N12 Turbo Forums

Hey there guys!

My clutch is almost gone, it slips and jerks at low speeds when accelerating with a lot of load on the engine. For example, coming to a crossing in 2nd gear, slowing down to 10-15 km/h and then without touching the clutch pedal accelerating at 4/5 throttle (primary carb barrel fully open, secondary closed) back to 40 km/h would cause this to happen. I've checked and re-checked the clutch wire free play adjustment, it's fine.

Anyhoo, I'm going to replace the clutch the day after tomorrow. Not going to drive the car before that. Now, my biggest concern is the flywheel. If the clutch has worn a bad groove into the flywheel, I may have to replace it. I have a spare flywheel in excellent condition but I don't know what torque to use on the bolts. Should I use thread lock on the flywheel bolts?

Cheers,
Jan

If your clutch is slipping then its a good thing your going to replace it, If I were you, Id take the spare flywheel into who ever machines flywheels & get them to machine it, then theres no waiting around for the flywheel to be machined..As for the torque specs & loctiting the bolts, you can loctite the bolts, it wont hurt anything, it'll just take more effort to undo them the next time you come to replacing the clutch..I dont know the torque specs from the top of my head, but the last few clutches ive done at work on various cars have been around 120nm for the flywheel & the pressure plate are around 25nm..someone on here may know the exact specs or if you have the workshop manual handy

hey jan,
my e15s-manual says 78-88Nm for the flywheel bolts.
greez
martin

Thanks guys! It turns out I need to replace the flywheel, found deep grooves on the surface. The clutch wasn't completely shot but the throwout bearing is worn out, it has serious free play. I will replace the gearbox at the same time because there was a clear wrow-wrow bearing noise coming from the differential, mostly audible at low speeds in 1st and second gear. Pix coming later; I'm just taking a short break now before starting to put everything back together.

Old flywheel:


New flywheel. It's still a bit rusty, I used a piece of steel wool to get off the worst rust. The ring gear is worn, unfortunately, but it hasn't caused any starter problems.


Turns out that the clutch was alright and the throwout bearing wasn't. A previous owner must have caused that wear and tear on the old flywheel. I did replace the clutch anyway because it was a bit worn and you can see that it has worn itself into the grooves on the old flywheel. The pressure plate was in very good condition so I re-used the old one.

Rear face of the old Valeo clutch:

Rear face of the spare Sachs clutch:


Thanks for the advice and support guys, much appreciated!

ring gear looks fair fucked on the new one..Also did you just get rid of most of the rust on the new flywheel & not machine it?

baz wrote:ring gear looks fair fucked on the new one..

Yeah... it sucks.

baz wrote:Also did you just get rid of most of the rust on the new flywheel & not machine it?

Yes. I thought you meant that I should machine the one with the bad grooves. Oh well.

I clearly said, machine the spare flywheel you have, so when the box comes out, there's no waiting around for it to be machined.

Have fun with a clutch that feels like shit,& the uneven wear

baz wrote:I clearly said, machine the spare flywheel you have, so when the box comes out, there's no waiting around for it to be machined.

Have fun with a clutch that feels like shit,& the uneven wear

Hey m8, you sound like you're having an attitude here. I didn't try to insult you and I don't stand here to be insulted by you either. I misunderstood you, plain and simple. And no, the clutch doesn't feel like shit.

Hey guys, great thread! I'm trying change my clutch plates, pressure group and bearing as well. However, haven't been able to take the bell housing of yet. It seems to be stuck (?) with all the bolts removed. However, my question actually was: can I reuse my flywheel bolts? My Haynes doesn't tell me I have to change those, but normally you have to, right?
Hope my flywheel will not look like yours, TurboZ.dude.

MartinodePueblo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2019 6:04 amHey guys, great thread! I'm trying change my clutch plates, pressure group and bearing as well. However, haven't been able to take the bell housing of yet. It seems to be stuck (?) with all the bolts removed. However, my question actually was: can I reuse my flywheel bolts? My Haynes doesn't tell me I have to change those, but normally you have to, right?
Hope my flywheel will not look like yours, TurboZ.dude.

You can re-use the flywheel bolts, if you're getting all that stuff replaced, get the flywheel machined as well, but no issues re-using the bolts. I have done so myself