Made a mess of my clutch.

[loggyboy]

After a good few hours running at the passion clio trackday at bedford back in feb, i managed to loose all control of my clutch. Fortunately it wasnt slipping so managed to drive back from Bedford to Basingstoke, starting from a stand still in gear and rev matching all my changes. Stripped the clutch back a couple of weekends ago to find the problem.
Turns out the clutch was fine, it was the guide that the release bearing slides along that had disintegrated:

So either the release bearing went (as there was only the metal bearing left of that too) which took the guide with it, or vice versa.

Another possible cause or result was some bent forks:

Due to the amount material shaking arround the bell housing I was lucky to make it home at all. On intitial inspection the plate looked ok:

But flip it over and I have no friction material at all, it was all spread around the bellhousing or left in loose chunks.

I was expecting a scored fly wheel, but it was smooth and true so I must have been right on the cusp or causing damage.

Anyway, thanks to Diesel_Davis who sorted me out with a valeo clutch its all back on the road after some electrical glitches (bad earths). Whens the next trackday??

 

[RMDavis]

Bloody hell! I'm glad all is well now dude!

 

[f0xy]

Looks familiar to mine years ago!

Will do a proper update soon, but took the engine out this morning to find this...

Hmmmmmmm! :S

 

[Matt Cup]

Good effort! Least no major damage was done.

 

[JackJack]

Good effort! Least no major damage was done.

This, that's bad.

 

[George182]

Wow - you really were lucky to make it back!

 

[loggyboy]

Looks familiar to mine years ago!

Almost identical, did your guide break also?

 

[f0xy]

I cant remember to be honest - it happened about an hour into a track day at Cadwell Park, came upto the hairpin and couldn't select any gears. Pulled the engine when I got home to find the above like yourself. I think at the time there were a lot of posts on here about Valeo clutches having issues at the time even though they are OEM spec etc. I swapped it out for another Valeo and never had an issue for the next few years!

 

[Dave..]

I had that exact sleeve fail on mine a few years back. Stupidly cheap part, but a massive ballache to get to it.

 

[MG cup]

I had the exact same problem as Jord, I came upto a hairpin with no other warning throughout the day and it just wouldn't select a gear.

No guide problems though.

All three clutches failed on the pressure plate too by the looks of it.