Clutch replacement tips
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Clutch replacement tips
Hello fit gang. I'm gonna be replacing the clutch, flywheel and rear main seal in my 07 sport pretty soon. I was wondering if anyone has some "pro" tips for me to make the job easier. This will be the first fwd car I've changed a clutch on. So any advice is appreciated.
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Joined: Jan 2021
Posts: 297
From: EU
Hope it's not too late! I DIYs the clutch and transmission rebuild. It's pretty time consuming doing it the first time but went fine by following the service instructions. There are a few lifehacks I picked up watching some youtube videos on this:
* You don't have to disconnect the ball joint or sway bar links, undoing the two bolts on the damper is enough to tilt it and get the axles out (see below)
* Don't have to drop the subframe, it's possible to remove the transmission with it in place, it'd just take some wiggling to get it out.
* No need to remove the starter (I don't think the manual calls for it, but my mechanic friend insisted on wasting time on this
)
There are some more details with pictures in my thread.
* You don't have to disconnect the ball joint or sway bar links, undoing the two bolts on the damper is enough to tilt it and get the axles out (see below)
* Don't have to drop the subframe, it's possible to remove the transmission with it in place, it'd just take some wiggling to get it out.
* No need to remove the starter (I don't think the manual calls for it, but my mechanic friend insisted on wasting time on this
)There are some more details with pictures in my thread.
It's goooone. I don't know how much longer it could've lasted before falling apart completely. Probably enough to survive an event but I wouldn't have any confidence left. Every single ball looked like this up close
Attachment 85447
I had to heat up the casing from the outside and it fell off when I gently pulled it with a seal remover.
Other than that I suppose it was in pretty good condition for the distance it covered. Not much wear visible other than the low gear at the bottom right. This would explain the grinding I heard on the test drive when reversing. It seemed like it was in, but wasn't. I see many people starting reversing before coming to a stop so that's probably how it got so worn. A new gear is pretty expensive to put into a beater so it stays.
Attachment 85448
Somewhat surprising amount of wear by the ball detents, but far from actually being a problem.
Attachment 85449
Unfortunately things went a bit wrong here. Spent like half an hour moving all the syncro collars to make sure they were switching gears correctly. Busted out my priceless loctite 518 sealant and put the case back on. It slid most of the way on, but not enough for the snap ring to go into the groove on the countershaft bearing.
My big new bearing has to be pressed into the housing, right? So I started hammering it through rubber and wooden blocks until it seemed to be mostly seated. Started tightening the bolts a bit and... there's weird crunching sounds. Damn. I removed everything and the transmission was now jammed and 5th/reverse wouldn't switch at all. Shit. Poking at it for a bit, I finally got reverse to engage. This also let me start disassembling the shaft. Eventually I found the issue: somehow the 5th gear synchro hub and ring got misaligned (even though I didn't touch anything on the shafts) and I didn't notice it before the final re-assembly, so it got a bit crushed.
Attachment 85450
Ooops! Thankfully it seems like there was enough meat left to prevent the ring from spinning so I cleaned everything up, made super-certain that everything was seated properly this time, and easily put the case back together. Huh.
We did the clutch and seal too, though probably unnecessarily, since it was aftermarket LuK (same as what I got) and had 7mm left, which is much closer to new (7.2-7.9) than to dead (5mm) specs. There's $70 down the drain, but then I don't want to do this again ever.
Everything else was the reverse of removal. But first I had to do something with the broken trans mount nut on the rusty bracket. Thankfully the rail to which it was attached had a 10mm hole that matched up with a hole in the mount. $2 of threaded rod and nuts later, the solution is complete. Would TUV approve this? Probably not, but nobody won't see it, and if it's stupid and works, it's not stupid as far as I'm concerned. I did order a new mount from Febi Bilstein ($15) but I'd have to somehow cut out the old bolt and I really didn't want to deal with it now.
Attachment 85451
Attaching all the bits and pieces took a few hours but the results are nothing short of amazing, if I can say so myself. This is before:
https://i.imgur.com/C40o9Vp.mp4
for after, imagine there's no extra noise when releasing the pedal. Also it seems that some of what I thought was engine noise while driving under lead, disappeared as well.
GD clutch replacement pro-tips
1. Don't DIY unless there's a pandemic lockdown and you can't look at screens any more
2. On the suspension, just undo the two damper pinch bolts, and it will be enough to tilt the hub sufficiently to get the driveshafts out without touching the sway bar end links or ball joints, which are guaranteed to be much more difficult to remove.
Attachment 85452
3. Leave the subframe alone, there's enough space to slide the transmission in/out. Aligning the transmission is a bit tricky, but not because of the subframe.
So overall got this done in around a week of working in the afternoons, including waiting a day and a half for the new bearing and fixing my transmission screwup. Getting the transmission decoupled was difficult due to rusty dowel pins, and attaching it back was also quite awkward, but otherwise it's not too bad. Some of the videos I've seen make it look way more complicated than needed (removing the starter, intake manifold (???), subframe, making enormous extensions to remove rear mount bolts, etc). If you're curious to DIY or can't afford to pay someone, it's definitely doable. But not a fun/quick job like brakes or something.
There are a couple outstanding issues. the repaired EGR valve isn't sealing properly (I can hear RPM change when touching the cover), left sway bar end link has to be cut off and replaced, and there's a ticking sound when turning left. Could be the CV joint but I noticed one of the cable clips broke and might be causing the cable to rub on the wheel or something. Hopefully it's this.
Attachment 85447
I had to heat up the casing from the outside and it fell off when I gently pulled it with a seal remover.
Other than that I suppose it was in pretty good condition for the distance it covered. Not much wear visible other than the low gear at the bottom right. This would explain the grinding I heard on the test drive when reversing. It seemed like it was in, but wasn't. I see many people starting reversing before coming to a stop so that's probably how it got so worn. A new gear is pretty expensive to put into a beater so it stays.
Attachment 85448
Somewhat surprising amount of wear by the ball detents, but far from actually being a problem.
Attachment 85449
Unfortunately things went a bit wrong here. Spent like half an hour moving all the syncro collars to make sure they were switching gears correctly. Busted out my priceless loctite 518 sealant and put the case back on. It slid most of the way on, but not enough for the snap ring to go into the groove on the countershaft bearing.
My big new bearing has to be pressed into the housing, right? So I started hammering it through rubber and wooden blocks until it seemed to be mostly seated. Started tightening the bolts a bit and... there's weird crunching sounds. Damn. I removed everything and the transmission was now jammed and 5th/reverse wouldn't switch at all. Shit. Poking at it for a bit, I finally got reverse to engage. This also let me start disassembling the shaft. Eventually I found the issue: somehow the 5th gear synchro hub and ring got misaligned (even though I didn't touch anything on the shafts) and I didn't notice it before the final re-assembly, so it got a bit crushed.
Attachment 85450
Ooops! Thankfully it seems like there was enough meat left to prevent the ring from spinning so I cleaned everything up, made super-certain that everything was seated properly this time, and easily put the case back together. Huh.
We did the clutch and seal too, though probably unnecessarily, since it was aftermarket LuK (same as what I got) and had 7mm left, which is much closer to new (7.2-7.9) than to dead (5mm) specs. There's $70 down the drain, but then I don't want to do this again ever.
Everything else was the reverse of removal. But first I had to do something with the broken trans mount nut on the rusty bracket. Thankfully the rail to which it was attached had a 10mm hole that matched up with a hole in the mount. $2 of threaded rod and nuts later, the solution is complete. Would TUV approve this? Probably not, but nobody won't see it, and if it's stupid and works, it's not stupid as far as I'm concerned. I did order a new mount from Febi Bilstein ($15) but I'd have to somehow cut out the old bolt and I really didn't want to deal with it now.
Attachment 85451
Attaching all the bits and pieces took a few hours but the results are nothing short of amazing, if I can say so myself. This is before:
https://i.imgur.com/C40o9Vp.mp4
for after, imagine there's no extra noise when releasing the pedal. Also it seems that some of what I thought was engine noise while driving under lead, disappeared as well.
GD clutch replacement pro-tips
1. Don't DIY unless there's a pandemic lockdown and you can't look at screens any more
2. On the suspension, just undo the two damper pinch bolts, and it will be enough to tilt the hub sufficiently to get the driveshafts out without touching the sway bar end links or ball joints, which are guaranteed to be much more difficult to remove.
Attachment 85452
3. Leave the subframe alone, there's enough space to slide the transmission in/out. Aligning the transmission is a bit tricky, but not because of the subframe.
So overall got this done in around a week of working in the afternoons, including waiting a day and a half for the new bearing and fixing my transmission screwup. Getting the transmission decoupled was difficult due to rusty dowel pins, and attaching it back was also quite awkward, but otherwise it's not too bad. Some of the videos I've seen make it look way more complicated than needed (removing the starter, intake manifold (???), subframe, making enormous extensions to remove rear mount bolts, etc). If you're curious to DIY or can't afford to pay someone, it's definitely doable. But not a fun/quick job like brakes or something.
There are a couple outstanding issues. the repaired EGR valve isn't sealing properly (I can hear RPM change when touching the cover), left sway bar end link has to be cut off and replaced, and there's a ticking sound when turning left. Could be the CV joint but I noticed one of the cable clips broke and might be causing the cable to rub on the wheel or something. Hopefully it's this.
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