Juddering on pulling away

  1. My model of MX-5 is: 2.5 Sport
  2. I’m based near: Devon
  3. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Clutch. Hi, (new to this) just before I put the beastie into hibernation last year, I started to notice that there was a bit of juddering on pulling away in first. I’m thinking that it’s the clutch. I am a bit heavy on it (do like the sound up and down the gears!) so was thinking about an uprated clutch but don’t want to unless I need to. Car has only done 44k since new. Any thoughts…??

Hi from a fellow Devonian
It’s not the tyres is it? I had a set of pretty old though low-ish mileage ones on my Z4 and they were a bit juddery pulling away quickly, new tyres didn’t do it, though having said that a brand new set on my fwd focus ST were also juddery pulling away quickly in first until they bedded in. Not saying it isn’t clutch, couldn’t be sure obviously, but just a thought…

We had a batch of transporter vans at work that would judder after been on a long run then been used within half an hour or so straight after…that was down to tyres.

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Well that is a thought, have to say though that it feels a bit more tranny than tyres. But there again, it will be going in for MOT in a week or two and I KNOW one or two tyres will need replacing so you may well be right! Guess we’ll have to catch up sometime and compare notes, eh? :+1:

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Well that’s 2 for tyres… I shall look at the tyres! Thanks guys :grinning:

Sounds good :slight_smile: Hope you get to the bottom of it, and that it’s not expensive!

+1 for tyres, especially if old, hard, and no grip.

When I bought my NC it did it, but I knew the Potenzas were 6 year old orginals and had no more grip than Bakelite - DSC light flickering lots with any right foot activity of any kind.

New tyres and never a problem since, and I can’t remember seeing the DSC light either, except after disconnecting the battery.

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Earlier Mk2.5’s, like my 2002,had clutch warranty recalls due to bad juddering and were replaced under warranty. Something to do with the linings components…which allegedly had a commonality with stuff like Ford Connect vans from distant memory. It took 3 attempts(!) for out local dealer to get it sorted but it’s been fine for 50k odd miles and 13 years since. I’d doubt much your clutch is original…just plain tired if heavily used. My vote, from experience, is clutch linings. Or some sort of contamination seeping in.

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I don’t know if the there’s a dual mass flywheel in there, but if there is, and it’s the original one, they can cause all sorts of random juddering issues.

I agree with the 2.5 clutch judder.

Nah.
Old school in there.

Thanks all, I have to say that, now you come to mention it, the recall thing does ring a bell. I think I will try that 3rd(?) gear / handbrake joggle thing tomorrow. That ought to finish it off!

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This all rather confusing for me.

If the judder is happening during relatively gentle clutch take up and before the vehicle starts to move, it has to be clutch judder.

For it to be down to tyres, you would surely have to be losing grip and spinning the wheels, which imho takes a bit of doing on a dry road with a modern rwd car. I’ve never managed it.
Yet, people are saying that a change of tyres has cured the problem. I really don’t understand this, could the lsd be involved somehow with old, unevenly worn tyres??
Iirc, the handbook warns that rear tyres must be evenly inflated or the difference in rolling radius will cause problems with the lsd. The same must apply to tyre wear.

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Think we can, respectfully, discount tyres. If they were bad for whatever reason, being a 5 they would manifest handling issues etc in a few other ways.
“Back in the day” the local dealership “story” with the warranty stuff cited a few things eg the clutch linings were a new “recipe” excluding any trace of…I think… asbestos.

Since the clutches were not being hammered in vans etc as designed, with light 5 use ended up polished & sort of slippy. Until it was resolved for us, I used to drop the clutch 2 or 3 times against the handbrake till it stank from about 3/4k rpm to stalling to put a “key” on the surfaces and clean them up…and it was driveable for a few weeks…until. It got so bad, reversing out the garage you’d think the diff was trying to rip itself off. Felt like old school axle tramp.
Anyway, when they dropped the gearbox out, you can imagine the state the pressure plate looked, and the lining surfaces were messy. They ended up, on the third attempt, installing a complete clutch & pressure plate kit and it’s been great since. The third attempt was more about poor setting up of the power frame than the 2nd clutch kit.
The thing’s had a mix of Driving Ms Daisy with SWMBO and me caning it stupid getting it’s little Italian Tune-ups to clear out her urban 28 mph crawling since 2007-ish and its all good so far.

Edit:
“Glazed” was the word they used, hopefully not referring to my expression.

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It’ll cure it for a bit perhaps…or kill it. Killing would be kind…put it out of misery!

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I will say a big thanks here to all for the thoughts, and to be fair no-one has actually seen /heard this but me. Said that, the clutch idea does sound the most plausible. LSD idea does interest me too (thanks 999to5), but hopefully won’t be that!

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Could also be soft/broken engine/gearbox mounts.

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