Thread: 300Tdi clutch dramas

Originally Posted by brianwood

Just another idea - go to super cheap and get yourself a rattle gun. I nearly did, but busted me guts instead...

yeh have one already, but don't use it much, keep finding it's hard enough getting a breaker bar on some bolts let alone the gun.

on the bright side, have just removed all bellhousing nuts/bolts, so progress is being made

finally got the box off tonight.

first thought was "oh ****, clutch fork looks fine!" back to square one...

so pulled the clutch off and finally found the problem, a semi-destroyed clutch plate





at least two of the little rivet/spacer things on the cushioning section had ripped themselves out of one side, so the centre of the plate was literally falling apart!

any ideas on what would cause this?

bit concerning considering the clutch does not look too old at all. not actually sure how old the clutch is (still can't find the bloody service books!), but overall it looks healthy. pressure plate looked fine and still plenty of meat left on the clutch plate so doesn't look at all near the end of its life.

It's a Valeo brand as well. i'm thinking some kind of design/manufacturing fault?

EDIT: just read Valeo is the factory brand, so might still be the original clutch that's finally had enough (205,000km )

From what i've heard fairly typical of a Valeo clutch to self destruct/fall apart, which is why I used an AP.

The trick to getting the flywheel bolts undone is using a rattle gun, i used a mates big Makita electric one.
The bellhousing bolts are all loctited in (272) which is why they can be tight but shouldn't be too hard.

Nice work Robzilla.
I just pulled my clutch out and it is a Valeo too.
The centre of the friction plate was very loose. Not far from self-destruct.
I replaced it with an Xtreme Outback unit, made in SA. It has 30% extra clamping load.