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HDi90, BE gearbox, D9 hydraulics

Started with a creaking when the pedal was pressed/released which has now developed into a loud click past the bite point. Coming up to the click point, the pedal gets harder to push and is easier after the click. On the release, it's just creaky all the way.

It seems like the click is coming from inside the bell housing, doesn't sound like the slave cylinder.

Any idea if this could be anything other than a knackered pressure plate finger catching on the release bearing, or a severely knackered gearbox oil seal/collar indicating impending sudden failure? At 193k, it's probably due a new clutch, but my back's playing silly buggers so I'm hoping it might just be something innocuous...

EDIT: Just been looking and it seems it's backwards to the V6's operation. On the V6, the slave cylinder causes the release bearing to pull away from the flywheel to disengage the clutch (pedal down). On this, the release bearing appears to be pushed towards the flywheel? Are the pressure plate fingers linked to the solid surface via some sort of pivot, so that pushing the fingers in causes the plate to pull away from the friction plate? If so, then a failed finger might not be as catastrophically bad as it'd be on a V6?

As the bearing gets pushed towards the clutch the 'fingers' pull the pressure plate away from the clutch.

God knows what the clicking is though!

I thought broken finger when I read the title. That's how a "normal" clutch works, pressing the pedal pushes the release bearing against the digram spring at the inner end of the fingers, the outer end of the spring moves the other way (it's on a ring all the way around as a pivot) which pulls the pressure plate away from the flywheel releasing the clutch.

I'd have thought you'd need to budget for a clutch change soonish as it'll only get worse (is it juddering yet?) but I'd be more comfortable for lozz and Jasper to have the final word on this because I'm a coward

It might not be much of a problem, but impossible to say without the gearbox out.

When a clutch is new the fingers are set in a circle which lies flat in the middle of the pressure plate....that gives a low biting point....as the clutch wears the fingers raise up into a cone which by its nature will be harder to press the higher the cone. The click could just be because the fingers are very high and not allowing smooth release of the spring and therefore a click....a high biting point will be apparent.

The click could also be the release bearing sticking on the sleeve that it slides on....I used to get driving school cars clicking when the bearing slides got gunged up (Nissan Sunny)...It got to the point that I drilled the bell housing so I could spray oil onto the bearing slide so the cars could stay on the road until clutch change time.....

We're manically saving for a house for the next 12 months, so it's a year of scrimping every penny possible. As such, I think I'll get my trusted mechanic to unleash his borescope on it, tell me if a tin of Asda SmartPrice peas duct taped to the carpet behind the pedal will suffice

Cheers guys