Tommy24, I look forward to seeing your comments later. A said they changed mine but I had to pay for the clutch but not labour.
Bettabuida, took a friend of mine to BBR for the 175 package in his 2.0 RC Sport and he managed to get just under 200bhp. The only thing he has on his car is a Racing Beat back box, weird.
Yes, it is wierd, the 2.0 has a head start on mine though when I supercharged my mk1, it leaped up to 190bhp for around £2-2.5k which I thought was great value per bhp
then, trying to squeeze a few more horses became quite a bit more expensive per bhp, so I just left it as it was.
I’d love to have more power (though I don’t really know why 'cos I’m not really a ‘fast’ driver ) but it’s getting best £££’s/bhp increase that I’m searching for. Having spent a load on cosmetic stuff recently, there’s not a lot left in the pot for performance upgrades
so it will probably have to wait a while.
Barrie
I’m rather hoping that the clutch can be adjusted. Maybe if that is so I can have it done locally rather than driving down to Brackley from Nottingham and back! If not it looks like I’ll have to pay for a new clutch maybe minus the labour. Not very good is it? The other thing I’ve had from the moment I drove it away from Brackley is that I get transmition noise from the gearbox. I was assured that this is a frequent issue but one which never leads to anything worse, so don’t worry about it. All I can do is take their word for it but I would be very interested to know if this transmission issue happens with everyone else as BBR said it does when they have the stage two turbo .
Tommy
Hate to be the first to spoil things, but absolutely no change in noise from my transmission after going stage 2.
@Valve - there’s no adjustment at the clutch end as it’s a hydraulic setup so is self adjusting. I believe there is some adjustment at the clutch pedal end though so this may help. If it’s slipping, is the bite point high up? If not, I can’t see that any adjustment is going to fix that. Assuming you’ve not done many miles since the conversion I’d be expecting BBR to be sorting this out at their expense.
Dave
Well that’s interesting Dave. I wondered if there could be a link between the transmission and the clutch (besides the blatantly obvious one!)? The noise is worst in the lower gears. I’ve another question: how does a clutch get to slip? I always thought that it wore out as a result of gradual wear as it engages / when you start off mostly, but a wee bit when you change between the other gears. Is that true, or can it wear as a result of high load when it’s already in a gear, but your foot is down hard? I ask that question because the latter might be attributable to having more horsepower under the bonnet. If it’s not, then theoretically there should be no wear where as a result of a more powerful engine. Thus, so-called “hard driving” would not cause more clutch wear unless you were starting off from a standing start with very high revs and slipping the clutch as you set off. I don’t do that so I can’t fathom why it’s lasted so little time unless it’s been fitted poorly.
I can only speak from mk1 experience, when I pushed the power up and had an OEM clutch, it slipped when you gave it the beans! The poor thing couldn’t cope with the extra horses. I then had fitted a complete new 6 puck clutch and lightened flywheel. No more slip! Sounds to me as though the big increase in power is not being matched to a suitable clutch? Or, I was advised to “bed in” the new clutch over the first 500 miles or so, not to floor it or drop the clutch from a standstill, keep the car in the right gear not letting the engine labour etc. Then, gradually open it up to its full potential. I did all that and the clutch held in all situations, being a 6 puck, it was grabby though and a handfull in stop start traffic. Am I right in thinking that the clutch friction material can glaze over if not properly bedded in, so full grip can’t be achieved, causing the slip. Doesn’t explain gearbox noise though, why would that change as rotational speeds haven’t altered, just happens faster, or difficulty engaging gears, that’s usually caused by drag on the clutch if it’s not fully disengaging.
Having said all that, it’s almost impossible to resist the urge to unleash the extra power when you take delivery of the engine upgrade
Barrie
Tommy
Clutch slip can be caused by several things:
- worn out - basically there’s no friction material left
- contaminated with oil usually from a failed rear main seal
- cover plate springs lost their springiness (can be due to overheating the clutch from slipping it too much)
- asking clutch to handle too much torque - the combination of friction material and pressure plate isn’t rated for the torque
- release mechanism (pedal or slave cylinder) not fully releasing meaning the pressure plate can’t clamp the friction plate fully
When a clutch fails you usually notice it first when you floor it in gear - revs rise but car doesn’t go any faster. Also usually noticeable in higher gears.
I’ve got no idea if your transmission noise and clutch issues are connected. You’re right that a clutch doesn wear when you’re just driving along - wear happens on standing starts and on changing gear - basically any time there’s clutch slip then you’re wearing the clutch out.
Dave
Bettabuilda
Rather you than me with a paddle clutch in a daily driver! They’re horribly grabby.
The reason you were told to bed it in is because you tend to get high spots on a new flywheel / friction plate and initially you’re wearing down those high spots so you’ve got even contact across the whole flywheel / friction plate area. If you don’t do this you can overheat the high spots and then you’ll never get a flat surface. This will result in lots of clutch judder every time you pull away.
However, bedding in is all about minimising slip - so yes, avoid dropping the clutch standing starts -but nothing to stop you flooring it once the clutch is fully engaged.
Dave
I had to develop a new technique for moving along in stop start traffic on OEM clutch I could just ease the clutch and set off almost on tickover, with the 6 puck, I used to rev it and let the clutch out as the revs were dying, it worked apart from reverse where it shook the car violently
fortunately, didn’t do many miles in reverse. On the go it was brilliant though. Have to say, if the friction materials and pressure plate aren’t up to the job of handling the power, it will slip. This was my point really.
Barrie