Peugeot 206 clutch cable snapping

[cjhill]

Hi guys,

I was driving home along a busy dual carriageway today, the traffic was stop-start for about 5 miles. I have faced this situation a lot recently, particularly on the M6 as I have made a few trips to Manchester from my home near Brighton this year.

Today I was just about to move off again, put my foot on the clutch to change to 1st gear and heard a 'snap' noise. At the same time the clutch pedal went to the floor and was 'floppy'.
Does this sound like the clutch cable has gone? That would be my first guess.

I was stuck on a busy dual carriageway in rush hour for 40mins until a tow arrived.

The same thing happened to me around April/May last year (2015) and that was the auto adjuster which leads me to believe the same thing has happened. Surely these must last longer than 18 months!? Although i will say the car has recorded a few miles in the last year. I bought the car in 2011 so the first clutch cable I had lasted me a good 4 years.

Is there anything I can do as a driver to prolong the life of these?

Thanks

[spider]

A genuine cable will be a better bet than a pattern / non-gen if you had a non-genuine one previously.

They don't tend to snap that often, its usually a sign of a dead or near dead clutch. Is it (was it) really heavy ? What engine ? The TU petrols tend to have a reasonably lightish clutch, the larger XU petrols less so. 99% of RHD diesels are hydraulic not cable. As far as I' aware all LHD ones are cable regardless of engine size (but the cable is short and runs in more or less a straight line.

Favourite 'break' is the plastic end piece where it loops onto the top of the pedal. Assuming it was correctly routed then apart from fitting a genuine cable (as I say if the last one was not) then there's not a great deal more you can sensibly do.

[Peter.N.]

They used to fail on the 2.1td XMs because the clutch was worn and became very heavy, and I mean really heavy so if yours isn't it was probably just one of those things.

You can drive them with no declutch function, start the engine in 1st gear and if you carefully judge the engine speed you can change up, takes a bit of practise but you get used to it after a few miles, when you need to stop just knock it out of gear. If you can keep enough distance between you and the car in front you shouldn't have stop.

I drove an XM from Slough to here with no clutch, once you are on the motorway its fine.

Peter

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

Adding my voice, but saying just the same thing as Peter and Spider.

I had my Clutch Cable snap and found a little while afterwards that my Clutch Pressure Plate looked like this.
https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/ ... e=588C7944

The difference with the new Clutch fitted was remarkable

NB: note that the Clutch doesn't have to be slipping. If you don't feel inclined to get a new Clutch until you really have to, then do try & learn how to change gear without it; so that next time it snaps or when the Pressure Plate fails entirely, you can still get home with it.

[cjhill]

Thanks, I can't say it was that noticeably heavy. Anyway the car is with a local garage at the moment.
I don't put my foot all the way to the floor when changing gear anyway, only enough to disengage the clutch plates and enable me to change gear

The last one went whilst in heavy traffic again, in March last year. The cable/auto adjuster was replaced and it was fine again so surely if it was a nearly dead clutch, it would have gone by now with the amount of miles it has done since then? Clutch usually starts to smell before it goes.

Mind you the car has done about 23k miles since then (now 72k in total)! What with 1 big trip to Middlesbrough 2 to Manchester and back again obviously, from the south of England, and a 45 min drive to and from work each day. All adds up.

What i will do in future is just leave more of a gap to the car in front and coast it along in 1st gear to save clutching it all the time.

The car has not long been in to have a new head gasket and full service which cost A LOT so really could do without a new clutch. If it gets to that, time to think about draining the bank account for a new car.

[white exec]

I don't put my foot all the way to the floor when changing gear anyway, only enough to disengage the clutch plates and enable me to change gear.

Just wondering whether the clutch pedal movement/height is set up correctly, according to the book.
You normally have to press the pedal at least two-thirds of the way down to de-clutch.
If the pedal is set too high up, and with therefore too much available travel, it is possible that the cable is being over-stretched if the pedal is put to the floor, and this is causing it to prematurely break.

Text-book pedal travel probably the best to go for, but you could also set the pedal up so that the bite point is nearer the floor, to avoid over stressing the cable and its linkages. You'll soon know if it's too close to the floor, because you'll get some baulky changes.

Unless these cables are known to be short life, I would expect a clutch cable to last at least 100-150k miles.

[cjhill]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Had the clutch cable replaced and got the car back. All seems OK. They did not offer a reason as to why they think it might have broken or say anything was wrong with the clutch (but they probably didnt look at it)
Of course the clutch pedal feels a little different again, the bite point seems quite high.
I have a sneaking suspicion the clutch might be slipping but it might just be me getting used to it and me being paranoid
Shifting from 2nd to 3rd on odd occasions the revs have increased then settled down again after a couple of seconds after my foot comes back off the pedal.
Going to feel it out for the next few days. if it starts to smell I know we're in trouble

[Peter.N.]

If the pedal position is high its possible that you are not letting it right in, try and make a conscious effort to let it right out.

Peter

[white exec]

Check out the pedal height (Haynes or someone here will have the correct height, and how to measure it).
It is essential that this - and the correct amount of dead/loose travel - is correct, or these is a danger of clutch slip, or undue stress on the cable and clutch mechanism.
You must check this.