Had an interesting call last week. A new (now) customer called to say he had a clutch fitted recently at his local clutch centre on his D3 manual (Still relevant to RRS automatic cars) . Told us they had fitted new pressure plate, friction plate and DM flywheel for £800. All was fine until recently when he could put it in first gear, left the clutch pedal and get a crunchy noise and little drive. Took it back to the clutch centre and they told him that because there was lots of fluid all over the gearbox, the concentric slave had failed and wanted £££ to remove the box to prove it and then pay for a new slave to be fitted.

Obviously not happy with this, he came to us.

On our initial inspection, we found that the fluid was coming from the breather pipe not being connected properly. Because the clutch pedal still felt good and you could put the car in gear, instead of dropping the box out, we looked at the transfer box first and found that the rear prop bearing had failed.




This would explain the noise as the centre spline on the prop was grinding on the bearing centre.

£75 later and a good 2nd hand prop fitted = happy customer. Joe

I wonder if the clutch centre would have admitted the real cause of the problem after dropping the box  Kev

MY2014 L405 RR Vogue SE 4.4 SDV8 in Corris Grey
MY2010 L320 RRS HSE 3.0 TDV6 in Stornoway Grey

No, more likely the propshaft was damaged when the box was dropped out.

Clutch centring is only important when refitting the box. If the clutch was not centered, you wouldn't be able to get the first motion shaft in the friction plate properly and line up the bell-housing bolts. Joe

so yours saying the they dropped the gearbox and transfer box out as one unit ?

I've no idea what they other garage did when they changed the clutch. I know if we do a clutch, we drop the lot as one. If we're removing an automatic, then we take the transfer box off first.

Whatever way you do it, you still need to detach both prop shafts. Joe

OvalAutos wrote:

Clutch centring is only important when refitting the box. If the clutch was not centered, you wouldn't be able to get the first motion shaft in the friction plate properly and line up the bell-housing bolts.

My bad! Yes, Kev was indeed referring to the Clutch Centre, not the centre plate... duh....

Sorry Kev  Joe

No problem Joe. I must admit I was a little confused with the reply  Kev

MY2014 L405 RR Vogue SE 4.4 SDV8 in Corris Grey
MY2010 L320 RRS HSE 3.0 TDV6 in Stornoway Grey