do I have a dodgy clutch?

londonTiger

OK a few niggling bits, it's always been like this but no idea if this is just how the car runs or whether the clutch is bad.

1. Cannot do 5mph in the car, minimum I can do is 7mph, if I try to drive 5mph (gear 1 obviously) it is rough, sounds like it's going to stall so I do 7mph and then freewheel to drop the speed and so forth.

2. I looked up bad clutch test videos which suggested that if the car doesn't stall when trying to get the car moving from stationary in gear 2 then it has a bad clutch because the clutch plate is still spinning despite clutch being engaged. As it should the car does stall if I try to launch in gear 2 (speed akin to how I would launch in gear 1) But if I really feather the gas and move the clutch up very slowly I can get the car moving in gear 2 and even gear 3 I believe. Is this normal?

Reason I ask is my fuel economy is really bad in town 20mpg, motorways 45mpg. I suspect the clutch is off and not really engagging resorting to over reving. WOuld a bad clutch have a serious fuel economy issue?

marlot

Perfectly normal as you describe it.

You'd know you had a slipping clutch well before noticing a drop in fuel consumption. If you put your foot down and the engine revs rise but the road speed does not, that's slipping.

As for the fuel consumption. When was the car last serviced, including air filter? If it's petrol, when were the spark plugs last changed?

londonTiger

marlot wrote: »

Perfectly normal as you describe it.

You'd know you had a slipping clutch well before noticing a drop in fuel consumption. If you put your foot down and the engine revs rise but the road speed does not, that's slipping.

As for the fuel consumption. When was the car last serviced, including air filter? If it's petrol, when were the spark plugs last changed?

Every service is current, airfilter, sparkies, engine oil, engine oil filter etc. All done within the last year and I do these all annually. My annual miles is 8,000 ish

I have a catalytic converter issue, that has been on there for quite some time, mechanic reckons the cat is gone but expensive. The fuel economy dropped like a bomb recently after an ASDA fillup, where I got 60 miles less to a fuel tank than normal. Since then the fuel economy has been improving every fillup.

The other reason why I suspect I have a a bad cat is that it's a bit slow off the mark, I don't know if it's the car or if it's me growing out of my slow car and needing a quicker car.

Silver-Surfer_2

So when you said this today what did you mean?

londonTiger wrote: »

it depends, my car private sale is £800. webuyanycar will but it for £280. But it's in good condition and drives smooth, in fact the older it gets the smoother it seems to drive. I would not bat any eyelid about paying for a clutch & timing belt job any time in future.

I do havew sentimental attachment to the car. I've been under the car more times than I can remember doing gear oil change, engine oil change. I've done all the fluid changes even the ones VW says are meant to last a lifetime (power steering, gear oil).

I have done 400 mile runs with it (round trip London to Leeds to pick up a gumtree item)

I spent two weekends machine polisihing the car when I got it. So it's more than just a lump of metal to me.

You should not look at in terms of how much the car is worth vs what the repair bill is. The price is determined by the supply and demand of used cars in the market, your car price is driven down by the consumer culture for cars fuelled by finance deals which floods used car market.

If you are happy with the car, if you would drive regardless I say keep it.

The bonus with your car is that the design is still the same as recent model minis, it's timeless so you need not be worried about it looking old and out of date.

My golf looks a bit dated.

Also I dont know why you want to get rid of the car 100,000 is not the "final years" of the car as you'd expect it to be in the 80s. 100,000 today is car that's "just getting warmed up". Good thing is everyone else assumes 100K is the graveyard age and sell their cars for ridiculous money. I'd happy buy cars at 100K on the clock all day long.

I got 4 years of troublefree motoring from my 96K golf, which I have done 30K on.

Maybe you spoke too soon.

londonTiger

EVery car has issues, I regard trouble as "oops car stopped running and there's steam coming from under the bonnet, I just did a dealer service and it only has 50,000 on the clock".

Or any other problem where the car just fails to work for mysterious reasons

Ectophile

Some cars will happily start in high gear, while others won't. I learned to drive on a Mk1 Ford Escourt. Many times I pulled away in 3rd gear thinking it was 1st. That car was almost impossible to stall.

The sign of a slipping clutch is the engine revving while the car struggles to go up a hill in high gear. My test for a slipping clutch is:-

1. Stick foot on clutch.
2. Put car in high gear and check handbrake is firmly engaged.
3. Rev the engine a bit.
4. Slowly lift your foot off the clutch.
5. As the speed drops, rev the engine harder to compensate.

If you can take your foot fully off the clutch without stalling the engine, the clutch is worn out. If it becomes clear that the engine's about to stall before you've taken your foot fully off the clutch, then it's good. Try to do the test quickly, and don't do it too often, as it will cause wear on the clutch just doing the test.

The other problem you can have with a clutch is that it won't fully disengage. That results in crunchy gear changes, and ultimately difficulty in getting some gears at all.

forgotmyname

Driving that slow without using the clutch will cause issues itself.

Norman_Castle

londonTiger wrote: »

1. Cannot do 5mph in the car, minimum I can do is 7mph, if I try to drive 5mph (gear 1 obviously) it is rough, sounds like it's going to stall so I do 7mph and then freewheel to drop the speed and so forth.

7mph is the lowest speed your car will drive at without potentially stalling the engine. Nothing to do with the clutch.

EdGasket

The minimum speed you can do is a function of your idle speed, gear ratios, and wheel diameter; nothing to do with the clutch assuming it is fully engaged and not slipping.

bigjl

Sounds like your revs are too low.

What would a running issue with the clutch fully released have to do with the clutch? As the clutch is no longer being used. Unless you are slipping it. Which is what you should be doing if the revs are too low for the engine to run cleanly.

londonTiger

bigjl wrote: »

Sounds like your revs are too low.

What would a running issue with the clutch fully released have to do with the clutch? As the clutch is no longer being used. Unless you are slipping it. Which is what you should be doing if the revs are too low for the engine to run cleanly.

clutch plate connects the engine to the gearbox. the clutch is USED when the clutch pedal is released, as in the clutch plates are in contact and meant to have a solid connection. If it is slipping then the gearbox and engine are revving at different speeds when they should be at the same speed.

In all honesty I think the issue is probably just me driving harder now than when I first got the car 4 years ago and expect it to drive a lot faster. When I first got the car 4 years ago I used to drive like I drove in my lessons.