Clutch master & slave cylinders were replaced on my 2012 NC2, 12 months ago,
Garage said they’d had difficulty bleeding the clutch, on the following day it was obviously dragging so I took it back. They said they thought that the new parts may have been slightly different to the old ones, they then adjusted the pushrod which solved the clutch drag issue however it’s never been right since as the biting point keeps varying up & down.
Car’s in at another garage for service, MOT etc at the moment & I asked them to investigate the clutch hydraulics due to the variable biting point.
They’ve called this afternoon to say that the release bearing is “spinning constantly” & “will burn itself out”, they seem a bit stumped & have advised me not to use the car until they can book it back in for further investigation.
There are no odd noises or anything, no clutch slip either - I was totally unaware of this issue before the advice from the garage today.
I’ve found posts on other (American) forums where a few peoples’ opinion seems to be that the clutch release bearings in MX-5s are designed to spin all the time. Can anybody please confirm or refute this?
I think there is some semantic confusion between the whole bearing unit spinning and one race being held by the release fork while the other race spins, which is what most people would call spinning. I assume you have some free play at the pedal?
If the first garage has adjusted the clutch pedal push rod too much it will put constant pressure on the release bearing and the bearing will always spin.
There is an official way to adjust the clutch pedal push rod so there is clearance between release bearing and pressure plate when the pedal is at the top of its travel.
The book says :
CLUTCH PEDAL PLAY INSPECTION/ADJUSTMENT
Lightly depress the clutch pedal by hand until clutch resistance is felt and then measure the pedal play.
I believe the first action should be bleeding the clutch properly. Using a vacuum or pressure bleeder and plenty of fluid. It’s possible the garage did a half assed job in which case you will always be trying to compensate for air in the system which will change the action every time it warms up via the engine. Once you are sure the system is bled then move back to adjustment to fine tune it.
Thanks all. The car will be back at the 2nd garage tomorrow & I’ve passed on the (very much appreciated) advice from here.
I’d been using the 1st garage for many years with no issues until quite recently - however last year’s experience was the second occasion when the car had been returned to me with an issue it didn’t have when I took it in. Additionally to that, last year the Engine Management Light came on a few days after they’d adjusted the clutch; that turned out to be due to a faulty clutch switch, which they’d obviously removed to turn the pushrod & then failed to refit having broken one of the retaining lugs… Which was, I thought, sloppy workmanship.
Thanks to all who’ve offered advice. The car was in first thing Wednesday morning, at last week’s garage, for the clutch issue & I passed on comments from here.
They bled the system & then adjusted the pushrod: there is now a bit of free play so the bearing is no longer turning constantly. I got the car back Wednesday lunchtime & have covered about 50 miles since, with no issues.
The biting point now appears to be consistent (& low, as normal) also there’s no difficulty selecting gears. Hence it looks as if it’s fixed . The charge was £60 - very reasonable.
Agreed! I certainly won’t be using the first garage again.
Incidentally, a few days after the first garage had adjusted the clutch the Engine Management Light came on. The cause of that turned out to be the clutch switch - which the first garage had obviously removed to access the pushrod & hadn’t refitted, just leaving it dangling down loose behind the dashboard. I then found that one of the retaining lugs on the switch was broken, so I did a temporary repair until I could get a new switch.
. The charge was £60 - very reasonable.