[MrGoodbyte]

Hi Guys

I was driving one day and my clutch felt funny all day, I drove it probably 200Kms until it started screaming and resisting my foot. I stopped tha car and called Peugeot who advised the car had to be towed to the nearest dealership for a clutch repair. They replaced the clutch kit, flywheel, two driveshaft seals, spigot seal, and main engine seal after charging me the earth. When I picked up the car there was a very small knock on idle and when I depressed the clutch it went away. The mechanic convinced me that it was nothing to worry about and would go away once the new clutch had settled. Driving also made an unpleasant whine but I told myself the clutch had to "settle".

A couple of weeks later the noises were worse, there was oil leaking from under the car and the gear lever made unnatural movements while driving (but the car stayed in gear). I took it back to the dealership and told them to fix their mess, they told me it was normal wear and tear on the gearbox since the car has 142000KMs. My argument was that the only noise the car was making was the clutch noise, no knocking or whining was present before they working on the car.

I have since had the car checked by a third party and they notified me that from a visual inspection the oil is leaking from the main crankshaft seal. Is it possible that the engine oil could be leaking into the gearbox and that this has caused the gearbox to wear? I have taken the case to an arbitrator but they haven't started their investigation yet and I need to be driving my car.

 

[bigdavid]

Very interesting - There is the possibility when the clutch went it could have caused damage. However they should have noticed any damaged when they dropped the gearbox. Its also interesting the noise went when you dipped the clutch which would make me think theres something wrong with the release bearing(ie not fitted correctly). I have never experienced or heard that a clutch needs tobe warn in when new. If there is oil leaking into the gearbox I would imagine the worse case for the gearbox is a new clutch kit not a complete new gearbox. Im afraid its going to cost you start off with as the gearbox would beed tobe dropped to get a good look at any damage.

Just out of interest is this a HDI?

Dave

 

[MrGoodbyte]

Hi Dave

The car is a petrol 2 litre. I can only imagine that the dealer did something wrong when replacing the clutch. There is definitely oil leaking after taking the car to them, they say the oil leak is not their fault and has been there all along but they did not mention it when removing the gearbox to replace the clutch. I also now have spots of oil on the boot as the oil drips while driving. I do not know however whether it is gearbox oil or engine oil and only assume that engine oil could be contaminating the gearbox. My guess is that the gearbox would need possibly replaced or reconditioned since taking the car to the dealer. I am trying to get the car booked in with a gearbox specialist who was recommended by Peugeot South Africa, apparently most of the dealerships take the cars there but the one that I took my car to is one of the few who do the repairs themselves. I will get a full report from them.

Thanks

 

[fryers]

This does not sound good. I got over 288 000 miles on a gearbox fitted to a 405 so your milage seems a little low.

It sounds like they stuffed up replacing all the seals. I would expect some of the gearbox damage to have resulted from gearbox oil leaking from the driveshaft seals. Check around the driveshafts and gearbox for oil leaks. For it to get bad the gearbox must have sounded pretty whiney for a while. Also check the oil level in the gearbox. I expect it to be pretty low.

As for oil in the clutch - it sounds as if the oil seal at the rear of the engine is leaking, or the oil seal on the input shaft to the gearbox. I have replaced a rear engine oil seal and it is not too difficult to get right. Make sure the oil level in the engine is kept topped up. Is it using an unusually large amount of engine oil?

I am guessing that the bottom of the engine is covered in oil at this point so actually locating the source of the leak is going to be difficult.

Finally, the original problem sounds as if the pressure plate died on the clutch - leading to the difficult to depress the clutch and the squeel (clutch plate not being sandwitched between the pressure plate and fly wheel correctly). The fly wheel replacement may well have been justified if the old one was damaged.

As for the small knock at idle. I had something very similar on my 405. It was there before I replaced the clutch and it was there after I replaced the clutch. I put it down to *small* amount of vibration and play in the clutch assembly causing a bit of vibration on the thrust (release) bearing and the forks that pull/push on the bearing.

It sounds as if the alignment on reassembly was a bit out and may have caused excessive wear on the gearbox and possibly crankshaft bearings. This would lead to excessive wear in the input shaft bearings on the gearbox, and also the assocated seal - which would also leak oil into the clutch assembly.

I think this is a warrently repair from the dealer where the clutch was initially replaced. If getting them to fix it is feutile, find a good mechanic who can strip it all apart and accuratly tell you what is wrong.

Good luck.

 

[MrGoodbyte]

Latest

I took the car to a third party gearbox repair company who is authorised to work on Peugeot vehicles (most of the dealerships use them instead of doing their own gearboxes) They replaced the new clutch with another new clutch (pressure plate AND flywheel) as they said it was so saturated with oil that it was just slipping. They stripped the gearbox and replaced a bunch of parts which were damaged by a reverse idler screw. My question is, is there something that the dealership could have messed up to cause a reverse idler screw (whatever that thing does) to fail and cause damage to the gearbox? The car never used to leak and has never used an excessive amount of oil. The repairs on my car were R18000 for the gearbox repairs plus clutch replacement, and 2 months ago peugeot charged me R9000 just for the clutch. (The 18000 includes 2500 for the new clutch which is over two thirds cheaper than peugeot, for a repair from an authorised repair centre)