Berlingo 1.6 petrol: Fitting a new clutch cable?

[Taipan]

Hi All

I'm borrowing a friends Berlingo to take to Spain and back. I went round to check it over yesterday and everything seems fine except the clutch action. Its really stiff to operate. I mentioned this to them and they said yes its horribly stiff but has always been like that. I popped the bonnet and saw its a cable on there so have said to them to order a new cable up and i'll fit it for them.

On my way home I suddenly remembered the horror that was fitting a clutch cable to a Xantia! Please tell me this Berlingo isnt like the Xantia! I mentioned this to a mate and he said dont quote me but look into this as I think one of the Berlingo models has problems with stiff clutches and it wasn't down to the cable? Do the 1.6 petrols have any known stiff clutch problems?

Many thanks

[Stewart(oily)]

Well worth carrying the cable as a lucky charm
Many of the PSA clutches get heavier as they wear as the operating mechanism in the pressure plate gets old.

[Taipan]

Interesting, thanks for the reply. The car has done 98k but has a comprehensive service history with it. I'll have a read through that to see if its had a clutch in it. I wonder if that was what my mate had heard about? Oh well I'll suppose we'll have a better idea once I've fitted the new clutch cable at the weekend. If teh nw clutch cable doesn't cure it, is the stiff pedal a sign of impending clutch doom! Dont fancy that in Spain!

[spider]

I don't think they are too bad as far as I know its the 306/ZX style floorpan / front subframe design more or less.

The top of the pedal will be the annoying part but the dash is relatively high up the bulkhead so to speak so it should not prove too difficult.

If you have A/C check the cable does not pass through between the pipes at the bulkhead, if it does there's a bolt on the OS inner wing (could be either side of the wing) which releases a bracket, this may not appear to do much but it does let the pipes move about another few mm which can be enough.

[Taipan]

Well we took the cable off and it all moved free and easy and was no different in its action to the new one we had intended to put on there. So I guess its the clutch itself. Just hope its got another 2500 miles in it!

[RichardW]

We thought about buying a Berligo 2.0 HDi, but they all had heavy clutches, and I when I looked at the cable routing right round the engine bay I wasn't surprised! Bought a Xsara Picasso instead (with hyd clutch). Later 1.6 Berlingos have hyd clutches - but do you feel lucky with the 1.6 HDi engine....

[spider]

It is a bit annoying sometimes to see the way its draped around the engine bay, although you have to bear in mind the original design was LHD with a nice short and straight cable...

[Taipan]

Good point about the cable length and of course it originally being LHD! I'm certainly not looking froward to driving that through various Cities! Oh and for the benefit of the archives, its a very easy cable to change. Pops off the gearbox end by hand and then there is one clip behind the engine which it pops out of. Then flick the pedal end of the cable off and out it pulls. As Mr Haynes would say, "refitting is a reversal of the removal procedure"!