Hi guys,
I realise this is quite an old thread, but the OP describes very well the problem my brothers VY S has had.
We pulled the box out of it yesterday and found a few things and I have some questions.
Bit of background, the symptoms are as described by the OP, came on very quickly, clutch pedal slightly lighter, no clutch fluid leak, I did notice the rear main seal is a little bit damp, but doesn't appear to be pouring out, slips badly on even light throttle. I'm told it is also spitting him out of the higher gears if he can get all the way up to them, but I didn't get to replicate that for myself.
Car has done 115,000km odd.
1. The dual mass flywheel:
I have been told that if they have more than about 3 - 5mm movement when you are swinging off the pressure plate, then it is shagged. I struggled to get that much movement out of it. Is that the correct sign of shagged-ness?
I also noticed printed in big, bold, white print "Do Not Machine" on the flywheel. I, and I've told my brother this, would loathe to put a new clutch in without machining the flywheel, however, it's not my car, so I have a duty to find more info. ha ha. Do we realistically have to replace the flywheel regardless of whether it's shagged or not?
2. Random little brass thingy?
When we pulled the pressure plate and friction disc out, my brother grabbed a little brass thingy out of the centre, i didn't get to see exactly where it came from. It appears to have fractured around it's circumference, but I can't see a matching other half for it. There is a small amount of brass filings in the dust and grime in the area, but not enough to have ground the other half away. Pictures below
Also, I noticed the car doesn't have a traditional, rolling element spigot bearing like I would have expected. Is this brass thingy the spigot bearing? Just a sliding element bearing? That's the only explanation I can come up with for it. :? It fits nicely over the end of the input shaft, so I'm assuming it is.
3. Pressure plate spring, prong, teethy things.
Sorry, I don't know the proper name for those bits. ha ha. The metal tangs that are radial and point inward. Those bits. What's their real name?
Anyway, to my actual question, lol. We found 2, maybe 3 of the tangs we bent inwards badly. I can't imagine that's going to help with the integrity of the clutch clamping. What would cause them to bend so significantly? Could this be the cause of the relatively sudden loss of friction? Bend a couple of tangs with a slightly worn friction disc and all of a sudden it doesn't hold anymore?
Pics:
4. Gearbox input shaft
The gearbox input shaft has a little bit of free play in it. about half to one mm of movement all around, no thrust though. Is this normal? I had a T5 from my falcon sitting outside the car and it was very similar as well, so not too concerned by this.
Other pictures:
Friction disc wear:
Flywheel surface:
I didn't get a (non blurry) picture of the pressure plate friction surface, but it looks almost identical to the flywheel. A lot of that heat may have been generated during the slipping because of this failure.
I'm looking forward to getting some opinions.
Cheers guys,
Nic
