Has my clutch gone?

There is a big white piece of plastic that connect the cable to the gearbox. On the piece of plastic is a plastic nut that you loosen a bit. Then you can turn the plastic thing to increase the tension on the cable until is feels normal. Really easy to do.
 
Good news for once :)

Took her to a mechanic a friend recommended.

I could not believe what the problem actually was!

When I took it in for the service, I asked them to look at repairing my broken fan which was stuck on cold.

The cable from the fan was tangled around the part of the clutch under the bonnet which moves when you engage the gears. So when I was trying to get it into 1st and reverse it was literally getting caught on this cable.

The new mechanic saw this immediately and let me stand and watch while he engaged the gears and it was plain to see! So he tied up the cable with a cable tie and it was fixed. Cost: R0 !!!

I am not convinced that the place I had her serviced did this on purpose and that it was not just a really bad oversight on their part. So I will not name them here. Suffice it to say, I will not be recommending them to anyone or going there again!

Thanks for all the replies and advice.

It is always wise to get a 2nd opinion :)
 
Hope you called the 1st place and gave them a blasting... oversight or not.
 
Henry : honest opinion here...

The fact that a place that did the service "missed" that and quoted to replace the entire clutch tells me straight away that it was done on purpose. I would give them a blasting and name and shame.
 
xrapidx said:
Under bonnet? That sounds suspect, can you see the clutch cable from the bonnet?
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YES!! It's just about the first thing you can see...loops around and attaches to the arm on the gearbox, after passing through the firewall.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Henry : honest opinion here...

The fact that a place that did the service "missed" that and quoted to replace the entire clutch tells me straight away that it was done on purpose. I would give them a blasting and name and shame.
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+1
 
supersunbird said:
Funny how it only happened after its been serviced... Something smells fishy...
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Exactly what I thought.

The_Librarian said:
A clutch should last up to 400000kms. 75000kms is too low for a clutch to be gone.

Unless you were riding the clutch (foot on clutch pedal) the whole time - this will cause clutch slip and wear it out quicker.
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He lives on the mountain so he could be using alot of clutch :p

ToxicBunny said:
Henry : honest opinion here...

The fact that a place that did the service "missed" that and quoted to replace the entire clutch tells me straight away that it was done on purpose. I would give them a blasting and name and shame.
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Yip +1
It seems really dodge.
How the heck do they just go about diagnosing that it was the clutch without seeing the problem the 2nd mechanic found?
Also what would they have said if they had done the job and the clutch plate was just fine?
 
Good old golfies! I must have replaced the clutch cable in mine (when I still had it) at least three times when it snapped...the first time was quite an experience but the following times were pretty quick and easy (apart from that damn rubber that you have to put into place where the cable slides through into the car itself).

I also had a little mazda that had a case of slipping clutch at only around 65000 km's - they also wanted to charge me around R4000 to replace the clutch which I could not afford so I took it to a second dealer where they just replaced a seal in some cylinger (something about it leaking stuff onto the clutch plate and then causing it to slip...because this would only happen when the car had been running for at least an hour or two). Anyway that only cost me around R400 (with labour) and it was done within one day instead of three days.

Glad you had yours fixed with nothing more than a cable tie!
 
Agreed.. glad Henry got it fixed with just a cable tie...

But its more worrying that a service shop has purposefully tried to get Henry to spend R4k when there was absolutely NO need to. Those kind of shady business practices need to be stopped.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Agreed.. glad Henry got it fixed with just a cable tie...

But its more worrying that a service shop has purposefully tried to get Henry to spend R4k when there was absolutely NO need to. Those kind of shady business practices need to be stopped.
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Agreed 100%. Some of us know exactly what is going on under our bonnets but there are thousands of guys out there who can be very easily ripped off.

I met one of these rip off merchants who prepares cars for Barlowworld in Durban, the bastard actually told me that my car had been filled with new "mud coloured" anti freeze, when I asked him why the system hadn't been flushed out as I had asked! Sad thing is that a hell of a lot of guys would have believed him and buggered up their cars in the process! :mad:
 
The price is not bad but clutch gone at 75 000km? Do you only drive in heavy traffic? Is the pedal very stiff?
I had my car's first clutch replaced at 300 000km and now again at 466 000km (R3 700.00 - it included a main oil seal and new cable). The first 300 000km was only 30% heavy traffic. BTW it's an Opel Astra.
 
Lol, never had a clutch replaced in my life and currently just over 300 000km on my car.
 
Advise please! My wife took her polo vivo 1.4 to VW in Lenasia to fix the clutch paddle that kept jumping up, now they are telling her that they will also replace a clutch plate which will cost R7500, which is not why she went there for, they told her that they can not only fix the clutch paddle, this sounds like she is being forced to fix what they say she must fix to get their R7500 and she told them they must just put back together everything she will go somewhere else, now they telling her to pay R1200 for checking what's wrong though they didn't do anything to the car. Isn't this a rip off? Worse part the Dealership Principal is no where to be found. Please advise what to do in this situation.
 
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LumzaG said:
Advise please! My wife took her polo vivo 1.4 to VW in Lenasia to fix the clutch paddle that kept jumping up, now they are telling her that they will also replace a clutch plate which will cost R7500 and she told them they must just put back together everything she will go somewhere else, now they tell g to pay R1200 for checking what's wrong. Isn't this a rip off? Worse part the Principal is no where to be found. Please advisadvise what to do in this situation.
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No rip off there, the price is a bit too high but you pay to see a doctor right, even if there is nothing wrong with you.
 
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