Heavy Clutch

Hi folks,

I was wondering, is a heavy clutch pedal a sign of impending failure ? It's not quite at the stage where it needs an anvil dropped on it, but it's very stiff compared to my Mondeo, and I imagine it would become very tiresome on a long journey.

It's been on my long list of faults to investigate since I got the car, I guess now it's time to start looking at the possibilities....

Any thoughts appreciated...

The car is a 95 2.1TD manual BTW, which incidentially was converted from a 2.0TCT auto....

All 2.1 tds have a heavy clutch, it just seems to be a charactertistic. Having said that, my last one was quite light but was also worn out, slipped if you pushed it hard!

The one I have now was exeptionally heavy when I bought it and would not engage smoothly, I found the problem to be due to the operating shaft in the bell housing trying to seize up. I ran some oil down the shaft from under the operating lever and the difference was amazing, might be worth a try.

Peter.N.

Hi Peter,

Well that's made me rest a little easier, thanks.

I'll have to give the shaft a look, will get out the Haynes comic later....

Seems to be the season for it, moved the Xantia up the street to turn it last night, and am getting a clunk / notchiness when shifting into 3rd.....

Cheers.

I have found that lubricating the cable with molyslip can give considerable improvement. It is best to drip it down the inner cable at the pedal end. Its not easy to get at

Cassmo

Thanks cassmo.

I must have a try at doing that. I haven't yet got at the shaft as Peter suggested either.

When you say the cable at the pedal end, do you mean it can be accessed inside the car, at the pedal itself, or will I need to get behind the engine somewhere ?

Cheers.

At the pedal end inside the car. I admit that I have not done this on an xm but have found it works on xantias . I wedge the pedal down after removing any trim necessary to see the top of the pedal mechanism . I use a tube of molysip into which I insert a spout about 7inches long made of citroen metal hydraulic tubing and drip the moly onto the inner cable exposed by depressing the pedal. It is usually necessary to do this several times as the moly takes time to work down the cable. I have found that it can change a heavy, notchy, clutch which is difficult to engage smoothly into as new condition.

Good luck

Cassmo

Hi Ciaran, Your heavy clutch as Peter said may be due to the shaft that transfers movment from the lever on top of the bell housing(just under the battery )run some oil down around it where it goes into the bell housing.
Also the cable can be lubricated near the same position ,i have used aerosol silicone oil in the past you must care fully slip a small screwdriver up inbetween the inner and outer cable and spray oil into the cable using the thin tube as on wd40 cans .
Also if you look behind the cylinder head at the left side facing the wind screen you can see where the clutch cable linkage arm is ,this transfers the pedal cable onto the clutch cable where it runs along the engine bulkhead .There is a plastic right angle pivot just there which may also need some lubrication,it joins the cable from the pedal to the cable which goes onto the clutch arm on the bell housing.
I had a very noisy graunchy feeling clutch operation when i first got my xm but spraying around all the moving parts cured it completely .
Hope thats some help to you best regards bob