Slipping Clutch...?

Hey guys,

My clutch started slipping about a month ago (don't drive the car much) so finally decided to take a look.

Slipping occurred intermittently - usually when hot after a long or hard drive. Only slipped when flooring it.

I tried bleeding the clutch and adding a clutch fluid heat shield none of which worked so decided to pull the box out to have a look. First thing I noticed was there seemed to be grease contamination on the pressure plate, clutch plate and release bearing. This is my mistake as I applied a smear of grease to the input shaft / release bearing when I fitted the new gearbox...

Is it possible that the grease is causing the clutch to slip? The clutch is an Heavy Duty Exedy unit with less than 3 000 km's of use.

Notice the grease on the inside of the release bearing...

A thin layer of grease on the inside of the pressure plate

Flywheel bearing sits proud of the flywheel, is this normal...? Flywheel looks fine - no hot spots etc... Slight grease deposits visible.

The clutch plate grooves are clogged up with what appears to be due to the slipping. There's also a 1mm lip on the inside of the plate itself which leads me to thinking something is not seated correctly (could be due to grease).

Is anyone a clutch expert and know if the grease could be the cause of the slipping? Thanks

You only need a bit of common sense to realise that grease will make a clutch slip dude.

I've caused this myself once due to inexperience/ineptitude/stupidity, and there was no bringing it back... needed a new clutch.

I realise that loner, but expected the grease to have burnt off fairly quickly...

Boon thanks for responding, appreciate it. I think its best to replace the clutch too, but seems like a waste of an almost brand new Exedy... Doh... almost tempted to reuse it, but will take it past a mechanic prior to putting it back in just for piece of mind. Learnt the hard way!

I would replace disc and knock the bearing in level where it should be. Degrease the **** off the pressure plate and release bearing but try no to get it inside the bearing as that will be pre packed. Get the flywheel skimmed and it should be happy families.

 evowrx said:

I would replace disc and knock the bearing in level where it should be. Degrease the **** off the pressure plate and release bearing but try no to get it inside the bearing as that will be pre packed. Get the flywheel skimmed and it should be happy families.

Thanks for your input, appreciate it. That's pretty much what I wanted to hear. Cheers

Over greased input shaft when installing box. I'd say it's found it's way to clutch assembly causing slippage.