Riff

Hi All-

Quick diagnosis question. Not sure if this is a sign of a bad clutch or clutch hydraulics
begining to go away. This came after a few semi-hard launches at the NCR AX (still placed second) that I noticed the car had an odd vibration. Symptom, car is very difficult to shift into gear (sometimes won't) when running but will shift once running with some finesse. At a dead stop, car will not shift into first/reverse with clutch pedal fully depressed; no problems with the engine off, shifts into each gear fine and can be started with clutch in and in gear. Also there is an odd vibration @3200-3500rpm that is not present at other rpm.

With the car underway, clutch behaves fine as far as grip with no signs of slipping. Could the rubber center just be cooked/gone? Or is it the hydraulics not fully disengaging the clutch?? No hyd. fluid leaks are present right now, at least not on the garage floor or on the interior carpet that I have found. All opinions for diagnosis are welcome.

Thanks,
Riff
'90 S2 with recalcitrant shifting....

qoncept944

I'd start with bleeding the hydraulics.

David Floyd

I would bleed the clutch first and see if any change.

How many miles on the clutch disk ?

David Floyd

<img border="0" alt="[hiha]" title="" src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" /> I'm too slow again.

MHT

how does the pedal feel? If it feels the same as it did before I would suspect that the rubber center is broken, a chunk of rubber is binding up the pressure plate and stopping it from releasing fully, a big chunk of rubber would also explain the vibration.

IPSC

This is sounding clutch like to me. One way to tell is put the car up on good soild jack stands, crawl under and have someone depress the clutch pedal and see if your getting full travel out of the slave cylinder as it press on the arm. Pull the little inspection cover on the bell housing and see if chunks of rubber are laying around in inside. While your under there you can bleed the clutch slave cylinder just to see if that helps. The vibration is what makes me think it is clutch related.

Riff

Thanks for the reccos guys.

David-Clutch age is unknown as I have not replaced it. Bought the car 7 years ago with 72K and now has 151K, so there is at least ~75K on this one.

MHT-Pedal feels fine, full travel and even pressure troughout.

More I think about it the more I think it is the clutch. Not complaining as I did get at least 75K on this last one, just gotta go out and spend some money now.

Cheers,