Clutch Kit Replacement Problem
 

Hey Guys, Newbie Here :)

So over the past little while I noticed my clutch starting to slip and pulsate and do a few other funky things. So I knew it was time for a replacement, on Saturday i picked up a LUK Clutch Kit. Removal went kind of slow but i got everything apart and the transmission off. The throwout bearing was well shot, I had little ball bearings fall out of the bell housing as soon as it cracked from the block. Long story short!

I replaced the flywheel bearing, throwout bearing, clutch, and pressure plate reinstalled everything correctly (DOUBLE, TRIPLE Checked it) clutch was in the right direction the works.

Got everything bolted and fastened on. got into the top started the car and had an engage problem. Later found out after a little trouble shooting and the piston flying out of the slave cylinder it needed replaced. (It didn't fly in the bell-housing that would be a bad thing :) )

Last night I replaced the slave cylinder and the clutch petal feels 120% better then before.

Here is my problem now. When in gear and engaging the clutch the car (on a hoist) works great. Once under load (on ground) it has a hard time taking off and you hear a loud chatter sound. My dad, a friend, and I think we have diagnosed it properly to a warped / grove-ed Flywheel-Pressure Plate.

A replacement up here in Canada is ~$900.00 i told my dad he almost had a heart attack lol.

I was looking for
A) A second opinion on our diagnosis.
B) Can the OEM Flywheel Pressure Plate be turned down like the old days? If so what is the minimum thickness required.

Extra Notes;
I checked the flywheel before we replaced everything here are my findings
NO CRACKS
Could not see noticeable warp-age (doesn't mean there was none)
Noticed only to touch small waves/groves file moving my finger across the grain of the pressure plate. (upon further inspection these "groves" could not be seen only felt)
This flywheel is original with 367,000km

Thank you in advance, and look forward to hearing everyones suggestions/opinions

-CoDeR

A few ideas:

Did you install the clutch facing the right direction?

What was the condition of your flywheel before putting things back together? Is it a single or dual mass flywheel?

tbw

I have most of those answer in my above post.
However i forgot to mention it is Dual Mass

"(DOUBLE, TRIPLE Checked it) clutch was in the right direction the works. "

"I checked the flywheel before we replaced everything here are my findings
NO CRACKS
Could not see noticeable warp-age (doesn't mean there was none)
Noticed only to touch small waves/groves file moving my finger across the grain of the pressure plate. (upon further inspection these "groves" could not be seen only felt)
This flywheel is original with 367,000km "

Sorry, I guess I didn't see all that earlier.

That's kind of high mileage for the flywheel, from what I understand. Some people say you can use it for one clutch plate change (e.g. two clutches total).

I saw a thread here last week that someone said to have turned down a dual mass flywheel... it's not impossible, it's just really tricky. Most shops won't even touch it.

It does sound like your diagnosis is correct, though, without hearing and feeling it in person.

tbw

Well everything seems to be working great, just need to learn how to drive the car all over again :)

It was the flywheel found a guy locally that would re surface it for me. Only $75.00, Looked brand new.

Thanks Again.

For 75$? That's pretty good price. I remember the mechanic charged me about $100 for the clutch kit replacement.. I should have made more canvassing first.

bringing back an old thread, but i needa make sure.

you resurfaced a duel-mass flywheel? my mechanic told me that its impossible. i know its a big debate. haha. what if its burned, can it still be resurfaced, or only if its barly messed up.

i am doing the clutch/tranny replace (2nd gear is almost gone, and clutch is starting to slip) have not looked at clutch, but i do not want to have the tranny out of the car, and have the mechanic tell me i need a $1000 flywheel, and i can not wait to get a cheaper one.

i needa make sure that i can tell him, 100% that this thing can be resurfaced, and that he should just find someone to do it quick. (sorry, i am just worried to much i guess. $1k for a new flywheel is not fun, and not waiting for a used one is a pain too)

all help/info on the flywheel would be awesome. thanks.

I resurfaced my dual mass that had blueing from heat and some gouging. It came out perfect and sits on a bookshelf with less then 2,000 miles on it. The clutch you got was hooked to that flywheel. They can be turned and cleaned up...


Added ~ I know where you can get a used flywheel if you need one or I'm sure there are plenty on the board with all the swaps...

alright, thanks. it should be fine, but i want to make sure i can have it resurfaced, since they told me no before. if they still say no, it seems i can atleast get one pretty fast, but i still rather not have my car in the shop for more then a few days.. haha

i was going to do the swap, but it seemed liked such a pain, and i am pretty busy, so $400 for the entire tranny/clutch swap sounded like a steal to me. haha.

no experience here, but 367,000 km seems like a fair bit of mileage. I noticed on my 117k mile clutch, the disc had about .5mm difference in thickness from the inside vs outside edges. Not sure if the flywheel itself would be worn uneven, but that could all affect how well it clamps down, especially if the surface is grooved. Perhaps it will break in? Kind of like squealing brakes when you replace pads but re-use rotors.. but I usually have to hit the rotors with a little sandpaper before the squeal goes away.. the peaks seem to glaze over and the grooves don't touch.. or so it seems.. daddy was right, gotta replace EVERYTHING in a used car :)

Does anyone have a good shop that will resurface a dual mass flywheel? East coast preferred, just my car is down for the shortest time possible.

Thanks for the help!
Dave

Most will NOT resurface a dual mass, the assumption being the bonding is weak from age, if the bond on a dual mass goes bad, its just about as bad as a full flywheel failure.

Its kind of a cost of ownership, the dual mass was a BMW decision, you could probably do a single mass for 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of the dual mass kit.

As I recall it takes rear mounted complex collet jig to turn a dual mass flywheel and guarantee the flywheel spins true. Much like machining a Harmonic balancer.

Dave