheap, even buying a whole new transmission can be done for under $1,000, it's the installation that takes so much time and therefore money.
 
What's actually going on with the clutch? If it's just slipping excessively when you pull away then you need new clutch plates. If you have a noise that occurs whenever the clutch pedal is depressed then your clutch release bearing could be about to go, and that will probably kill your transmission completely.
 
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