Clutch Replacement

fangy · Unread post by **fangy** » 06 Oct 2009, 13:43

I spoke to the guy on ebay with the clutch that Andrew found, he says it won't fit a TD, Eurocarparts has them in stock for £50 to £60, now all I need to do is find somewhere to fit it, the first garage I tried said it was a 6 hour job just to get the gear box off, If I supplied the clutch it would be £300 and he'd through in a bottle of gearbox oil.. Should it take 6 hours to remove the gearbox?
Fangy.

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 06 Oct 2009, 14:15

Fangy I was quoted 6 hours all in, from the book, when my 1.8 xanita failed, and with the corresponding ££ I drove home 90 miles clutchless and did it myself

LX and other petrols are 3 peice with a plastic release bearing, TD is Pull type with metal bearing as part of the diaphragm ,as mentioned..

I can now do a gearbox off and on in about 3-4hrs all in,.,

a 1/2" long extension can make a good alignment tool.. as can a small torch and some peering into the hole

j

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 06 Oct 2009, 18:49

john wrote
"a small torch and some peering into the hole" s

John you must be carefull no one is whatching when you do this as you could get arestted, especialy if you do it in public,

TEA HE

" about 3-4hrs all in,., "

how do you manage top do one that quick, you must work like a scalded cat,

i have said in the past i will charge 180 quid labour to forum members

regards malcolm

ken newbold · Unread post by **ken newbold** » 06 Oct 2009, 21:18

fangy wrote:I spoke to the guy on ebay with the clutch that Andrew found, he says it won't fit a TD, Eurocarparts has them in stock for £50 to £60, now all I need to do is find somewhere to fit it, the first garage I tried said it was a 6 hour job just to get the gear box off, If I supplied the clutch it would be £300 and he'd through in a bottle of gearbox oil.. Should it take 6 hours to remove the gearbox?
Fangy.

Sounds like they just didn't want the job, probably done one once before

I've done a couple of Xantia clutches in the past, a good days work, for me anyway

fangy · Unread post by **fangy** » 21 Oct 2009, 18:17

Hi,
I finally found a garage that would do my clutch,I took it down early last Thursday with the new clutch and just got it back today (Wednesday) It took them almost a week, They said they burst a rubber pipe from the LHM tank,then they Knackered the wiring that works the speedo,but eventually they got there, but on the way home when you take the car over 40mph the whole car judders and vibrates really, really bad and the gear sticks shaking from side to side a good 6 or 7 inches, although if you put your hand on the stick you can stop it from moving. I'm going to take it back to them tomorrow but does anyone know what they might have done wrong?
Thanks,
Fangy.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 21 Oct 2009, 18:25

Not good fangy

Sounds like they really did not do a very good job. No need to spring LHM leaks and wreck wiring. They really didn't know the job by the sounds of it. This is bad as a 1.9TD is not exactly difficult.

That juddering is really worrying. They're either wrecked the engine mounting down below by over-stretching it in getting the gearbox off or they've wrecked the intermediate bearing on the RH driveshaft by being too vicious on removing it from the housing. They may also have damaged the RH driveshaft inboard CV joint in their attempts. Or, damaged a final drive bearing on the diff by trying to get round the intermediate bearing problem.

Fact is they have made errors and they need to rectify. Problem is they may not have the skill to put it right.

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 21 Oct 2009, 19:03

Malcolm didnt see your post

Fangy, big shame

as Jim says, it could well be an inner Driveshaft joint.. infact judging by the sypmtoms, if I had money i would put it on that.. NS driveshaft.. destroyed while restling the box in or out.. (the shaft can get in the way of the box dropping out of engine bay)

luckily, if thats the case not a huge cost and not a major job..

feel for movement grabbing the center of that shaft

fangy · Unread post by **fangy** » 21 Oct 2009, 19:06

If I've got any problems getting them to fix it what can be done about it? I took it to them because they're an M.O.T garage that's been about for years,I thought they'd know there stuff, They told me it'd be £160+ vat but when I went to get it they took £315. If they've damaged any of the parts you mentioned they should replace them at there cost, shouldn't they?
Fangy.

Unread post by **myglaren** » 21 Oct 2009, 19:16

Anything that they have damaged is their responsibility. If they quoted £160+VAT then that is what they should have charged, or contacted you to say that there was more work involved than they had anticipated and there would be additional costs for you to approve.

If they make an issue of it, head straight for the small claims court. They have been very unprofessional in not detecting the vibration issues themselves.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 21 Oct 2009, 21:21

myglaren wrote: If they make an issue of it, head straight for the small claims court. They have been very unprofessional in not detecting the vibration issues themselves.

Yes, absolutely. Especially as they charged you £315. At that cost it should have been 100% perfect in all ways.

The problem is that they try to cut corners on the RH driveshaft hoping to save time. If only they realised, it actually saves time and bother to take a few minutes to remove the driveshaft completely rather than try to work around it.

fangy · Unread post by **fangy** » 21 Oct 2009, 22:24

Unfortunately I'm working tomorrow, so it's up to the wife to take it down early in the morning, I've took a note of the things you've mentioned that's the likely problems,just in case they try to palm her off with excuses,once we've heard what they've got to say I'll get back back to you's and let you what they say.
Fangy.

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 21 Oct 2009, 23:58

sounds about right, O/S inner drive shaft bent, as Jim says they probably did not remove it and in turn had to force the gear box away,

there is no way they should charge you for fixing pipes and wires that they damaged,

sounds like one of those garages that i would not take a pushchair to let alone a car,

hope you gett it sorted,

regards malcolm

flying clutchman · Unread post by **flying clutchman** » 22 Oct 2009, 13:14

I don't know how they've managed to make such a mess of this job. To charge you extra because they're incompetent seems ridiculous. I used to do quite a few TD xantias and although there's a knack to actually sliding the gearbox onto the bearing (easy once you know) the rest of the job is ok. Your real worry is that they have any idea how to sort it out

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 22 Oct 2009, 16:03

flying clutchman wrote: Your real worry is that they have any idea how to sort it out

Quite. If they botched it first time around.... Keep us appraised of developments fangy

Welcome to the forum Mr. Clutchman

Love your username

fangy · Unread post by **fangy** » 23 Oct 2009, 16:26

Well the wife took the car back to the garage yesterday and left it with them.

When I got back from work I gave them a phone and got put straight through to the owner, He said, he put it on the ramp and had a look at it himself and the only thing he could see wrong was the driver side inner CV gaiter was loose so he clipped it back on and that was that, come and get the car.

When I asked him if he'd test driven it over 40mph,he said his mechanic had driven it the other day and he trusted his judgment, come and get the car.

It was obvious I wasn't going to get anywhere so I told him I'd already phoned Citroen so they can look at it and put down on paper what the damage was,That was going to be £50 (should have been £68 but they where doing me a favour) and I'd also phoned the court to get the paper work through to start a small claims action(another £65),
and If it went to court I'd be claiming for these costs and what ever Citroen was going to take for repairing the damage, after a moments silence he just said come and get the car and hung up.

We went down today to pick up the car,The owner and the manager refused to talk to us. But on the way home the cars driving great,no vibrations, no shaking gear stick, It's perfect.

It seems to me after the threat of a Citroen bill, they decided to take a proper look at it, and whatever they've found's fixed it.

I phoned a mate who used to have his own garage years ago to see what he thought about it, He says sometimes the driveshaft doesn't seat properly into the gear box,with the car on the ramp with the wheels free,drive the car and you would see the driveshaft jumping up and down, Although he's not familiar with Citroens.

Do you think this could have been the problem?

What a hassle this has been,although everything seems to have worked out ok,
If you live in Ayrshire avoid Howies garage in Kilwinning If you own a Citroen.

Fangy.