Clutch judder

[munkymanmatt]

I had my gearbox oil changed about 2000 miles ago (ish), gave the garage a bottle of oil direct from a pug dealer, I checked myself online and it was definitely the right oil.

At first the car was fine, but the last 1000 odd miles the clutch has been slightly juddery when pulling away in first gear and sometimes there's a hint of it at the start of 2nd gear. I have tried increasing revs up to 2k when shifting just to make sure it's not just me getting sloppy with the clutch and it stays the same. More recently the problem has become more severe, so much so that this evening on a very short journey I thought it was toast, it's the kind of juddering you'd get if you were to conk the car when pulling away from a stop in 1st gear, except it doesn't conk, it smooths out after a few seconds.

Any possibility that this could be oil contamination in the clutch? Or is my clutch just knackered?

[munkymanmatt]

Also, if the clutch needs replacing I won't have the money to get it done until the start of february any tips on how I should shift to keep it going as long as possible?

[lozz]

(Any possibility that this could be oil contamination in the clutch? Or is my clutch just knackered?)

can you smell anything?
like a gas/cat pissy smell.

normaly if the gearoil is finding its way out you can smell it.

[PeterN]

Try giving it a bit of a workout, hold it on the clutch on a hill for 15-30 seconds, if it has got oil on it that could well burn it off. If its a diesel, the clutches can get rough on them because they don't get much use, burning it off gently may well cure it, it has for me several times.

Peter

[munkymanmatt]

I had a sniff around, nothing really out of the ordinary as far as I could tell.
I tried working the clutch for 15 seconds like you said and it seemed to have a positive effect. however this morning when I left for work, it was back to the same juddering. I went for a long enough drive to collect a few bits this evening and after a while the juddering went away, it's as if the clutch 'warming up' gets rid of the problem almost entirely.

Any ideas?

[jasper5]

I had a sniff around, nothing really out of the ordinary as far as I could tell.
I tried working the clutch for 15 seconds like you said and it seemed to have a positive effect. however this morning when I left for work, it was back to the same juddering. I went for a long enough drive to collect a few bits this evening and after a while the juddering went away, it's as if the clutch 'warming up' gets rid of the problem almost entirely.

Any ideas?

This sounds just like the clutch in my Expert 2.0 HDi 110 van....this is condensation which goes away after the engine/clutch warms up.
My clutch has been like this for as long as I can remember, 6 years at least.

My van judders for the first few times the clutch is used then is fine until the engine is cold....worse on a misty, damp day.

[munkymanmatt]

This sounds just like the clutch in my Expert 2.0 HDi 110 van....this is condensation which goes away after the engine/clutch warms up.
My clutch has been like this for as long as I can remember, 6 years at least.

My van judders for the first few times the clutch is used then is fine until the engine is cold....worse on a misty, damp day.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there. It does seem to be a severe case in my car as it normally lasts about 5 minutes, but after that it's almost perfect. I'm going to put it down to this for now unless it changes! Thanks all.