Club 80-90 Forums

My 1.6 TD T25 has a rattle that goes away when I depress the clutch. Other than that it performs faultlessly with no clutch slip. Is this anything to be worried about?

No.

My did it for 10 years until the whotsit (name fails me) bearing was replaced.

Clutch release bearing

Or might be loose drive springs in the clutch plate. It's a sort of kerchickety-chickety-chickety noise.

To diagnose this, let out the clutch veeeeeeery veeeeery slowly in neutral with the engine idling. If there is no noise, but it is rattly when you let the clutch out fast, then that's probably yer problem.

It's nothing to worry about, just quite annoying.

If you want to investigate without having to actually remove anything major, support gearbox on a meaty trolley jack, undo bolts from box to engine and gearbox nose bolts and move gearbox forward a couple of inches (with driveshafts still attached) on the jack. This will give you enough space to check clutch splines with a torch and how bad the release bearing is. Then you can decide what to do next.

Almost certainly release bearing but the bearing can knacker clutch splines in the process - can make them wafer thin and even break a couple (replace whole clutch if thats the case). In any event, if the clutch hasn't been replaced in a few years, its time to fit a new one and bearing - no point in not doing it if you have to go as far as replacing the bearing. Not a hard job - just dirty/awkward/heavy.

Its not absolutely necessary to replace whole clutch if pressure plate seems fine. You can often get away with just replacing friction plate. The modern way is to replace it all but I'm old school and make a judgement. Fitters don't.

Many thanks you guys for all your responses.
Much appreciated.

I had a notion it was the release bearing but wasn't too sure.

Regards.

Saxoner