Clutch problems
A week after my daughter’s 2007 Peugeot 207 1.4 HDI had a new LUK Repset clutch, along with a gearbox oil change (75w80), it is slipping on hills and the pedal is almost at the top. The garage is denying responsibility as I supplied the clutch kit – from Euro Car Parts, so a reputable company.
What is happening is that, halfway up a hill, the rev counter starts going up and down erratically. Changing gear doesn’t help, but it’s fine when it’s back on the flat. The old clutch didn’t look too badly worn. Could the problem possibly be something as simple as the slave cylinder? The old plate had no oil on it, as I originally thought the problem was the flywheel oil seal.
Stephen Haywood
Looking at your pictures, the clutch assembly doesn’t look overly worn and I wouldn’t expect a clutch in that condition to be slipping. The one point I did note was that there was wear on the fingers of the clutch cover where the release bearing pushes onto them. This may suggest there is pressure being applied to the clutch cover, possibly caused by a faulty slave cylinder or master cylinder.
As the slave cylinder is external, this can easily be checked to ensure it is not putting too much pressure against the release lever when it is at rest. To ensure that the problem is not a faulty master cylinder, you should pump the clutch two or three times. After a few seconds, the release lever should be fully back to its rest position. If by opening the bleed screw the release arm then moves back farther, this indicates that there’s a fault with the master cylinder or in the pipeline.
If the new clutch is faulty, I would expect the supplier to supply a replacement unit under the conditions of the warranty, although with clutches it is often difficult to prove that the problem was not caused by misuse.